Lesson 42
Second Peter
Warning against dangers
facing the Church
Chapter 3
The Certainty of the
Believers Hope – The Return of Christ
Review:
and
regard the patience of our Lord as salvation;
- patience makroqumi,a
which
speaks of patience in dealing with people, that is giving people the
opportunity to respond to the gospel message and be saved, delivered from the
slave market of sin
just
as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you,
according
to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
-
kata. sofi,a according to the standard of wisdom, that is Doctrine,
DVPT
3:15 And keep on considering the
patience of our Lord with reference to salvation, just as our beloved brother
Paul according to the wisdom having been given to him wrote to you (for
your advantage).
Summary Observations:
1. As
Jesus Christ demonstrated over and over patience in dealing with people during
His first advent ministry as well as through out the church age we today should
also exhibit in our lives.
2. But
this patience is especially critical during the last days since there will be
increasing pressure on individual believers as well as the Word of God and its
integrity.
3. This
involves living the faith-rest life applying BD towards others and also as we
deal with the various circumstances of life faced.
4. We must not grow tired of being diligent toward exhibiting
patience.
5. Peter points out to the inspiration of Paul’s
epistles which at the time Peter is writing (64 AD.)
Paul had already written by this time:
a. Galatians – 49 AD.
b. 1 & 2 Thessalonians - early summer
51 AD.
c. 1 & 2 Corinthians - spring and
fall of 56 AD.
d. Romans – winter 56/57 AD.
e. Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, &
Philippians – during his imprisonment from the fall of 60 AD.
to Spring of 62 AD.
f. 1 Timothy – fall of 62 AD.
as also in all his letters, speaking in them of
these things,
Next an interesting statement!
in which are some things hard to understand, which the
untaught and unstable distort,
- hard to understand dusno,htoj hard or
difficult to understand or interpret; word comes from noew which means to perceive with the mind, to
sort out; what Peter is saying is that some of the passages in Paul’s epistles
are difficult to understand but not impossible; takes a frame of reference
This last phrase in the flow of the context
primarily has the false teachers in mind that he has been writing about,
warning about. But it presents a truth
that is always true in every generation of the church age.
which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also
the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
- untaught avmaqh,j the
unlearned, untaught; from manqa,nw which
ties the concept of learning to a system of academic discipline, maqhthj disciple
As a result of being untaught they
are:
- unstable avsth,riktoj only used
twice, saw it in
as they do also the rest of the Scriptures the rest of the grafh, writings, that is Scripture
- What
Scripture is he
referring to here?
Those who twist and distort
Scripture as the unlearned and false teachers do, do so to their own destruction avpw,leia ruin,
destruction, loss of well being, their ruination; point is everyone reaps what
they sow.
3:16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of
these things, in which are some things hard to
understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also
the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Summary
1. In
2. Peter tells us
here that Paul’s epistles are:
a. Scripture, therefore have
authority in BD.
b. Contain some of the most
advanced doctrinal concepts in Scripture.
Ex. what we’ve seen in Rom 1-11 very strong
didactic teaching, must do your homework to understand.
c. Paul’s teachings are
often twisted and distorted
3. For the believer
he is pointing to the need of consistently taking in and learning the Word of
God so that we don’t fall into the category of being unlearned and unstable.
4. An unbeliever can
read the Bible and realize that he needs to believe in Christ and do so through
the Holy Spirit making the issues clear through His pre-salvation ministry, but
that individual cannot go onto maturity which is the objective of f2 without consistent
teaching of the truth systematically.
5. This need for
consistent teaching puts the stress on good solid hermeneutics to be applied by
the communicator with the spiritual gifts needed to teach.
6. The False
teachers, the scoffers as well as the cults of today commonly wrench verses out
of context distorting their true meaning to “prove” their biases.
7. One of the basic
hermeneutical principle that they fail to recognize is the harmony of all
Scripture rightly divided.
- from
Gen to Rev it all fits together, it harmonizes
8. Peter begins to
point out the absolute necessity for a solid foundation and growth in BD that
runs the rest of the epistle so that we won’t fall for the distortions that
surround us.
- in
16-18 he points out the need for discernment in our everyday life
9. This must be
accompanied by the recognition of the need of divine wisdom and prayer. Jas 1:5
10. Lack
of diligence easily leads to failure to take the word
seriously with the result that word known is distorted and rationalized.
- this
leads to a drifting off the course of grace (Gal 5:4 “fallen from grace”)
- then when things
in their life go from bad to worse most look for someone to blame never
accepting responsibility for their own actions
- usually
somehow its rationalized that it’s the P/T’s fault
11. Distorting God’s
word always leads to a loss of well being.