Bible Survey: 2 Peter

Second Peter was written by a man who knew he was about to die: Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me (2 Peter 1:14). His first letter comforted suffering Christians. This one warns them about false teachers.

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them (2 Peter 2:1), and many shall follow their pernicious ways (2 Peter 2:2). They speak great swelling words of vanity (2 Peter 2:18), and like Balaam, who loved the wages of unrighteousness (2 Peter 2:15), they are in it for the money. Perhaps that is why the authorship of this book has been attacked more than any other in the New Testament. It exposes them.

Peter holds up Sodom and Gomorrah as an example, and says that just Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked (2 Peter 2:7). The wickedness around us ought to bother us too.

Peter's answer to false teaching is knowing the truth, for holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21). Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:17–18). Nobody at the end of his life wishes he had studied his Bible less.

Scoffers ask, Where is the promise of his coming? (2 Peter 3:4). But one day is with the Lord as a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8), and the delay is mercy. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Christ did not die for a select few, and while the Lord waits, we ought to be winning souls.

Next in the series: 1 John.

Taught by Brother James Barker in Sunday School at Naples Independent Baptist Church, June 20, 2021. Watch the lesson.