Knowing this first - As among the first and most important things to be attended to - as one of the predictions which demand your special regard. Jude Jude 1:18 says that the fact that there would be "mockers in the last time," had been particularly foretold by thom. It is probable that Peter refers to the same thing, and we may suppose that this was so well understood by all the apostles that they made it a common subject of preaching.

That there shall come in the last days - In the last dispensation; in the period during which the affairs of the world shall be wound up. The apostle does not say that that was the last time in the sense that the world was about to come to an end; nor is it implied that the period called "the last day" might not be a very long period, longer in fact than either of the previous periods of the world. He says that during that period it had been predicted there would arise those whom he here calls "scoffers." On the meaning of the phrase "in the last days," as used in the Scriptures, see the Acts 2:17 note; Hebrews 1:2 note; Isaiah 2:2 note.

Scoffers - In Jude Jude 1:18 the same Greek word is rendered "mockers." The word means those who deride, reproach, ridicule. There is usually in the word the idea of contempt or malignity toward an object. Here the sense seems to be that they would treat with derision or contempt the predictions respecting the advent of the Saviour, and the end of the world. It would appear probable that there was a particular or definite class of men referred to; a class who would hold special opinions, and who would urge plausible objections against the fulfillment of the predictions respecting the end of the world, and the second coming of the Saviour - for those are the points to which Peter particularly refers. It scarcely required inspiration to foresee that there would be "scoffers" in the general sense of the term - for they have so abounded in every age, that no one would hazard much in saying that they would be found at any particular time; but the eye of the apostle is evidently on a particular class of people, the special form of whose reproaches would be the ridicule of the doctrines that the Lord Jesus would return; that there would be a day of judgment; that the world would be consumed by fire, etc. Tillotson explains this of the Carpocratians, a large sect of the Gnostics, who denied the resurrection of the dead, and the future judgment.

Walking after their own lusts - Living in the free indulgence of their sensual appetites. See the notes at II Peter 2:10, II Peter 2:12, II Peter 2:14, II Peter 2:18-19.

Other Barnes' Notes entries containing 2 Peter 3:3:

Amos 5:18
Amos 5:18
Acts 2:17
Romans 2:4
Romans 16:18
1 Thessalonians 1:10
1 Thessalonians 5:3
Jude 1:16
Jude 1:17-18
Jude 1:17-18
Revelation 20:8
Revelation 20:10

 

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