Commentaries:
Everybody knows that growth is a process. When a child is born, it is not immediately a full-grown adult with a lifetime of experiences crammed into its cranium while in the womb. The weakest and most helpless of all newborn things must be a human baby. It has to be taken care of completely and totally by its mother and father, or it would die.
When they are born, most other mammals are at least able to find a way to get something to eat. However, human babies are absolutely helpless. Even though they grow very rapidly—especially in the first few years—during which time they accumulate a great deal of knowledge and experience, their growth is little by little.
Here, right in the Word of God, we are being told that we, too, are to grow! We are not instantaneously a canister full of all kinds of facts and figures and the knowledge of God. We do not understand all the biblical principles. We certainly do not have all wisdom. We know very well that these things accumulate over many years of living.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Nineteen)
Verse 14 mentions peace, yet when Christ returns as the Captain of heaven's armies—as the chapter proclaims—there will be war. The iniquity of the world will be full, and He will fight against those opposed to Him. Peter counsels us to ensure that when He returns, He finds us at peace with Him rather than in opposition.
That may sound obvious, but consider how it might apply. If we are opposed to the requirements of God's law, then we are not at peace with the Lawgiver. If we are angry with God for some reason, we are not at peace. If we disagree with God's reaction or non-reaction or overall management of His creation, then we are not at peace with Him.
There can be as many applications as there are individuals, because wherever carnality exists, a measure of enmity remains (Romans 8:7). Peace with God depends on our trusting Him absolutely with our lives. Only then will we not take His words and actions as being hostile toward us, and we will not be hostile toward Him because we trust Him to have our best interests in mind. If our faith—trust—slips, then peace with God begins to fracture.
Peter observes that some of the things Paul writes are hard to understand and that people tend to use Paul's writings in particular in a destructive way. Even today, Paul is falsely known as a champion of a no-works theology, and his writings are cited to say that God's law has been abolished. Twisting Paul's writings in that way is what will cause destruction, because when the Judge returns, He will use His law as the basis of judgment.
Peter leaves us with these final thoughts:
You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 3:17-18)
The apostle warns against being deceived by all the things he talks about in this chapter, and his warning probably includes the previous chapter. As the saying goes, “Forewarned is forearmed.” Paul prophesies, though, that some are going to depart from the faith (I Timothy 4:1). We have seen that happen. To keep it from happening to us, Peter counsels us to focus on growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. He refers to the completion of the repentance or conversion process and our pursuit of salvation to its conclusion.
Jesus is not delaying His coming. He is giving us time to put our houses in order so that we can respond correctly to the work He has begun in us. As Peter says, “To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”
David C. Grabbe
How Much Longer Do We Have?
Peter ends the epistle with the same thought with which he began: We live in spiritually dangerous times, and the way to stay on the beam is to keep on growing. If we grow, our salvation is assured. God is faithful; He has promised us salvation, and He will give it to us if we are faithful.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Do We Have 'Eternal Security'?
Verse 18 makes it clear that there is a contrast. Peter says, ". . . but grow." Verse 17 is a warning: ". . . beware lest you also fall . . . being led away with the error of the wicked."
The command is to grow, so if the contrast that he is establishing in our minds is to be met, the positive part of the instruction is that effort has to be made in order to grow. If we are not making an effort to grow, the only alternative is to go in reverse. We begin to degenerate if we do not make an effort to grow.
II Peter 3:17 (Moffatt) Now, beloved, you are forewarned: mind you that you are not carried away by the error of the lawless and so lose your proper footing;
My attention is on this verse 17 where he says, "mind you," rather than "beware." He turns it into something that is positive. "Beware" could mean to just look around to make sure that one is safe. But "mind you" says, "Hey, turn your attention to focus on this!"
We can see from the combination of these two verses that effort must be made to produce growth or we will likely fall into the error of the wicked. In other words, doing nothing regarding our spiritual responsibilities is akin to doing nothing regarding our physical responsibilities pertaining to our physical health.
So we are faced with a choice. We are forewarned. Something has to be done; we cannot just stand still. Nor can we just drift. Some effort has to be made to ensure growth takes place.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Titus 2:11-14
Peter cautions that some of the things the apostle Paul writes are hard to understand, as though some people do not truly understand Paul's lyrics and thus end up with wrong impressions of his compositions. Knowing a couple of lines from a piece of music is not the same as grasping the totality. Yet, nominal Christianity gives an embarrassing performance before God because it latches onto some memorable lines from Paul and believes it knows the whole song.
The terms Peter uses provide clues about what is on his mind. When we perceive where he is coming from, we can know what lyrics from brother Paul we should listen to extra carefully to ensure that we are not mishearing.
In verse 14, Peter commands diligence, meaning we must exert ourselves and be zealous. He emphasizes robust and focused effort instead of offhandedly grabbing a line or two from Paul and believing our understanding is complete.
Peter urges us to “be diligent to be found by God in peace, without spot and blameless.” Since he is telling us to be diligent, it means that the spotlessness and blamelessness he has in mind are not what God imputes to us. Christ's righteousness was imputed to us when we accepted His blood, and then, in a legal sense, we became without spot and blameless.
But accepting Christ's blood did not require the diligence Peter talks about here. After we come under His blood, though, we must submit to God in living up to that imputed spotlessness and blamelessness. Doing so requires significant effort; thus, Peter uses “diligent.”
In verse 16, he warns that misusing Paul's words leads to destruction, a term frequently used concerning God's judgment on the disobedient. Jesus says that “wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13). In other words, the easy way does not end well. The future “man of sin” is called “the son of perdition [destruction]” (II Thessalonians 2:3), at least in part because he is destined for the Lake of Fire—his sins lead him to destruction. Earlier in the chapter, Peter warns of the fire that characterizes the coming day of judgment (evaluation against a standard) and destruction of ungodly men (II Peter 3:7). To summarize, then, the unstable and untaught will interpret Paul's teaching in such a way that will lead them into God's judgment—to destruction or perdition.
In verse 17, Peter adds another warning, this time against apostasy, or as he puts it, “fall[ing] from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked.” He describes a change from a good spiritual state to a bad one.
The New King James Version uses the phrase “the wicked,” giving the impression that Peter is talking about deeply depraved people. However, the people the apostle describes do not have to be characterized as extreme at all. Several translations interpret the phrase as being “carried away with the error of the lawless.” The Greek word translated as “wicked” or “lawless,” athesmos (Strong's #113), indicates a person who is against what has been instituted as law, custom, ordinance, precept, or rule. The wicked do not have to be mass murderers but simply those who disregard the established standards. In this context, the established standards are the laws of God.
To summarize, Peter warns us to check ourselves regarding Paul's material so we are not led away by false teachers (the theme of Peter's previous chapter) or our own incorrect impression of what Paul says. If we fail to hear it correctly, we will fall into the error of those who disregard God's law, those who are ignorant of the whole counsel of God (“untaught”), and who thus are not steadfast (“unstable”). These individuals avoid the narrow way because they find it constraining, even though it leads to eternal life.
David C. Grabbe
How Does Faith Establish the Law? (Part One)
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing 2 Peter 3:17:
Matthew 24:24
John 5:13-14
Romans 3:20-22
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
2 Peter 3:14-18
