FRIDAY 13th
2 Peter 3:1-7
‘This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.’
Today I will use three words to head up this devotion, ‘reminder to remember’. Peter is so concerned for the believers that he wants them to hold onto the ‘precious and very great promises’ (2 Peter 1:4). One of these very great promises is the fact that Jesus will come again. So he wishes to remind them that it is important that they remember this promise, especially as there would be those who he calls as being scoffers who would ridicule or scoff at any suggestion of Jesus coming again.
Our present society is full of scoffers, they may not realise that that is what they are, but the very fact that they continue in sin, following sinful desires means that they have not only rejected the good news of the gospel, but their very lives are scoffing at the claims of the gospel. They carry on as if nothing matters, sin is not consequential and as far as they are concerned, they will get away with it. Peter says that they will also scoff at the claim that Jesus will come again, because they will say, life seems to be continuing just as it always has done.
And life does and will continue, but Scripture is very clear that there is going to be a sudden moment in time when what is, will be suddenly broken into by the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, two thousand years may have passed since Jesus said that he would come again, but it does not mean that he has changed his mind, he will come again, because every promise he has made is rock solid and sure.
We as believers can so easily if we are not careful, fall into the trap of thinking just as the scoffers do, asking the same question, where is he, and just continuing with life, and getting involved in so much that holds no eternal value, whereas we should be living as if Jesus could come today. So as Peter wanted to remind the believers to remember, so do I, Jesus is coming again, we must live in readiness, we must live waiting in expectancy for the wonderful moment when the clouds will part and our Saviour will be revealed. We will continue with the verses 5-7 in our next devotion.