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Remember, Judgment is Coming, Part 4
Final Perspective
2 Peter 3:14-18
Bruce A. Hess
We are involved in a study from the book of 2 Peter and chapter number 3. I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn in them to the book of 2 Peter and the third chapter. 2 Peter, chapter number 3, in the New Testament.
You know, it happened in 1984 in the cult classic sci-fi movie, The Terminator. The Austrian born actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger—by the way in the movie do you know that he only said a total of 58 words?—in The Terminator Schwarzenegger uttered his most famous movie line and that movie line was… [pause for audience response] “I’ll be back.” Exactly. That is what he said, “I’ll be back.”
What is interesting is, Jesus Himself was the first one to utter that idea. For example, in Matthew, chapter 16, verse 27, this is Jesus speaking and He says, “The Son of Man is going to come [again] in the glory of His Father with His angels.” Jesus was in essence saying, “I’ll be back.”
We see it also in Mark, chapter 13, in verse 26, where Jesus is speaking and He says, “They will see the Son of Man coming…with great power and glory.” What Jesus was really saying is, “I’ll be back.”
So, that is Jesus’ message, I’ll be back! Ultimately, that is the thrust of 2 Peter, chapter number 3. Peter is saying, despite there having been some delay from a human perspective, He’ll be back, He’ll be back! And, He’ll come back, as we learn from the New Testament, Dealing out Retribution as it says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 8. It will be, when He comes back, an Era of Destruction and Desolation, as it says in Zephaniah chapter 1 and verse 15. And, it will be an Unleashing of the Wrath of the Lamb, as it says in the book of Revelation chapter 6 and verse 16.
If you look at Revelation chapters 6-16, you can see a lot of the details of this era of time when He comes back. When we look at those details, it is possible we might wonder: at that time will the body of Christ, will the church, face all these things listed above? It is a good question to ask and many of us might wonder about that question. Will we—as followers of Jesus—experience the End Times Wrath of God? Before we look at 2 Peter, chapter 3, and the closing perspective that he gives us, I want to address that very question.
I want to remind us of what we saw a couple of weeks back and that is, when you look at God’s Wrath in Scripture you realize there are three aspects of God’s Wrath seen there. There is first Consequential Wrath, you remember when we looked at this. Consequential Wrath is God’s punishment in this life to certain people as consequences of their evil choices. Also, there is End Times Wrath in Scripture. This is the wrath that is closely connected with the Second Coming. Then, finally, there is Eternal Wrath, which is the lake of fire.
So, whenever Scripture talks about wrath we must ask: what is the context of that wrath? The question we really want to ask ourselves is, will the body of Christ be on earth to face End Times Wrath? The answer, I believe, is – no. You say, where do you get that answer, Bruce? Well, let’s look at a couple of passages.
In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, he says this, “The Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.” So, the context is clearly the return of Christ. The context is this era of judgment on the Day of the Lord. Then, in verse 4 he says, “You, brothers,” addressing the church, “are not in darkness that the day (What day? The Day of the Lord) would overtake you like a thief.” Then, later in verse 9, he says this, “God has not destined us for wrath.” So, the whole context of all of this is End Times Wrath and he states right there in verse 9: God has not destined us, the church, for wrath, for End Times Wrath.
Another passage we could look at would be 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 10, which is also talking about the return of Jesus there. It says very clearly: Jesus rescues us [the church] from the wrath to come.
Then, I want to look at one other passage in Scripture, which is Revelation chapter 3 and verse 10. Pastor Mark took us through this section a few weeks ago. This section is dealing with the letter to the church at Philadelphia. But I want to remind you that when we went through that section—Mark emphasized that even though these were letters to individual churches, at the end of every letter, like, for example, here would be in verse 13, he said, “I want you to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Plural).” What was in these letters are lessons and principles, not just for one church, but for THE church at large.
You see here he says, “I want to keep you from the hour of testing which is about to come upon the whole world.” So, we want to break that statement down a little bit. Notice he says, “I want to keep you—he is speaking of the churches, the church—from the hour of testing.” Now, just a little bit of original language here, that word, ‘from’ in the original is the word ‘ek’ (e-k). Ek means ‘out of’ or ‘from.’
He could have chosen the preposition ‘dia’ (d-i-a) which means ‘through.’ It would communicate, I will keep you through this period of testing. But he doesn’t use dia. He could have used the preposition ‘en’ (e-n), which means ‘in.’ I will keep you amid that hour of testing. No, he doesn’t. Rather He says, I will keep you from—very significant language here—the hour of testing.
But also, I want you to notice that little phrase ‘the hour of testing.’ He is basically saying—as a promise to the churches—I am going to keep you from the time period, the very time period. Then, He says, which is about to come upon the whole world. I am going to keep you from the time-period of worldwide judgment, worldwide trouble. In the book of Revelation, you can start in chapter 6 and go on, and you’ll see in more detail what is involved in that time period.
Now here is my point: the only way to avoid a time in which the whole world is going to undergo worldwide judgment—the only way you can avoid that time—is to be located in heaven. I believe that the New Testament teaches that the Lord Jesus is going to snatch up the body of Christ from earth to heaven before the seven-year tribulation begins. Beforehand. That is what we often would call the Rapture.
1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13-18, is one passage that describes that event. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 51-52 also describes that event.
Just as a reminder, remember that The Day of the Lord has as its focus the nation of Israel. In fact, in the Book of the Revelation we see the church mentioned prominently in the first three chapters, yet there is no mention of the church in the events that occur from Revelation chapter 4 through Revelation chapter 21. You see church, church, church, church, church, but when the book shifts to the Day of Lord events, there is no mention of the church any longer in the Book of the Revelation.
So, the question is: Will the body of Christ be on earth to face End Times Wrath?
I believe the answer is no. Why? 1) because we are not destined for End Times Wrath [1Thess 5:9] and 2) Jesus rescued us from End Times Wrath [1 Thess1:10].
When we are in 2 Peter chapter 3, what is happening is Peter is giving us a sneak peek into these End Times events. Why does he do that if we’re not going to be there as the church? Why does he do that?? Well, there is a dual thrust reason for why he does that. Number one, we’ve seen this in our study, he gives us this sneak peek to change our attitudes and actions in the now. That is one of the reasons why he does it. A second reason why he does it, which we have seen, is to deepen our concern, to deepen our concern about our family, our friends, and others in the world.
So, that is a long introduction to set us up to look at the final verses we have before us, which I have entitled “Final Perspective.” We see this in verses 14-18. I am going to read those verses and invite you to follow along in your Bible as I read. Peter says,
“Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 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. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.”
So, as we look at these verses, they break, I believe, into three parts. First, we have a Two-Fold Summary Conclusion that he gives to us in verse 14 and the first half of verse 15. Remember, the verses are not inspired, it’s just a means to help us locate things. The second thing we see is The Consistency of Scripture in the second part of verse 15 and verse 16. Then, thirdly, we are going to see a Double Parting Exhortation that comes to us in verses 17 and 18.
Let’s begin by looking at this Two-Fold Summary Conclusion in verse 14 and verse 15. Look at verse 14 with me. Notice it begins with a key word, the word ‘therefore.’ “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things.” What would the ‘these things’ be? Well, you just back up to the previous verse, where he is talking about the day in which there will be new heavens and a new earth and there is going to be an eternal state where righteousness dwells, where righteousness permanently resides. He is saying, therefore since you look for these things, here comes the first command, “Be diligent to be found by Him spotless and blameless in peace.” The NIV, the NET Bible, the ESV, say ‘at peace.’ Spotless and blameless at peace.
What is he talking about here? Well, when he talks about being spotless, he is addressing our character. You remember what character is? Character is what we are when nobody is looking. He is not talking about, when he is talking about being spotless here, he’s not talking about absolute sinlessness, because I cannot achieve that, nor can you. But rather, what he is talking about is having a life of integrity.
Then, he says to be blameless. This refers to our reputation. Our reputation is what others see. Our character is what we are when nobody is looking. Our reputation is what other people see. Here is the idea: when we have integrity—listen here carefully—when we have integrity of character, when we have integrity of reputation, I think we are at peace with the Lord. If you want to know a little bit more of what might be involved in such character and reputation, I would direct your attention to Psalm 15, because it gives some specifics in terms of character and reputation that a follower of God should have.
That leads us to command number two. The first one was to be diligent to found by Him spotless and blameless. Command number two, “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” By the way, this verb here ‘regard’ is a present tense command in the original language. The idea is: keep on regarding, don’t just do it once, but keep on regarding, as a pattern of our life, the patience of our Lord as salvation.
What does that really mean? It is a little bit of a difficult phrase to interpret, but I believe the best interpretation is to see Peter is backing up to verse 9. Remember where it says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, but rather He is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish.” I think the idea is the Lord, as it says in the New Living Translation, is “giving more time so that more people can repent.” Delaying His return means more opportunity for salvation for people.
I think Peter is saying, as believers we need to maintain that perspective; we need to keep on embracing the idea when we think, why doesn’t the Lord come back? why didn’t the Lord come back? we just need to remember that His patience is a picture of more opportunity for salvation for more people.
So, we have there this Two-Fold Summary Conclusion. The second thing we want to look at this morning though, is this idea of The Consistency of Scripture. We see it in the middle part of verse 15, down through verse 16.
Look at verse 15 with me. Notice, in the middle of the verse, he speaks of “Our beloved brother, Paul.” Now, on a human level, it should appear a little unusual that he would have that view. You might say, why is that? Well, you do remember that in the first twelve chapters of the book of Acts, Peter is THE key leader in the early church. That shifts in Acts, chapter 13, all the way through the end of the book, where suddenly now, Paul is THE key leader in the early church.
What do we tend to be like as human beings? It is very easy when someone replaces you as the most prominent leader to harbor some ill feelings towards them. Then, you throw in what we learn from Galatians chapter 2, that Paul had to publicly confront Peter about some of his hypocrisy at one point, and you can just see how there would possibly be real ill feelings from Peter to Paul. But that is not what we have. He calls him our beloved brother, Paul. There is no jealousy, there is no competition. Peter’s perspective is: we are on the same team.
I want you to know that our staff is committed to that same view. We view our fellow pastors in our community not as our competitors, but rather, we are on the same team.
Notice, it says in verse 15, he says, “Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you.” You say, I don’t remember Paul’s letter to this group of people, but here is the thing to remember: by the time 2 Peter is written, all of Paul’s letters had already been written, except for one, which is 2 Timothy. So, all of Paul’s letters had already been written before 2 Peter was written.
You know what would happen in the churches is, they would have to hand copy them, but they would circulate these letters because it was Scripture. In fact, the book of Romans—interestingly enough—was written a decade before 2 Peter. And then you have books like Galatians and Ephesians and Colossians all being written to people in the same general region where the target audience of 2 Peter would be found.
So, again, these letters were copied, they were passed around, that is why he could say that he wrote to you. It doesn’t mean there was necessarily a missing letter, it was just the way the churches operated at the time.
He says, verse 16, “As in all his letters, speaking in them of these things.” What, again, is the topic of ‘these things?’ Well, future prophetic events, and a call to live strategic and godly lives considering future prophetic events.
Then, there is such an encouraging phrase there right in the middle of verse 16. It is easy to miss. He says of Paul’s letters, “In which are some things hard to understand.” Now, doesn’t it make you feel a little bit better? It does me, because sometimes we struggle with some of Paul’s concepts. We can think: what do these things really mean? How do we really understand them? Peter says, I sometimes struggle understanding everything that Paul was writing.
What particular subject matter of Paul’s was Peter referring to? I don’t really know. I don’t think anyone really knows, but here are a couple of suggestions. Maybe Peter was referring to the whole idea of the Rapture of the church, as we see in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15. Maybe he was saying that is a little bit difficult to understand how all of that is going to happen—where we are going to have people who are alive and they jump up to meet Jesus in the air, and then the dead in Christ are going to rise up and meet the Lord…it’s going to be a giant party there. I mean, how does all that work??
Or, maybe he is referring to things that are hard to understand like positional truth as it says in Ephesians 2:6 and Colossians 3:1-3. It says there that, right now, we are seated in the heavenly places. You say, wait a second, I think we’re seated right here at Wildwood Community Church, how am I seated in heavenly places? Well, there is positional truth, and our spiritual position is “up there,” but our physical activity is down here. See, that can be is a little bit hard to understand.
Or, how about this one. Another one that might be a little bit difficult to understand is this whole idea of election. A lot of believers struggle with that as it’s talked about in Romans chapter 9. What does all that mean? He chose Jacob, but He didn’t choose Esau? Man, I don’t understand all that. See these are just some guesses on my part regarding what Peter might have been talking about specifically. But Peter clearly says some of what Paul wrote can be hard to understand.
Then notice, he says of these things that Paul wrote about, the untaught and the unstable distort them. This is this consistency of Scripture concept. When it says the untaught, in some translations use the term ‘the ignorant.’ The ignorant, the untaught, the unstable, distort them.
That term “distort” It is very colorful term. It was used outside of the New Testament for torturing someone and twisting their body on the rack. Most of us know the idea of the rack, where you would put someone on it, and you would torture and twist their body with the rack. That is the very verb that is used here. The picture is one of distorting and twisting the text of Scripture around, getting it to say what you want it to say, wresting the words out, tearing them out from the context. By the way, those are classic false teacher tactics, to do that.
Notice in verse 16, he goes on to say they also do this with the rest of the Scriptures. Now, remember, the New Testament writers were apparently aware that they were writing Scripture and the New Testament canon was beginning to form and these tactics of the false teachers not only apply to that new Scripture that was beginning to form, but also to the Old Testament. That’s what they do, they twist and distort all of it. Notice in verse 16 he adds there, they do this to their own destruction.
You might go back to 2 Peter, chapter 2, and verse 1, where it is talking about the false teachers there and it mentions that same idea, they are doing it to their own destruction. When they are out to distort and twist Scripture, it has ruinous ramifications in their life. It may not be immediately, but those ramifications will surface eventually.
So, we have been looking at first the Two-Fold Summary Conclusion that he gives in verse 14 and into 15. Then, we’ve looked at the Consistency of Scripture in the rest of verse 15 through verse 16.
Now, we want to look at the Double Parting Exhortation that he gives in verses 17 and 18 and that double parting exhortation is for you and me to guard and to grow. Let’s look at these verses again, look at verse 17 and 18. “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
He says in verse 17, “Knowing this beforehand.” I’m giving you a warning ahead of time. This is a warning, not only to the people who existed at the time that Peter was writing, but this is a warning for you and a warning for me. That warning is, he says, be on your guard, be on your guard. Again, that takes us back to what he covered in chapter 2, where there was a warning about false teachers and their strategies and he’s stressing we, as believers in Jesus Christ, need to be on our guard. We need to be alert. That is the whole argument of 2 Peter, chapter 2.
Another place where you see this being emphasized is Paul, in Titus chapter 1, verses 10 and 11, where he says there are, “…Many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers…who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.” That means they are doing what they are doing for money purposes. Notice he says in verse 17, we need to be on our guard, and he says, “So that you are not carried away.” The idea is to be led astray by the error of unprincipled men. Notice the result is, by being led astray there, that you, “Fall from your own steadfastness.”
Sometimes people get confused here and they think, well he is talking about potentially losing our salvation. No, no, no, he’s not talking about losing our salvation. He’s talking about falling from spiritual steadfastness; falling from spiritual stability; losing our secure spiritual footing, and he was concerned about that. If anybody needed to be concerned about that, it would be Peter, right? Because Peter had his own fall from steadfastness. Do you remember that? Remember when he denied even knowing Jesus – three times?
If you think about his own fall from spiritual steadfastness, a big part of his fall was due to self-confidence. Remember when Jesus said to the disciples you are going to fall away? Do you remember Peter’s response as he looked around the room? Yeah, maybe, maybe the rest of these dudes, but not me! I’ll never fall away. We need to be careful about having that same attitude ourselves. That is why Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Let him who thinks he stands (they could never get me) take heed lest he fall.”
So, we are seeing here a Double Parting Exhortation and the first one is to be on guard, keep on, literally, being on guard. Never stop being on guard against a spiritual pratfall, against a spiritual detour, where we find ourselves somewhere out there in the spiritual weeds.
Earlier, if you go back two chapters, he said something interesting in chapter 1 and verse 10. He says, “…As long as you practice these things (which is really referring back in chapter 1 to verses 5-7). What does it say next…you will never stumble.” So, if we want to avoid that, we back up to chapter 1 and look at verses 5-7. Those are the things we need to be practicing, and as long as we are practicing those things in our spiritual life, we will not stumble.
So, we are looking at this double parting exhortation. The first one is for you and me to be on our guard and the second one is to keep on growing, to keep on growing. We see this there in verse 18. Notice he says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Again, this is a present command. It means this is to be an ongoing focus in our life. I should never lose sight of the fact that I need to keep on growing. I need to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I believe he is saying we need to be doing that individually…I need to be committed to that. But we also need to be doing that corporately. You can look at Ephesians chapter 4, verses 14-16, where it talks about the importance of corporate spiritual growth. That is why it is not just an individual thing in the Christian life. Sure, I need to personally keep on growing and have that as an ongoing focus in my life, but we also need to have a church family to help us keep on growing spiritually. Which, by the way, underscores the value of the local church, the value of having a spiritual family.
If you want to grow to your maximum in your own spiritual life, it’s not just something you do individually, it’s something that you do corporately, and part of the wisdom of God is He puts us in a local church. He puts us in a spiritual family, and that spiritual family can assist us in our growth.
Then, you might say, what are the resources for continuing to grow? What resources can I draw upon? Well, back in chapter 1…see how it all ties together… we see that the resources are His power. He has given us ability and strength, through the Holy Spirit, who is present in our life. Also, part of the resources are, His promises as he discussed in those first few verses of chapter 1. Those are the resources He’s provided.
If you are practically minded like I am, you might say: Well, what would that look like in my individual life if I am committed to keep on growing? One passage that gives us some insight into what it might look like would be Romans chapter 12, verses 9-13. You could also encompass the surrounding context to verses 9-13, but here is part of what it would look like if we are going to keep on growing:
*We abhor what is evil [that means we hate; we dislike what is evil]. We dodge around it.
*We cling to what is good.
*We are devoted to one another in brotherly love. See, this is a good list to use as a comparison list for where you are spiritually yourself.
*Not lagging behind in diligence. We’re not just coasting our way through.
*Fervent in spirit.
*Serving the Lord. Is that true of you right now?
*Rejoicing in hope.
*Persevering in tribulation.
*Devoted to prayer.
*How about this one? Contributing to the needs of the saints. This relates to what we do with our money.
*Practicing hospitality.
Those are some of the things that are involved as we keep on growing.
Now, I want to read to you a quote from Harry Ironside, the classic expositor. This is just a great quote, but you also must think about this and meditate on it—it is so true. Here is what he said, he said, “Spiritual growth is the unfailing panacea for all spiritual ills.” Now, just ponder that for a while. I have a spiritual issue in my life, spiritual growth is the unfailing panacea to that, to all spiritual ills in our life.
We have looked at a lot of Scripture in 2 Peter and I want to talk about some Life Response. I’m just going to draw everything together here. What Life Response can we have to what Peter has been teaching us? Well, the first life response, which I’ve said several times, is to Trust in Jesus as your Rescuer. Jesus desires to be your Rescuer from sin and judgment. I don’t know where everybody is coming from, but I want to remind each of us that part of the response that we should have is to Trust in Jesus as our Rescuer.
Let me put it this way: there are still seats available on the ark of salvation, alluding back to that picture of the ark in the great flood. We enter into the ark of salvation, which is the person of Christ—we do that by faith, by trusting in Him.
I am so, so very glad that Romans chapter 10 and verse 13 is there in Scripture. It says this, “Everyone (that includes you, me, everyone) who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” It doesn’t make any difference what our background is. It doesn’t make any difference what our life has been like. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
The second Life Response is to Live in Light of Who You Are. Often, we lose sight of this, we really do. Jeff Kinley, I think does a great job of summarizing who we are.
Here is what he says, “We are a redeemed, blood-bought people—washed clean of all sin, forgiven, made righteous in the Father’s sight [this is exciting stuff!] freed from condemnation, sealed by the Holy Spirit, beloved of God, the apple of His eye, empowered by His Spirit, commissioned by His Son, entrusted with the truth and treasure of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and commanded to penetrate our culture and the darkness that defines it.”
So, as we have looked at all of this in 2 Peter in chapter 3, that is part of what we need to do, is to Live in Light of Who We Are. We need to remember, as it says, that we are Jesus’ sent ones (John 17:8). Do you feel that every week as you begin your week? We are also called Jesus’ witnesses as it says in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. We are called to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the world. I like to say, we are to be His witnesses here, there, and everywhere.
We are also Jesus’ royal ambassadors as it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20. Is that our mindset as we enter our week every week? Here is the idea, men and women: many people may never read a Bible and many people may never enter a church, but they will see and read us.
Then, the third Life Response is to Live to Honor and Glorify Jesus. We see the very final words that Peter ever recorded before he left earth when he says, “To Him be the glory (Verse 18) both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
Paul says something very similar in 2 Timothy 4:18. He says, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom, to Him be the glory forever and ever.”
Listen, men and women:
It glorifies and honors Him when we, as we’ve seen today in this passage, are men, women, and young people of integrity (Verse 14).
It glorifies and honors Him when we stay true to the Scriptures (verse 16).
It glorifies and honors Him when we humbly guard our hearts against false teaching and spiritual stumbling (Verse 17).
And it glorifies and honors Him when we are committed to keep growing individually and corporately as it says in verse 18.
And, finally, Peter wants us to remember what Jesus said. He said, I’ll be back!!.
Let’s pray together. Father, we thank You again for Your Word. We thank You for the power of it. We thank You for the practicality of it. I just count it a privilege for us to spend time in the Word of God. We thank You, Lord, that You are who You are. We thank You that You use us in the way that You use us. It just mystifies me why You do, but You do. And, we want to give You praise, we want to give You honor by how we live our life for Your glory. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
Final Perspective
2 Peter 3:14-18
1. A fun trivia question. In how many non-Terminator movies has Arnold Schwarzenegger reprised the line, I’ll be back? Never. Twice. Four times. Eight times. Ten Times?
[either google the answer or look at the bottom of the page]
2. Bruce stated that Scripture indicates that the Body of Christ, the church, will not be subject to the End Times Wrath of God. What passages were cited to support that?
3. Noting that a pre-tribulation Rapture effectively snatches the church out of this world before the Day of the Lord commences, what insight does that give us into why Paul would describe the future rapture as “the blessed hope” in Titus 2:11-13? Discuss.
4. Some critics of the pre-tribulation Rapture claim that promoters of it are misleading believers by actively implying that they won’t experience great difficulty and persecution. How would you respond to that claim?
Not being subject to God’s End Times Wrath does not mean that a believer won’t be subject to “wrath” from other sources. What would some of those other sources be? Elaborate.
5. Why is it that integrity for a follower of Jesus is so important?
6. Have you ever witnessed some teacher distorting/twisting Scripture, yanking it out of context to get it to say what they desire it to say? If yes, expand on that some.
7. Peter concludes with a double parting exhortation in vs. 17-18
1) Be on your guard (17) 2) Keep on growing (18)
Why are those exhortations so vital?
Practically, how do we continue to Be on Guard?
Practically, what does it look like to Keep on Growing?
8. If you were to write a short job description for a royal ambassador of Jesus here on earth, what are some the elements you’d include?
9. Take time to give praise and honor to Jesus as Peter does in 3:18b.
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