Wednesday, November 30
2 Peter 3:1-10
The Apostle Peter warned his readers that in the last days there would be certain signs to watch for, and among these would be scoffers whose lives and words would be at variance with the teachings of the church. He says that they will follow “their own evil desire,” reject the doctrine of the second coming of the Lord, and forget that God once judged the world by deluge and will do so again by fire (vv.3-7).
Such people are false teachers, as he explains in the second chapter of his epistle. They will “introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord” who created them (2:1). In these verses Peter is warning us: Be careful, don’t be taken in.
Having given his readers a solemn warning about false teachers and the coming judgment, Peter then answers the question that the scoffers had apparently raised: Why is Jesus taking so long to return to his people? His answer is, first, that God experiences time differently than we do: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day” (2:9); and second, Jesus has been slow in returning because he loves us and wants to give us all the time we need to repent.
PRAYER
May The Lord, our Savior keep our hearts faithful by God’s word so that we will be with Him until the coming day of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Rev. Lien Nguyen, pastor, United Presbyterian Church of Viet Nam, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, International Peacemaker in 2009