The Message of 2 Peter & Jude

Dick Lucas, Christopher Green

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9780830825165

The letters of 2 Peter and Jude are sometimes overlooked, yet their message for the church is timely and compelling. Today, as in the first century, Christians must guard against false guides who can lead believers astray and cause divisions within the community of faith. Responding to this ever-present danger, 2 Peter and Jude equip readers to discern truth from illusion and exhort them to loyalty, harmony, and spiritual maturity.

In this volume of the Bible Speaks Today series, Dick Lucas and Christopher Green offer passage-by-passage exposition of the letters of 2 Peter and Jude. They include introductory information on authorship, original audience, major themes, and recent issues of scholarship, while focusing on the relevance of these two letters to contemporary Christian experience.

This revised edition of a classic BST volume includes updated language and Scripture quotations and a new interior design. A study guide for individuals or groups is included to help readers engage more deeply with the text.

Part 1

The message of 2 Peter

Introduction

At a recent preachers’ conference, where local church leaders and pastors had met to stimulate one another in the work of teaching the Bible accurately and effectively, an outline on 2 Peter 3:18 was brought forward to be assessed by the group. This ‘sermon skeleton’ was a comprehensive one, using the fine exhortation to ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour’ as a launch pad for an overview of New Testament teaching on Christian growth in godliness, a notable theme of 2 Peter. Much excellent material had been gathered together on the necessity for spiritual maturity, and a practical application made to the effect that the watching world would hardly be impressed by Christian claims until confronted with believing people who had grown to their full stature as disciples of Jesus.

Naturally, this application was a truth no-one in the group was minded to deny. But by this time, as we studied 2 Peter together, it had emerged that the apostle’s final exhortation had a very different thrust. Once the warning of 3:17 against false teachers was taken into account (an elementary example of context control), it became obvious that here, in this particular letter, ‘growth in grace’ was being urged as indispensable, not to impress the world, but to rescue the young believers from spiritual disaster. The seductive influence of new and forceful teachers, recently at work in the congregations, was already destabilizing the faithful. These ‘lawless people’, unrestrained by apostolic authority, were attracting a numerous following through their high-sounding promises to bring the believers into a hitherto unknown ‘freedom’ of experience (2:19).

The purpose of 2 Peter is twofold: to expose such false guides for what they were (hence the colourful diatribe of chapter 2) and, more important still, to set before the churches the conditions of survival when doctrinal and moral perversions infiltrate their fellowships, appearing to carry all before them. So, in 3:17, the appeal to Peter’s ‘dear friends’ is that they should be on their guard against error lest they ‘fall from’ their ‘secure position’. Evidently the apostle values ‘stability’ very highly (1:12). Seeing the troublemakers as essentially unstable people (3:16), he repeatedly urges the Christians to safeguard the security of their own position (1:10). Finally, in 3:18, the wisest way to do this is expounded in terms of steady growth in the favour of God, and in the knowledge of Christ.

The letter of 2 Peter, then, is a homily on Christian growth, set in the context of threats to Christian stability from a type of destructive and heretical teaching (2:1–3) that is as common today as it was in apostolic times and that seems to hold out a perpetual attraction to some vigorous evangelical communities. In 1:1–11 we possess what is a classic New Testament exposition of this theme, including the brilliant little ladder of advance towards maturity, from faith to love, in verses 5–7. Arguments concerning the origin (whether Hellenistic or not) of such catalogues of virtues are of little interest compared with the fact that this ‘programme for progress’ has obviously been carefully edited to expose the manifest failures of the errorists. It is because these new spiritual guides patently lacked goodness, self-control and godliness (to name but three of the qualities) that Peter commends (perhaps ‘commands’ would be a more accurate word) to his readers a very different way of living.

A homily on spiritual growth, then, from the pen of the apostle Peter, lies before us. But growth in what? The answer to this question goes to the heart of 2 Peter and the apostolic concerns that led to the writing of this letter. What is at stake in the life of the young churches is nothing less than the true knowledge of God.

1. The knowledge of God

This emphasis on ‘knowing’ the Lord and ‘knowing’ the truth, repeatedly underscored, is characteristic of 2 Peter. There are two sides to this ‘knowing’. First, there is that knowledge of God and of his Son, Jesus Christ, which is the initial gift of free grace, constituting us true believers (1:2, 3, 8; the Greek word is epignōsis). There is no inequality here between Christian and Christian. Even more impressive, there is no inequality between the apostle (belonging to the first generation) and those of the second and third generations (1:1), so Peter’s readers lack nothing of ‘apostolicity’ in their faith. No charge against them, on the score of the full validity of their spiritual standing or experience, can be sustained. This is the important assurance 2 Peter is intended to convey from the beginning.

The implication must be that the new teaching cast doubt on the proper standing as Christian people of Peter’s readers. It is notoriously easy to ‘seduce the unstable’ (2:14; that is, the young Christian) by exploiting easy dissatisfactions with spiritual progress, and longings for a deeper fellowship with the God who has made himself known. In 2 Peter 1:1 the apostle Peter gives these new converts the same assurance that Paul gives his readers in Ephesians 1:3: God ‘has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ’.

Second, there is that knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, which can be built up by application and endeavour only over a long period (e.g. 1:5–6; cf. 3:18; the Greek word here is gnōsis). This distinction between the knowledge that is given and a knowledge that is gained is an important key to understanding apostolic Christianity.

2. The false teachers

What then of the new propagandists? It was as ‘teachers’ that they had come among the people (2:1, 3); but were they themselves possessors of a true knowledge of God? At first sight it seems as though they were. In 2:20–21 we are told three times of their knowledge (epignōsis) of Christ and his ‘way’. At the same time, we are told of their comprehensive surrender to sensuality (2:19–20) as evidence of turning their backs on the authority of divine truth (2:21). Students of 2 Peter have been perplexed by these statements, especially since the striking proverb of 2:22 suggests, very starkly, that the essential natures of these men had never been changed. Experience of contemporary church life, however, presents us with similarly baffling examples of those whose early faith and ministry bore every sign of genuineness, yet who later denied the ‘Lord who bought them’ (2:1). Not infrequently, this has led to the practice of immorality of the most shameful kind (described in 2 Pet. 2).

The letter excels in conciseness, while putting before us a rounded picture. The apostolic tests of an authentic ‘knowledge’ of God centre on whether or not both ‘the way of truth’ (2:2) and ‘the way of righteousness’ (2:21) are followed. What is demanded of the Christian, and therefore of the Christian teacher, is not only pure (or wholesome) thinking (3:1) but also pure (or wholesome) living (3:14). No claims to special illumination should be countenanced by the people of God, especially when sound doctrine is repudiated and sound morality is rejected in word and deed. Both these aspects are combined in 2 Peter 2:1–10, but particularly the latter, as being ‘especially true’ (verse 10) of those responsible for the new teaching agitating the churches in Peter’s time.

And what of their knowledge, in the sense of acquired understanding (gnōsis)? Here, chapter 3 seems unequivocal. Apparently, there was among them a deliberate ignorance of unpalatable truth (3:5), as well as that instability that leads unbalanced enthusiasts to distort Scripture (3:16). It is intriguing to read that ‘our dear brother Paul’ (so Peter writes) was treated in just such cavalier fashion by his opponents.

It is not so much the familiar approach of a ‘liberal theology’ that easily dismisses what Paul writes as inappropriate in today’s different cultural setting, as the unprincipled ‘distortions’ of Paul’s teachings practised by those who feel bound to accept his authority. Their method is to twist the plain import of Paul’s words and sentences in order to produce a very different meaning, one that will be more acceptable to their contemporaries.

In spelling out the ‘ignorance’ of the newcomers, Peter insists that, for their part, his readers must not ‘forget’ (we will return later to the importance of this concept) certain bedrock realities. With exceptional economy of words, these are beautifully set down in 3:8–10; they go to the heart of the difference between a genuine Christian outlook and its counterfeit.

Verse 8 will surely have reminded Peter’s readers of Psalm 90, with its emphasis on the painful brevity of life, making this world wholly inadequate as a permanent home, or resting place, for all who possess eternity in their hearts. Generations of believers have found in the eternal God alone a true refuge and satisfying dwelling place. By contrast, the new teachers are entirely content with this world as their home, and look for no other. This is because they do not know the Lord, either in his anger (Ps. 90:11) or in his compassion (Ps. 90:13).

Verse 9 famously spells out the glory of the divine patience: if the Lord delays his coming it is because of his longsuffering with sinners. But the new teachers were foolish enough to interpret mercy and forbearance as betraying divine impotence or negligence. Again, they did not know the Lord (Exod. 34:6–7).

Verse 10 is another splendid stroke. The force of the ‘thief’ analogy, as used by Christ, lies in the fact, now as then, that burglars unerringly come just when you do not expect them! But the new teachers had very clear notions about when the ‘coming’ should have taken place. It was they, not the orthodox believers, who insisted that Christ had promised an immediate return. Because this had not taken place, they no longer expected the realization of this promise. Ironically, this refusal of theirs any longer to expect the return of Christ fulfils the very conditions that will precede the Lord’s return. But then they did not know the Lord or take seriously the demands of serving him (cf. Luke 12:35–40).

In all this, the false prophets of Peter’s day, as in ours, revealed themselves as men of the world in contrast with the proper otherworldliness of the true Christian (3:11–13). This has special application to contemporary Christians, when the reigning orthodoxies of secularism are crumbling. In rejecting transcendence, a thoroughgoing materialism forces people to seek happiness solely in this world. It is now clear that in making sense of life and human hopes this is not working out. If fashionable theology follows secular trends (as it normally does a few years later), however, we can expect to find the popular preachers of the day rejecting the transcendent nature of the Bible message, and promising their listeners that spiritual hunger and heavenly aspirations can find complete satisfaction in the here and now. The result will be a consumer-oriented church suitable for a consumer-oriented society – and in the end, bitter disillusionment – but not before wave succeeds wave of ‘special offers’ and yet more exaggerated promises, each in turn to be laid aside in hopeless disappointment (cf. 2:17–19).

3. The apostolic eyewitnesses

What then can Peter put before the churches to counter the influence of the new voices being heard everywhere, especially when soon his own voice will be silent (1:14)? How can he secure for the believers a right understanding of the ‘very great and precious promises’ of the gospel (1:4), so that they know what is theirs to experience and achieve in this life, as well as what is to be theirs in the new heaven and new earth, glorious realities to be anticipated with eagerness (3:12–14)? The answer to such questions takes us right back to the origins of true prophecy in 1:12–21, perhaps the greatest single treasure within this letter.

The section 1:12–15 contains Peter’s justification for writing. It is of primary importance in unlocking the message of 2 Peter, and is not to be downgraded as though it were merely a brief section in praise of repetition and memory work in the teaching ministry! Here Peter records a message, received from the risen Lord, that in a short while he is to depart from the earthly scene. It is a dramatic warning of little time left for his apostolic labours. It galvanizes Peter into making immediate arrangements so that gospel truth will be maintained when he is gone. True, the congregations are ‘firmly established’ in the truth they presently have (1:12). Nevertheless, the spread of the new lawlessness compels the apostle, while he still lives among them, continually to refresh their minds concerning their spiritual foundations. His efforts are to be concentrated on ensuring that the churches go on living under the rule of his apostolic testimony long after he has gone from the scene. Unless this happens, the post-apostolic church will, before long, forfeit its apostolicity in character and life.

The apostolic testimony of which Peter writes in 1:16–18 confirms the prophetic ‘word’ or ‘message’ (a contemporary description of the Old Testament as a whole), the foundational authority of which is described in 1:19–21. Through both apostolic testimony and prophetic word God speaks of ‘the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power’ (1:16), that climactic day of God when the world will be destroyed (3:10–12), from which final cataclysm God’s people will escape to enter their new and eternal home (3:13). This terrible time of judgment that will see the ‘destruction of the ungodly’ (3:7) will also see the final demonstration of God’s power to rescue the godly, a power anticipated in the present experience of Christian people whenever they are rescued from trials and temptations (e.g. 2:9).1

When Peter preached the coming of Christ to judge the world (cf. Acts 10:42), he was not charting or concocting imaginary descriptions of the future of Planet Earth, as his rivals, the false teachers, may have accused him of doing (or as they themselves practised for profit; 2:3). His message depended for its integrity on what he, and his fellow apostles, both saw (1:16) and heard (1:18). At the transfiguration they were, for a brief moment, eyewitnesses of the divine sovereignty of Christ, just as later they were eyewitnesses of his bodily resurrection.2 In this unique, historical sense the apostles were witnesses of Christ’s ‘honour and glory’. As Peter reminds his readers in a telling little phrase, ‘we were with him’ (1:18).

But what could Peter and his friends make of so unexpected and awesome a sight? It is recorded elsewhere that, at the time, they woefully misunderstood its significance (Mark 9:5–6). What they needed was an authoritative interpre...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• GENERAL PREFACE
• Authors’ preface
• Chief abbreviations
• Select bibliography
• Part 1
• Introduction
• 2 Peter 1:1–2
• 2 Peter 1:3–4
• 2 Peter 1:5–11
• 2 Peter 1:12–15
• 2 Peter 1:16–21
• 2 Peter 2:1–3
• 2 Peter 2:4–9
• 2 Peter 2:10–16
• 2 Peter 2:17–22
• 2 Peter 3:1–2
• 2 Peter 3:3–7
• 2 Peter 3:8–10
• 2 Peter 3:11–16
• 2 Peter 3:17–18
• Part 2
• Introduction
• Jude 1–2
• Jude 3–4
• Jude 5–8
• Jude 9–10
• Jude 11–13
• Jude 14–16
• Jude 17–19
• Jude 20–21
• Jude 22–23
• Jude 24–25
• Appendix
• Study guide
• Notes
• NIV Bible Speaks Today
• The Bible Speaks Today: Old Testament series
• The Bible Speaks Today: New Testament series
• The Bible Speaks Today: Bible Themes series
• About the Authors
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• IVP Academic Textbook Selector