2Pe 3:14-16 “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”
As Peter begins to close this epistle, he leaves a final admonishment; be diligent. We look for (expect, anticipate) new heavens and a new earth wherein is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. In this expectation we are to be prompt and earnest (diligent). We have already been told that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. When the time of God’s authority is manifested in our lives, we should be found of Him in peace.
While we know that nothing is hidden from God, the thought here is that when He manifests His holy presence to us that we are resting in His peace. We should not be caught up in the turmoil of false teachers, whether in word or practice. We should not be found divided in our loyalty to Jesus Christ because we’ve decided that Brother “Y’s” way is better than Brother “X’s” way. We should be found diligently seeking the Way so that we might appear before Him without the spot of division or the blame of false teaching among us.
We should be found considering that the forbearance of our Lord is for our safety. We should not treat the Lord’s forbearance as though He has somehow failed to fulfill the promise of His coming. Rather, His forbearance is that we might have joy in His coming instead of dread. We have Peter’s word as testimony; we have Paul’s word as testimony; we have the Holy Spirit within us as testimony. Let every word be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses.
Not everything in God’s word is easily understood; that is certainly true for me. When we study God’s word, we need to be stedfast in the things that we do understand. This will help us when we encounter those things in His word of which we are still ignorant (unlearned). If we are stedfast in those things He has revealed to us, then we will be less likely to try and twist (wrest) those things we don’t understand to fit some notion of ours. If we are both ignorant (unlearned) and fail in our steadfastness (unstable), then we are more likely to twist the scripture into some false teaching that will lead to the destruction of our rest in the righteousness, peace, and joy of His kingdom here.
May we cleave to all that the Lord has given us understanding in and wait on Him for all we do not yet understand!
