introduction

2 Peter is a book about why and how to grow in your Christian Life. My prayer is that as we approach this letter together, that God convicts us and moves us to “make every effort to supplement [our] faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” (ch1 v5-7), not from a heart of works-righteousness but from the assurance of God’s love in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

author + audience

✍️This gospel was written by Simon Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples.

This letter was written to “those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ”, i.e. Christians. It is the second letter that Peter writes to this group of people. The first is presumably 1 Peter, in which he addresses them as “those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood”.

purpose

📨This letter was written to remind and convict believers to diligently live for Jesus and shun false teaching.

This letter contains two purpose statements:

• “To remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have… And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.” Peter is on about remind them of the qualities for Christians to grow in, even to those who know.
• “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”. Peter is concerned to protect them from the false teaching and mockery of ‘scoffers’ and remind them of the words of truth found in the scriptures and the teachings of the apostles about Christ.

context

historical

2 Peter was written in the 1st Century AD by the apostle Peter, also known as Simon Peter to some. The church was still in its infancy, just a few decades after Jesus’ death. Yet as we will see in the text, false teaching has already sprung up as an issue to be resolved. In the text, Peter refers to his immanent death (”the putting off of my body will be soon”), so we can date it to sometime in the 60s AD before he was martyred. This is before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70AD.

literary

2 Peter is an Epistle. It is the second of two letters written by Peter in the New Testament corpus, and sits before the letters from John, Jude, and the Revelation. It is to be read as an epistle - a letter from an Apostle (or close associate of an apostle) to a church or churches, containing teaching, encouragement, exhortation, and instruction for Christians.

biblical theological

2 Peter was written after the ascension of the risen Christ, in the age of the early Church. The Spirit has come and the gospel has gone out. But Jesus has not yet returned. It is also the ‘apostolic age’ when scripture was still being written by the apostles. Peter affirms Paul’s writings as scripture in Chapter 3 of this letter, showing the authority of the Apostles in writing scripture, even as they are ‘carried along by the Holy Spirit’.

structure

1:1-2 Greeting

1:3-11 What God has done - and how we should live.

1:12-2:3 The importance of knowing the truth - and the greatness of this truth.