Why We Submit to the Scriptures / 2 Peter 3:11-18
The Patient Nature of the Infinite God
Theology begins with the acknowledgment of a fundamental paradox: God is knowable, yet He remains incomprehensible in His fullness. While the finite mind cannot exhaustively grasp the depth and breadth of the Creator, God has graciously revealed His character and His purposes through His Word. Among the most profound aspects of this revelation is the relenting nature of God—His divine patience that functions as a stay against immediate judgment. This slowness is not a sign of indifference or inability; rather, it is a purposeful extension of mercy.
2 Peter 3:9 (NASB) The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
This divine patience transforms the present age into an era of opportunity. Those who have experienced the grace of God are, in essence, trophies of His patience. The delay of the final judgment is not a reason for complacency but a call to mission, as the Lord withholds His hand to allow for the repentance of those currently held captive by sin.
The Eschatological Framework of History
To understand the present moral and spiritual obligations of the believer, one must understand the overarching narrative of redemptive history. This timeline began with the Abrahamic Covenant, where God promised land, seed, and blessing to a specific people, Israel. While Jesus Christ presented Himself as the fulfillment of these promises to the house of Israel, their national rejection of Him inaugurated a distinct era: the age of the church. This period is marked by the gathering of a “Gentile bride,” a distinct work of God that does not replace Israel but operates alongside the mystery of Israel’s partial hardening.
Romans 11:25 (NASB) For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery– so that you will not be wise in your own estimation– that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;
The biblical narrative indicates that this current era will reach a definitive conclusion once the “fullness of the Gentiles” is realized. This will lead into a period of tribulation, the second coming of Christ as the conquering King, and the establishment of a millennial kingdom. Ultimately, the present heavens and earth, which are currently reserved for fire, will pass away to make room for a new creation characterized by eternal righteousness.
2 Peter 3:10 (NASB) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
Revelation 21:1-2 (NASB) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer [any] sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
Urgency Versus Apathy in the Final Hour
The certainty of a coming judgment and the subsequent renewal of the cosmos should produce a specific kind of character in the believer. Peter argues that since all temporal things are destined for destruction, the only logical response is a life dedicated to holy conduct and godliness. The imminency of Christ’s return is intended to create spiritual urgency. However, history shows that the delay of the Lord’s return often produces the opposite effect: a spirit of apathy and license.
2 Peter 3:11-12 (NASB) Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
When the return of the Master seems distant, there is a temptation to lapse into spiritual procrastination, treating the things of God as secondary to the accumulation of temporal wealth and comfort. This apathy is a dangerous delusion. The Lord cautioned that the faithful steward is the one found working upon the Master’s return, while the wicked servant assumes a delay and gives himself over to indulgence and cruelty. The realization that life is a mere vapor, and that the material world will eventually be consumed by heat, should reorient the believer’s priorities toward that which is eternal.
Matthew 24:44-51 (NASB) ’For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think [He will]. ’Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? ’Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. ’Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ’But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect [him] and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The Authority and Sufficiency of the Apostolic Word
A central pillar of a life lived in view of the end is a total submission to the authority of Scripture. In a remarkable moment of apostolic affirmation, Peter equates the writings of the Apostle Paul with “the rest of the Scriptures.” This indicates that the early church recognized the New Testament epistles as possessing the same divine weight as the Old Testament Law and Prophets. This submission to the Word is not contingent upon the reader’s comfort, cultural trends, or even full intellectual comprehension.
2 Peter 3:15-16 (NASB) 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.
Peter acknowledges that some aspects of divine revelation are difficult to understand. Nevertheless, the difficulty of a passage does not grant permission to ignore it. True submission to the Word of God means obeying its dictates even when they are counter-cultural, intellectually challenging, or personally demanding. To treat the Bible like a menu—selecting what is palatable and discarding what is difficult—is to functionally reject the lordship of God and install oneself as the final authority.
The Cost of Maintaining Biblical Fidelity
In an age characterized by moral relativism and the distortion of truth by “unprincipled men,” holding fast to the Scriptures will inevitably incur a cost. The biblical worldview regarding creation, the exclusivity of Christ, and human sexuality stands in direct opposition to secular mandates. The Scriptures teach that humanity is a special creation of God, fashioned male and female to reflect His image within the covenant of marriage. It further teaches that the road to salvation is narrow, found only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Genesis 1:27 (NASB) God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
John 14:6 (NASB) Jesus said to him, ’I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
As the culture moves further from these foundations, the believer who stands on the Word will be labeled as narrow-minded, intolerant, or obsolete. However, the mandate for the church is not to “trim its sails” to catch the winds of popular opinion but to remain steadfast. The Apostle Paul warned that a time would come when people would no longer endure sound doctrine but would seek out teachers who merely tell them what they want to hear. In such a climate, the call to be on guard and to grow in grace becomes a matter of spiritual survival.
2 Timothy 4:3-5 (NASB) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Conclusion: Steadfastness in an Age of Distortion
The final exhortation of the Petrine witness is a call to vigilance and growth. To be “on guard” is to recognize the presence of false teachers and the subtle ways in which the Word of God can be distorted to suit human desires. This defense is best maintained through an active pursuit of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Biblical illiteracy is the primary breeding ground for heresy; therefore, the believer must be a diligent student of the Word.
2 Peter 3:17-18 (NASB) 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. Amen.
Ultimately, the goal of this steadfastness is the glory of Christ. By living with the end in mind, submitting to the authority of the Word, and maintaining moral purity in a decadent age, the church functions as a light in a dark place. The countdown of history continues, and the patience of God remains an open door for salvation. May the people of God be found diligent, spotless, and blameless, living not for the things that are passing away, but for the King whose kingdom is eternal.