Chuck Smith :: Study Guide for 2 Peter

2 PETER 1: KNOWING GOD

v. 1 "Servant" again is "bondslave." The bondslave was totally at his master's disposal, but the master had complete responsibility for the welfare of his slave. We're to obey all the commands of Jesus, and He promises to meet all our needs. Jesus had many disciples, but He chose only a small number to be His apostles. Peter was one of the men He chose.

v. 2 The better we know God, the more we realize the extent of His grace toward us. We have peace, because our standing with God isn't based on our righteousness but on His promises and faithfulness.

v. 3 The more we know God, the more we experience His divine power in our lives. This power enables us to live the life of godliness and to resist the weaknesses of our flesh. "Virtue" also means "purity." God doesn't want us to ever make a truce with our flesh in the areas that give us the most trouble. Instead, as we grow in our knowledge of Him, He cleans out those areas (John 15:2-3).

v. 4 When we're born again, we have a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17) Through the promises in the Word we're able to share in this divine nature (Romans 8:1). The world and its systems are corrupted by the lust and greed that motivates people (James 4:1-3).

v. 5-7 The Christian walk is a continual progression toward the divine nature. Rather than resting on a plateau, we should constantly be moving ahead. This way there's a great distance between where we were last year and where we are now in our spiritual maturity.

v. 8-9 If we stop developing spiritually, our lives become barren, and we become blind to our true condition.

v. 10 Jude 24.

v. 13 "Meet" means "necessary." We need to be stirred up from time to time, so that we don't become satisfied with our spiritual growth, but will continue to press ourselves to further progress (Psalm 17:15).

v. 14 "Tabernacle" also means "tent. Paul used the same word to refer to the body as the temporary home for the spirit (2 Corinthians 5:1).

v. 15 Peter hoped that his letter would continue to stir and motivate the believers after his death, when he wouldn't be able to encourage them in person.

v. 16 Our courts accept the witness of two or three people to establish a fact. There were hundreds who testified that they saw Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Many of them were martyred for their testimony.

v. 17-18 Matthew 17:5.

v. 19 Peter cites the prophecies in the Old Testament as an even greater witness of Jesus Christ than his own eyewitness testimony. The Old Testament contains over 300 prophecies of the details of the birth, life, and death of the Messiah. Jesus Christ fulfilled every prophecy. Prophecy is like a light shining in the darkness of history. The light focuses on Jesus Christ, the "day star" in our hearts.

v. 21 The prophecies in the Old Testament were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

2 PETER 2: DIVINE JUDGMENT

v. 1-3 The mark of the false teacher is his desire to make merchandise (profit) of the flock. The true teacher doesn't minister with an eye on any money he could make.

v. 6-9 Just as God delivered Lot and his family from the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, so God will deliver His Church from the Great Tribulation.

v. 10-22 The characteristics of those who are about to be judged are described in these verses.

v. 10 Those in the world speak evil of "dignities," using the name of God or Jesus Christ blasphemously.

v. 15 The way of Balaam was to profit from the gift God had given him.

v. 17 Hell isn't the eternal place of the damned; it's the place where the unsaved go until the day of judgment. After being judged, the damned souls will be cast in to the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20 13-15). This is a place of darkness (Matthew 8:12).

v. 18 "Vanity" means "emptiness".

v. 19 Whatever controls our lives has us in bondage. Sometimes we're in bond age to very small things.

2 PETER 3: THE RETURN OF CHRIST

v. 4 Peter prophesied that people would doubt Christ's imminent return and would claim that things were continuing as they had from the beginning. This sounds like the uniformitarianism taught by the evolutionists.

v. 5-6 Evolutionists are willfully ignorant of the evidences of nature that refute their beliefs. They don't accept the biblical account of the flood that covered the earth.

v. 7 Our Earth is reserved for destruction by fire.

v. 8 God isn't bound by time, for He dwells in the eternal now (Revelation 4:8).

v. 9 James 5:7.

v. 10 The destruction of the Earth as prophesied here sounds like nuclear fission. The Bible tells us that Christ holds everything together (Colossians 1:17). When He lets go, the world will blow apart.

v. 11 The spiritual world is the only one that will last.

v. 13 The end of the world doesn't dismay us, for we're looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth.

v. 15 God's long-suffering has been the salvation of many people.

v. 16 Peter read Paul's epistles and confessed that some things in them were difficult to understand. Some people had misinterpreted Paul's teaching and were twisting God's grace as a license to go out and sin, to their own destruction.