2 Peter 3:1-10

It has been supposed by some that the opening words of this third chapter indicate the beginning of a new Epistle. What we have, however, is only the beginning of a new division of the same Epistle. The great subject now is that ‘power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,' of which the writer has spoken in chap. 2 Peter 1:16. He has already expressed his concern to see his readers firmly established in this great expectation. He has given them to understand that the last labours of his life were to be directed to this end. He now makes plain the reason which he had for his great anxiety on the subject. He knew that this truth of the Lord's Second Advent was to be assailed by the keen shafts of mockery and scorn. Wishful to see his readers armed against the scoffer, in this first half of the chapter he predicts the rise of this subtle temptation, describes the form which it will assume, and refutes the reasoning which it employs.