2 Peter 3:7

2 Peter 3:7. but the heavens which now are and the earth by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved unto the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly men. The ‘which now are' is in direct antithesis to ‘the then world.' The form of the phrase also indicates that the world of which the writer has been speaking consists in his view of both heavens and earth. Instead of ‘by the same word' there is another reading, ‘by His word,' which is also weightily attested. But the sense is practically the same, namely, that the same creative Word of God which first made the old heavens and earth, and afterwards overwhelmed the order of things which it had constructed, is still the sovereign agency that maintains the present heavens and earth and prepares for them their future destiny. The ‘stored up' gives the same idea as in the ‘ treasurest up unto thyself wrath,' etc., in Romans 2:5. The ‘for fire' admits of being connected either with the ‘stored up' or with the ‘reserved,' but on the whole more naturally with the former as in the R. V., than with the latter as in the A. V. As to the ‘reserved' see on 1 Peter 1:4, and 2 Peter 2:4. The idea of ‘perdition,' as the A. V. puts it, or ‘destruction,' as the R. V. gives it, is expressed by the noun connected with the verb ‘perished' in the previous verse, and has the same sense. The subjects of this ‘judgment and perdition' are described definitely as ‘ the ungodly men' the article pointing either to the mockers who are in the writer's mind all through, or serving simply to mark off from men generally one particular class, namely, that of the ungodly or impious. As to the epithet see on 1 Peter 4:18; 2 Peter 2:5. This statement on the destiny of the present system of things is the fullest and most precise of its kind in the N. T. It has parallels so far in the N. T. doctrine, in such passages as Matthew 5:18; Matthew 5:24; Matthew 5:29; 1 Corinthians 3:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; Hebrews 12:27; Revelation 21:1. In speaking of fire as the agent in the second judicial destruction of the world, as water was in the first, it founds on the history of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as typical of the final judgment of the impious, and on the O. T. conception of God as accompanied by fire when He comes forth to judge (Psalms 1:3; Psalms 97:3; Isaiah 66:15-16; Isaiah 66:24; Daniel 7:9-10). Other O. T. passages (e.g. Psalms 102:26-27; Job 14:12; Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 66:22) speak more generally of the passing away of the present system. And as the O. T. for the most part connects that event with the judgments of Jehovah and the day of His ‘recompense,' Peter connects it with the day of Christ's Coming. ‘The present form of the world is protected by God's word of promise (Genesis 9:11) against any recurring flood. Yet if it, too, is to perish, there remains now only fire as the element to bring about this destruction; and as, on the ground of Old Testament representations, the wrathful judgment of God is regarded as a consuming fire, it is easy to think that the destruction of the world resulting from the day of judgment will be brought about by fire in a special sense, for which this present form of the world is, so to speak, reserved' (Weiss, Bib. Theol. ii. pp. 246, 247, Clark's Trans.).