Peter has spent two chapters defending the certainty of Christ's return, and now he asks what difference it makes. 11"What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness." The question is a cry of astonishment. He asks for a whole quality of life, and the Greek nouns for holiness and godliness are plural, which suggests many concrete deeds. The Tyndale commentary states the rule that runs through the whole New Testament: the moral imperative follows the eschatological indicative. The false teachers used their denial of judgment as a license. Peter uses the certainty of judgment as a reason for holiness.
12"Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God." The word hastening, *speudo*, is the boldest word in the passage. It means to hurry, to press forward eagerly. Peter suggests that the way his readers live has something to do with when the day arrives. Schreiner connects the idea to a Jewish teaching that Israel's repentance could hasten the Messiah's coming, and Tyndale calls it a time of active partnership with God. God does not lose control of his calendar, yet our prayers and our holy living are woven into what he is doing. It is the hope in the prayer Jesus taught, "Your kingdom come." We are not waiting with folded hands.
Peter borrows the prophets' fire, which melts what is false, and then comes the turn. 13"According to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." The promise is older than Peter and comes from Isaiah 65:17. The hope is for a world where righteousness lives. The verb for dwells carries the sense of a permanent home. Schreiner cautions against pressing the details, and the Tyndale commentary reminds us that nobody got the details of the first coming right either. The confidence lies in the promise. Sin's damage will be undone, and righteousness will be at home.
14"Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace." The word diligent is the same word from chapter 1. 15"Count the patience of our Lord as salvation." The patience of 3:9 returns, and Peter asks the church to count every day of delay as offered mercy.
Then a surprising aside. Peter calls Paul 15"our beloved brother" and admits that 16"there are some things in them that are hard to understand." He places Paul's letters alongside the other Scriptures, which shows that the church had already begun to treat them that way. It is humbling to learn that Peter found Paul difficult. The danger is in twisting what is difficult, and the remedy is to keep reading with humility.
The last command is growth, and it completes a circle the letter opened. 18"Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." The letter began with grace and peace in the knowledge of God, and it ends with grace and knowledge still growing. Peter spends his last sentence on praise, and the phrase 18"the day of eternity" appears nowhere else in the New Testament.
Ask where this week you could be hastening the day by prayer or by holy living.
Prayer
Father, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Make us holy and godly while we wait, diligent to be found by you without spot or blemish and at peace. Teach us to count your patience as salvation, and help us grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory. Amen.