Steadfast Day 13: 2 Peter 3:1-2

Read 2 Peter 3:1-2.

Ponder

Not long ago, my best friend’s daughter turned 16. Her mom asked several of the women in her daughter’s life to write her cards, sharing favorite memories, verses of Scripture and prayers. She also asked us to share one thing we wish we’d understood when we were 16. 

So, at 46, I found myself writing some advice to my younger self: You think that your life is going by so slowly right now, but it all goes by so fast. Make sure you spend the time you have on the things that matter most. Honestly, it’s the advice I’d give to any younger woman that asked me, mostly because I’ve spent too much of my life on things that didn’t matter or didn’t have eternal value.

I think Peter was in a similar frame of mind when he reached this point in his letter to these early Christians. He had encouraged his readers to grow in knowledge and understanding of Jesus and warned them about the dangers of false teachers. Now, as he began to wrap up his second letter, he wanted to remind them to orient their lives around what’s most important—obedience to Jesus—because our time on this earth is finite. Jesus’ return is certain, and our lives should be lived in expectation of that certainty. 

Peter wrote, he said, “to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory” (2 Pet. 3:1, NLT). Verse 2 explained what he wanted to refresh their memory about: the vital truths they had been taught through the teaching of the prophets and Jesus himself. Rather than getting entangled and confused by the teachings of the false teachers, Peter implored his readers to spend their time studying the truth so that they could quickly identify and discount counterfeit teaching. 

Peter wanted his readers to stand firm in the face of false teachers and a culture that discounted the words of the prophets and called Jesus’ own teachings into question—and he knew that, in order to do so, they had to be rooted in the truth. 

So do we. 

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Journal

• Examine your life. What do your actions, behaviors and how you spend your time or money say is most important to you? 

• What are some ways you could study the truth so you recognize false teaching and false gospels when you see them? 

• What are some practices you could build in your daily life to become more rooted in the truth?