The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Peter — Section 76

in liearnn now; the commonweo.lth of which Epistle wits probitbly known to St. Peter; t.he sRiuts are citizens is in heaven (Phil. there may be a. reference to 1 These. v. 2 in iii. 20). But heaven will come down to ver. 10 of this chapter; o.nd Silvnnus, whose cnrth; the throne of God and of the Lamb name St. Paul associates with his own in shall be there; there his servants shall serrn both Epistles to the Tllessalonia.ne, was with him. The distinction between earth and St. Peter when he wrote his First Epistle heaven wi.11 be abolished; for where God (1 Pet. v. 12). But St. Peter'e Second is, there is heaven. Wherein dwelleth Epistle is nddressed (primarily o.t lea.at) to righteollSiless (comp. Isa.. Ix. 21, "Thy the same Chm-ohes to which the first was people shall be all righteous;" also Iso.. lxv. written (eh. iii. l). We must therefore either 25; Rev. xxi. 27; Rom. ,iii. 21). say, with Denn Alford, tllat "our Epistle be- Ver. H. -Wherefore, beloved, seeing that longs to a date when the Pauline Epistles ye look for suoh things; rather, these things, were no longer the property only of the the coming of the Lord, the restitution of all Churches to wllich they wern written, but things, the new heavens and the new earth. were dispersed through, o.nd considered to Be diligent that ye may be found of him in belong to, the whole Christian Church;" or peace, without spot, and blameless; literally, we must suppose that the passages in St. gi-oe diligence (or, be earnll8t-the same word Pater's thoughts were not in the .Epistle to which is used in eh. i. 10) to be found the Thessalonians, but in some of the Epistles without spot and blameless in his sight in addressed to the Chw·ches of .Asia Minor; as, peace. Christians who look for the coming for instance, Eph. i. 4; ii. 8; iii. 9-11; Col. of Christ must earnestly strive to imitate i. 22 ; iii. 4, 24 ; or, possibly Rom. ii. 4 and their Lord, the "Lamb without blemish and ix. 22, o.s tllere seem to be some reasons for without spot." In the word ltt1'7rL71.o,, "with- believing that this last Epistle we.a addressed out spot," we have a link with 1 Pet. i. 19. to the Churcll at Ephesus among others. '.!'he word for "blameless" (a.µwµ71-ro,) is Ver. 16.-Ae also in all his Epistles, The found elsewhere only in Phil ii. 15. The true 1·eading is probably 111 ..-dua.,s l..-iu- dative a.vTCp _should be rendered, not "of -ro;\a.,s without the article. 'l'he words, him" or " by him," but "in his sight" or therefore, do not imply the existence of a " before him." Peace is used in its fullest complete collection of St. Po.ul's Epistles, sense-peace with God and with man ; the but mean only "in all Epistles whi<:h he peace which Christ giveth; "the peace of writes." Speaking in them of these things; God, which passeth all understanding." "In that is, of the day of God, the end of the peace" was a common inscription on Cllris- world, etc. St. Peter was acq nainted witll tian graves. other Epistles of St. Paul besides those ad- , er. 15.-And aocount that the long- dressed to tile .Asiatic Churches. There are su1fering of our Lord is salvation, The evident indications of his knowledge of the apostle is referring to -rer. 9. Scoffers count Epistles to the Thessalonie.ns and Corin- the delay of the judgment blackness; the thians, as well as of that to the Romane. Christian should count it se.l vation ; it is In which are some things hard to be under- for the so.l ve.tion of the elect that the jndg- stood, The manuscripts vary between ;., oTs ment te.rrieth. It is almost certain that by and '" a.Ts. The first reading would refer " our Lord'' here St. Peter means the Lord to the 'll"Ords immediately preceding-" these Jesus, whom he describes by the same title things;" "among the subjects ou which St. in ver. 18. Even as our beloved brother Paul Paul wrote there are some things," eto. The also. The plnral pronoun may be intended second would refer to "all his Epistles," and to imply that St. Paul was known to the would mean tllat there are certain difficul- Churches to which St. Peter was writiug, ties in St. Paul's Epistles genemlly. St. and was beloved there. St. Peter addresses Peter does not tell us what difficulties were his readers as " beloved" four times in this iu his thungl1ts-whether St. Paul's teach. Epistle; he here uses the same epithet of ing about " the man of sin," and "the day St. Paul. It comes naturally from Ids lips; of the Lord," or his doctrine of justification but a writer of the second century would by faith, and his assertion of Christian probably Lave used much i;tronger words of liberty, which might be perverted into anti- prai~e in speaking of one so much rever- nomiauism by such men as the false teachers en<:ed. According to the wisdom given unto censured in eh. ii. The word llvuvo71-ros, him hath written onto you; rather, wrote to "hard to be umlerstood," occurs nowhere you (comp. 'Polycarp, 'Ad Philipp.,' i. 3, else in the New Testo.ment. Which they "One like me cannot equal the wisdom of that are unlearned and unstable wrest ; the bkssed Paul"). That wisdom was given rather, the ignorant and unsteadfast. Both uuto him, as be hi.msdf says (I Cor. iii. 10). words are peculiar to this Epistle; the 111st If we ask to what Epistles of St. Paul is St. occurs also in oh, ii. 14, the first here only Peter referring, the passage which at once in the New Testament. 'l'he verb also trans- occurs to UB is 1 Tlless. iv. and v. Thie lated_" wnst" (u-rpif3;\ovuw) is found only OH. m. 1-18.J 'l'HE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 71