Continuing our look at the writings of the Apostle Peter, we’re starting our study of 2 Peter tonight. As we did with 1 Peter, we’ll begin by reading through the entire letter tonight and discussing it as a whole, seeking to see the main things God inspired Peter to communicate to us in this short book.
I want to remind you of the suggestions for self-study I made when we started 1 Peter. I have a printout of 2 Peter in front of me, and it’s already all marked up, and I just thought: everyone should get to do this. You might want to dig in to 2 Peter on your own while we study it together, and the suggestions in that post will help you do it.
Also, to whet your appetite, here’s some thoughts on 2 Peter as a whole from Peter Davids’ commentary on Jude and 2 Peter. I liked the excitement he’s bringing to reading and thinking over the text:
…a third reason for writing on these letters would be that they are so fascinating and make a significant contribution to the NT.
In them we see communities of the Jesus movement coming to terms with Greco-Roman culture. The author of 2 Peter, does this in some daring ways as he appropriates the language and thought forms of that culture. This appropriation of culture can be instructive for us as we come to terms with our postmodern culture. In these works we see communities using the Jewish traditions we know from the OT. But they do not simply quote their Greek OT (the LXX). Instead they cite the traditions as they were being retold in their first-century world. This methodology needs to be taken into account as we explore how to apply the OT to a community that lives after Jesus. In these works we see communities coming to terms with teachers who were rejecting the ethical teachings of Jesus but who still claimed to be followers of Jesus. In Jude we do not learn how these teachers justified their position. Jude is not about to set out their arguments as the teachers would have done. But judging from his vehemence, they must have been at least somewhat effective in their presentation.
In 2 Peter we discover that one of the justifications used by the teachers he confronts (not necessarily the same group that we meet in Jude) was that there would be no final judgment. Did they think that this had already happened in Jesus? Did they justify this as the only position worthy of a perfect God (who should therefore not have to meddle with his creation)? We do not learn the answer to those questions, but we do learn how 2 Peter confronts them. Perhaps these writers are particularly important today when there is a tendency in the Western church to ignore the teaching of Jesus as a practical way of life — and sometimes to emphasize grace so much that it seems as if the final judgment does not matter.