God is perfectly worthy of trust.
The Book of 2 Peter focuses on the hope that comes from relying on God for our every need. His divine power, Peter writes, provides “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). We can trust the Scriptures to guide us in the way of truth (1:16–21) and help us avoid error (2:1—3:7). We can also count on Jesus to return just as He said He would (3:8–18).
Even when the world feeds lies to the spiritually hungry, we can take comfort in God’s provision. Peter warns his readers of false teachers inside the church, who “will exploit you with deceptive words” (2:3). Though “many will follow their destructive ways” (2:2) because they dress their false prophecies in the guise of truth, the Lord does not idly tolerate blasphemers; they can expect His righteous judgment.
The apostle also warns of those who scoff at the Second Coming. Like many Christians today, Peter’s readers were impatient for Jesus to fulfill His promise to return. They had expected Him to have already arrived, and they now wondered if He would come back at all. Peter tells these skeptics that any delay is God’s way of giving all people an opportunity to turn back to Him: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise … but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (3:9).
Like 1 Peter, this second letter is claimed to have been written by Peter the apostle (1:1; 3:1, 2), but his authorship has been questioned. There are ways in which the style and language of 2 Peter do not coincide with those of 1 Peter. Furthermore, Peter’s inclusion of Paul’s writings among “the Scriptures” (3:16) suggests to some that the letter could not have been produced during Peter’s lifetime. However, none of these objections is insurmountable, and no other author has been identified.
Since the letter makes no mention of its recipients, 2 Peter was probably intended for a general readership. Assuming the apostle Peter’s involvement, the epistle must have been written prior to his death around A.D. 65.
Key Verses in 2 Peter
• “No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:20, 21).
• “If God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment … then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Pet. 2:4, 9).
• “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8).
• “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
• “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Pet. 3:10).