This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory. I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles. (2 Peter 3:1-2 NLT)
…stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory.
…remember what the holy prophets said…
…and what our Lord and Savior commanded…
Peter wrote this while assuring the people that the Lord’s return was coming and that judgement would happen. That people will laugh off the truth and come up with their own plan insisting that Jesus hasn’t come back yet, so he must not be coming back at all. And this was all only a few years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Now, two-thousand years later, many are living their lives as if there is not going to be a judgement day. Many Christians included.
Right now it would be wise for all of us to “stimulate our wholesome thinking” and to “remember” the words of the Bible. A day is like a thousand years to God and a thousand years like a day. (2 Peter 3:8) And the fact that God has spared us the day of judgement up to this point is a clear sign of his grace and mercy. He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed but wants everyone to repent. (v. 10)
How are we living our lives each day knowing that at any moment The Lord is going to return? Are we keeping the words of the Bible fresh in our memory by reading them every day. Are we living holy and godly lives while we look forward to this day with anxious anticipation? It will be an amazing day indeed for those of us that have chosen The Lord Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer. But it will be an awful day of reckoning for those that have chosen their own way. A day when they will clearly see what God has tried to show them throughout history. There is only one way to be saved – Jesus.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. (John 14:6 NLT)
And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight. (2 Peter 3:14 NLT)