This letter is a brilliant flowing piece of invective against false teachers, calling them all the names under the sun and reserving for them the pits of God’s judgement. It was written before the days of libel laws! While it is wonderfully entertaining, it also packs a heavy punch. It starts and finishes with a warning. In this letter, Peter writes of holding fast to the non-negotiable facts of the faith, of the growing and maturing in the faith, and of rejecting all who would distort the truth.
Addressed to those who ‘have received a faith as precious as ours’, 2 Peter could have been written to us.
To warn Christians about false teachers and to exhort them to grow in their faith and knowledge of God.
Peter
To the church at large, and all the believers everywhere.
The date is believed to have been around AD 67, three years after 1 Peter was written, possibly from Rome.
eter knew that his time on earth was limited (1:13, 14), so he wrote about what was on his heart, warning believers of what would happen when he was gone - especially about the presence of false teachers. He reminded his readers of the unchanging truth of the gospel.
Jesus in Peter: Jesus gives new birth and new hope. He was truly incarnate and truly risen, and was foretold by the prophets.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (1:3)
“If you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (1:10, 11)
Is it easy to recognise false teachings?