2 Peter 3:3-6 – Features of the last days

In referring to “the last days”, Peter was talking about the period between the First and Second Coming of Christ. Here he tells us what would take place during this period. Peter maintained that there would be the presence of false teachers going about busily propagating their harmful teachings and activities. They were referred to as mockers and their teachings as mocking. In other words they were scorners, who scoffed at the truth by showing disdain for them. Besides, their teaching also followed the dictates of their lust, meaning their lifestyle were indulgent and sinful.

The rhetorical question, “Where is the promise of His coming?” was a sarcasm that scoffed at the teaching concerning Christ’s Second Coming. In that, they were insinuating that Christ would never come again, causing them to live licentiously. To support their falsehood, the false teachers claimed that since the passing of the patriarchs, everything had been much the same. They insisted that since the dawn of creation nothing had really changed.

To dispel this false notion, Peter used the history of creation and the great flood in Noah’s day to refute their errors. He pointed out that they had deliberately chosen to disregard truth. Not as they had suggested, Peter insisted, things did not remain unchanged. For God, Who created the world out of the waters and sustained it with the same water, afterward used the great deluge to judge and destroy it. For when sin became prevalent, God dealt with it by sending a flood.

The point of Peter is this: the false teachers had deliberately ignored the explicit teachings of the Old Testament. God created a moral universe and would not let sin go unpunished. Because of sin, He had destroyed it with a flood in the past. For the same reason, God will again judge it in the future at Christ’s Second Coming. With that Peter warned them of the future judgment. 

We need to live discerningly and not gullibly. Events that we see happening seem to affirm that the Christ’s Second Coming is looming. Let’s brace up and be ready! Let’s look up as we anticipate that His return won’t be long!