2 Peter 3:14-18
Because believers are awaiting the coming day and the promised new creation, Peter calls them to diligent, peace-shaped holiness, to interpret the Lord's patience as salvation, to receive the apostolic writings rightly rather than twist them destructively, to guard themselves from being carried away by lawless error, and to keep growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, to whom belongs eternal glory.
14 Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.
15 Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,
16 as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
Because believers are awaiting the coming day and the promised new creation, Peter calls them to diligent, peace-shaped holiness, to interpret the Lord's patience as salvation, to receive the apostolic writings rightly rather than twist them destructively, to guard themselves from being carried away by lawless error, and to keep growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, to whom belongs eternal glory.
This final paragraph draws together the major burdens of the whole letter. Peter has warned against false teachers, defended apostolic and prophetic truth, answered the mockers, and held before the church the certainty of the day of the Lord and the hope of new heavens and a new earth. Now he closes with concentrated exhortation. The themes are familiar because they are deliberate: diligence, peace, blamelessness, patience, salvation, the danger of distortion, steadfastness, and growth in grace. The ending therefore functions as a pastoral summary of the entire epistle, moving the readers from doctrinal warning to disciplined perseverance and doxological focus on Christ.
The Day of the Lord, Patient Mercy, and Holy Readiness
Because the day of the Lord is certain and the Lord's patience is salvation, believers must reject scoffing unbelief, live holy and godly lives, and grow steadily in the grace and knowledge of Christ while awaiting the new creation.