righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy
commandment delivered unto them._ These words of the Apostle point out
the fear and care which should possess the hearts of those whom God
blesses with large opportunities: fear lest they receive them amiss
and fail to value them; care lest they pervert them to a wrong use.
Our Lord's own words form the mightiest homily thereon when He spake
to those cities of Galilee upon whom a great light was shining as He
dwelt in their midst, but He could not do His mighty works there
because of their unbelief. "He came unto His own, and His own received
Him not." Hence the solemn denunciations of woe upon them: "It shall
be more tolerable in the judgement for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and
Gomorrah, than for them"; "The queen of the south shall rise up in
the judgement against them and condemn." And more sorrowfully still He
speaks to Jerusalem: "If thou hadst known in this thy day the things
that belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes."
Christ went away unto the Father, but He left the Apostles their
commission to teach the way of righteousness as He had taught it.
"Teach them," He says, "to observe all things whatsoever I have told
you; and lo, I am with you always." By the ministrations of St. Paul
and his fellow-labourers the feet of these Asian converts had been set
in the right way. They had made a profession of faith in Christ's
sacrifice, and thus had been reckoned among the righteous, among those
called to be saints. But the journey unto righteousness is made by
daily steps in keeping God's law; and if these be not taken, the road
may lie open, the traveller may see it, but he comes no nearer to the
goal. Nay, in this road there is no standing still. They who fail to
press forward inevitably slide back. It was here that these false
teachers had failed. The command of God checked their evil appetites
and greed; and so they set it at defiance and turned aside, and taught
their deluded followers that God's freedom in its highest sense meant
a licence to sin.
Here one of the Apostle's words is very significant. He says, not holy
commandments, but holy commandment, telling us thus that the Divine
law is all comprehended in the right ordering of the heart. In
principle all God's laws are one. If that inward source of all our
right and wrong be kept pure, from it are the issues of life; and
every action flowing from it will then have a righteous aim. Thus men
lead holy lives; thus they keep God's commandments in every relation.
They do not in this life become free from offence; they stumble,
because they are compassed by infirmity. But they act from a right
motive; and this, and not the sum-total of results, is what the loving
Father of men regards. Thus the Divine law is the law of true freedom,
supplying a principle, but leaving the particular actions to develop
according to the circumstances of each man's life. This is the freedom
of which the Psalmist sings: "I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy
precepts" (Psalm cxix. 45); and one of our own poets extols a life so
ordered by Divine law as the truest, grandest freedom:--
"Obedience is greater than freedom. What's free?
The vexed straw on the wind, the tossed foam on the sea;
The great ocean itself, as it rolls and it swells,
In the bonds of a boundless obedience dwells."
_It has happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog
turning to his own vomit again, and the sow that had washed to
wallowing in the mire._ To describe in all its horror the abysmal
depth to which these false teachers have sunk, the Apostle makes use
of two proverbs, one of which he adapts from the Old Testament (Prov.
xxvi. 11), while the other is one which would impress the Jewish mind
with a feeling of utter abomination. The dogs of the East are the
pariahs of the animal world, while everything pertaining to swine was
detestable in the eyes of the Israelite. But all the loathing which
attached to these outcasts of the brute creation did not suffice to
portray the defilement of these teachers of lies and their apostate
lives. It needed those other grosser features--the return to the
disgorged meal; the greed for filth, where a temporary cleansing
serves, as it were, to give a relish for fresh wallowing--these
traits were needed ere the full vileness of those sinners could be
expressed.
Solomon spake his proverb of the fool who goes back to his folly; but
of how much grosser lapse is he guilty who, having known the mercy of
Christ, having tasted the Father's grace, having been illumined by the
Holy Spirit, turns again to the world and its pollutions, goes back
into the far country, far away from God, and chooses again for his
food the husks that the swine did eat!
XXVI
_AS WERE THE DAYS OF NOAH_
"This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you;
and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in
remembrance; that ye should remember the words which were spoken
before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and
Saviour through your apostles; knowing this first, that in the
last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their
own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for,
from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation."--2 PETER iii. 1-4.
In the previous chapter the Apostle showed how the renegade false
teachers had published among the brethren their seductive doctrine,
declaring that God's fatherly discipline was something which they need
not undergo, that the trials which He sent them might be escaped, and
the natural bent of man's heart indulged as fully as they pleased. The
foul results of such lessons both to the flock and to the teachers he
also depicted in such wise as to render them abhorrent. Now he tells
of a further lesson which these guides on the downward road added to
the former. Those who do not accept God's judgements here soon go on
to deny the coming of judgement hereafter. It could hardly be
otherwise. The wish is father to the thought as truly in matters of
faith as of practice. Men whose lives are all centred on this world
must try and convince themselves, if possible, that the day of the
Lord, of which God's word speaks so often, is a delusion, and may be
cast out of their thoughts. This these men did, and it is against this
scoffing of theirs that St. Peter directs his exhortation in this
chapter.
_This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you._
Judging from the adverb which he uses (ἤδη, now, already),
we should conclude that no long time had elapsed between the Apostle's
first letter and the second. And by calling this the second, he shows
that it is intended for the same congregations as the former, though
he has not named them in the salutation with which the letter opens.
Aforetime they had been tried by inward questionings, and he sent them
his exhortation and testimony that, spite of all their trials, this
was the true grace of God which they had received, and therein they
should stand fast (1 Peter v. 12). Now the danger is from without:
false doctrine and evil living as its consequence. So, though he may
have written but a little while ago, he will neither spare himself,
nor neglect them. For the danger is of the utmost gravity. It
threatens the overthrow of all true Christian life.
_And in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in
remembrance._ Mark how trustfully he appeals to the sincerity of the
minds of the brethren, just as before (i. 12) he said they knew the
things of which he was putting them in remembrance, and were
established in the truth which they had received. And what he means by
the "mind" we may see from 1 Peter i. 13, where he uses the same word:
"Gird up the loins of your mind"--do not indulge vain, lax, and
speculative opinions, as though these would forward you in your travel
through the world--"be sober, and set your hope perfectly on the
grace that is to be brought unto you." A mind so braced looks onward
to the revelation of Jesus Christ, looks for every token of its
drawing nigh. And because it is sincere, the man dare look into its
inmost recesses, and by self-examination and discipline maintain its
purity. He can think soberly of the Lord's coming because he is
preparing for it. But he whose mind is dark, within whom the light has
been turned into darkness, dare not think on these things, but with
all his might endeavours to forget, ignore, and deny them. All that
St. Peter thinks needful for these Asian brethren is that he should
remind them. He knows that men's minds are prone to slumber,
especially about the things unseen as yet; and his aim is to rouse
them to thorough vigilance. But he has no new lesson to give them.
_That ye should remember the words which were spoken before by the
holy prophets._ On few themes do the prophets dwell more earnestly
than on those visitations of Jehovah which they publish as the coming
of the day of the Lord. With Joel (ii. 11, 32) it is to be a time
great and terrible, the prospect of which is to move men to
repentance, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be delivered. And Israel were taught in many ways that this great day
was constantly at hand. They were pointed to it by Isaiah (xiii. 6)
when the overthrow of Babylon was foretold. For that nation the day of
the Lord was coming as destruction from the Almighty. Jeremiah (xlvi.
10) and Ezekiel (xxx. 3) preach the same lesson, with the ruin of
Egypt for their text. It is a day of vengeance, when the Lord God of
hosts will avenge Him of His adversaries, a day of clouds, in which a
sword shall come upon Egypt, and her foundations shall be broken
down. By what they beheld around them God's people were to learn that
a like day would come upon them also, upon everything that was high
and lifted up against God; and for those who were unprepared another
prophet (Amos v. 18) declared that it would be darkness, and not
light. Before its coming, therefore, they were urged (Zeph. ii. 3) to
turn to the Lord, that they might be hid in the day of His anger. For
God designed by it to make Himself King of all the earth (Zech. xiv.
9), wherefore it would be great and terrible. For though Elijah should
first be sent (Mal. iv. 5) to turn the hearts of the fathers to their
children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, in its
manifestation that day should still be like a refiner's fire to purge
the evil from among the good.
Not without solemn purpose were all these words written aforetime, and
the Christian preachers who felt that God was faithful were sure that
such a day would come upon all the earth. How it would be manifested
was for God, and not for them. Some of those who lived when St. Peter
wrote beheld part of its accomplishment in the overthrow of the Holy
City. But they felt--and their lesson is one for all time--that it is
presumptuous in men to compute God's days, and that it is rebellious
blindness not to acknowledge the coming of His day continually in the
great crises of history. How many a time since St. Peter spoke has the
Lord proclaimed by partial judgements the certainty of that which
shall come at the last. The day of the Lord is attested when empires
fall, when hordes of barbarians break in upon the civilised world that
has grown careless of God, when convulsions rage like those which
preceded the Reformation and which shook Europe at the French
Revolution, and we may add to these the troubles which harass our own
land to-day. All these things preach the same doctrine; all proclaim
that verily there is a God that judgeth the earth. Not yet is the
voice of prophecy silent. Oh that men would but remember how long and
how surely it has been speaking!
_And the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles._
In connexion with the subject on which he is writing, the commandment
of Jesus to which St. Peter alludes can hardly be other than that
which occurs in the address of our Lord to His disciples after His
last visit to the Temple: "Watch therefore, for ye know not on what
day your Lord cometh; ... therefore be ready, for in an hour that ye
think not the Son of man cometh" (Matt. xxiv. 42). And with the last
judgement in his thoughts, we cannot fail to be struck with the
frequency with which the Apostle in this letter repeats as the title
of Christ "the Lord and Saviour" (i. 11; ii. 20; iii. 2, 18). This
precise form occurs in no other part of the New testament. And it
seems from the Apostle's use of it as though, while speaking of the
certainty of the coming of the day of the Lord, he desired to give
special prominence to the thought that to such as were looking for Him
He would manifest Himself as the Saviour and Redeemer.
The words "your apostles" also appear to be used with design. They
contain a direct acknowledgment of the mission of St. Paul as an
apostle. By him more than by any other had these regions been brought
to the knowledge of Christ, and we may rest confident that the gospel
which he preached elsewhere he preached to them also. The lesson of
watchfulness is oft repeated in his letters. To the Corinthians he
writes, "Watch ye; stand fast in the faith; quit you like men; be
strong" (1 Cor. xvi. 13), while, in connexion with this subject of the
day of the Lord, his words to the Thessalonians are, "Ye yourselves
know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the
night.... But ye are not in darkness, that that day should overtake
you as a thief. Let us watch and be sober" (1 Thess. v. 2-6). St.
Peter's letter was to be read in those Galatian Churches whose members
in past days had doubted about the apostolate of St. Paul. Its
warnings would sink the deeper because enforced by the authority of
him who even in his rebukes had spoken to them as his "little
children" (Gal. iv. 19).
_Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with
mockery._ St. Peter says the mockers will come; Polycarp[14] says in
his day they had come. He terms them the first-born of Satan, and
tells how they pervert the oracles of the Lord to their own lusts and
deny that there is either resurrection or judgement. The signs of the
times were not difficult to read; and the Apostle would have the
brethren know what to look for, know in such wise that they should not
be shaken in mind by what they saw or heard. For this the first need
was Christian sobriety. Thus settled, they could ponder on the words
of ancient prophecy and recall the lessons of those who had spoken to
them in the name of Christ; and therewith their hearts might take
comfort, and their heads be lifted up with expectation, knowing the
last days were bringing their redemption nearer. The mockery of the
sinners would keep no bounds. This he expresses by his emphatic
words, just as largeness of blessing is described: "In blessing I will
bless thee."
[14] _Ad Phil._ vii.
_Walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of
His coming?_ They would be a law unto themselves, and so they followed
an evil law. As sinners before them had said, "Our lips are our own"
(Psalm xii. 4), so these men by act and word alike proclaimed, "Our
lives are our own, to use as we please. We have no account to give."
Thus they made themselves bondslaves to the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and, with these fetters heavy
about them, boasted of their liberty. They strengthened themselves in
their evil way by jeering at the thought of Christ's return to
judgement. "We have heard of the promise," they said, "but we see no
signs of its fulfilment. The angels, you say, spake of His return when
He was taken away from you. Let Him make speed and hasten His coming,
that we may see it. You are for ever speaking of it as sure and
pointing us back to the ancient Scriptures, as though they were a
warrant for what you preach. 'Where is the word of the Lord? Let it
come now'" (Jer. xvii. 15).
_For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue
as they were from the beginning of the creation._ Here the mockers
pass from the promise of Christ's return, and fall back upon the more
distant records as supplying a stronger argument. "The fathers" of
whom they speak cannot be the Christian preachers. Not many of them
could as yet have fallen asleep in death. But the ancient prophets of
the Jewish Scriptures had long ago passed away, and against them the
scorners direct their shafts. "Centuries ago," they urge, "the
prophetic record was closed; and its final utterance was of the day
of the Lord, which has not yet come." Their word, "fell asleep" may
have also been used as part of their mockery, classing the words of
prophecy among baseless dreams. It may be they intended a special
allusion to that one among the prophets who dates the time of the
Lord's coming. Daniel (xii. 12) speaks of a waiting which shall last a
thousand three hundred and five-and-thirty days. But say these
scorners, "When his word was complete, he was bidden, 'Go thou thy way
till the end be. For thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot at
the end of the days.' He has fallen asleep, and the other fathers
also. They all are at rest, and the end of the days is no nearer. The
world stands fast, and will stand. It has seen no change since it was
brought into existence."
Those who in faith clung to Christ could not fail, as they heard these
scorners, to think of the Master's question, "When the Son of man
cometh, shall He find faith in the earth?" (Luke xviii. 8), and of
those other words of His which told them that the last days should be
a parallel to the days of the Deluge: "As were the days of Noah, so
shall be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days which were
before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they knew
not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall be the
coming of the Son of man" (Matt. xxiv. 37-39). The strong earth was
under the feet of those antediluvian mockers, the firmament above
their heads. So in ignorance they jeered at what they would call the
folly of Noah. But the Flood came, and then they knew. Yet the last
days have seen, and will see, men as blind and as full of satire and
scoffing as they.
XXVII
_JUDGEMENT TO COME_
"For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of
old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the
word of God; by which means the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens that now are,
and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire,
being reserved against the day of judgement and destruction of
ungodly men."--2 PETER iii. 5-7.
"The world lasts on" (Greek: [diam/enei]) "through all times," say the
scoffers, "just as it was at the Creation. There has been no change;
there will be none." But out of their own mouth their folly is
rebuked. How can these men speak of a creation? If there is to be no
Judge, why believe that there has been a Creator? That must be
included in the general denial. _For this they wilfully forget._ Yes,
here is the reason of their conduct, the root of all the evil. They
forget because they wish to forget; they speak of the fathers, but of
set purpose ignore the history of Noah; they are casting God out of
all their thoughts: and so even to the things that are made, and by
which He testifies to all men alike His eternal power and Godhead,
they close their eyes, and refuse to read His wide-open lesson-book.
And still less do they regard all that His written word records of the
world's past history and God's discipline for men therein.
_That there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of
water and amidst water, by the word of God._ They close their ears as
well as their eyes. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." As the study of nature progresses men are learning to
comprehend more of the vastness of that phrase "in the beginning," and
in the light of science to read a larger meaning into St. Peter's
words, "There were heavens from of old." But even in that generation
to which the Apostle soon alludes the unchanging character of the
skies spake of duration and permanence. The antediluvian world had run
a long course; from Adam to Noah men had beheld the sun rise and set
daily in the skies, just as it rose on the morning of the Deluge. And
the mockers then living could say, and doubtless did say, to the
preacher in their midst, "These things have always been as they are,
and will be so for evermore." The later scorners had their prototypes
of old, who pointed to the existence of an eternal law, and wilfully
forgot that law implies a lawgiver, and that He who made must have the
power to unmake.
St. Peter takes their text, but reads from it a very different lesson.
There were heavens from of old, yea, long before there was an earth
fit for man to dwell in. This world in that old time was formless and
void, and the waters covered its face like a garment. The word of the
Lord went forth, and the waters were gathered together as a heap, and
the depth was laid up in God's storehouses. Then the dry land
appeared; then there was an earth. The streams took their appointed
place down the mountain-sides and in the valleys, and rivers began to
roll onward to the sea; the waters of ocean learnt their bounds,
neither turned again to cover the earth. The Divine word clothed in
all the glory of vegetation the hitherto barren land, making it a fit
home for man, who was not yet; and the water ministered sustenance to
everything that grew out of the ground. Birds, beasts, and fishes were
made, and the waters were the birthplace of most of these. For God
said, "Let the water bring forth abundantly the moving creature that
hath life," not its own tenants only, but fowl that may fly above the
earth in the open firmament of heaven. So there was an earth, not the
bare ground only, but the whole wealth of vegetable and animal life;
and this was all existent, compacted, supported out of water and by
means of water (δι' ὕδατος). For without it nothing could
have flourished. God had laid up water above the firmament and water
below the earth, and by means of watery vapour refreshed and blessed
everything that grew. This was the reign of God's law, and ere the
Flood came men could point to it and say, "What mean you to talk of a
deluge? The sand is made the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree,
that it cannot pass it; the earth is set high above the waters, and
has been so from old time." But that long duration did not hinder the
same productive, nurturing water being turned, by the word of the
Lord, into an agency of destruction.
_By which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water,
perished._ Every word in the Apostle's sentence is meant to tell. God
employed as means of overthrow the very powers which at first He
ordained for blessing. His word makes things what they are. The reign
of law endures until He, who is before all law and the source of all
law, gives another direction to those forces which His law has always
been controlling. In this way the world that then was, the world
which had endured and been stedfast from the Creation to the Flood,
perished. The world was full of order, full of glory. The name
(κόσμος) expresses all this. Yet, for the sin of man, it
repented God that He had made this glorious order; and this it was
which perished. The earth was not destroyed; it only received again
that covering of primeval waters which, at God's word, had retired and
let the dry land appear. At the same word both earth and heaven
combined to destroy the goodliness with which creation was adorned.
For, on the day of the Deluge (Gen. vii. 11), all the fountains of the
great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and
the waters came again to cover the earth. They prevailed exceedingly,
and all flesh died that moved upon the earth; even the fowls and the
moving creatures, which had been brought forth from the teeming
waters, perished, and all things were destroyed from off the earth.
Thus does St. Peter lay bare the unwisdom of those who will not listen
to, who are wilfully forgetful of, the parables of God's word, who
close their eyes to His judgements, sent that by them men may learn
righteousness.