persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness?_ The Apostle
says more than "are to be dissolved." His word signifies "are being
dissolved." The event is so sure, and the interests involved so
weighty, that he speaks of it as present, that thus he may more
forcibly urge his lesson of preparation. "What manner of persons ought
ye to be?" Christ had supplied the answer, and so St. Peter gives
none: "Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning, and ye
yourselves like unto men looking for their lord" (Luke xii. 25). The
figures imply readiness for any service, most of all, to an Eastern
mind, readiness to set forth on a journey. Such should ever be the
attitude of those who are but sojourners and pilgrims. And by his
words the Apostle intimates how this preparedness should enter into
every relation of the Christian life. The translation says, "in _all_
holy living and godliness"; but in the Greek there is no word for
_all_. Literally the words are "in holy conversations and
godlinesses." In English we could not use words thus. Hence the device
of the translators to come as near to the sense as is possible. But if
we carry with us the thought contained in these plural words, we see
how St. Peter teaches by them that in our daily life and work as well
as in our religious exercises we should be ever watchful, ever ready.
Our life with men and with God should be stamped as "Holiness unto the
Lord." By such a walk we shall keep ourselves apart from sinners, and
be helped thus far to keep away from sin. And the godliness of which
he speaks springs, as he has already taught (i. 6) in this Epistle,
from a patient waiting on the Lord. Thus the whole attitude of the
Christian becomes one of wakeful readiness. He is of those of whom it
is said, "Blessed are those servants whom their lord when he cometh
shall find watching."
_Looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by
reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat._ The question of the mockers,
"Where is the promise of His coming?" will not disturb those whose
lives are thus made ready. That coming fills their every thought,
moulds every desire, controls and chastens every action. For not only
do they look for it: they long for it, and earnestly desire it. For to
be with Christ is far better. Hence they hear of the melting elements
and the fires of heaven without alarm. With them it is as with the
Hebrew children in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. The fires which others
dread, and by reason of which the heavens dissolve and the elements
melt, will have no power over them save to loose their bonds, to free
them from the burden of the flesh, to further that change from the
natural to the spiritual which St. Paul teaches we must all undergo;
while with them there will be the Son of God. And thus they will
attain to their desire, and become partakers of the Divine nature.
But the translation "earnestly desiring" by no means exhausts the
significance and solemnity of St. Peter's word. The Authorised Version
rendered it "hasting unto the coming of the day of God"; but the word
"unto" is not in the Greek, though the verb means "hastening." The
word is found in the LXX. of Isa. xvi. 5, where the Authorised Version
translates the Hebrew by "hasting righteousness" and the Revised by
"swift to do righteousness." But though a king, as in that passage,
may be said to hasten righteousness by being swift to do it, is there
any sense in which men could be said to hasten the coming of the day
of God? It seems as though Christ intended to set such an aim before
His servants. Before He was crucified He spake that prophetic promise,
"I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." When He had been
lifted up on the cross and as a testimony to His Godhead, lifted up
from the grave, He gave His commission to the Apostles: "Go ye
therefore and make disciples of all the nations.... Lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world." He promised His Spirit also to
be their Guide into all truth.
Thus were they sent to be heralds of and labourers for his kingdom;
and one of them has testified to the abundance of the aid bestowed: "I
can do all things through Christ that giveth me power." But he who
thus spake could say to his converts, "Be ye imitators of me, even as
I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. xi. 1). In this way men can lift up
Christ; in this way can they draw men to Him. And to do this by
examples of holy living and godliness is the work which He has
committed to His Church, to let the light of Christian lives shine
before men in such wise that they may be won for Him. And when we see
His kingdom's slow advance, St. Peter's question is turned into a
reproach, "What manner of men ought ye to be?"
_But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness._ All creation was marred at the
Fall. It groaneth and travaileth until now in pain along with the sons
of men. It was made subject unto vanity, but that was by reason of
God, who made it thus subject in hope that it shall be delivered,
along with man, from the bondage of corruption. And that victory was
promised from the first. The seed of the woman shall not always be the
spoil of the serpent. The world was in many ways kept alive to this
thought. A race was promised from whom all nations should be blessed.
God established a kingdom to represent His rule in the world, and at
length Isaiah was inspired to tell of new heavens and a new earth
(Isa. lxv. 17). He too foresaw that this was for a reign of
righteousness, that it pointed to a time when the wickedness of the
wicked had come to an end: "The sun shall be no more thy light by day,
neither the moon by night; for the Lord shall be thy everlasting
light, and as for thy people, they shall all be righteous." And Christ
while on earth endorsed the prophetic word: "I go to prepare a place
for you. I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I
am, there shall My servant be."
Hence St. Peter says, "According to His promise we look forward." And
by using the same he identifies the new heavens and the new earth with
the coming of the day of God. The believer heeds no more the mockers
who ask, "Where is the promise of His coming?" He can look and lift up
his head, assured that his redemption draweth nigh. For his
expectation has been fostered through a life of holy conversation and
godliness, and the assurance of the day of God is firm, for the
kingdom of God is set up within him.
And the consolation of the promise consists largely in the thought
that in the new creation righteousness will dwell, will make its home.
First, there will be Christ the righteous, who is also our
righteousness; and all the hindrances and stumbling-blocks of this
life will be removed. Here the sojourners and pilgrims abide for the
time amid many foes and countless perils; then they will be delivered
even from their own frailties. As their home is new-created, so they
shall become new creatures. So their thought, their prayer, their
struggle, is ever, _Sursum corda_; and day by day they are bound less
to earth and realise more of heaven.
"The distant landscape draws not nigh
For all our gazing, but the soul
That upward looks may still descry
Nearer each day the brightening goal."
XXX
"_BE YE STEDFAST, UNMOVABLE._"
"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give
diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and
blameless in His sight. And account that the long-suffering of
our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also,
according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you; as also in
all _his_ epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are
some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and
unstedfast wrest, as _they do_ also the other Scriptures, unto
their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, knowing _these
things_ beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the
error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness. But grow
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To Him _be_ the glory both now and for ever. Amen."--2 PETER iii.
14-18.
In these solemn closing words the Apostle sums up his exhortations and
warnings. His admonition is of a twofold character. First, he urges
the brethren to strive after stedfastness, but to beware of sinking
into a careless security which may make them an easy prey to false
guides. "Stand fast," he would say, "and be ever watchful against
falling." Then, let your Christian life be one of steady, constant,
temperate progress; let it imitate God's works in nature, which wax,
man sees not how or when, by drawing constantly from the hidden
sources which minister life and increase. Let believers seek thus that
in their lives there may grow from God's seed of faith first the
blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear, to yield some
thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold, to the praise and glory of
the Lord of the harvest.
_Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give
diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in
His sight._ The whole passage runs over with Christian affection; a
very working out it is in a believer's life of Christ's teaching, "By
this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye love one
another." Love to the brethren, love to his fellow-apostle, breathes
in every line of these final sentences. Beloved are the Churches,
beloved his fellow-labourer. And he is never weary of repeating that
word "looking for," which marks the true attitude of the Christian
pilgrim: Seeing that ye look for the coming of the day of God. Before
he had said, _We_ look for it; now he brings the lesson nearer home to
every one of them: _Ye_ are looking for these things. Be ye therefore
ready. Give diligence that ye may be found in peace by Christ when He
appears.
Peace is the bond which clasps together the brotherhood of Christ. But
things which need a bond are prone to break asunder, and St. Paul
marks the care which is needed in this matter by using the same word
(σπουδάζοντες) which St. Peter employs here. And his list of
the virtues which make for peace shows how much anxiety is needed:
"With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering forbearing one
another in love, _giving diligence_ to keep the unity of the Spirit in
the bond of peace" (Eph. iv. 2). Such are the graces to be fostered by
those who look for the Lord's coming. The Hebrew knew no nobler word
to use for blessing than "Peace be with you." Christ at His parting
says to His disciples, "My peace I leave with you; My peace I give
unto you." It embraces reconciliation with God and union with the
brethren; it is a treasure worthy of all striving for, and when
attained it passeth all understanding.
They who are looking for Christ will strive to become like Him. Christ
came down from heaven and assumed humanity that His brethren might
take courage for this lofty aim. The Apostle (1 Peter i. 19) has
spoken of Him as a lamb without spot and blemish, and this ideal
purity he now sets before the brethren. For he knows that to strive
after it will sunder them from the corruptions of those false teachers
whom he has called "spots and blemishes" (ii. 13) in the Christian
society. Instead of denying the Master that bought them, they will be
hearkening constantly for His voice. Thus will they become clean
through the word which He speaks unto them (John xv. 3). For His voice
is ever helpful; and abiding in Him, they will bring forth much fruit.
_And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation._ The
mockers had made the delay of God's day the subject of their scoffing.
"It tarries," said they, "because it is never coming." Their speech
was, in fact, a challenge: "If it is to come, let it come now." The
Christian is of another mind. His heart is full of thankfulness for
the mercy which allows time for that diligence which his preparation
demands. St. Paul expresses this feeling concerning God's dealings
with himself: "For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief
might Jesus Christ show forth all His long-suffering, for an example
of them which should hereafter believe on Him unto eternal life" (1
Tim. i. 16). And the opportunity thus granted him that Apostle used to
the full; yet ever mindful was he not only from whom was the mercy,
but also from whom came the power which was with him in his diligence:
"I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace
of God which was with me." And in another place (Phil. i. 22), though
he longs to be released from life and to be with Christ, he recognises
that there may be a Divine purpose in delaying _that_ day of God also,
that to live in the flesh may be the fruit of his labour; and if this
be so, he is content.
For the believer thinks not only of his own salvation and his own
opportunities. The Christian's faith is not selfish. He beholds how
large a part of the world is not yet subject unto Christ, and owns in
the delay of the day of the Lord a wealth of abundant grace, offering
salvation still to all who will accept it.
_Even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given
to him, wrote unto you._ Some, who have restricted the allusion of St.
Peter here to the "long-suffering" of God, have thought that the
Epistle to the Romans is intended. That letter is the only one in
which St. Paul speaks generally on this subject. In ii. 4 he asks,
"Despisest thou the riches of God's goodness, and forbearance, and
long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance?" and, again, asks another question: "What if God, willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much
long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction, and that He
might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy?" (ix.
22). Others, considering the great subject of the day of God to be
specially present to St. Peter's mind, have found parallels in the two
epistles to the Thessalonians. It has also been pointed out that
Silvanus was with St. Paul when these letters were written, and that
through him (1 Peter v. 12) their import might have been brought to
the knowledge of the Asiatic congregations. But we know too little of
the intercommunication of the Churches of Europe and Asia to arrive at
a conclusion, while the definite statement "wrote unto you" seems
certainly to refer to some letter addressed to the Churches of Asia.
Among these, beside the Galatians, were the Ephesians and the
Colossians. Reference has already been made to the way in which St.
Paul speaks in his first epistle to Timothy of the long-suffering of
God towards himself. Would the letter to the bishop of Ephesus be held
too personal for its contents in some form to be imparted to the whole
Church? Then in the Ephesian epistle such a passage as ii. 4-7 may
well have been in St. Peter's thoughts: "God, being rich in mercy, ...
quickened us together with Christ, ... that in the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us in
Jesus Christ," or Col. i. 19, 20: "It was the good pleasure of the
Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell, and through Him to
reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace through the blood
of His cross." But there is no reason from St. Peter's words to assume
that he is referring to an extant epistle. He may have known of a
letter to the brethren in Asia of which we have no trace. Of one thing
we may be sure: that his words had a definite sense for those to whom
they were written.
But his reference to St. Paul has much interest for other reasons.
Among these brethren there would be current many memories of the great
Apostle to whose labour the formation of these Churches was chiefly
due. His name would for them add weight to St. Peter's admonitions.
The mention of the wisdom Divinely given to him would remind the
Galatians at least how foolish had been their doubts and waverings in
bygone days. While, as they knew how one apostle had withstood the
other when he saw that he was to be blamed, such words as these from
St. Peter would come with double force. Most of all, while the
teachers of error were perverting St. Paul's language for an occasion
to the flesh, it was good that the Churches should be reminded that he
ever taught men to strive after lives without spot and blemish and had
given no licence to the excesses for which his words were offered as a
warrant.
_As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things._ From
this it appears that it is the whole drift of St. Peter's letter, its
warnings as well as its counsels, which is in harmony with the words
of St. Paul. But we need not assume that St. Peter's readers were
acquainted with all the fellow-Apostle's writings. He is telling them
what his own experience has proved.
_Wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and
unstedfast wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own
destruction._ This passage is noteworthy as the only place in the New
Testament in which the writings of the Apostles are regarded as
ranking with the Scriptures of the old covenant. Everywhere else
"Scripture" means the Old Testament. Yet, as the Apostles were passing
away, it must have begun to be felt that a time was coming when great
authority would attach to their words, as of persons who had seen the
Lord. St. Peter has just spoken of the wisdom which was given to St.
Paul. That wisdom came from the same source as the illumination of the
prophets; and it is not unnatural, after such an allusion, that his
writings should be classed with those of old time. Both were
subjected to the same treatment. So perversely had the Old Testament
been read that when He came of whom it spake--came to those who held
the volume in their hands, and who regarded it with much show of
reverence--He was not recognised. His people had blinded their eyes.
Just so was it faring with that "freedom" of which St. Paul had said
so much to the Galatian Church. Wrested from its true meaning, it was
put forward as if it gave warranty and encouragement for the life of
the libertine.
That many things in the writings of St. Paul are difficult to
comprehend is beyond question. He more than any of the New Testament
writers works out the principles of Christ's teaching in their
consequences. He deals most fully with the great questions which
circle round the doctrine of redemption; with election and
justification; with the casting off of God's ancient people and the
certainty of their restoration; with the objects of faith, the things
hoped for, but as yet unseen; with the resurrection of the body and
the changes which shall pass upon it; and with the nature of the life
to come. He of all men realised to the full the length, and breadth,
and depth, and height of the love of God, and spake in his letters of
much which passeth knowledge.
But in St. Peter's word (δυσνόητα) "hard to be understood"
there appears to be the thought that men's difficulties arise in part
because they look on these subjects as studies for the intellect
(νοῦς) alone, and fail for this reason to attain to the best
knowledge which is given to man. It is of God's order that for the
lessons which come from Him He also imparts the power of true
discernment. Those who approach the study of Christian truth as a cold
intellectual exercise, in the comprehension of which heart and soul
bear no part, will go away empty, and as dark almost as they come.
The "wresting" of which St. Peter here speaks may come either of the
misuse of single terms, just as the apostles of licence put a wrong
sense, for their own ends, on St. Paul's "liberty," or it may be the
effect of severing a lesson from its occasion and its context. Such
perversion also happened to St. Paul's doctrine. To those who, like
the Galatians, had been drawn back to an undue estimate of the legal
ordinances of Judaism, the Apostle, as a corrective, had exalted faith
far above outward observances; and there soon arose those who under
his language sheltered themselves in a dissolute Antinomianism. The
same befell in later days when Agricola and the Solifidians perverted
Luther's teaching of justification by faith. And when such misleading
guides find hearers who are "ignorant and unstedfast," the false
lessons, which always have the frailties of humanity to back them,
gain many adherents. To the thoughtless such teaching is seductive,
and is unsuspected because it puts on a semblance of affinity with
truth. Hence grow those ruptures of the Christian body, those heresies
which lead to destruction (ii. 1).
_Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest,
being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own
stedfastness._ In the first chapter the Apostle has already (ver. 12)
addressed the converts as those who knew the things of which he wrote
and needed only to be put in mind, who were established in the truth,
and not to be classed with the ignorant and unstedfast. Yet for all
there is need of watchfulness. The lies which are abroad clothe
themselves in the garb of truth, wresting the Scriptures.
"Therefore," says he, "guard yourselves" (φυλάσσεσθε). The
word is not only a notice against dangers from without, but an
admonition to watchfulness within. The wandering of the lawless may
beguile; to many it has attractions. But if they join that company and
follow with them, the end will be a shipwreck of the whole Christian
life. The verb (ἐκπίπτειν) is that which we find (Acts
xxvii. 26, 29) in the description of the wreck at Melita, when the
sailors feared lest they should be cast ashore on rocky ground. It is
against a moral peril of even more terrible character that St. Peter
warns the Churches; and the contrast is most instructive which is
pictured in the two words by which he defines error and stedfastness.
The former (πλάνη) betokens a ceaseless wandering, a life
without a plan, a voyage without rudder or compass, every stage made
in doubt, uncertainty, and peril; the other word στηρυγμὸς) tells of
firmness, fixity, and strength, and comes fitly into the exhortation
of that Apostle whose charge was, "When thou art converted,
strengthen" (στήριξον) "thy brethren" (Luke xxii. 32). "This
stedfastness," he says, "is now your own" (ἰδίου); "barter it not away
for any illusions of wayward error."
_But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ._ As if to attest his own stedfastness; he ends as he had
begun. "Grace unto you and peace be multiplied," was the opening
greeting of his first letter, to which in his second he adds, "through
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." But there is great
significance in the way in which St. Peter's words hang together in
this verse. The structure of the sentence shows that he intends to say
not only that grace is the gift of Jesus Christ, but that from Him
comes also all knowledge that is worthy of the name, a lesson most
fitting and most necessary in those days, when teachers, who claimed
to be possessors of a special higher knowledge, were denying Jesus
altogether both as Master and as Judge. "Root yourselves in Christ,"
is the apostolic charge; "seek His help; walk by His light. Thus only
can your power increase; thus only can your way be safe."
_To Him be the glory both now and for ever. Amen._ This is the end of
the Apostles labour: that Christ may be glorified in His servants;
that they may know Him here as the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
hereafter as the High-priest of His people, but deigning to become the
First-born among many brethren. For those who find Him here and there
also eternity will be too short to show forth all His praise.
_Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._
_SEVENTH SERIES--1893-4._
=THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.=
Edited by the Rev. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.,
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_PRINCIPAL MOULE, M.A._
=The Epistle to the Romans=
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_ARCHDEACON FARRAR, D.D._
=The Second Book of Kings=
By the Venerable F. W. FARRAR, D.D., Archdeacon of
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=The First Book of Chronicles=
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=The Second Epistle to the Corinthians=
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=THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.=
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FIRST SERIES, 1887-8.
_COLOSSIANS_
By Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D.
_ST. MARK_
By Very Rev. the DEAN OF ARMAGH.
_GENESIS_
By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.
_1 SAMUEL_
By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.
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By the same Author.
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_THE PASTORAL EPISTLE_
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_ISAIAH_ i.--XXXIX.
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