Peter wraps up his second letter to the believers of his day by warning them that there will be scoffers. How right he was, both in his day as well as in ours.
Peter says that there will be people who will say that your faith is useless, based upon made up stories.
There will be people who will say that it is full of unmerited hope.
There will be people that will say that nothing has changed. Everything is continuing just as it always has. They will say that your belief in a God or a savior is ridiculous.
But then he reminds his readers that these people are thinking as humans think. They are not taking the perspective of God. God is patient. God is kind. He desires that people would come to repentance. He desires that people would leave behind their sins and their old way of life to come to him through Christ. And it is for this reason that Jesus has not yet returned. It is the grace, the mercy, and the kindness of God. Otherwise, instead of grace and mercy, the time of judgment and wrath would be upon us.
Peter explains that God is not being slow. God is being extremely patient.
But, he says, beyond the scoffing that we must endure, Peter also explains that there will be many distortions that people will apply to the Scriptures. He specifically referred to the writings of Paul, which he had clearly read because he says that Paul writes the same way in each of his letters. Peter says that people will distort that which Paul has written – which are the same letters that we have even today – just as they have distorted the other Scriptures, that of the law and the prophets:
Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
2 Peter 3:15-16
This stuck out to me specifically today as I read these words after having read a letter from someone with whom we’ve been part of the same church, the same body of Christ, and yet have gone on to distort the scriptures. They’ve said that there are resources that will help us see a theology and justification for living a homosexual lifestyle. They’ve said that they have personal thoughts for a seemingly biblically justifiable reasons for divorce.
And they make it all sound OK. In doing these things, in admitting their homosexuality, in getting divorced, all of the present problems go away. Health problems: gone. Relational problems: much better. This is the right path. This is the way to go.
And yet, it is all an incredible distortion that may feel good either in the moment or over a period of time, but will do nothing more than eventually come to ruin.
Twisting the word of God to make it say what you want it to say? I’m sorry, that is a distortion.
Contorting yourself with your logic to come to a conclusion that you are in good standing with God to be able to divorce your husband or your wife? No doubt, it is a distortion.
These thought processes are rampant in our world today. It would be one thing if someone said that they are leaving their faith in Christ altogether because they no longer want to live the way in which we are called to live in God. But that isn’t what is happening. In this situation, and in many, many others, there is a desire to justify ourselves, distorting that which is written and is known to be true so that we can place ourselves and our opinions at the highest place of authority while continuing to say that we are justified before God. And that is a distortion of what is written.
We should instead read and understand the word of God clearly, submitting ourselves to God and what he has to say. Only in this way can we find the true life that he offers to us, without reservation, and without distortion.
And yet, I can’t finish writing my thoughts on the distortion of the word of God without saying that God remains patient. Even for those who are distorting the word of God; even for those who are leading others in the direction that will come to ruin; even with these people God is being patient. He desires that they will repent and that they will return back, that they will turn and come to Christ. God desires that everyone would be saved. God, we pray that even those who are distorting the word of God would return to you so that distortion and lies would no longer reign over each of their lives, but that the truth of Jesus would be the only way.