2 Peter 3:10

But the day of the Lord - The day of the Lord Jesus. That is, the day in which he will be manifested. It is called his day, because he will then be the grand and prominent object as the Judge of all. Compare Luk 17:27.

Will come as a thief in the night - Unexpectedly; suddenly. See the notes at 1Th 5:2.

In the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise - That is, what seems to us to be the heavens. It cannot mean that the holy home where God dwells will pass away; nor do we need to suppose that this declaration extends to the starry worlds and systems as disclosed by modern astronomy. The word is doubtless used in a popular sense - that is, as things appear to us; and the fair interpretation of the passage would demand only such a change as would occur by the destruction of this world by fire. If a conflagration should take place, embracing the earth and its surrounding atmosphere, all the phenomena would occur which are here described; and, if this would be so, then this is all that can be proved to be meant by the passage. Such a destruction of the elements could not occur without “a great noise.”

And the elements shall melt with fervent heat - Greek: “the elements being burned, or burning, (καυσούμενα kausoumena,) shall be dissolved.” The idea is, that the cause of their being “dissolved” shall be fire; or that there will be a conflagration extending to what are here called the “elements,” that shall produce the effects here described by the word “dissolved.” There has been much difference of opinion in regard to the meaning of the word here rendered “elements,” (στοιχεῖα stoicheia.) The word occurs in the New Testament only in the following places: Gal 4:3, Gal 4:9; 2Pe 3:10, 2Pe 3:12, in which it is rendered “elements;” Col 2:8, Col 2:20, in which it is rendered “rudiments;” and in Heb 5:12, where it is rendered “principles.” For the general meaning of the word, see the notes at Gal 4:3. The word denotes the “rudiments” of anything; the minute parts or portions of which anything is composed, or which constitutes the simple portions out of which anything grows, or of which it is compounded.

Here it would properly denote the component parts of the material world; or those which enter into its composition, and of which it is made up. It is not to be supposed that the apostle used the term with the same exact signification with which a chemist would use it now, but in accordance with the popular use of the term in his day. In all ages, and in all languages, some such word, with more or less scientific accuracy, has been employed to denote the primary materials out of which others were formed, just as, in most languages, there have been characters or letters to denote the elementary sounds of which language is composed. In general, the ancients supposed that the elements out of which all things were formed were four in number - air, earth, fire, and water. Modern science has overturned this theory completely, and has shown that these, so far from being simple elements, are themselves compounds; but the tendency of modern science is still to show that the elements of all things are in fact few in number.

The word, as used here by Peter, would refer to the elements of things as then understood in a popular sense; it would now not be an improper word to be applied to the few elements of which all things are composed, as disclosed by modern chemistry. In either case, the use of the word would be correct. Whether applied to the one or the other, science has shown that all are capable of combustion. Water, in its component parts, is inflammable in a high degree; and even the diamond has been shown to be combustible. The idea contained in the word “dissolved,” is, properly, only the change which heat produces. Heat changes the forms of things; dissolves them into their elements; dissipates those which were solid by driving them off into gases, and produces new compounds, but it annihilates nothing. It could not be demonstrated from this phrase that the world would be annihilated by fire; it could be proved only that it will undergo important changes. So far as the action of fire is concerned, the form of the earth may pass away, and its aspect be changed; but unless the direct power which created it interposes to annihilate it, the matter which now composes it will still be in existence.

The earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up - That is, whether they are the works of God or man - the whole vegetable and animal creation, and all the towers, the towns, the palaces, the productions of genius, the paintings, the statuary, the books, which man has made:

“The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

And all that it inherits, shall dissolve,

And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,

Leave not one wreck behind.”

The word rendered “burned up,” like the word just before used and rendered “fervent heat” - a word of the same origin, but here intensive - means that they will undergo such a change as fire will produce; not, necessarily, that the matter composing them will be annihilated. If the matter composing the earth is ever to be destroyed entirely, it must be by the immediate power of God, because only He who created can destroy. There is not the least evidence that a particle of matter originally made has been annihilated since the world began; and there are no fires so intense, no chemical powers so mighty, as to cause a particle of matter to cease wholly to exist. So far as the power of man is concerned, and so far as one portion of matter can prey on another, matter is as imperishable as mind, and neither can be destroyed unless God destroys it. Whether it is His purpose to annihilate any portion of the matter which He has made, does not appear from His Word; but it is clear that He intends that the universe shall undergo important changes. As to the possibility or probability of such a destruction by fire as is predicted here, no one can have any doubt who is acquainted with the disclosures of modern science in regard to the internal structure of the earth.

Even the ancient philosophers, from some cause, supposed that the earth would still be destroyed by fire (see my notes at 2Pe 3:7), and modern science has made it probable that the interior of the earth is a melted and intensely-heated mass of burning materials; that the habitable world is only a comparatively thin crust (shell) over those internal fires; that earthquakes are caused by the vapors engendered by that heated mass when water comes in contact with it; and that volcanoes are only openings and vent-holes through which those internal flames make their way to the surface. Whether these fires will everywhere make their way to the surface, and produce an universal conflagration, perhaps could not be determined by science, but no one can doubt that the simple command of God would be all that is necessary to pour those burning floods over the earth, just as He once caused the waters to roll over every mountain and through every valley.

As to the question whether it is probable that such a change will be produced by fire, bringing the present order of things to a close, it may be further remarked that there is reason to believe that such changes are in fact taking place in other worlds. “During the last two or three centuries, upwards of thirteen fixed stars have disappeared. One of them, situated in the northern hemisphere, presented a special brilliancy, and was so bright as to be seen by the naked eye at mid-day. It seemed to be on fire, appearing at first of a dazzling white, then of a reddish yellow, and lastly of an ashy pale color. LaPlace supposes that it was burned up, as it has never been seen since. The conflagration was visible about sixteen months.” The well-known astronomer, Von Littrow, in the section of his work on “New and Missing Stars” (entitled, Die Wunder der Himmels oder Gemeinfassliche Darstellung der Weltsystems, Stuttgart, 1843, Section 227), observes: “Great as may be the revolutions which take place on the surface of those fixed stars, which are subject to this alternation of light, what entirely different changes may those others have experienced, which in regions of the firmament where no star had ever been before, appeared to blaze up in clear flames, and then to disappear, perhaps forever.”

He then gives a brief history of those stars which have excited the particular attention of astronomers. “In the year 1572, on the 11th of November,” says he, “Tycho, on passing from his chemical laboratory to the observatory, through the court of his house, observed in the constellation Cassiopeia, at a place where before he had only seen very small stars, a new star of uncommon magnitude. It was so bright that it surpassed even Jupiter and Venus in splendor, and was visible even in the daytime. During the whole time in which it was visible, Tycho could observe no parallax or change of position. At the end of the year, however, it gradually diminished; and at length, in March 1574, sixteen months after its discovery, entirely disappeared, since which all traces of it have been lost. When it first appeared, its light was of a dazzling white color; in January 1573, two months after its reviving, it became yellowish; in a few months it assumed a reddish hue, like Mars or Aldebaran; and in the beginning of the year 1574, two or three months before its total disappearance, it glimmered only with a gray or lead-colored light, similar to that of Saturn.” See Bibliotheca Sacra, III., p. 181. If such things occur in other worlds, there is nothing improbable or absurd in the supposition that they may yet occur on the earth.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2Pe_3:10

The day of the Lord will come as a thief.

The day of the Lord

I. The text first points us to a period advancing rapidly upon us, in the future; and as such differs from any other which may have marked an epoch in the succession of ages since the world began.

1. The bright display of the Lords attributes which will then be made.

2. The affairs of the mediatorial kingdom of grace, the reign of Christ, as such, will then be completed.

3. The exhibition of His equity, which will then be made in the regular dispensations of His providence among men.

4. The Lord will then receive in and from His people glory and renown.

II. The declarations made in the text concerning its coming.

1. The certainty of it.

2. The sudden and unexpected manner of its approach.

(1) To excite men to watch for the event.

(2) The knowledge of the exact time might alarm men, and prevent attendance to the present duties of life.

III. Some of the occurrences of the day of the Lord. (J. Thompson Smith.)

Preparation for dearth and judgment

I. The period referred to. There have been memorable days in the history of the world and in the histories of nations.

1. On that day the dispensation of mercy will close.

2. It will be the day of the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Believer, it will be the consummation of thy bliss to have a perfect sight of Christ without a veil between, and to bear an exact conformity to His likeness. But O sinner! how wilt thou meet His frown?

3. It will be the day of the Lords especial honour.

4. It is the day on which all His declarations will be fulfilled and verified--His declarations of mercy to His people and His threatenings of destruction to the impenitent and unbelieving.

II. The duties to which its expected coming calls us.

1. We should watch against a spirit of slothfulness and indifference.

2. We should anxiously desire to be found ready whenever that day may come.

(1) Reconciliation with God is necessary.

(2) A close and humble walk with God is requisite.

(3) Frequent meditation on the consequences of that day will prepare us for its coming.

III. Motives to lead us to the discharge of these duties.

1. The uncertainty of the time when this day shall come.

2. The danger and ruin resulting from the want of preparation for its coming. (Essex Remembrancer.)

The heavens shall pass away with a great noise.--

The destruction of the universe:--

1. The destruction of the universe affords us a picture of the power of our Judge. How powerful is this Judge! Who can resist His will?

2. The conflagration of the universe affords us a picture of the horrors of vice. Behold how far God carries His resentment against sin. Heavens, earth, elements, are ye guilty? But, if ye be treated with so much rigour for having been the unconscious instruments of the crime, what must the condition of the criminal be?

3. In the burning of the universe we find a representation-of the vanity of the present world. What is this world which fascinates our eyes? It is a funeral pile that already begins to burn, and will soon be entirely consumed. The hope of an imaginary immortality hath been able to support some men against the fear of a real death. The idea of existing in the minds of those who exist after them hath, in some sort, comforted them under the miserable thought of being no more. Hence pompous buildings, hence rich monuments, and vainglorious titles inscribed on marble and brass. But behold the dissolution of all those bonds, and the memory of all that is fastened to the world will vanish with the world.

4. The conflagration of the universe furnisheth a description of the world to come. Ye often hear us declaim on the nothingness of earthly things. How is it that God, who hath resolved to render us one day happy, doth not allow us to continue in this world, and content Himself with uniting all happy circumstances in our favour? Ah! a life formed on this plan might indeed answer the ideas of happiness which finite geniuses form, but such a plan cannot even approach the designs of an infinite God. A life formed on this plan might indeed exhaust a terrestrial love, but it could never reach the love of an infinite God. To accomplish this love there must be another world; there must be new heavens and a new earth; there must be objects far more grand.

5. Finally, the destruction of the universe displays the excellence of piety. Oh that I could represent the believer amidst fires, winds, tempests, the confusion of all nature, content, peaceable, unalterable! (J. Saurin.)

The earth also … shall be burned up.

The world on fire

I. The last general conflagration. In this Epistle there is one truth very plainly taught, namely, that this present world is to be consumed by fire. We learn also that this conflagration will take place in connection with the judgment, for the heavens and the earth which now are, are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. We gather also from our text that this fire will burn up all the works existing upon the earth--everything which man has constructed shall perish. Chemists tell us that the great noise which Peter speaks of would certainly accompany such a combustion. The whole world shall become one molten mass again, and this terrestrial firmament shall cease to be. We may here note that the prophecy that the earth will thus be consumed with fervent heat is readily to be believed, not only because God says it, but because there are evidently the means at hand for the accomplishment of the prophecy. Pliny was wont to say that it was a miracle that the world escaped burning for a single day, and I do not wonder at the remark, considering the character of the district in which he spent much of his time. In visiting the country around Naples the same thought constantly occurred to me. Yonder is Vesuvius ready at any moment to vomit fire, and continually sending up clouds of smoke. Then go across to the Solfatara on the other side of Naples, stand at the vent of that ancient volcano and listen to the terrific rumblings which attend the rush of steam and sulphur; then stamp your foot or dash a stone upon the ground, and hear how the earth resounds; it is evident that you are standing over a vast cavern. Look around you and remark how the earth steams with sulphureous exhalations. Observe, also, how the earth in some places has risen and fallen, again and again. Yet this volcanic region around Naples is but one of the many ventholes of the great fires which are in the bowels of the earth; three hundred or more burning mountains have already vomited flame. According to the belief of many geologists, the whole centre of the earth is a mass of molten matter, and we live upon a thin crust which has cooled down, and is probably not so much as one hundred miles thick. The probabilites are that the whole internal mass is in a liquid, and, perhaps, in a gaseous state. Astronomers tell us that within the last two hundred or three hundred years some thirteen fixed stars have disappeared, and according to their belief they have been burned up. If such things happen in other worlds, is there anything improbable in the belief that the like will occur to us? But if there were no internal sea of fire, and no instance of other worlds being consumed by fire, who can guess the power which lurks in electricity, and other subtle forces? Gods dreadful armies lie in ambush everywhere. He has but to speak the word, and the servants of His omnipotence will rise, terrible in their destructive power. Earth is as a pile of wood, and the torch-bearers stand ready to kindle it at any moment. Although we read of the world being burned by fire, we are not told that it will be annihilated thereby. We believe from various things which are hinted at in Scripture, though we would not dogmatize, that this world will be refitted and renovated; and in that sense we expect new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Luther used to say that the world is now in its working clothes, and that by and by it will be arrayed in its Easter garments of joy. One likes to think that the trail of the old serpent will not always remain upon the globe, and it is a cheering thought that where sin has abounded Gods glory should yet more abound.

II. The apostle has drawn practical inferences. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? What connection can there be between the burning of the globe and holy conversation and godliness? The first connection is this. Our position as Christians is at this moment like that of Noah before the destruction of the world by water. What manner of person ought Noah to have been? I should suppose such a man, daily expecting the rain to descend and the flood to burst up from beneath, would lead a life very free from worldliness, a life the very reverse of the rest of his fellow-men. Now our life ought to be like that of Noah. Look around on the beauties of nature, and when you enjoy them say to yourself, All these are to be dissolved and to melt with fervent heat. You understand that the things which are seen are but a dream, that the things unseen are alone substantial. Therefore sit loose by all things below the moon, and clutch as with the grasp of a dying man the things eternal which God has revealed to you. Such conduct will separate you from your fellow-men. As there is down deep in your heart an object different from theirs, and as you set a different estimate on all things, your conduct will be wide apart from theirs; being swayed by different motives, your life will diverge from theirs, and they will misunderstand you, they will impute ill motives to you. I remark further, that the nearness of the Lord as suggested by the fact that the world is to be destroyed, according to His word, suggests holiness. The sinner finds a reason for sin when he says, God is not here: everything goes on in the ordinary way: God does not care what men do. No, says the apostle, He is not away, He is here, holding back the fire forces; He is reserving this world a little while, and by and by He will let the fires loose and the world will be destroyed. He is not far off: He is even at the door. How can ye sin against One who is so close at hand? The apostle says, What manner of persons ought ye to be? Remember he was talking to saints, and he teaches us that even saints ought to be more saintly than they are. We have not attained to what we ought to be, and I may say to the best child of God here this morning, There is a yet beyond. And then he goes on to specify two branches of holy life. In all holy conversation, that is to say, all holy behaviour towards men; and godliness, that is, all pious dealing towards God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

On the dissolution of the world

I. Contemplate the Supreme Being directing the dissolution, as He directed the original formation, of the world.

II. Let us contemplate the dissolution of the world as the end of all human glory. This earth has been the theatre of many a great spectacle, and many a high achievement.

III. contemplate the soul of man as remaining unhurt in the midst of this general desolation, when the whole animal creation perishes, and the whole frame of nature falls into ruins. Here, then, let us behold what is the true honour and excellence of man.

IV. We contemplate the dissolution of the world as the introduction to a greater and nobler system in the government of God. We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (H. Blair, D. D.)

Mans external universe as awaiting a tremendous crisis

There is a spiritual conflagration now going on. Christ came to send fire on the earth. His word like a fire consumes the false and the corrupt. But the conflagration in the text is a material one.

I. That the character of this crisis will be very terrible.

1. The agent by which it will be accomplished, fire, is terrible. Fire, when not in its latent but active state, is the most terrible force in the world. There is agony in its touch. Forms the most beautiful it turns to ashes. Water, which destroyed the old world, is in some of its forms a terrible power, but life can subsist in it. You can touch it without pain, you can float on its surface, you can construct a vessel to bear you over its surging floods and seas. But not so with fire. No ark will bear you over a fiery deluge.

2. The extensiveness of its scene makes it terrible. The heavens shall pass away. The earth also and all the works that are therein.

3. The tumult with which it will be attended is terrible. A great noise. There are some sounds that shake ones very soul with horror. The howl of the wind rising into the tempest, the rumble of the approaching thunderbolt, the wild and dismal roar of the ocean when lashed into fury--these are all sounds more or less of terror. But there are animal sounds still more so. The groans of the dying, the moanings of bereaved love, the shrieks of an agonised heart--these are fearful sounds. What a noise is produced by a little bonfire, what a noise, too, by a little steam from the engine; but what must be the noise of burning forests, and boiling oceans, of falling cities and rocking mountains! This great noise will be very terrible.

4. The unexpectedness with which it will come is another element of terror. It will come as a thief in the night. It will not come as a thief in some respects.

(1) A thief comes without warning.

(2) A thief has no right to come.

(3) A thief may be resisted. There is a possibility of turning him back; but not so with this crisis. It must come.

II. That the approach of this crisis is very certain.

1. It is certain that there is a point in the future that will terminate mens present connection with this earth.

2. There is conclusive evidence that this period will be attended with a conflagration.

III. That the prospect of this crisis should exert on mankind a hallowing influence. The apostle states two effects which the prospect ought to produce upon us--

1. Practical holiness in every part of our life--Holy conversation and godliness. If all our material interests are thus to pass away, with what earnestness ought we to cultivate those principles of character, those dispositions of mind, and those habits of life which will abide for ever?

2. An earnest longing of the soul for the future. Looking for and hasting, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Elements that will enhance the final conflagration

Since the noblest attribute of water is its blandness, who would be prepared to find that, chemically speaking, it is remarkable for its fiery composition? When its two constituents are burned in the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, they produce a flame of extraordinary ferocity. Such is the violence with which they combine that it is necessary to keep them from mingling, except in small quantities, unless they are just at the point of ignition. Dr. Clarke placed a brick screen between himself and the dangerous gases when he first experimented on their power, but was nearly killed by an explosion. Perhaps, when the world and all the works that are therein shall be burned up, the ocean may really be the magazine from which fuel may be drawn to support the great conflagration. But let this be as it may in Gods good counsel, is it not a startling thought that water, the uncompromising adversary of fire, should be compounded of two elements whose conjunction is accompanied by a passionate burst of flame and a terrible eruption of caloric? (Scientific Illustrations.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe 3:10. But — Notwithstanding the long-suffering of God; the day of the Lord — The day of the consummation of all things, and of final judgment; will come, and that as a thief in the night — Because thieves commonly break into houses in the nighttime, and occasion great fear to those who are within, any sudden, unexpected event, especially such as occasioned terror, was compared, by the Hebrews, to the coming of a thief in the night. The suddenness, therefore, and unexpectedness of the coming of the day of the Lord, and the terror which it will occasion to the wicked, are the circumstances in which it will resemble the coming of a thief, and not that it will happen in the night-time. In the which the heavens — That is, the aerial heavens, the atmosphere which surrounds this earth, and which the apostle calls the heavens, because Moses had called it so; shall pass away — The passing away of the heavens and the earth does not mean, it seems, that they will be removed to another part of space, or that they will be annihilated; but that, being burned, their form and constitution will be changed much more, probably, than the constitution or form of the old world was by the flood; destruction by fire being more complete and dreadful than destruction by water; with a great noise — Surprisingly expressed by the very sound of the original word, ροιζηδον. “That the thundering noise occasioned by the burning of the whole heavens, or atmosphere, will be terrible beyond description, may be conjectured by considering what a noise is made by those small portions of the air which are burned when it thunders, or which are set in commotion in a storm.” But how much greater will be the noise arising from the general conflagration of the whole earth, with all that it contains. And the elements shall melt with fervent heat — Καυσουμενα λυθησονται, burning shall be dissolved. The word στοιχεια, rendered elements, signifies the first principles, or constituent parts of any thing. Hence it denotes the principles of science, (Heb 5:12,) as well as the principles of bodies. Estius understands by the word the elements of which this terraqueous globe is composed; but as the melting of these is mentioned 2Pe 3:12, Macknight is of opinion “that, in this verse, the apostle is speaking of the electrical matter, the sulphureous vapours, the clouds, and whatever else floats in the air, all which, burning furiously, will be disunited and separated.” The earth also, and the works that are therein — Whether of nature or of art; shall be burned up — And has not God already abundantly provided for this?

1st, By the stores of subterranean fire, which are so frequently bursting out at Ætna, Vesuvius, Hecla, and many other burning mountains; 2d, by the ethereal (vulgarly called electrical) fire, diffused through the whole globe; which, if the secret chain that now binds it up were loosed, would immediately dissolve the whole frame of nature; 3d, By comets, one of which, if it touch the earth in its course toward the sun, must needs strike it into that abyss of fire. If in its return from the sun, when it is heated (as a great man computes) two thousand times hotter than a red-hot cannon ball, it must destroy all vegetables and animals long before their contact, and soon after burn it up.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe_3:10-18

10     But the day12 of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,13 in the which the14 heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt15 with fervent 11heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.16 Seeing then17 that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye18 to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12Looking for and hastening19 unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements 13shall melt with fervent heat?20 Nevertheless21 we, according to his promise,22 look for new heavens and a new23 earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in 15peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him24 hath written unto you; 16As also in all25 his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which26 are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own de struction.27 17Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.28 18But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.29

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

2Pe_3:10. But the day of the Lord will come.—The Apostle having made mention of the long-suffering of God, now says, as it were, let none deceive himself, the day of the Lord will not fail to appear, but it will come surely and suddenly. Ἤξει δὲ ἡ ἡμέρα κυρίου; it is called the day of God in 2Pe_3:12; hence κυρίου is here doubtless=θεοῦ, as in 2Pe_3:9. So Joe_1:15; Eze_13:5; Isa_2:12. The day of Jehovah; cf. Jam_5:7. Elsewhere the day of the Lord Jesus, 2Co_1:14. The day of Christ, 2Th_2:2; also the day of the Lord’s coming, Mai. 2Pe_3:2. The last expression contains an intimation that the beginning of that great period of judgment must be distinguished from the Lord’s coming in the same. The former sets in unexpectedly and without notice. The Lord’s coming will be unexpected, but not unnoticed by the ungodly; it will be attended by a war-cry, the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, 1Th_4:16.

As a thief in the night.—The same figure is used by the Lord Himself in the Gospels, Mat_24:43; Luk_12:39. Paul also compares the coming of that day to the burglarious entry of a thief. The passages in Rev_3:3; Rev_16:15, which contain this description of the Lord’s coming, give prominence to the suddenness and surprise of His coming, not to its being unnoticed. His coming is free from surprise and terror to those who watch and observe the signs of the times; it is to them rather a joyful event, Luk_21:28.—The figure of the thief contains also the secondary thought, that those who are held fast in the sleep of sin and security, shall lose in that catastrophe whatever they have, Mat_13:12; Joh_10:10.

In which the heavens shall pass away with a crashing roar; ῥοιζηδόν fromῥοιζέω, ῥοίζω, to rush, to whiz, to crash; a word formed to resemble the sound, rushing, whizzing, crashing, here only in the New Testament. Oecumenius understands it of the crackling noise of a destructive fire; de Wette, of the crash of falling houses. The Apostle probably thinks of both, (Huther).—Παρελεύσονται; our Lord uses the same word, Mat_24:35; cf. Psa_102:27; Isa_34:4; Rev_20:11.—Οὐρανοί, the sky and the starry heavens, as in 2Pe_3:7; cf. Psa_72:7; Psa_102:26; Isa_34:4; Isa_51:6; Isa_65:17.

But the elements shall be dissolved in fire, and—shall be burned up.—Στοιχεῖα; the rudiments of speech, then the constituent elements of the universe; of course not the elements in the sense of chemistry, but in the sense of antiquity, which since the time of Empedocles assumed the existence of four elements or rudiments of things; cf. Wis_7:17; Wis_19:17.—Calov restricts the word to water and air, because the earth is specifically mentioned afterward. But de Wette rightly observes that the earth is referred to first as an element, and afterward as a totality. There is nothing contradictory in the idea that this elemental fire shall be suspended in its action by a stronger and supernatural fire. A total annihilation of the elemental constituents is out of the question; the reference is rather to the supposition of Gennadius and Oecumenius, that “the old heavens and the old earth shall be changed and renovated into better.”—A reference to 2Pe_3:12, where the στοιχεῖα are mentioned, and not the earth expressly, shows plainly that στοιχεῖα relates primarily to the earth. δὲ, moreover intimates as much. Bengel, on the other hand, sees here, with many of the fathers, a reference to the sun, the moon and the stars. The sense= θεμέλια, foundations of the earth, given by others, cannot be verified. [The view of Bengel is that of Justin, Theophilus of Antioch, Polycrates, Mede, Hammond, Whitby and Alford. The last named author, after quoting Justin, argues that δὲ followed presently by the καί when reference is made to the earth, necessarily belongs to the heavens, and that the mention of the heavenly bodies as affected by the great day is constant in Scripture, cf. Mat_24:29; Isa_13:9-10; Isa_24:23; Isa_34:4, etc. On the other hand, the view propounded in the text is that of Wordsworth, who says that “St. Peter’s meaning seems to be, that the στοιχεῖα, elements or rudiments, of which the universe is composed and compacted, will be loosed; that is, the frameworks of the world will be disorganized, and this is the sense of στοιχεῖα in the LXX., Wis_7:17; Wis_19:18, and in Hyppolyt. Philos. pp. 219. 318. The dissolution is contrasted with the consistency described by the word συνεστῶσα in 2Pe_3:5. The heavens are reserved for fire (2Pe_3:7) and will pass away with a rushing noise, and, being set on fire, will be dissolved (2Pe_3:12) the elements will be on fire and melt (2Pe_3:12), and be reduced to a state of confusion; the earth and the works therein will be burnt up.—There does not seem, therefore, to be any cause for abandoning the common meaning of στοιχεῖα, the elemental principles of which the universe is made.”—M.] Λυθήσονται. Gerhard: “When the preserving and supporting power of God, which is, as it were, the soul of the world, shall separate itself from the macrocosm, it will fall together like a soulless corpse.”

The works.—To wit, the works of nature and of art [Bengel: operæ naturse et artis.—M.] trees, plants, minerals, animals, cities, houses, provisions, instruments, etc., cf. Hab_2:13.

[Shall be burned up.—The variation εὑρεθήσεται of Cod. Sin. B. and K. is difficult to account for.—M.]

2Pe_3:11. Since then all these things are being dissolved.—Λυομένων, not λυθησομένων. The Apostle vividly enters into the catastrophe and mentally anticipates it according to the characteristic, which has been noticed in 2Pe_2:10; 2Pe_3:3, and especially also in the first Epistle. Winer, p. 358, explains it as follows: “These things, by their nature intended to be dissolved—the destiny of dissolution is already inherent in them.” Calov applies the Present to the certainty of the event. [The reading οὔτως accords with the abrupt style of Peter, and makes the scene all the more vivid.—M.]

As what sort of persons ought ye to evidence yourselves? etc.—Ποταπός or ποδαπός from τόπος or δάπεδον, land, soil, signifies properly, from what country, where born, whence in point of origin, not equivalent to ποῖος. Cf. Mat_8:27; Luk_1:29; Luk_7:39; 1Jn_3:1. It often denotes a question of surprise, to which no answer is given; but here the answer is added in 2Pe_3:12. Sense: “Ye must evidence yourselves as persons of more noble origin, as citizens of the heavenly kingdom that are only strangers here on earth.” This seems to be an echo of the first Epistle. The common use of ποταπός in the New Testament as connected with an exclamation, is not decisive against our interpretation. Huther wants to supply before ποταποὺς, “consider then,” but this is arbitrary. De Wette takes ποταποὺς in the sense of quantus, how great, how strong, how diligent ought ye to be in holy conversation. But this is ungrammatical. The connection is this: Considering that this entire world-system, with whatever it contains, is doomed to perish, it becomes us Christians to tear our hearts from all inordinate love of the world, and to qualify ourselves even now as citizens of the celestial world. Augustine: “If there is an end of the world, if we have to move away from this world, we must not love the world;” and in another passage: “Seeing that Christ shall come to judgment the very day in which the world shall be dissolved, and that all must appear before His judgment-seat, let us live in the true fear of God, serve Him in holiness and righteousness, and carefully guard against sins.”—Ἀναστροφαῖς. The Plural as in 1Pe_1:15; 1Pe_2:1, to mark the different forms and directions of a holy walk and piety, cf. 2Pe_2:2; 2Pe_1:3.

Ver.12. Expecting and hastening the coming of the day of God.—Προσδοκᾶν.—Not with Luther: To wait as contrasted with haste, but looking for, expecting something while enduring the pressure of evil, cf. 2Pe_3:14.—Σπεύδοντας. Some commentators arbitrarily supply εἰς; the sense of yearning or longing for cannot be verified; it signifies to urge, to press, to hasten, and applies therefore not only to earnest occupation, but, as Bengel asserts, to inward struggling, to perseverance in prayer for the hastening of the Kingdom of Christ, and to preparation for it in repentance and holiness. At the same time the remark of Richter is true, that “in a certain respect it is visionary, dangerous and passionate to pray for the hastening of the end of the world and the termination of the æon of Gospel-calling.”

[Trench (Bible Revision, p. 112) pronounces for the marginal reading in E. V., “hasting the coming” (accelerantes adventum, Erasmus), and explains: The faithful, that is, shall seek to cause the day of the Lord to come the more quickly by helping to fulfil those conditions, without which it cannot come—that day being no day inexorably fixed, but one the arrival of which it is free to the Church to help and hasten on by faith and by prayer, and through a more rapid accomplishing of the number of the elect.” De Wette, followed by Alford: “They hasten it by perfecting, in repentance and holiness, the work of the Gospel, and thus diminishing the need of the μακροθυμία, 2Pe_3:9,” to which the delay of that day is owing. Alford, in reply to Huther’s objection, says, “It is true that the delay or hastening of that day is not man’s matter, but God’s: but it is not uncommon in Scripture, to attribute to us those Divine acts, or abstinences from acting, which are really and in their depth, God’s own. Thus we read, that ‘He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief,’ Mat_13:58, compared with Mar_6:5-6; thus repeatedly of man’s striving with, hindering, quenching God’s Holy Spirit.”—Wordsworth considers this remarkable thought as compared with St. Peter’s speech in Acts 3, as another silent evidence of the genuineness of this Epistle.—M.]

Τὴν παρουσίαν. See 2Pe_3:10, cf. Tit_2:13; Rev_16:14; Act_17:31. The term “day of God” cannot excite surprise, if respect is had to the Old Testament. Lachmann’s notion that the author had given up the hope of Christ’s coming, I and mixed it up with God’s future day of judgment, is incongruous, for he treats of the Lord’s παρουσία in 2Pe_3:4.

For the sake of which the heavens being on fire, shall dissolve (themselves), and the elements shall melt away with fervent heat; δἰ ὴ̔ν. It is best to connect ῆν with παρουσίαν, and to take διά as indicating the occasioning cause. Winer, p. 418, [who sanctions however the construction recommended in Appar. Crit., which is also that adopted by Alford.—M.] Dietlein renders “in honour of which, as it were,” but this rendering is inapposite. If the plan of God is to be carried out, this sin-stained world must perish. Augustine says of the succession of the events, “After the judgment the world will be on fire; that is, it will be entirely burned up.” This is also thought probable by Gerhard, who holds moreover that the burning of the world will take place before the wicked are cast into hell and the godly received to heaven.

Καυσοῦσθαι and τήκεσθαι, to melt like wax, are ἅπαξ λεγ. The Present is used here for the same reason, as in 2Pe_3:11, above. [The note of Wolfius, (Curæ Philologicæ et Criticæ) on the force of these Presents will be found useful: “Interim nihil est mutandum. Patet enim, Apostolum in duobus his commatibus, data opera, nunc præsenti λυομένων et τήκεται, nunc futuro λυθήσεται, de ea ru uti, quæ tam certa futura erat, ac si jam fieret.”—M.]

2Pe_3:13. But we, according to His promise, expect new heavens and a new earth.—The Apostle, for the comfort of believers, contrasts the destruction of the present world system with the expectation of new heavens and a new earth. This hope is founded on the word of prophecy, Isa_65:17; Isa_66:22; Isa_30:26; cf. Rev_21:1. This does not denote an ideal state of blessedness, but a real spirituo-corporeal body-world. So Anselm: “The whole earth, which carried in its lap the body of the Lord, will be a paradise.” Augustine: “The promises of God are apprehended by faith; hope cannot reach them, love cannot understand them; they surpass our longings and desires; they may be obtained, but cannot be estimated.” Grotius mentions that Plato also speaks of a pure earth and a pure heavens. Calov suggests a substantial recreation of heaven. More correctly even Irenæus: “Neither the substance, nor the existence of the creature will be annihilated.” According to His promise, κατὰ τὸ ἐπάγγελμα αὐτοῦ sc. God.

In which dwelleth righteousness.—Not abstr. pro concreto, the righteous, but true righteousness itself or a perfect agreement with the will of God, cf. Rev_21:27; Rev_21:3. This is added partly for the encouragement, partly for the consolation of believers with reference to their unrighteous oppressors. Huther produces similar passages from the book of Enoch, in which reference seems to be made to our Epistles. [The passages are Enoch 2:27; 55:5; 54:4, 5; 90:17.—Wordsworth says, that the Apostle “does not represent the heavens as destined to destruction, but as hereafter to be transformed (ἀναστοιχειουμένους) to a more glorious condition. As the mortal bodies of the saints are dissolved by death, and will not be reduced to annihilation, but will, by reason of Christ’s resurrection, and of their incorporation in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, be renewed to immortality, so the heavenly bodies will be renewed by fire and delivered from the bondage of corruption. See Rom_8:20-22.—The material creation has sympathized with us in our fall, and it will rejoice with the righteous in their redemption and revivification, when their mortal bodies will rise and bloom anew like vernal herbs and flowers, in the glorious spring-tide of the resurrection. See Eusebius, Severus and others here in the Catenâ, Cramer, p. 100.—Thus the benefits of the incarnation and the redemption wrought by the second Adam extend also to the natural world. He has restored already the free use of the creatures to us (cf. 1Co_3:23), and He will raise the Creation itself to a more glorious state of being.”—M.]

2Pe_3:14. Wherefore, beloved, expecting these things, be diligent, etc.—The Apostle founds here an exhortation to holiness on the last named circumstance [i. e., the expectation of the new heavens and the new earth.—M.], as in 2Pe_3:11, on the expectation of that catastrophe.—Ἄσπιλοι; cf. 1Pe_1:19; 1Ti_6:14; Jam_1:27.—Ἀμώμητοι, Php_2:15, like ἀμύμων, blameless; that you cannot be blamed; for the opposite, see 2Pe_2:13.—Αυʼτῷ, in His judgment, before Him, connect with εὑρεθῆναι; cf. 2Co_12:20.—Εὑρεθῆναι, 1Pe_1:7; 1Pe_2:22, in His day.—Ἐν εἰρήνῃ. De Wette explains it: For your peace=εἰς εἰρήνην; but in that case the Apostle would certainly have expressed it. Better Calov: “In peace with God and with men.” [Alford suggests, that considering the familiarity of the Eastern tongue with the expression ἐν εἰρήνῃ, the phrase may have an onward as well as a present meaning, as in πορεύεσθαι ἐν εἰρήνῃ and εἰς εἰρήνην, Act_16:36 : Jam_2:16; Luk_7:50; Luk_8:48; and denote that eternal peace of which all earthly peace is but a feeble foretaste.—M.] More specific definition of ἄσπιλοι καὶ ἀμώμητοι. Gerhard: “Strive that the Lord at His coming may find you peaceful and reconciled.” The thought is connected with δικαιοσύνη, 2Pe_3:13. Dietlein thinks that it is added with reference to the subject about to be stated by the Apostle, viz., the peace-destroying animosity of the deceivers, and refers to Judges 19. But Peter states first something else. It has a good meaning with reference to the many internal and external peace-breakers, especially at that time, Heb_12:14.

2Pe_3:15. And account the longsuffering of our Lord your salvation, [see Appar Crit.—M.]; μακροθυμίαν, cf. 2Pe_3:9; Rom_2:4; Rom_9:22. Every postponement of the day of judgment is also an extension of grace for believers, as far as they may make further progress in holiness. Dietlein: “Apart from it, every converted Christian, reviewing his conversion, is constrained to admit that unless the longsuffering of God did insert a development-process of sin and redemption between apostacy and judgment, his conversion would have been impossible and the merited judgment would have overtaken him also.” To this must be added the observation that since the text reads σωτηρίαν in general, not σωτηρίαν ὑμῶν, the salvation of many others also is founded on this longsuffering. [After this exegesis, it is difficult to understand why Fronmüller retains the old Lutheran rendering.—M.] Roos: “The passage must not be limited to those persons who live at that time, but rather be extended to those who may still be born, if the long-suffering of God preserves this present world for a long time.”

Even as also our beloved brother Paul—hath written unto you.—The deceivers, to whom Peter refers, probably abused the Epistles of the Apostle St. Paul, and represented Peter and Paul as contradicting each other; on this account Peter cites the testimony of Paul as confirmatory of his doctrine, and shows that between Paul and himself there is an intimate communion of spirit, and that the incident, mentioned Gal_2:11, was unable to extinguish his love.

As also, relates, not to what immediately precedes, but to the whole exhortation, 2Pe_3:14-15, to holiness in view of the coming of Christ. Dietlein supposes that since the μακροθυμία of God is treated of only in Rom_2:4; Rom_9:22, the reference is evidently to the Epistle to the Romans, but the supposition that καθώς is to be thus limited, is wrong, and ἔγραψεν ὑμῖν is decidedly opposed to it. Peter must allude to an Epistle of Paul, which, like the present Epistle of Peter, is addressed to the Christians of Asia Minor. To say that the Epistle to the Romans was addressed to Gentiles in general, is no sufficient explanation. Hence Bengel, Gerhard, al., think it to be the Epistle to the Hebrews on account of Heb_9:26, etc.; Heb_10:25; Heb_10:37; others, the Epistle to the Ephesians, on account of Eph_4:30; Eph_6:8; Eph_3:4. The reference is perhaps to all these; de Wette conjectures 1Th_4:13; 1Th_5:11, and 2Th_2:16; but the above named reason is against this view [which is also that of Alford, who meets the objection founded on ὑμῖν, by saying that this Epistle is addressed to all Christians alike, cf. 2Pe_1:1; and that all that can be inferred from ὑμῖν amounts to this, that this Epistle belongs to a date when the Pauline Epistles were no longer the property only of the Churches to which they were written, but were dispersed through, and were considered to belong to the whole Christian Church.—Benson considered the reference to be the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians, because addressed to Asia Minor Churches; this is also the opinion of Wordsworth, who notices also that this text is quoted by Origen de Recta Fide, sect. II., and ascribed by him without any hesitation to St. Peter.—M.]

Our beloved brother.—Brother must be taken in the narrow sense of “fellow-apostle.” How beautiful is this trait of Peter’s character, that he harboured no unkind remembrance of the sharp rebuke which Paul, who excelled him in his labours for the kingdom of God, had administered to him, and that he joyfully acknowledged his Apostolic calling.

According to the wisdom.—Dietlein: “Not so much preëminence in knowledge as aptitude in teaching, knowledge which peculiarly qualifies for teaching; hence ministerial grace accorded to him.” Chrysostom does not hesitate to prefer Paul as a teacher to all others and to call him the teacher of all wisdom. [Polycarp ad Philipp. I. 3; “No one like me can equal the wisdom of the blessed Paul, who being absent wrote to you Epistles (ὑμῖν ἔγραψεν ἐπιστολὰς) into which, if you look diligently, you will be enabled to be built up unto the faith.”—M.]

2Pe_3:16. As also in all his Epistles, speaking in them of these things.—Ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς. Even if the Article is retained, which is probably spurious, there is no necessity to suppose here a reference to all the Epistles of Paul as a finished whole. It cannot be determined which and how many of the Pauline Epistles were known to Peter.—Ὡς sc. ἔγραψε; περὶ τούτων; of the coming of Christ, the end of the world and of what is connected with those events; stedfastness in faith and zeal in good works. Here Peter might refer more particularly to the Epistles to the Thessalonians.

Among which are some things difficult to understand.—ἐν οἰς Gerhard: “Peter here makes no direct reference to the Pauline Epistles, but to the subjects of which they treat, among which are some hard to understand,” which belongs to the nature of the last things.—Ἃ στρεβλοῦσιν; στρεβλόω; from στρέβλη, an instrument of torture, a rock, a screw, a press, hence to screw, to strain, to wind, to twist or distort. A very striking word, peculiar to Peter, to describe the perversion of the Scriptures. As to the things themselves Bengel refers to 2Ti_2:18; Gerhard, to false views of the millennium, of justification by faith, of Christian liberty, of the coming of Antichrist, and especially to the justification and excuses of lawless extravagancies.

The ignorant and unstable.—The reference is perhaps rather to the deceived than to the deceivers and scoffers, for whom these two words would be too mild. On ἀστήρικτοι, cf. 2Pe_2:14.

As also the other Scriptures; ὠς καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς γραφάς. Here again the reference is not to a completed collection of the writings of the New Testament, from which the inference might be drawn that this Epistle is of a comparatively late origin. De Wette, without sufficient reasons, understands passages of Scripture. The reference is probably to the Pauline Epistles, the Epistle of James and the prophetical writings, which, according to 2Pe_3:2 and 2Pe_1:20, must not be excluded.

To their own perdition.—Cf. 2Pe_2:2; Deu_4:2; Deu_12:32; Rev_22:19. Huther: “The perversion of the Scriptures has this consequence, since they use their distorted sayings in order to harden themselves in their carnal lusts.” We have only to add, that they also bring perdition on themselves because they deprive others of salvation.

2Pe_3:17. Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing it before, beware, lest being led away together with the error of the lawless.—Final exhortation not to suffer themselves to be made to waver in their hope by the error of the ungodly, and to grow in grace and knowledge.—Προγινώσκοντες. Bengel supplies: the danger. Dietlein refers it to the imminent attempts of deception. The Lord Himself set great value on the foretelling and fore-knowing of the future. Cf. Joh_14:29; Joh_16:4.—Φυλάσσεσθε, ἵνα μή. Take heed, be on your guard that ye—fall not from.—Thus taken, the construction is not singular; cf. Luk_12:15; Act_21:25; 1Jn_5:21.—Ἀθέσμων, 2Pe_2:7; 2Pe_3:3; πλάνη, 2Pe_2:18, error, delusion, not deception, as Dietlein maintains;—συναπαχθέντες. Cf. Gal_2:13. Similar to what is said of sins, that, like the wind, they have taken us away, Isa_64:6. [Alford notes the remarkable coincidence, that Peter, well acquainted as he was with the writings of Paul, should have written this word, which is the very one used by that Apostle of Barnabas, at Antioch, when he συναπήχθη with the hypocrisy of Peter and the other Jews.—M.];—συναπαχθέντες, together with them and others which they had long since deceived.

Ye fall from your own stedfastness.—ἐκπίπτειν. Cf. Gal_5:4, to fall from, to be banished;—στηριγμός, standing fast, stedfastness in faith and hope; contrast to 2Pe_3:16, above. He refers to 2Pe_1:12 where he declared his readers to be established in the truth. Roos: “The state of grace is the fortress. There God Himself is the stronghold and castle; Christ the rock on which we are builded; there we are assured by the privilege, that all things must work together for good to them that love God; there we are, by the power of God, kept unto salvation. A Christian falls from this his own fortress, if he loses grace, and neglecting to watch and pray and to attend to the word of God, gradually yields to the commission of intentional sins, which, whether by some thoroughly matured dogma or only by hasty judgments, he erroneously regards now in a very different light, and consequently excuses or even justifies.”—Ἰδίου Gerhard: “Not, as though they could of their own strength persevere in faith, but because only true believers continue firm to the end.”—There is no reference here to continuance in communion with the Church.

2Pe_3:18. But grow in the grace, etc.—Gerlach: “The best preservation is continual practice of faith, continual growth in grace and knowledge: then we are proof against all assaults.” Similarly Calvin. [“Haec unica est perseverandi ratio, si assidue progredimur”.—M.]; αὐξάνετε Cf. 1Pe_2:2; 2Pe_1:5; Eph_4:15; Col_1:10. We grow in grace, if we apprehend it with ever increasing faith and keep it, and thus we are privileged to enjoy it more and more richly. Cf. 1Pe_5:10.—Κυρίου belongs only to γνώσει not to χάριτι, [This is doubtful, since the preposition extends to both. There is no difficulty if the subjective force of χάριτι and the objective force of γνώσει as connected with Christ is brought out. “Grow in the grace of which Christ is the Author, in the knowledge of which Christ is the object.”—M.].—Great value is set here at the close, as before at the beginning of the Epistle, on the knowledge of the person, the office, and the benefits of Christ, cf. 2Pe_1:2.—Αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα. The doxology refers to Christ in proof of His Divinity. [Alford suggests Pliny’s letter, “hymnus Christo quasi Deo.”—M.]. Cf. Jude 25; Rev_1:6; Rev_4:9; Eph_3:21.—Εἰς ἡμέραν αἰῶνος not found elsewhere. Bengel explains ἡμέρα in contrast with night: “Eternity is a day without night, purely and perpetually enduring.” Huther: “The day in which eternity begins as contrasted with time, but which day is likewise all eternity itself.” The selection of this expression is best explained by reference to 2Pe_3:8. Eternity counts with God as one day. Augustine: “It is only one day, but an everlasting day without yesterday to precede it, and without to-morrow to follow it; not brought forth by the natural sun, which shall exist no more, but by Christ, the Sun of Righteousness.”

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Unbelief is generally blind to the grossest contradictions in which it is entangled, even as those scoffers do neither see the folly of affirming a beginning of the world and to deny the end of the world, nor the absurdity of the conclusion: “That which has not yet happened until to-day, will happen nevermore.” “God has not made the worlds for eternity, like Himself, but they come and pass away. In the case of each world there was a time when it did not exist, and there will be a time, when its place shall not be found. How distant soever the day of the destruction of our earth may be, when it does come there will be men on earth, like ourselves, occupied, as we are, with expectations and hopes of a long future. He that rolls up the heavens like a garment and scatters suns and earths like dust, He only is the Lord. Our science will never reach the laws which bring about the destruction of our earth.” Schleiermacher.

2. Although loving gratitude to Jesus, who gave up His life as a sin-offering for us, must after all remain our strongest motive to holiness, Scripture teaches us that the thought of death and the judgment, of the end of the world and eternity, should move us to vigilance, seriousness, soberness, and to be on our guard against the security of the world. If the disciples in their time needed the pre-announcement of Christ’s coming and the end of the world, it is doubly and trebly needed in our time. “Hastening the coming of Jesus must not degenerate into an impatient drawing near of the Judge by murmuring against others; we ought the rather be occupied with clearing away and preparation in our own affairs, in order that we may be found in peace.” Rieger.

3. “The new earth is the eternal and chief scene of the Kingdom of God, Psalms 37; Revelation 21. It will not be uninhabited. As the nature of the earth has been made to correspond and conform to man in his fallen and corrupt condition, so it will be made to correspond and conform to man purified, recovered and transfigured into glorious righteousness. Augustine already teaches that the renovated world will answer to the bodies of men which will likewise be renovated.” Richter.

4. Even the older theologians held that the day of the Lord, in which such great and decisive events are to be transacted, in which so many millions are to be judged, must not be made to denote a day of twelve or twenty-four hours. It ought rather to be taken in the sense of a diet [In German, Reichs-tag, Land-tag, Fürsten-tag, literally, day or diet of an empire, county or princes, i. e., a congress of the representatives of an empire, a country, or of princes. The reference in the text is to the name of such assemblies, which although referring to a day, continue in session for weeks or months. So the day of the Lord denotes not a single day, but an indefinite period of time.—M.].

5. The Roman Catholic Church charges the Scripture with obscurity, and founds her charge on 2Pe_3:16. In reply we may notice,

a. The correct interpretation of the passage shows that Peter refers immediately to the difficulty of understanding the subjects treated in those Epistles.

b. These are difficult to understand because they relate to future events, and because the soul-man [so called in respect of the predominance of the ψυχή.—M.] finds it so difficult to understand the things of the Spirit.

c. Chrysostom’s assertion concerning the Scripture is irrefutable, viz.: “Whatever is necessary [to be known and to our salvation.—M.] is plain and sure in it, so that all, even the unlearned, may understand it.”

d. There are good reasons why many things in the Scriptures are hard to understand.

“Many parts of the truth of God must be clothed in concealment in order to prevent aversion to it, to prompt diligent inquiry, and in order to be reserved as a reward of the fidelity exhibited in such search.” Rieger. These difficulties contain a peculiar attraction, a stirring up to prayer, a confounding of our vanity, a concealing of the truth from the eyes of the meddling.

6. If the genuineness of this Epistle be admitted, it affords us a clear proof of the futile pretences of the critics of the Tubingen school in respect of the Pauline Epistles, e. g., of Zeller, who says in the Theol. Jahrb., 1846, II.: “Of the twenty-seven writings contained in our Canon, there is not one for which can be shown credentials of its origin reaching up to the pretended date of its composition.”

[7. Augustine says concerning the question arising from 2Pe_3:16 : ‘Which are the things hard to understand in the Epistles of Paul?’ “Even in the times of the Apostles, certain persons, who did not understand some of Paul’s rather obscure (sub obscuras) sentences, alleged that he said, ‘Let us do evil, that good may come,’ because he had said, ‘that the law entered in, that sin might abound; and where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound,’ Rom_3:8; Rom_5:20.—When the Apostle Paul says that a man is justified by faith (per fidem) without the works of the law, he does not mean thereby, that, when a man has received and professed the faith, he may despise the works of righteousness; but that every one may know that he may be justified by faith, although works of the law have not gone before his faith. For works follow him that is justified, ‘Seguuntur justificatum, non precedunt justificatum.’—Since, however, the notion above mentioned had arisen at that time (viz., that works were not requisite), the other Apostolic Epistles of Peter, John, James and Jude, specially contend against that notion; in order to maintain earnestly, that faith without works does not profit. Indeed Paul himself has defined faith to be not any kind of faith by which man believes in God, but he defines true faith to be that healthful and evangelical faith, whose works proceed from love: ‘Faith which worketh by love,’ Gal_5:6. And he asserts, that the faith which some men think sufficient for salvation is so worthless, that ‘If I have faith (he says) so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing,’ 1Co_13:2; and doubtless that man’s life is good, where faithful love works, for he says, ‘the fulfilling of the law is love,’ Rom_13:10.—Evidently, therefore, for this reason St. Peter in his second Epistle, when he was exhorting to holiness of life, and was declaring that this world would pass away, and that new heavens and a new earth are looked for, which are to be assigned as dwellings to the righteous; and when he was admonishing them to consider what ought to be their life in this world, in order that they may be made meet for that future habitation; and being also aware that many ungodly men had taken occasion from certain rather obscure sentences of the Apostle Paul, to be reckless of living well, and to presume of salvation by faith, has noted that there are some things hard to be understood in St. Paul’s Epistles, which men wrested, as they did the other Scriptures, to their own destruction; whereas, in truth, that Apostle (St. Paul) entertained the same opinions as the rest of the Apostles concerning eternal salvation, and that it would not be given to any but to those who live well. Thus therefore Peter writes.” Augustine then quotes this chapter, 2Pe_3:11-18.—Augustine, de fide et operibus, c. 22, ed. Bened. 6, p. 308.—M.]

[8. Wordsworth, who cites the foregoing passage from Augustine, gives also the following useful table of the testimony of prophets and Apostles to the authority of Holy Scripture:

The prophet Malachi closes the Canon of the Old Testament by a solemn appeal “to the law of Moses, and to the statutes and judgments.” He says: “Remember them,” (Mal_4:4.)

The Apostle and Evangelist St. John closes the four gospels with a similar reference. “These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through His name,” Joh_20:31.

St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentile world, closes his Epistles with a testimony to the sufficiency and inspiration of Holy Scripture: “Abide thou in those things which thou hast learned, and wert assured of, knowing from whom thou didst learn them; and that from a child thou knowest the Holy Scriptures, which are the things that are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Jesus Christ. Every Scripture, being divinely inspired, is also profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, in order that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto every good work,” 2Ti_3:14-17.

St. Peter, here, in like manner closes his Epistles with a similar exhortation, and with a warning against perversion of Scripture.

St. Jude also closes the Catholic Epistles with a memento to his readers: “Remember ye the words spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Judges 17.

Lastly, the Apostle and Evangelist St. John closes the Apocalypse with a promise of blessing to those who keep its sayings, and a curse on those who take from it or add to it, Rev_22:7; Rev_22:18-19.

Thus the duties of the Christian Church, as the Guardian of Holy Scripture, and the duties of every member of the Church, as bound to receive, to meditate upon, and to obey the written word of God, are solemnly inculcated by the farewell voices of prophets and Apostles.

Prophets and Apostles pass away to another and a better world. But the word of God, written by their instrumentality, endureth forever, 1Pe_1:25.—M.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

There is a twofold day of the Lord, a day of His mercy in which He still causes sinners to be bidden to His Kingdom by the word (preached), 2Co_6:2, and a day of righteousness and wrath (Act_17:31), which has its various gradations and divisions.—What is necessary to watching and being prepared for the coming day of the Lord? Luk_12:39; 1Th_5:6; 1Th_5:4; Mat_24:38; Rev_16:15.—We cannot be translated, into a state of peace, rest and happiness, unless we have been purified within by sanctificalion of the Spirit, and there arise a cessation of the reproaches and accusations in respect of the transgressions of which we were guilty.—If by carelessness or indiscretion we contract once more spots or blemishes, let us hasten to the opened fountain for all uncleanness, that we may be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.—If all things shall dissolve into fire, the idols of secure men will also perish. How ill is it with us, if we have nothing that is fire-proof!—The only means of escaping the terror of the coming of Christ, is a holy walk and godliness. The former relates to other men and earthly things, the latter to our conduct towards God.—Who does sufficiently realize the end of all things, which has come nigh, and which after the death of the body we shall quickly be made to meet?—According to Tertullian, the primitive Christians were wont to pray for a postponement of the end. The Church sings:

Hasten, Lord, the judgment-day,

Thy glorious countenance display;

Ei, lieber Herr, eil zum, Gericht,

Lass seh’n Dein herrlich Angesicht;

both sentiments are well founded.—The hope of that new world, wherein dwelleth perfect righteousness and constant joy, a chief means of consolation among all the trials and afflictions of this world.—It is one of the chief aims of believers to strive that hereafter they may be found without spot before the Lord.—Who will hereafter be found without spot?—The long-suffering of God our salvation and that of many others.—Beautiful example of Peter in his attitude towards Paul.—Harmony among the teachers of the Church is as necessary as the joint operation of the members of our body.—To honour the gifts of God in others, is to honour God Himself.—If the, forgery of a testament (will) which disposes of an earthly inheritance is a great crime, how much greater is the sin of those who forge and distort the Testament of the Eternal God.—The grace of stedfastness should be daily implored with earnest prayer.—The grace of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ are indissolubly united.—Christ is duly glorified by us, if we acknowledge, praise and publish His benefits.

Starke:—That must be a fearful day; who does not tremble at the birth-pangs of the last time? But ye holy ones, rejoice, lift up your heads, for your redemption is nigh. Luk_21:28.—Men, be moderate in providing garments, in building palaces, in purchasing precious things. Every thing, even the most precious, must be consumed by fire in the last day, 1Co_7:30-31.—The constant recollection of the last day, in which Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge, will give to every man his due reward, is a powerful incentive to godliness, Ecc_12:13-14.—When the heavens and the earth shall have passed away, believers will nevertheless come to a most delightful place, although we cannot now name it or describe its glory, 1Th_4:17.—Those who do not pursue righteousness and holiness here, will not be preferred to the abode in the new heaven of glory, and still less be permitted to enjoy its pleasures, 1Co_6:9.—The patience and long-suffering of Christ is our preservation; for we owe it to His mercy that we are not consumed, Lam_3:22.—If there are dark passages in Holy Scripture, the darkness is not intrinsic, but extrinsic, that is, with respect to the reader and his weak understanding. But it is clear enough in the order of salvation and eternal life to silence all excuses, Psa_119:105.—If Holy Scripture seems to be dark here and there, be not offended at it, and take care not to despise it; learn rather therefrom its sublimity and thy lowliness, but ever search more and more and persevere in prayer; thus thou shalt get more light: as for the rest, it will be reserved for the perfect knowledge thou shalt attain in heaven, 1Co_13:12.—A perverted understanding goes generally hand in hand with an evil will.—Try the spirits, whether they are of God; if not, hearken not to them, do not follow them, and let them not deceive thee, 1Co_6:9.—A strong fortress needs a vigilant and lion-hearted commander, else it will be lost.—Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall, 1Co_10:12. Watch!—Those who are minded not to fall from their own stedfastness, must above all things grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, Joh_17:3.

Stier:—If we may sigh in our own case, Lord, come speedily; must we not, on the other hand, pray because of the ungodly, Lord, have patience. Examples: Abraham, Jonah.—Look at all the glory of this poor world with no other thought than the knowledge that all is destined to pass away!

Rieger:—True part of friendship among Christians, to warn one another.—All the notices of the Holy Scriptures concerning future things are given to us that we should be on our guard. Those who only use them to gratify their curiosity, deprive them all of their best properties of salt and light.—The multitude of the wicked and the diversity of the instruments whereby error is conveyed to men, constitute no small power of deception.—How many a possession, the objects of doubt, dispute and contradiction will be saved in the day of eternity!

Richter:—Ye that are fortified in genuine Scripture-truth and in the doctrine in Christ, are in the city of refuge, of which the Jewish city of refuge wag a type! Numbers 35.

Kapff:—In the great process of combustion the earth will experience the fate of ore which contains silver and gold. The gross, light and formless parts are consumed, the precious and light-giving parts are preserved.—The earth will be a great light-bearer corresponding to the light of the glorified resurrection bodies.—In the passages describing the glorification of the earth, it is difficult to determine how much belongs to the renovation of the earth during the millennial kingdom, and how much to the glorification of the new earth.—If the earthly is so unclean before the holiness of God that it must be burned with fire, how dare we suffer our spirit to be linked to the earthly ?

Lisco:—Of the salvation, which we may attain even in this life.—The inner completion of the citizens of the kingdom.—The salutation of departing Christians.—The renovation of the world at the coming of Christ.

[Sharp:—The reflection that our Lord, who came into the world to die for the sins of mankind, is by His resurrection made Judge of the world, doth not afford matter of greater terror to His enemies, than it does of comfort to His friends and followers. How must it revive the heart of every honest Christian, and encourage him to go on patiently and cheerfully in the service of his Master, notwithstanding the many frailties and infirmities under which he labours; notwithstanding the many slips and errors, that after his best endeavours do attend his course of life, to consider that He, who is to take his accounts at the last day, and to pass sentence upon him, is no other than his dear Redeemer! If we look upon the judgment to come only in this view, that then all the hidden works of darkness shall be brought to light; the secrets of all hearts be laid open; the actions of all mankind strictly examined and scanned; and sentence passed upon every one according to his works done in the flesh; if we have no other view of the last judgment than only this, it would not be very comfortable to the best of us, who are all sinners, and therefore cannot plead our innocence at that great tribunal. But when we consider farther, that it is our Saviour who shall then sit upon the throne; that it is our Saviour to whom God hath committed the judging of us; our Saviour who knows our frame, who is sensible of all the difficulties we have to conflict with, as having Himself in the days of His flesh had sufficient experience of them, “He being in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin;” and that this Saviour of ours will not judge us according to the rigour of the Law, but according to that gracious allowance of the Gospel; the consideration of this will prove an effectual antidote against all the fears, and disquietudes, and despondencies we may lie under upon account of our own unworthiness. Let none of us, therefore, that heartily own our Lord Jesus and His religion, and honestly endeavour to live up to the laws of His Gospel, fright ourselves with such thoughts as these: How much shall I, poor wretch, dare to appear before the face of my Judge at the last day: I, who have so many sins to answer for? Let us but go on in the good course we are in: let us but hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, and daily apply to the throne of grace for strength and assistance against our corruptions; and to our prayers let us add our sincere endeavours to increase in virtue, and the longer we live still to grow better; and then I dare say, whatever sins we may have been guilty of, we shall not need to have any apprehension, or fear our condition on account of them, when we come to die: but we may with confidence appear before the tribunal of our Lord; and expect our part in that comfortable sentence, which He will at the last day pronounce to all His true disciples and followers: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” Mat_25:34.—M.]

[Cf. on 2Pe_3:10. H. Blair: On the dissolution of the world. Sermons, III.

2Pe_3:10-14. C. Simeon: The day of judgment. Works, XX., 349.

2Pe_3:11. John Owen: Providential changes an argument for universal holiness. 4 Serm. Works XVI., 220. Holiness urged from the liability of all things to dissolution. Works, (Goold), XVII., 524.

2Pe_3:13. Thomas Chalmers: The new heavens and the new earth. Works, VII., 280.

2Pe_3:15-16. W. Paley: Caution recommended in the use and application of Scripture language. Visit. Serm. Serm. and Tracts, I.

Chr. Wordsworth: Hulsean Lecture for 1847.

W. Barrow: On the mysterious doctrines of Christianity. Bampton Lecture, 221; Serm., I., 173.

C. Benson: Origin of Scripture difficulties. 1. Existence of Scripture difficulties vindicated. 26. Objections to the existence of difficulties in the Scriptures as an inspired work considered. 47. The existence of difficulties in Scripture not incompatible with their object as a religiously instructive work. 69. Classification of Scripture difficulties. 156. Minor difficulties in Genesis. Recapitulation and conclusion. Hulsean Lecture for 1822, 399.

T. Chevallier: The use of historical types authorized by Scripture; the advantages attending an inquiry into them; the danger of abuse, and rules of interpretation. Hulsean Lecture for 1826. 35.

2Pe_3:18. Jeremy Taylor: Of growth in grace, with its proper instruments and signs. 2 Sermons.—M.]

Footnotes:

[12]2Pe_3:10. ἡ omitted by Lachmann and Tisch. The Article is not wanted, because every body knows what sort of a day it is. cf. 2Pe_3:7; Php_1:6; Php_1:10; Php_2:16. [ἡ omitted in B. C.; inserted in Rec. with A. K. L., al.—M.]

[13]ἐν νυκτί omitted by Tischen. and al. [also in A. B., Sin.: al., Vulg., Syr., Copt., Arm., al.; inserted in C. K. L., Rec, Syr.—M.]

[14][ Omit οἱ before οὐρανοὶ, Sin., K. L., al.—Sin. and Cod. Colbert., insert μὲν after οὐρανοὶ.—M.]

[15][ Lachmann reads λυθήσεται; Tisch. with A. G. K. prefers λυθήσονται [Sin., B.C., read λυθήσεται.—M.]

[16] [ Sin. B. L., al., read εὑρεθήσεται for κατακαήσεται.—M.]

[German: “As a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a crashing roar, but the elements shall be dissolved in fire, and the earth and the works in it, shall be burned up.”

Translate: “As a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a rushing noise, but the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works in it shall be burned up.”—Dr. Lillie calls attention to the onomatopoeia in ῥοιζηδόν which most versions here sought to preserve. The word rushing, like the German ‘Geræusch’ (Stier) resembles ῥοιζηδόν most.—In λυθήσονται I have retained the Passive force with Vulg., Syr., de Wette, Alford and Lillie.—M.]

[17]2Pe_3:11. Tisch., with B. C., and many other authorities, reads οὓτως for οὖν; [οὖν, A. K. L., Vulg., al.—M.]

[18] [ ἡμᾶς, Sin.*—omits ὑμᾶς B.—M.]

[German: “Since then all these things are being dissolved, as what sort of persons ought ye to evidence yourselves in all manner of holy walk and godliness?”

Translate: “All these things being thus to be dissolved (Alford) what manner. ….”—M.]

[19] 2Pe_3:12. [ Sin. omits καὶ σπεύδοντ; but Tisch. marks the reading with *.—M.]

[German: “Expecting and hastening (so Alford, Bloomf., de Wette, Lillie) the coming of the day of God, for the sake of which (παρουσίαν) the heavens being on fire, shall dissolve (themselves), and the elements shall melt away with fervent heat.”

[20]2Pe_3:12. Translate: “.…… by reason of which (ἡμέραν understood, Alford), the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall be melted with a fervent heat (τακήσεται C. Vulg., Lachm., or retaining τήκεται as the present of destiny, render ‘are to be melted.’)”—M.]

[21]2Pe_3:13. [ The German dagegen, and nevertheless of E. V. objectionable on account of their strong adversative force and the emphasis they give to ἡμεῖς; better translate ‘but’ with most of the foreign versions, Alf., Hammond, Doddridge, Lillie.—M.]

[22]A. Lachm. read καὶ τὰ ἐπαγγελμάτα αὐτοῦ.—[Sin. τὰ ἐπεγγαλμάτα.—M.]

[23] [ Insert καινὴν before γῆν A. Vulg., al.—κενήν γῆν Sin.—M.]

2Pe_3:14. [German: “Wherefore, beloved, expecting these things, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless before Him in peace.”—M.]

[24] 2Pe_3:15. [ Rec. has αὐτῷ before δοθεῖσαν with L.; δοθεῖσαν αὐτῷ, A. B. C. K., Sin., al.—M.]

German: “Account your salvation.” Better in strict conformity to the Greek “And the longsuffering of our Lord account salvation———wrote unto you.”—M.]

[25]2Pe_3:16. [ ταῖς before ἐπιστολαῖς omitted in A. B. C. K., al., Vulg,. Syr., Alf.—M.], Lachm. and Tisch.

[26]Lachmann reads αἶς referring to ἐπιστολαῖς; Tischend., with A. G. K. prefers the reading οἶς. So de Wette. [ἐν αἶς, A. B., Sin.—M.]

[27][ German: “As he also does in all his Epistles, speaking in them of these things, among which are some things difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable distort, as also the other Scriptures to their own perdition.”—M.]

[28]2Pe_3:17. [ German: “Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing it before, beware, lest being led away together with the error of the lawless, ye fall from your own stedfastness.”—M.]

[29] 2Pe_3:18. [ German: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

Translate:—. “To Him the glory both now and to the day of eternity.”—M.]

Subscription: πετρου Β, A. B.Sin.; επιστολη πετρου ά και β́ Cod. Colbert.;—τουαγιου αποστολου πετρου επιστολη [δευτερα. L., al.; πετρου καθολικη. C.—M.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 29

"WHAT MANNER OF PERSONS OUGHT YE TO BE?"

2Pe_3:10-13

THE Apostle, ever earnest to put the brethren in mind of the things they had heard or read, never fails to follow his own precept. His thoughts perpetually go back to the words of Jesus, of which the passage before us is but one example out of many. "If the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched". {Luk_12:39} So spake Christ unto the disciples when urging them to be like unto servants that look for the coming of their lord. To the Masters parable St. Peter now gives its application: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief." He means first to mark the unexpected advent, which steals upon men when they least think of it. Sinners will have lulled themselves into security, and the thought farthest from their minds will be the all-important preparation. St. Paul uses the same figure in speaking of the same subject, {1Th_5:2} from which passage the words "in the night" have found their way into the text of St. Peter, to which, as the Revised Version indicates, they do not belong. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews the Apostle has defined the preparation which, joined with patience, should keep men in readiness for the certain advent: "Exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching." {Heb_10:25}

St. Peter passes on to tell of the terrors which shall attend on that day. Here also he has in mind the words of his Master, who, after a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, spake of that greater coming of the Son of man of which the overthrow of the Holy City was to be but a partial type: "There shall be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows, men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things that are coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken". {Luk_21:25-26; Mat_24:29} With the Lords language for his warrant, he paints, largely in the words of the prophets of old, the things which shall befall the world in that great and notable day: "In the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Isaiah had used like words of old: "All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll"; {Isa_34:4} and in another place he speaks {Isa_24:19} of the earth asutterly broken, clean dissolved, moved exceedingly; Micah has to proclaim the coming of the Lord, and he pictures it thus: "The mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire"; {Mic_1:4} and Nahum, describing the day of the Lord which he foresaw was coming upon Nineveh, says, "The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at His presence, yea, the world and all that dwelt therein." It is St. Peters, by the light of the words of Jesus, to read their full purport into these prophetic messages, and to teach those upon whom the ends of the ages are come that all these things will have their consummation in that coming of the Lord which shall be the close of these latter days.

When thus considered his description contains many striking details. "The heavens will pass away." Christ Himself had so spoken, not of heaven only, but of the earth also. His word was the same which Peter employs, but He used it in the same sentence thus: "My word will not pass away." {Mat_24:35} That is the one thing to which we may trust. All else will be destroyed or changed. Only those who are in Christ will be fit for the new order. For them old things are passed away; behold they are become new. {2Co_5:17} They have been purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and so can abide the day of Christs coming.

To describe the dread process he has a striking word, which, like so many of the Apostles expressions, is used nowhere else in the New Testament: "With a great noise" (ροιζηδον). It is applied to many sounds of terror: to the hurtling of weapons as they fly through the air; to the sound of a lash as it is brought down for the blow; to the rushing of waters; to the hissing of serpents. He has chosen it as if by it he would unite many horrors in one.

Then the thought of natures dissolution. All that was bound together at the Creation, and then received a law of cohesion which sustained it thenceforth, will be cast loose, the compacted world dissolved. These things have been thought of as emblems of stability. God hath made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved, {Psa_104:5} but He who made can also unmake. How foolish then must they be who bound their thoughts and aims by what the world can give, making themselves thereby of the earth, earthy, and so sure to fail when that is destroyed. And what are those works that are in the earth of which the Apostle speaks? Do the words mean no more than "the world and all that therein is," a phrase so common in Scripture? At first sight it appears so. But some most ancient manuscripts, instead of "shall be burned up," read "shall be discovered." Of this the Revised Version takes note on its margin. From this reading the mind goes to the words of the Preacher, "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil". {Ecc_12:14} The sense is thus bound closer with the coming of the day of the Lord.

"Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of 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" Luk_12:35-36. 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 {2Pe_1:6} 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. Peters word. The Authorized 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_16:5, where the Authorized 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 always, 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 laborers 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." {1Co_11:1} 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 kingdoms slow advance, St. Peters 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_65:17} 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 realize 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."

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

3:10 The very elements themselves might refer to the basic components of the physical universe or to the sun, moon, and stars. • will be found to deserve judgment: The Greek text here is difficult; the reading followed by the NLT probably means that creation will appear before God at the time of judgment, and he will find it to deserve his judgment.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Pe 3:10. Ἥξει) will be present.—οἱ οὐρανοὶ, the heavens) which the mockers say shall continue as they are, 2Pe 3:4.—ῥοιζηδὸν, with a great noise) The word ῥοῖζος has letters resembling the sound of an arrow in its flight, the trickling of water, etc.—στοιχεῖά, the elements) that is, the works which are in the heavens, as the following words show. The sun, the moon, and the stars, are often called στοιχεῖα, by Theophilus of Antioch, p. 22, 148, 228, and by others, whom Wolf has brought together in his edition, and whom Suicer has noticed, and Menage on Diogenes Laertius, vi. 102, they are called elementa by Jerome. As at the creation, so at the destruction of the world, the sun, the moon, and the stars, are accustomed especially to be mentioned, Mat 24:29; and they are certainly contained in some part of Peter’s representation, and especially in the word elements, rather than fire, air, water, and earth. For Peter makes mention of the earth separately, and under this he includes water, or even air (of which, however, the Scripture rarely makes mention, when speaking of the nature of things); fire will be that, by which the elements shall melt away. The same word is used, Wis 7:17. It is a most elegant metaphor. For as a letter on a parchment,[21] so is a star in the heaven.—ἔργα, the works of nature and art.

[21] Elementum was used of a letter of the Alphabet.—E.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe_3:10. ἥξει δὲ [ἡ] ἡμέρα κυρίου ὡς κλέπτης] ἥξει δέ stands first by way of emphasis, in contrast to what precedes: but come will the day of the Lord. These words express the certainty of the coming of the day of judgment, and ὡς κλέπτης its unexpected suddenness; cf. 1Th_5:2 (Mat_24:43): τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμέρας, 2Pe_3:12, shows that κυρίου is here also equivalent to Θεοῦ (not to Χριστοῦ; Schott).

ἐν ᾗ [οἱ] οὐρανοὶ ῥοιζηδὸν παρελεύσονται] This relative clause states the event of that day, which makes it essentially what it is (Schott). ῥοιζηδὸν, ἅπ. λεγ., equivalent to μετὰ ῥοίζου, is best taken in the sense peculiar to the word: with rushing swiftness (Wiesinger, Schott, Hofmann; Pape, s.v.); Oecumenius understands it of the crackling of the destroying fire; de Wette, on the other hand, of the crash of the falling together. With παρελεύσονται, cf. Mat_24:35; Mat_5:18; Luk_16:17; Rev_21:1. As to how the heavens shall pass away, see 2Pe_3:12.

στοιχεῖα δὲ καυσούμενα λυθήσονται] στοιχεῖα cannot refer to the so-called four elements, inasmuch as the dissolving of fire by means of fire is unthinkable (Brückner), and it is arbitrary to limit the idea to three (Hornejus), or to two (Estius) elements; as now the position of the words shows that the expression has reference neither to the earth afterwards named, nor to the world as made up of heaven and earth (Pott: elementa totius mundi tam coeli quam terrae; thus, too, Brückner: the primary substances of which the world, as an organism, is composed; similarly Wiesinger, Schott), it must be understood of the constituent elements of the heavens, corresponding to the expression: αἱ δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν, Isa_34:4; Mat_24:29 (cf. Meyer in loc.). This view is justified by the circumstance that in the preceding οἱ οὐρανοὶ … παρελεύσονται no mention has as yet been made of the destruction of heaven and earth by fire. At variance with this view, Hofmann understands the expression στοιχεῖα here as a designation of the stars, arbitrarily asserting that στοιχεῖα cannot be only original component parts, but must also be prominent points which dominate that by which they are surrounded,appealing to Justin (Apolog. ii. c. 5, and Dial. c. Tr. c. 23), who speaks of the stars as στοιχεῖα οὐράνια. To this view it may be objected, that the author could not picture to himself a burning of the stars, which appeared to him as fiery bodies; neither do any of the corresponding passages of Scripture allude to this.

The verb καυσοῦσθαι only here and in 2Pe_3:12 : to burn; in the classics: to suffer from heat; the participle expresses the reason of the λυθήσονται: will be dissolved by the burning. λύειν, in the sense of: to destroy, to bring to nothing, Eph_2:14; 1Jn_3:8,very appropriate here if στοιχεῖα be the original elements.

καὶ γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ ἔργα κατακαήσεται] τὰ ἔργα are neither the wicked works of man (after 1Co_3:15), nor his works in general (Rosenmüller, Steinfass, Hofmann); the reference may be either to the opera naturae et artis (Bengel, Dietlein: the manifold forms which appear on the earths surface, in contrast to the earth as a whole; thus also Brückner, Wiesinger, Schott, Fronmüller); or the expression may be synonymous with that which frequently occurs in the O. T.: ἡ γῆ καὶ τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτῆς, that is to say, the creations of God which belong to the earth, as they are related in the history of creation, cf. Rev_10:6. Hofmann wrongly urges against this view, that on it τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ would be sufficient; for even though this be true, it does not follow that the addition of the word ἔργα would prove that it is the works of men that are here meant. With reference to the reading εὑρεθήσεται, instead of the Rec. κατακαήσεται (see critical remarks), Hofmann regards it as original, and considers the words καὶ τὰ … εὑρεθήσεται as an interrogative clause subjoined to the preceding affirmative clause. Of course an interrogative clause may be subjoined to an affirmative; but when Hofmann, in support of his interpretation, appeals to 1Co_5:2, he fails to observe that the relation between the statement and the question there is entirely different from that which is supposed to exist here.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe 3:10 . ἡμέρα Κυρίου . No distinction is made between the Day of the Lord, and the Coming of Christ. This is remarkable, as excluding any idea of millenarian teaching, which speedily made its appearance in the Early Church, is ὡς κλέπτης , cf. 1Th 5:2 , Mat 24:43 , Luk 12:39 , Rev 3:3 ; Rev 16:15 . That day will surprise those who are clinging to the idea that no change is possible. ῥοιζηδὸν , onomatopoetic, expressing the sound produced by rapid motion through the air, e.g. , flight of a bird, or an arrow. It is also used of the sound of a shepherd’s pipe. No doubt the sound of a fierce flame is meant. “It is used of thunder in Luc. Jup. Trag. 1; of the music of the spheres in Iamblich, Vit. Pyth. c. 15; Oecumenius says the word is especially used of the noise caused by a devouring flame” (Mayor, ed. p. 157). στοιχεῖα . Spitta interprets στ . as being the spirits that preside over the various parts of nature. But the situation of στ . between γῆ and οὐρανοὶ makes it practically certain that the heavenly bodies are meant. The universe consists of οὐρανοὶ , στοιχεῖα and γῆ . οὐρανοὶ is the vault of heaven,“the skies”. στ . would therefore mean sun, moon and stars. Cf. Justin. Apol. 2Pe 2:5 , Trypho. 23. Cf. Isa 34:4 , Joe 2:30-31 , Mat 24:29 , Rev 6:12-14 in illustration of the Jewish belief that the stars will share in the final destruction of the Last Day. καυσούμενα . A medical term, used of the heat of fever ( καῦσος ). This is the only known use of the word applied to inanimate objects. Whether the writer of 2 Peter has here indulged a fondness for unusual words, or whether καυσόομαι was ever used in other than a medical sense in the Κοινὴ , it is impossible as yet to say. In any case it denotes a violent consuming heat. εὑρεθήσεται . The only alternative reading that is worthy of notice in connexion with this difficult passage is κατα καήσεται , but one would expect a word expressing dissolution, like παρελεύσονται , or λυθήσεται . εὑρεθήσεται is found in an absolute sense in Clement, Cor. 9:3 (of Enoch) οὐχ εὑρέθη αὐτοῦ θάνατος , “his death was not brought to light”. In 2 Clem. xvi. (see textual note) φανήσεται is the paraphrase of εὑρεθήσεται ( cf. Introd. pp. 90 f.).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A very short description of the least distinction of the world, but in such sort as nothing could be spoken more gravely.

With the violence as it were of a hissing storm.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The certainty, suddenness, and concomitant effects, of the coming of the day of the Lord. FABER argues from this that the millennium, &c., must precede Christ's literal coming, not follow it. But "the day of the Lord" comprehends the whole series of events, beginning with the pre-millennial advent, and ending with the destruction of the wicked, and final conflagration, and general judgment (which last intervenes between the conflagration and the renovation of the earth).

will--emphatical. But (in spite of the mockers, and notwithstanding the delay) come and be present the day of the Lord SHALL.

as a thief--Peter remembers and repeats his Lord's image (Luk 12:39, Luk 12:41) used in the conversation in which he took a part; so also Paul (Th1 5:2) and John (Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15).

the heavens--which the scoffers say' shall "continue" as they are (Pe2 3:4; Mat 24:35; Rev 21:1).

with a great noise--with a rushing noise, like that of a whizzing arrow, or the crash of a devouring flame.

elements--the component materials of the world [WAHL]. However, as "the works" in the earth are mentioned separately from "the earth," so it is likely by "elements," mentioned after "the heavens," are meant "the works therein," namely, the sun, moon, and stars (as THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH [p. 22, 148, 228]; and JUSTIN MARTYR [Apology, 2.44], use the word "elements"): these, as at creation, so in the destruction of the world, are mentioned [BENGEL]. But as "elements" is not so used in Scripture Greek, perhaps it refers to the component materials of "the heavens," including the heavenly bodies; it clearly belongs to the former clause, "the heavens," not to the following, "the earth," &c.

melt--be dissolved, as in Pe2 3:11.

the works . . . therein--of nature and of art.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. The day of the Lord will come] See Mt 24:43, to which the apostle seems to allude.

The heavens shall pass away with a great noise] As the heavens mean here, and in the passages above, the whole atmosphere, in which all the terrestrial vapours are lodged; and as water itself is composed of two gases, eighty-five parts in weight of oxygen, and fifteen of hydrogen, or two parts in volume of the latter, and one of the former; (for if these quantities be put together, and several electric sparks passed through them, a chemical union takes place, and water is the product; and, vice versa, if the galvanic spark be made to pass through water, a portion of the fluid is immediately decomposed into its two constituent gases, oxygen and hydrogen;) and as the electric or ethereal fire is that which, in all likelihood, God will use in the general conflagration; the noise occasioned by the application of this fire to such an immense congeries of aqueous particles as float in the atmosphere, must be terrible in the extreme. Put a drop of water on an anvil, place over it a piece of iron red hot, strike the iron with a hammer on the part above the drop of water, and the report will be as loud as a musket; when, then, the whole strength of those opposite agents is brought together into a state of conflict, the noise, the thunderings, the innumerable explosions, (till every particle of water on the earth and in the atmosphere is, by the action of the fire, reduced into its component gaseous parts,) will be frequent, loud, confounding, and terrific, beyond every comprehension but that of God himself.

The elements shalt melt with fervent heat] When the fire has conquered and decomposed the water, the elements, στοιχεια, the hydrogen and oxygen airs or gases, (the former of which is most highly inflammable, and the latter an eminent supporter of all combustion,) will occupy distinct regions of the atmosphere, the hydrogen by its very great levity ascending to the top, while the oxygen from its superior specific gravity will keep upon or near the surface of the earth; and thus, if different substances be once ignited, the fire, which is supported in this case, not only by the oxygen which is one of the constituents of atmospheric air, but also by a great additional quantity of oxygen obtained from the decomposition of all aqueous vapours, will rapidly seize on all other substances, on all terrestrial particles, and the whole frame of nature will be necessarily torn in pieces, and thus the earth and its works be burned up.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. But the day of the Lord will come. This has been added, that the faithful might be always watching, and not promise to-morrow to themselves. For we all labor under two very different evils — too much haste, and slothfulness. We are seized with impatience for the day of Christ already expected; at the same time we securely regard it as afar off. As, then, the Apostle has before reproved an unreasonable ardor, so he now shakes off our sleepiness, so that we may attentively expect Christ at all times, lest we should become idle and negligent, as it is usually the case. For whence is it that flesh indulges itself except that there is no thought of the near coming of Christ?

What afterwards follows, respecting the burning of heaven and earth, requires no long explanation, if indeed we duly consider what is intended. For it was not his purpose to speak refinedly of fire and storm, and other things, but only that he might introduce an exhortation, which he immediately adds, even that we ought to strive after newness of life. For he thus reasons, that as heaven and earth are to be purged by fire, that they may correspond with the kingdom of Christ, hence the renovation of men is much more necessary. Mischievous, then, are those interpreters who consume much labor on refined speculations, since the Apostle applies his doctrine to godly exhortations.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(10) The certainty and possible nearness of Christ’s coming is the basis of the preceding warning and of the exhortations which follow.

As a thief in the night.—Suddenly and without warning. The words are an echo of Mat_24:43, a saying which St. Peter certainly heard (Mar_13:3), or possibly of 1Th_5:2, which may easily be included in the Epistles referred to below in 2Pe_3:16. The words “in the night” are here wanting in authority.

The heavens shall pass away.—Again an apparent reminiscence of the discourse in Matthew 24 (where comp. Mat_24:35)—the third such reminiscence in this chapter (see preceding Note, and on 2Pe_3:7). This repeated reproduction of words and ideas from one of the most impressive of Christ’s discourses, which only St. Peter and three others seem to have heard, may fairly be added to the evidence in favour of the authenticity of the Epistle.

With a great noise.—Better, with a rushing noise. The expression occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, but some such idea as that in Isa_34:4, Rev_6:14, is probably indicated—not the roar of flames or the crash of ruins, but the parting and rolling up of the heavens. (Comp. Rev_20:11.)

The elements shall melt with fervent heat.—The meaning of “elements” here is much disputed. (See Notes on the word in Gal_4:3; Gal_4:9.) The difficulty of supposing fire to be destroyed by fire seems to exclude the four elements being intended; moreover, the earth is mentioned separately. Hence, some take “the elements” to mean water and air, the two remaining elements; but this is not very satisfactory. More probably, the various forms of matter in the universe are intended, without any thought of indicating what they are precisely. But seeing that Justin Martyr calls the sun, moon, and stars “heavenly elements” (Apol. II. v., Trypho, xxiii.), and that in predictions of the last day frequent mention is made of “signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars” (Mat_24:29; Mar_13:24; Luk_21:25; Isa_13:10; Isa_24:23; Joe_2:31, &c), it is possible that the heavenly bodies are meant here, all the more so, as the mention of these “elements” immediately follows that of the heavens. Bengel (perhaps with more poetry than correctness) ingeniously connects this explanation with the radical signification of the word, viz., “letters of the alphabet,” “for stars in the heaven are as letters on a scroll.” (Comp. Rev_6:14.) “Shall melt” should rather be, as in the next two verses, shall be dissolved. Wiclif has “dissolved,” Rheims “resolved.” This dissolution is the opposite of the consistency spoken of in 2Pe_3:5. In 2Pe_3:12 “melt” is correct, and suits the heavenly bodies better than the four elements. (Comp. The Second Epistle of Clement, xvi. 3.)

The earth also and the works that are therein.—Equivalent to “the earth and the fulness thereof,” “works” being used in a comprehensive sense for products both of nature and art. The moral work of each individual is not meant; consequently, a reference to 1Co_3:13 is misleading. The two passages have little in common, and nothing is gained by bringing in the difficulties of the other passage here. In this passage the Apostle is stating plainly and in detail what some of the Prophets of the Old Testament had set forth in general and sometimes obscure language—that a judgment by fire is in store for the world (Isa_66:15-16; Isa_66:24; Mal_3:1-3; Mal_4:1).

Shall be burned up.—The question of readings here is one of known difficulty. One important MS. has “shall vanish away” (Jas_4:14); two first-rate MSS. and other authorities have “shall be found.” The later Syriac has “shall not be found,” which is pretty nearly equivalent to “shall vanish away,” and is sometimes given as exactly equivalent to it. “Shall be found,” the reading most strongly attested, is summarily rejected by some editors as yielding no sense. The theory that it has grown out of the Latin for “shall be burned up”—eurethesetai out of exurentur—does not seem very probable. Nor is it true that it yields no sense By placing a colon at “also,” and making what follows a question, we obtain—The elements shall be dissolved, the earth also: and shall the works that are therein be found? Happily, nothing of importance turns on the reading; all the variations amount practically to the same thing—that the elements, the earth, and all that is in it, shall be destroyed.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night …] The confidence of the Apostle that this will be the end of the history of the human race is not shaken by the seeming “slackness” in its approach. Either reproducing the thought which he had heard from his Master’s lips (Mat_24:43), or echoing the very words of St Paul (1Th_5:2), he declares that it will come, and will come suddenly, when men are not looking for it.

the heavens shall pass away with a great noise] The last four words answer to one Greek adverb, not found elsewhere, which implies the “whizzing” or “rushing” sound of an arrow hurtling through the air (Hom. Il. xvi. 361). The “heavens” (in the plural, after the common mode of speech both in the Old and New Testament) shall, in that great day, be the scene of a great convulsion. We have here obviously the same thought as in Mat_24:29, but the mind of the Apostle, now rising to the character of an apocalyptic seer, beholds in that convulsion not a work of destruction only, but one of renovation. Comp. a like picture of the end of the world’s history in Rev_20:11; Rev_21:1.

the elements shall melt with fervent heat] The word “elements” may possibly stand for what were so called in some of the physical theories of the time, the fire, air, earth, water, out of which all existing phenomena were believed to be evolved (comp. Wis_19:18). The word was, however, used a little later on for what we call the “heavenly bodies,” sun, moon, and stars (Justin Mart. Apol. ii. 4. 4), and that meaning, seeing that the “elements” are distinguished from the “earth,” and that one of the four elements is to be the instrument of destruction, is probably the meaning here.

the earth also and the works that are therein] The use of the word “works” suggests the thought that the Apostle had chiefly in view all that man had wrought out on the surface of the globe; his cities, palaces, monuments, or the like. The comprehensive term may, however, include “works” as the “deeds” of men, of which St Paul says that they shall all be tried by fire (1Co_3:13).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,.... That is, the Lord will come in that day, which he has fixed, according to his promise, than which nothing is more certain; and he will come as a thief in the night: he will come "in the night", which may be literally understood; for as his first coming was in the night; see Luk 2:8; so perhaps his second coming may be in the night season; or figuratively, when it will be a time of great darkness; when there will be little faith in the earth, and both the wise and foolish virgins will be slumbering and sleeping; when it will be a season of great security, as it was in the days of Noah, and at the time of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, leave out the phrase, "in the night": and the Alexandrian copy uses the emphatic article, "in the night": and he will come, "as a thief", in the dark, indiscernibly; it will not be known what hour he will come; he will come suddenly, at an unawares, when he is not expected, to the great surprise of men, and especially of the scoffers; when the following awful things will be done:

in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise; not the third heaven, the seat of angels and glorified saints, and even of God himself; but the starry and airy heavens, which shall pass away, not as to their matter and substance, but as to some of their accidents and qualities, and the present use of them; and that with a great noise, like that of a violent storm, or tempest; though the Ethiopic version renders it, "without a noise"; and which is more agreeable to his coming as a thief, which is not with noise, but in as still a manner as possible; and some learned men observe, that the word signifies swiftly, as well as with a noise; and, accordingly, the Syriac version renders it "suddenly"; and the Arabic version "presently", immediately; that is, as soon as Christ shall come, immediately, at once, from his face shall the earth and heavens flee away, as John in a vision saw, Rev 20:11;

and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: not what are commonly called the four elements, earth, air, tire, and water, the first principles of all things: the ancient philosophers distinguished between principles and elements; principles, they say (h), are neither generated, nor corrupted; "but the elements will be corrupted, or destroyed by the conflagration"; which exactly agrees with what the apostle here says: by the elements seem to be meant the host of heaven, being distinguished from the heavens, as the works of the earth are distinguished from the earth in the next clause; and design the firmament, or expanse, with the sun, moon, and stars in it, which will be purged and purified by this liquefaction by fire;

the earth also will be purged and purified from everything that is noxious, hurtful, unnecessary, and disagreeable; though the matter and substance of it will continue:

and the works that are therein shall be burnt up; all the works of nature, wicked men, cattle, trees, &c. and all the works of men, cities, towns, houses, furniture, utensils, instruments of arts of all sorts, will be burnt by a material fire, breaking out of the earth and descending from heaven, for which the present heavens and earth are reserved: this general conflagration was not only known to the Jews, but to the Heathens, to the poets, and Platonist and Stoic philosophers, who frequently (i) speak of it in plain terms. Some are of opinion that these words refer to the destruction of Jerusalem; and so the passing away of the heavens may design the removal of their church state and ordinances, Heb 12:26, and the melting of the elements the ceasing of the ceremonial law, called the elements of the world, Gal 4:3, and the burning of the earth the destruction of the land of Judea, expressed in such a manner in Deu 29:23, and particularly of the temple, and the curious works in that, which were all burnt up and destroyed by fire, though Titus endeavoured to prevent it, but could not (k): which sense may be included, inasmuch as there was a promise of Christ's coming to destroy the Jewish nation, and was expected; and which destruction was a prelude of the destruction of the world, and is sometimes expressed in such like language as that is; but then this must not take place, to the exclusion of the other sense: and whereas this sense makes the words to he taken partly in a figurative, and partly in a literal way; and seeing the heavens and the earth are in the context only literally taken, the former sense is to be preferred; and to which best agrees the following use to be made of these things.

(h) Diog. Laert. l. 7. in Vita Zenonis. (i) Vid. Diog. Laert ib. & l. 9. in Vita Heraclit. & Hesych. de Philos. p. 36. Arrian. Epict. l. 3. c. 13. Phurut. de Natura Deorum, p. 39. Ovid. Metamorph, fab. 7. Min. Felix, p. 37. & Justin. Martyr. Apol. 2. p. 66. (k) Vid. Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 9, 10. & l. 7. c. 14, 16.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Ver. 10. The heavens shall pass, &c.] The very visible heavens are defiled with men’s sins, Rev 18:5, and must therefore be purged by fire; as the vessel that held the sin offering was in the time of the law.

With a great noise] ροιζηδον, such a noise as the sea makes in a great storm, or like the hissing of parchment shrivelled up with heat, as others make the comparison.

Shall be burnt up] This the very heathens knew in part, as appears by the writings of Lucretius, Cicero do Natura Deorum, Ovid’s Metam. lib. i.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The heavens, &c. He puts the faithful in mind not to regard these profane scoffers, but to be convinced of the truths revealed, and that the world shall be destroyed a second time by fire. Reflect that the time of this life, and all the time that this world shall last, is nothing to eternity, which has no parts, no beginning, nor end; so that in the sight of God, who is eternal, a thousand years are no more to be regarded than one day, or one moment. The long time that hath hitherto passed, must not make you think that God is slack as to his promises, or that they shall not infallibly come to pass at the time and moment appointed by his divine providence. God’s infinite mercy, and his love for mankind, bears patiently with the provocations of blind and unthinking sinners, not willing that any of them should perish, but that they should return to him by a sincere repentance and true penance, and be saved. But watch always, according to the repeated admonition of our blessed Redeemer. (Mark xiii. 37. &c.) For both the day of your death, and the day of the Lord to judge the world, will come like a thief, &c. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

But the day of the Lord; the day of judgment is here called the day of the Lord by way of eminence, as the great day, Jud 1:6, and the great day of God Almighty, Rev 16:14, and the day of the Lord Jesus, 1Co 1:8; 5:5; 2Co 1:14; Phi 1:6,10.

Will come as a thief in the night; as a thief comes suddenly and unexpectedly, when he thinks all in the house are most secure.

In the which the heavens; viz. those that are visible, in distinction from the empyreal heaven, or place of glorified spirits.

Shall pass away; either wholly, so as to cease to be; or rather, as to their present being and condition, so as to cease to be what they now are, and to give place to the new heaven, Rev 21:1. The same word is used, Mat 24:35; Luk 16:17.

With a great noise; either swiftly and violently, or with such a noise as is usually caused by such violent and speedy motions.

The elements, in a natural sense, as integral parts of the universe, air, water, earth.

Shall melt with fervent heat; so 2Pe 3:12, where another word is used in the Greek, which properly signifies melting, or being on fire, or burning, shall be dissolved or destroyed. So the word signifies, Joh 2:19; 1Jo 3:8.

The earth also; the habitable part of the world. Though the earth, as a part of the world, be included in the elements before mentioned, yet here it may be taken with respect to its inhabitants, and the things contained in it.

And the works that are therein shall be burned up; not only artificial, men’s works, but natural, all that variety of creatures, animate and inanimate, wherewith God hath stored this lower world for the present use of man; and so all those delectable things in which carnal men seek their happiness.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. Will come—With an emphatic will. For what we may call the Apocalypse of St. Paul, we look to 1Co_15:22-57; 2Th_1:7-10; and 2Th_2:3-8. And so we find the Apocalypse of St. Peter in this chapter, 5-13. But it was reserved for St. John to furnish the great Apocalypse of the New Testament. All three supply special points, but all three agree in the great sublime whole.

As a thief—With a sudden surprise to the sceptic scoffers. It will catch them in the midst of their scoffs, and rob them of their argument.

The heavens shall pass away— Note that the passing away is not of the earth, but of the atmospheric heavens of our earth. The visible heavens, as seen to the terrene spectator, are seen to be swept away. They vanish as a scroll. Compare descriptions of the same scene in Rev_6:12-17; Rev_20:11-15; Mat_25:31-46.

With a great noise—The Greek word ροιζηδον expresses the whiz or friction of the air or other substance, as by a bird’s wing or other sudden motion. It seems intended to describe the sound effected by a most violent collision of the atmospheric forces, or perhaps of the rushing earth and the air.

The elements—Of which the material earth is composed. We have no reason to suppose that the solar system will be involved in the dissolution of our earth.

Melt with fervent heat—Greek, the elements about-being-burned will be fused. The particles composing the material earth will be separated by the heat, and be ready for reconstruction into new and more perfect forms.

Earth… and… works… therein—As an effect of the divided elements the surface-earth, and all its contents, are consumed and forever disappear. The theatre of human history goes down into non-existence. In the matter of consumption of the earth by physical fire, St. Paul and St. Peter agree; but John is silent. The “lake of fire” of St. John does not seem to belong to the same category, but is analogous to Gehenna, the figurative image of divine wrath exerted in penalty.

The expectation of the destruction of the world by a diluvium ignis— deluge of fire—analogous to the diluvium aquae—deluge of water—was a traditional idea among the ancients, both poets and philosophers, especially the Stoics. We give passages from Wetstein. The philosopher Seneca says: “At that time the foam of the sea, released from laws, was borne on without restraint. By what cause, do you inquire? By the same cause by which the conflagration will take place when to God it seems good to establish a better order of things, and to close the old. Water and fire rule terrene things: from the former comes origination; from the latter, destruction.”

Cicero says: “Our philosophers suppose that at last the whole world will take fire, when, the moisture being consumed, neither the earth can be nourished nor the air circulate, so that nothing will be left but fire; from which, again, under the animating power of God, a renovation of the earth will take place, and the same fair order will be reproduced.”

Eusebius says: “It is the opinion of the Stoic philosophers, that all substance should go into fire, as a seed, and from it again should spring the same organization as before.”

Lenormant, the eminent French archaeologist and historian, (Contemporary Review, Nov. 1879,) says: “The result, then, of this long review authorizes us to affirm the story of the deluge to be a universal tradition among all the branches of the human race, with one exception, however, of the black. Now a recollection thus precise and concordant cannot be a myth voluntarily invented. No religious or cosmogonic myth presents this character of universality. It must arise from the reminiscence of a real and terrible event, so powerfully impressing the imagination of the first ancestors of our race as never to have been forgotten by their descendants. This cataclysm must have occurred near the first cradle of mankind, and before the dispersion of the families from which the principal races were to spring.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the day of the Lord will come. The word hxei, will come, stands emphatically at the beginning of the clause; whatever the mockers may say, whatever may happen, come certainly will the day of the Lord. "The day of the Lord" meets us often in the prophets; it is usually associated with the thought of judgment (see Isa_2:12; Ezekiel (Joe_1:15; Mal_3:2) In the New Testament it signifies the second advent of Christ (1Th_5:2; 1Co_1:8; Php_1:6; 2Th_2:2) As a thief in the night. The best manuscripts omit here "in the night." St. Peter is evidently echoing the Lord"s words in that great prophetic discourse on the Mount of Olives, which must have made such a deep impression upon the apostles. This illustration of the sudden coming of the thief is repeated not only by St. Peter here, but also by St. Paul, (1Th_5:2) and twice by St. (Rev_3:3 and Rev_16:15) In the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. The Greek for "with a great noise (rJoizhdon)" occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and is one of those remarkable poetic forms which are not unfrequent in this Epistle: the noun rJoizov is used of the whizzing of arrows, of the rush of wings, of the sound of mighty winds or roaring waters. It may be understood here of the crash of a falling world or of the roar of the destroying flames. The word rendered "pass away" is that used by our Lord in the prophecy just referred to Mat_24:35; also in Mat_5:18 and in Luk_16:17. And the elements shall melt with fervent heat. It is uncertain whether by "the elements" (stoiceia) St. Peter means the four elements (in the old and popular use of the word), or the great constituent parts of the universe, the heavenly bodies. Against the first view is the assertion that one of those elements is to be the agent of destruction. But the word rendered "melt" means "shall be dissolved" or "loosed;" and it may be, as Bishop Wordsworth says, that "St. Peter"s meaning seems to be that the stoiceia, elements or rudiments, of which the universe is composed and compacted, will be loosed; that is, the framework of the world will be disorganized; and this is the sense of stoiceia in the LXX (RAPC Wis 7:17 19:17) and in Hippolytus, "Philos.," pages 219, 318. The dissolution is contrasted with the consistency described by the word sunestwsa in verse 5. The heavens are reserved for fire, and will pass away with a rushing noise, and, being set on fire, will be dissolved; the elements will be on fire and melt, and he reduced to a state of confusion; the earth and the works therein will be burnt up. There does not seem, therefore, to be any cause for abandoning the common meaning of stoiceia, the elemental principles of which the universe is made." On the other hand, the word stoiceia is certainly used of the heavenly bodies by Justin Martyr ("Apolog.," 2. c. 5, and "Dial. cum Tryphon," c. 23); and the heavenly bodies are constantly mentioned in the descriptions of the awful convulsions of the great day (Mat_24:29; Mar_13:24; Luk_21:25; Act_2:20; Rev_6:12, etc.) The objection that the word does not bear this meaning elsewhere in Holy Scripture is of little weight, as this is the only place in which it has a physical sense. The literal translation of the clause is, "The elements, being scorched, shall be dissolved." The word for "being scorched" (kausoumena) occurs in the New Testament only here and in verse 12; it is used by the Greek physicians of the burning heat of fever. The verb luqhsetai means "shall be dissolved or loosened." The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. By "the works that are therein" St. Peter seems to mean all the works both of God and of man, "opera naturae et artis" (Bengel). There is a very remarkable reading here (supported by the Sinaitic and Vatican and another uncial manuscript), euJreqhsetai, "shall be discovered," instead of katakahsetai, "shall be burned up." If we understand "the works that are therein" of man"s works and actions, this reading will give a good sense. (comp. 1Co_3:13, "Every man"s work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man"s work, of what sort it is Or the clause may be regarded as interrogative, "Shall the earth and the works that are therein be found?" But the reading, "shall be burned up" is well supported, and suits the context best.

Vers. 10-13.

Destiny and duty.

This passage is woven to the preceding by a link so clear and close that there is no need for indicating it. But we proceed to notice

I THE CERTAINTY AND YET THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE PASSING AWAY OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF THINGS.

1. What will "pass away"? "Heavens;" i.e., firmament. "Elements;" not the forces we usually so name, because they include "fire," which is here the revolutionary force; but, according to Farrar and others, "the orbs of heaven.

2. How shall they "pass away"? "Dissolved," not destroyed. Fresh forms. Whether this be literal, as with the Flood, or wider and figurative, so as to include institutions, empires, and all that "the world" is to us, is an open question.

3. The certainty of all passing away. The fact is certain.

4. The uncertainty. The date is uncertain. "As a thief;" not as to wrongfulness, but unexpectedness. "At such an hour as ye think not is the true answer to all chronological theories about "the end.

II THE GLORY OF THE FUTURE AFTER THAT STUPENDOUS EVENT HAS HAPPENED. It is not the catastrophe, or climax, but the prologue and dawn. It leads not to annihilation, but restoration and purification.

1. A new system of things. "New heavens and new earth." Fresh, in contrast to worn out. Scars and wounds all gone.

2. The true principle dominant in the new system righteousness." Probably not more material grandeur or loveliness than now, but pervaded with rectitude man right with God, man right with man, man right with himself.

1. The permanence of this pervasive righteousness. Wherein "dwelleth." Not, as now and here, often an alien, frequently a stronger, at best a visitor; but the new system of things will be its home. That is

1. its fitting,

2. its h appy,

3. its permanent abode.

1. All this rests on a Divine "promise. This indicates

1. God"s pity;

2. God"s prescience;

3. God"s power.

The tones of this promise are manifold and harmonious, from Jonah down to Peter. U.R.T. But the day of the Lord will come. The word hxei, will come, stands emphatically at the beginning of the clause; whatever the mockers may say, whatever may happen, come certainly will the day of the Lord. "The day of the Lord" meets us often in the prophets; it is usually associated with the thought of judgment (see Isa_2:12; Ezekiel (Joe_1:15; Mal_3:2) In the New Testament it signifies the second advent of Christ (1Th_5:2; 1Co_1:8; Php_1:6; 2Th_2:2) As a thief in the night. The best manuscripts omit here "in the night." St. Peter is evidently echoing the Lord"s words in that great prophetic discourse on the Mount of Olives, which must have made such a deep impression upon the apostles. This illustration of the sudden coming of the thief is repeated not only by St. Peter here, but also by St. Paul, (1Th_5:2) and twice by St. (Rev_3:3 and Rev_16:15) In the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. The Greek for "with a great noise (rJoizhdon)" occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and is one of those remarkable poetic forms which are not unfrequent in this Epistle: the noun rJoizov is used of the whizzing of arrows, of the rush of wings, of the sound of mighty winds or roaring waters. It may be understood here of the crash of a falling world or of the roar of the destroying flames. The word rendered "pass away" is that used by our Lord in the prophecy just referred to Mat_24:35; also in Mat_5:18 and in Luk_16:17. And the elements shall melt with fervent heat. It is uncertain whether by "the elements" (stoiceia) St. Peter means the four elements (in the old and popular use of the word), or the great constituent parts of the universe, the heavenly bodies. Against the first view is the assertion that one of those elements is to be the agent of destruction. But the word rendered "melt" means "shall be dissolved" or "loosed;" and it may be, as Bishop Wordsworth says, that "St. Peter"s meaning seems to be that the stoiceia, elements or rudiments, of which the universe is composed and compacted, will be loosed; that is, the framework of the world will be disorganized; and this is the sense of stoiceia in the LXX (RAPC Wis 7:17 19:17) and in Hippolytus, "Philos.," pages 219, 318. The dissolution is contrasted with the consistency described by the word sunestwsa in verse 5. The heavens are reserved for fire, and will pass away with a rushing noise, and, being set on fire, will be dissolved; the elements will be on fire and melt, and he reduced to a state of confusion; the earth and the works therein will be burnt up. There does not seem, therefore, to be any cause for abandoning the common meaning of stoiceia, the elemental principles of which the universe is made." On the other hand, the word stoiceia is certainly used of the heavenly bodies by Justin Martyr ("Apolog.," 2. c. 5, and "Dial. cum Tryphon," c. 23); and the heavenly bodies are constantly mentioned in the descriptions of the awful convulsions of the great day (Mat_24:29; Mar_13:24; Luk_21:25; Act_2:20; Rev_6:12, etc.) The objection that the word does not bear this meaning elsewhere in Holy Scripture is of little weight, as this is the only place in which it has a physical sense. The literal translation of the clause is, "The elements, being scorched, shall be dissolved." The word for "being scorched" (kausoumena) occurs in the New Testament only here and in verse 12; it is used by the Greek physicians of the burning heat of fever. The verb luqhsetai means "shall be dissolved or loosened." The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. By "the works that are therein" St. Peter seems to mean all the works both of God and of man, "opera naturae et artis" (Bengel). There is a very remarkable reading here (supported by the Sinaitic and Vatican and another uncial manuscript), euJreqhsetai, "shall be discovered," instead of katakahsetai, "shall be burned up." If we understand "the works that are therein" of man"s works and actions, this reading will give a good sense. (comp. 1Co_3:13, "Every man"s work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man"s work, of what sort it is Or the clause may be regarded as interrogative, "Shall the earth and the works that are therein be found?" But the reading, "shall be burned up" is well supported, and suits the context best.

Vers. 10-13.

Destiny and duty.

This passage is woven to the preceding by a link so clear and close that there is no need for indicating it. But we proceed to notice

I THE CERTAINTY AND YET THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE PASSING AWAY OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF THINGS.

1. What will "pass away"? "Heavens;" i.e., firmament. "Elements;" not the forces we usually so name, because they include "fire," which is here the revolutionary force; but, according to Farrar and others, "the orbs of heaven.

2. How shall they "pass away"? "Dissolved," not destroyed. Fresh forms. Whether this be literal, as with the Flood, or wider and figurative, so as to include institutions, empires, and all that "the world" is to us, is an open question.

3. The certainty of all passing away. The fact is certain.

4. The uncertainty. The date is uncertain. "As a thief;" not as to wrongfulness, but unexpectedness. "At such an hour as ye think not is the true answer to all chronological theories about "the end.

II THE GLORY OF THE FUTURE AFTER THAT STUPENDOUS EVENT HAS HAPPENED. It is not the catastrophe, or climax, but the prologue and dawn. It leads not to annihilation, but restoration and purification.

1. A new system of things. "New heavens and new earth." Fresh, in contrast to worn out. Scars and wounds all gone.

2. The true principle dominant in the new system righteousness." Probably not more material grandeur or loveliness than now, but pervaded with rectitude man right with God, man right with man, man right with himself.

1. The permanence of this pervasive righteousness. Wherein "dwelleth." Not, as now and here, often an alien, frequently a stronger, at best a visitor; but the new system of things will be its home. That is

1. its fitting,

2. its h appy,

3. its permanent abode.

1. All this rests on a Divine "promise. This indicates

1. God"s pity;

2. God"s prescience;

3. God"s power.

The tones of this promise are manifold and harmonious, from Jonah down to Peter. U.R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief - Suddenly, unexpectedly. In which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise - Surprisingly expressed by the very sound of the original word. The elements shall melt with fervent heat - The elements seem to mean, the sun, moon, and stars; not the four, commonly so called; for air and water cannot melt, and the earth is mentioned immediately after. The earth and all the works - Whether of nature or art. That are therein shall be burned up - And has not God already abundantly provided for this?

1. By the stores of subterranean fire which are so frequently bursting out at Aetna, Vesuvius, Hecla, and many other burning mountains.

2. By the ethereal (vulgarly called electrical) fire, diffused through the whole globe; which, if the secret chain that now binds it up were loosed, would immediately dissolve the whole frame of nature.

3. By comets, one of which, if it touch the earth in its course toward the sun, must needs strike it into that abyss of fire; if in its return from the sun, when it is heated, as a great man computes, two thousand times hotter than a red-hot cannonball, it must destroy all vegetables and animals long before their contact, and soon after burn it up.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Our apostle having asserted, that this solemn day of judging the Jews, at the destruction of Jerusalem first, and then of all mankind at the end of the world, will certainly come; he next shews the manner how, and that although this great day of the Lord comes slowly, yet it will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, surprising the secure and unprepared part of the world. The thief cometh without warning, and without noise, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. Rev 16:15 Behold I come as a thief, blessed are they that watch.

Observe next, The apostle declares what a great change there will be when Christ comes to judgment, namely, a total dissolution of the whole frame of nature, The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt, and the earth be burnt up: that is, say some, totally consumed and utterly abolished; for when there is no more need of sun and stars, of earth and water, why should they be any more? And when the saints see God face to face, what need of the glass of the creatures to behold the face of God in?

Others conceive that the heavens and the earth shall not be annihilated, but bettered and improved, their substance continued, but their qualitites changed; that out of this conflagration God will bring forth a new edition of heaven and earth, and of what is contained in them, to be the everlasting monuments of his own power and goodness, and the delightful objects of his saints contemplation.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 5

CREMATION AND CELESTIALIZATION OF THIS EARTH

10. Remember God’s day is a thousand years. The Lord comes as a thief, receives His bride, inaugurates the millennium and reigns a thousand years, as related by John. After the millennium, as described by John (Revelation 20), the final resurrection and judgment transpire. Meanwhile the cremation of the earth will take place, i.e., its sanctification by fire, putting an end to the temporal and probationary state on the earth. This final and thorough cremation of the earth will exterminate all the effects of sin, superinducing a final and complete expurgation of this entire world from all the maladies and contaminations of sin, consuming the oceans and seas and melting the frozen poles.

11. “Therefore these things being dissolved, what part does it behoove us to be in holy deportment and godliness.” Certainly these relations constitute the greatest possible incentives to a holy experience and life.

12. “Anticipating and expediting the coming of the day of God.” He has promised to come so soon as the “Gospel of the kingdom is preached to all nations, thus giving all a chance for the bridehood and a throne in the Coming kingdom. So we can expedite His coming by telling the nations, i.e., preaching the Gospel to all the world. “Through which the heavens,” i.e., the firmaments, being on fire, will be melted with fervent heat. The intense heat of the cremation will not only consume the ocean, but melt the mountains and deserts and dissolve the great strata of the earth, reducing the globe to a molten plate, thus preparing it for the ensuing reformation and celestialization.

13. “But we look for new heavens [i.e., new firmaments] and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness.” This corroborates John. Rev 21:1. Harmonizing Peter and John, we see the cremation and renovation will take place after the millennium. During the final judgment, which will occupy a period of time sufficient for the magnitudinous issues destined then to transpire. Meanwhile the great Appellate Court of the universe is moving and settling all destinies for eternity. The earth will be passing through those tremendous fiery convulsions and revolutions requisite to utterly expurgate all the debris of sin and prepare the way for complete renovation and glorious transformation into a heavenly world, for the inheritance of saints and the occupancy of glorified spirits through all eternity. “In which dwelleth righteousness.” In the new celestial world into which our earth will be transformed after its complete sanctification by the fiery baptism, there will never be any more sin nor anything contaminated by sin. Transfigured saints and glorified angels will here abide forever. Doubtless this redeemed earth will ever be a favorite among the glorified inhabitants of all celestial worlds, having universal celebrity as the battlefield of God’s empire, where his Son met the powers of hell in battle array and fought the battle of human redemption. Therefore throughout celestial ages, earth will be a favorable resort as the battlefield of God’s empire. Doubtless the bright unfallen intelligences from millions of unfallen worlds, will delight to visit the scene of the most terrible conflicts in the history of the universe.

14. “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, hasten to be found spotless and blameless unto Him in peace.” The true attitude of saintship in all ages has been that of constant expectancy of our returning Lord. This vivid and constant outlook is the grandest conceivable inspiration to a holy experience and life. Mark the commandment, “Hasten to be found spotless and blameless,” i.e., get wholly sanctified by the precious blood and the consuming fire, utterly expurgating inbred sin out of the heart. This is the only possible way to be found “spotless and blameless.” You must first get “spotless and blameless,” and then keep so, looking out constantly for King Jesus to ride down on a cloud. Foolish people think it simply depends on their conduct. A hog can not live like a sheep. First of all, you must receive the transforming grace of God, to eliminate all of the hog nature out of you, then you can live like a sheep.

15. “Consider the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation.” Oh, how true! Salvation here means our final transfiguration at the Lord’s coming. If He had not waited long He would have found many of us without the spotless robe.

16. Peter brings in Paul’s testimony (2 Thessalonians 2), to corroborate his visions on the Lord’s coming, observing that they are hard to understand and, consequently, wrested by the unlearned and unestablished to their own destruction. The Bible is a spiritual book, dealing in spiritualities and not mentalities. Peter himself is pronounced an unlearned and ignorant man. Act 4:13. Hence “unlearned and unestablished” is to be understood in a strictly spiritual sense, i.e., untaught by the Holy Ghost and unestablished in holiness.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. But the day of the Lord will come. This expression usually, but not always, refers to the second advent. Such is the meaning here. As a thief. When people are not expecting it. Compare 1 Thess. 5:2; Matt. 24:43. The heavens shall pass away. See Luke 21:33. The elements shall melt. The material of which they are composed. The earth also and the works. The earth and all man's creations. That the world shall come to an end seems to be written in its very constitution. A slight change in the constitution of the atmosphere, or the decomposition of its water would wrap it in flame. Science finds the elements of final dissolution in the relations of the earth and sun. According to the ratio of increase in two centuries the world will not have resources to feed its population. In a few hundred years the coal resources of the world will fail. These and many other facts point to a necessary and inevitable change.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

However

Although the Lord is being patient and wants people to repent, he will indeed return and bring judgment.

the day of the Lord will come as a thief

Peter speaks of the day when God will judge everyone as if it were a thief who will unexpectedly and take people by surprise. (See: Personification and Simile)

The heavens will pass away

"The heavens will disappear"

The elements will be burned with fire

This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will burn the elements with fire" (See: Active or Passive)

The elements

Possible meanings are 1) the heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon, and stars or 2) the things that make up heaven and earth, such as soil, air, fire, and water.

the earth and the deeds in it will be revealed

God will see all the earth and all the deeds of everyone, and he will then judge everything. This can be stated in active terms. AT: "God will expose the earth and everything that people have done on it" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

day of the Lord

thief

heaven

fire

earth

works

reveal

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

10. Ἥξει δὲ ἡμέρα Κυρίου ὡς κλέπτης. This must have been a commonplace of Apocalyptic prophecy. We have the image in the eschatological discourse of our Lord, Mat 24:43 “If the goodman of the house had known in what watch (of the night) the thief would come” and again in Luk 12:39. In 1Th 5:2, Ye know clearly ὅτι ἡμέρα Κυρίου ὡς κλέπτης ἐν νυκτὶ οὕτως ἔρχεται (whence the MSS. CKL add ἐν νυκτί here). Rev 3:3 ἥξω ὡς κλέπτης, Rev 16:15 ἰδοὺ ἔρχομαι ὡς κλέπτης.

οἱ οὐραναὶ … παρελεύσονται. Mar 13:31 ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ παρελεύσονται. The destruction of the heavens, which were thought of as a solid firmament arched over the earth, is spoken of in Isa 34:4 καὶ ἑλιγήσεται ὁ οὐρανὸς ὡς βιβλίον. This whole verse of Isaiah seems to have been introduced into the Apocalypse of Peter. It is quoted in Rev 6:13-14 καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς ἀπεχωρίσθη ὡς βιβλίον ἑλισσόμενον and in the Sibylline oracles III. 81 ὁπόταν θεὸς αἰθέρι ναίων | οὐρανὸν εἱλίξῃ καθʼ ἅπερ βιβλίον εἱλεῖται.

ῥοιζηδόν, with a rushing or whizzing round: κλαγγηδόν, κοναβηδόν are words of similar formation also descriptive of sound.

στοιχεῖα. The heavenly bodies are very probably intended. στοιχεῖα was used in the sense of “luminaries”: in a letter of Polycrates the bishop of Ephesus (about 190 A.D.) he says “among us also (in Asia, that is, as well as in Rome) μέγαλα στοιχεῖα κεκοίμηνται great luminaries rest”: and he goes on to specify John the Evangelist and others.

St Paul’s use of στοιχεῖα Gal 4:3, Col 2:8; Col 2:20 is interpreted as meaning the spiritual beings who have charge of the stars and of other provinces of creation.

καυσούμενα must be from καυσόομαι, a medical word applied to fever-heats.

εὑρεθήσεται. See Introd. p. xlix.

A passage in the Sibylline oracles II. 252 sqq. shows what is meant by ἔργα and favours the reading οὐχ εὑρεθήσεται.

κοὐκέτι πωτήσονται ἐν ἠέρι ἄπλετοι ὄρνεις,

οὐ ζῷα νηκτὰ θάλασσαν ὅλως ἔτι νηχήσονται,

οὐ ναῦς ἔμφορτος ἐπὶ κύμασι ποντοπορήσει,

οὐ βόες ἰθυντῆρες ἀροτρεύσουσιν ἄρουραν,

οὐκ ἦχος δένδρων ἀνέμεν ὕπο· ἀλλʼ ἅμα πάντα

εἰς ἓν χωνεύσει καὶ εἰς καθαρὸν διαλέξει.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10.] Assertion of the conclusion as against the scoffers—the certainty, suddenness, and effect of the day of the Lord. But (notwithstanding the delay) the day (the art. is not needed for definiteness in the later Epistles, cf. ver. 7; Php 1:6, Php 1:10, Php 1:2:16) of the Lord (= τοῦ θεοῦ, below, ver. 12) shall come (ἥξει has the emphasis, as opposed to all the doubts of the scoffers. It is more than merely “shall come,” though no one word will give the exact force in English: “shall be here,” “shall be upon you”) as a thief (ref. 1 Thess.: from which place probably the expression is taken, as reference is made below to the Epistles of St. Paul); in which the heavens shall pass away (reff. Matt.; and Rev 21:1) with a rushing noise (ῥοιζηδόν, τὸ μετὰ ἤχου· ἴδιος δὲ ὁ τοιοῦτος ἦχος πυρὸς ἐν τοῖς ὑπὸ πυρὸς καταβοσκομένοις, Œc. ῥοῖζος is the rush of a bird, ref. Wisd., of an arrow, Il. π. 361, of the music or a shepherd’s pipe, Od. ι. 315: and, see Palm and Rost’s Lex., of any thing rapidly moving. Some understand it of the actual noise of the flames which shall consume the heavens: others, as De W., of the ‘ruina,’ or crash with which they shall fall: “magno impetu,” vulg.; “in modum procellæ,” Calv.: “cum stridore,” Beza: alii aliter), and the heavenly bodies (στοιχεῖα, according to Bede, the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water: but he is obliged to modify the meaning or λυθήσονται, inasmuch as fire cannot dissolve or consume fire: according to Bengel, the sun, moon, and stars, defending it by this word being often used in that sense by Theoph. of Antioch and others in Suicer sub voce. Certainly Justin Martyr so uses the word several times: cf. Apol. ii. 5, p. 92, τὰ οὐράνια στοιχεῖα εἰς αὔξησιν καρπῶν κ. ὡρῶν μεταβολὰς κοσμήσας: and Dial. Tryph. 23, p. 122, Epist. ad Diognet. 7 (Migne, Patr. Gr. vol. ii. p. 1177), and Otto’s notes. And considering that this clause, on account of the δέ, followed presently by the καί when we come to speak of the earth, necessarily belongs to the heavens,—considering also that the mention of the heavenly bodies as affected by the great Day is constant in Scripture, cf. Mat 24:29; Isa 13:9, Isa 13:10, 24:23, 34:4, &c., I should be inclined on the whole to accept this interpretation, feeling that the above-named reasons overbear the objection alleged by De Wette, that the word does not bear this sense in any other passage of Scripture. This objection is also weakened by remembering, 1. that it occurs in a physical sense here only: 2. that in Gal 4:3, where it is clearly not in a physical sense, the Greek interpreters give it this meaning: see in Suicer sub voce, and mine and Bishop Ellicott’s notes on Gal. l. c., and note on Mat 24:29) being scorched up (καυσόομαι, classically, to suffer from excessive heat: to be in a burning fever. The pres. part. gives the ground and reason of the following verb) shall be dissolved (not literally, melt [that is expressed by τήκεται below]: cf. λυομένων next verse, and reff. here), and the earth and the works in it (ἔργα may mean either the works of men, buildings and the like,—or, the works of the Creator: perhaps both of these combined, “opera naturæ et artis,” Bengel. Estius’s sense, “opera peccatorum,” is out of the question: nor does 1Co 3:15 &c. apply here, any further than that the same purifying fire is spoken of) shall be burned up (the var. readd. are very curious. That of [], εὑρεθήσεται, has plainly arisen from the Latin urentur. That it has so arisen, is a most instructive fact, and leads to inferences which cannot be here followed out).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The day of the Lord. Compare the same phrase in Peter's sermon, Act 2:20. It occurs only in these two passages and 1Th 5:2. See 1Co 1:8; 2Co 1:14.

As a thief. Omit in the night. Compare Mt 24:43; 1Th 4:2, 4; Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15.

With a great noise [ροιζηδον] . An adverb peculiar to Peter, and occurring only here. It is a word in which the sound suggest the sense (rhoizedon); and the kindred noun, rJoizov, is used in classical Greek of the whistling of an arrow; the sound of a shepherd 's pipe; the rush of wings; the plash of water; the hissing of a serpent; and the sound of filing. The elements [στοιχεια] . Derived from stoicov, a row, and meaning originally one of a row or series; hence a component or element. The name for the letters of the alphabet, as being set in rows. Applied to the four elements - fire, air, earth, water; and in later times to the planets and signs of the zodiac. It is used in an ethical sense in other passages; as in Gal 4:3, "elements or rudiments of the world." Also of elementary teaching, such as the law, which was fitted for an earlier stage in the world 's history; and of the first principles of religious knowledge among men. In Col 2:8, of formal ordinances. Compare Heb 5:12. The kindred verb stoicew, to walk, carries the idea of keeping in line, according to the radical sense. Thus, walk according to rule (Gal 6:16); walkest orderly (Act 21:24). So, too, the compound sustoicew, only in Gal 4:25, answereth to, lit., belongs to the same row or column with. The Greek grammarians called the categories of letters arranged according to the organs of speech sustoiciai. Here the word is of course used in a physical sense, meaning the parts of which this system of things is composed. Some take it as meaning the heavenly bodies, but the term is too late and technical in that sense. Compare Mt 24:29, the powers of the heaven.

Shall melt [λυθησονται] . More literally, as Rev., shall be dissolved. With fervent heat [καυσουμενα] . Lit., being scorched up.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.