2Peter 3:11-14 - Watching and Hoping

11-14 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.


Having encouraged besieged saints by explaining the reason for the Lord’s delay and the certainty of His coming to judge all things, Peter now turns it around to exhort us to godly living. While we are waiting for God - as we abide - we ought especially to be also watching. The world scoffs while judgment looms. The word plays while destruction and wrath are coming because it refuses to believe God. But the saint knows. The saint’s very hope is in the coming of the great and terrible Day of the Lord because the saint knows that He is loved with an eternal love in Christ. It is a love that cannot be taken back. It is a love given with all the fullness and power and generosity of a limitless God. He Who exhorts mere men to give in joyful liberality can do no less Himself.

In Jesus we not only have all that is needed for life and godliness, but in Him we also a co-heirs of all things. We share the very life of God Himself. God has given us life and that life is in His Son. We have passed from death to life. We are no longer under condemnation. We already have eternal life - the eternal life we received the moment we first believed.

To be free from guilt, free from the fear of death, free from the threat of judgment - to be eternally loved by He Who is omnipotent and infinite and eternal Himself - these facts ought to move us all to live godly lives. Fear may have driven us to Christ, but it is love that frees us in Him. It is His love and the apprehension of it - the realization that He Who has loved us is He that is above all things. This knowledge, springing from true faith - this is what moves all God’s true people to seek holiness. We love because He first loved us and we have been made to realize it.

But do we believe it? Do our actions and words reflect that belief? Are we living not only free, but freely unto God. Have we become slaves of righteousness on account of the love of God for us? Do we live as servants of God or do we still serve ourselves? Do we use the deliverance of salvation as a licence to please ourselves? If the Son has set us free then we are free indeed. Free from bondage to sin. Free from the lordship of the devil. Free from the lusts of our old flesh nature. Free from pleasing men rather than God. Free from the dictates and seductions and from conformity to the world. Free to live in holiness unto God, by His grace.

We are sojourners here. We dwell in the midst of an evil world but we no longer are a part of it. We are now salt and light. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are the means by which the Lord of Glory is made known in the world. We, like our Saviour before us, and on account of our Saviour who now dwells in us - we regard ourselves as "just passin’ through". Our minds and hopes are set on heavenly things and upon the new heaven and earth in which righteousness (that is to say the very presence of God) dwells.

If only this truth would filter down into the very hearts of us all, then our lives would be even more transformed than they already are. It is something to pray for.