2 Peter 3
Scoffers mock the promise of Christ's coming, asking where is the promised parousia and demanding to know where God is when the world continues unaltered from creation's beginning, revealing their willful ignorance of the cosmic interventions at creation and flood. The Lord is not slow in fulfilling his promise but is patient, waiting and not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance—the delay of the parousia is an expression of divine mercy and longsuffering. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, accompanied by a great noise as the heavens pass away and the elements melt with fervent heat, when the earth and the works upon it are exposed to judgment. Yet the promise of new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells—not merely renewed but recreated—provides the framework for Christian hope and ethical behavior in light of coming dissolution. Since all creation will be dissolved in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? The letters of Paul, containing things hard to understand that the untaught and unstable distort to their own destruction, demonstrate the reliability of apostolic testimony while acknowledging genuine theological difficulty requiring spiritual maturity to understand.
2 Peter 3:8
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day — the Psalm 90:4 allusion addresses the perceived delay of the parousia from a human perspective. Divine temporality (divine timelessness) transcends human chronological expectation. The equation dissolves the scoffers' taunt: a thousand years of waiting is, to God, a single day.
2 Peter 3:1
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved, and in both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder — the second letter establishes this epistle as continuation of a prior exhortation (likely 1 Peter). The sincere mind (dianoian eilikrineian) emphasizes clarity free from adulteration. The reminder function suggests that Peter reinforces apostolic teaching against false teachers' distortions.
2 Peter 3:2
That you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles — the three-fold ground of authority (prophets, Jesus, apostles) establishes the hierarchical continuity of revelation. Remember (mimnēskō) invokes the redemptive history that false teachers would distort. The commandment delivered through apostles carries the same binding force as Old Testament prophecy.
2 Peter 3:3
Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires — the scoffers (empaiktas) mock the eschatological promises, particularly the parousia (return). Their following of sinful desires (oikeiōn epithymias) suggests that denial of judgment correlates with moral laxity. The last days context frames the scoffing within the church's persecution.