1. The Second Letter of Peter
FEED 260/265
Mentoring Through The New Testament/
The General Epistles & Revelation
(1 Peter - Revelation)
The Second Letter of Peter
Session 9B: Alvin Tan

2. FACTS:
Author: The author identifies himself as ‘Simeon Peter’, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ’. (1:1-2)
Date & AD 67, three years after 1 Peter was written, most likely from Rome.
Historical Background:
2 Peter deals with a completely different situation as 1 Peter.
The recipients are the same.
But now Peter feels the urgent to address dangers inside the church
Peter knew his time on earth was coming to an end (1:13.14)

3. 3) Historical Background:
He warned the believers about the presence of false teachers
He reminded them of the unchanging truth of the gospel.
4) Purpose:
Peter warns the believers against complacency and heresy
He calls them to hold fast to faith.
To continue to grow and mature in their faith
To reject all who distort the truth.
5) Recipients: The church at large and all believers everywhere. Specifically, those who had previously received 1 Peter (3:1)

4. 6) Unique Characteristics:
Peter’s authorship is strongly disputed.
Because of this, 2 Peter was one of the last books to be included into the NT canon.
Similarities between 2 Peter and Jude.
Letter ends with no closing greetings but with doxology (3:18)

5. 1 Peter & Jude

6. Explanations of similarities:
2 Peter used Jude as a source
Jude used 2 Peter as a source
Both draw form the same oral tradition
Both draw from the same written source
M. Green maintains that both used a common written source (M. Green 1987, pp.58-64)
However, many thinks that 2 Peter used Jude as a source as with the Synoptics gospels, it is in principle more likely that the shorter document is a source for the longer.

7. 7) Peter’s last words comes under the genre of a ‘Farewell speech’ or ‘testament’, which has 3 features:
Announcement of the speaker that he expects to die soon.
A summary of his ethical and religious instructions;
Revelations about the future
These are seen in 2 Peter:
1:12-15 in view of his impending death, Peter calls for his teaching to be remembered.
1:3-11 Definitive summary of Peter’s ethical teachings.
2:1-3; 3:1-4 Prediction of the rise of false teachers.

8. The rest of 2 Peter builds around these 3 elements, focusing particularly on the link between the 2nd and 3rd elements, offering a defense against false teachers and instruction about faith and behavior in view of the threat they pose.

9. 8) Peter’s description of the mature Christian life:
The church is founded on faith, grows in hope and is filled with love
By growing in virtues, we build on our hope
Answer to heresy is maturity

10. 9) Who were the false teachers in 2 Peter?
They were Christians who compromised with popular contemporary ideas or philosophy of Epicurus.
Epicureans denied divine involvement in the world and divine judgment.
They do not believe in rewards and punishment after death.
They are thought to encourage immorality.
False teachers were Christians who picked up some elements of the Epicurean world view to challenge the eschatological and ethical teachings of the apostles.
They saw themselves as bold radicals, liberating Gentile Christians from unnecessary traditions.
They were so influenced by Hellenistic culture that blinded them to crucial distinctions between culture and faith.

11. 10) The Hope of Christ Coming
In response to the false teachers’ questioning of the Christian hope, Peter tries to engage with the objections (3:1-10)
The expectation of Christ’s powerful coming is no human invention because it is based on eye witness testimony of Jesus’ transfiguration (1: This event in Mk. 9:2-8 is understood as God’s appointment of Jesus as Messiah). OT prophecy is not merely human dreams and visions but divine inspiration (1:19-20)

12. 10) The Hope of Christ Coming
“Scoffers” may ridicule that the world sees no divine intervention and God is not fulfilling His promised of Christ’s coming (3:3-4).
But God did act to create the world and to judge it through the Flood, and He can act again to bring judgment and renewal of the world (3:5-7, 10, 12-13).
They ignore the fact that God’s perspective on time is different from ours (3:8-9), so that Christians can live in hopeful anticipation and yet not be distressed by delay.
God allows the delay of Christ’s coming to give time for repentance (3:9)

13. 10) The Hope of Christ Coming
He warns of the dangers of abandoning the Christian way as it has been received from the apostles.
Promising freedom, the false teachers have become enslaved to corruption (2:19)
Though made clean through baptism, they have returned to the ‘pollutions of the world’ (2:20), like the dog and the pig who show their true nature by returning to their filth (2:22)

14. 10) The Hope of Christ Coming
The goal of God’s creative purpose is to establish a new order ‘where righteousness is at home’ (3:13), the link between human behaviour and divine judgment is indispensable.
Judgment is a necessary part of God’s overcoming evil in the world (2:3-10a)

15. 10) The Hope of Christ Coming
Righteousness cannot be promoted through warnings of judgment. Peter sets before the church the vision of God’s kingdom as an incentive for wholehearted Christian living (1:11; 3:11-15).
In 2:5-10, he presents Noah and Lot as models of righteous living in a corrupt and hostile society. And he reminds them that the ability to live such a demanding lifestyle derives from God’s grace, calling and enabling (1:2-4, 10)

16. FEED 260/265 MENTORING THROUGH THE NEW TESTAMENT: The General Epistles & Revelation (1 Peter - Revelation)
October 22, 2016
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Compare the teaching in 1 Peter 2:13-17 with that in Rom. 13:1-7 on how Christians are to relate to the state and civil authorities. How much do they have in common and what is distinctive about each? How, if at all, is it appropriate to follow their teaching here in Singapore?
2 Peter raise sharp questions about the challenge posed by deviant teaching. Where are the boundaries between ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘heresy’? How should the church deal with those who promote unorthodox teaching among its members? Or is it inappropriate to ask such questions in today’s culture where a high value is attached to pluralism and tolerance?
1 John 4:1 says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” What are the misleading spirits and who are the false prophets of today, luring the church away from the Gospel? Compare with the situation in John’s Epistles.
SESSION 9B: 2 Peter