Week 1 – Laying down the rails

Have you ever read something that makes your mind go a little boggley? That may be this verse for you – it was for me, at least. It includes precious promises, participating in a divine nature and escaping corruption. Whaaa? 

Don’t worry, we’ll spend the next four chapters breaking down this scripture – starting with understanding its context – who’s speaking, to whom, at what point in history and why. Let’s get started.

Who is the author?

The book of second Peter conveniently states the author, right off the bat – Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter is one of my favorite disciples of Christ. He just seemed so very… passionately human to me.  

For instance, when Jesus tried to wash Peter’s feet in John 13, Peter stopped him. It simply seemed too outrageous that his Savior and King would stoop to washing his stinky, dirty feet. Then, when Jesus explained to him that until he washed his feet, Peter would have no part with him, Peter Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well”.

Lol! What a character, am I right?

Who was Second Peter addressed to?

The audience was those who…”have received a faith as precious as ours” (2 Peter chapter 1, verse 1).  So, we can deduce that he is talking to people who are already believers. This tracks throughout the book, as it gives warning about false teachers, guidance for maturing in faith and caution to not let your faith go stagnant.

When was it written?

Second Peter was written around 67 A.D., three years after he wrote 1 Peter.  Peter knew at this time that he was a wanted man by the current ruling regime (Emperor Nero), whose agenda it was to find and execute Christian leaders. Shortly after writing this, Peter was martyred for his faith in Jesus.

Now, let’s take a look at the first chapter of 2nd Peter, because that’s where we find our scripture.  After a brief salutation to his readers, Peter prefaces our scripture with this:

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Verse 3 is an important verse to understand because our scripture refers directly back to that verse. So what’s it saying? It says that we find God only because God, in his Divine Power, finds us first. As long as we know him, we have everything we need to live a godly life (more on this next week).

From there, we arrive at our scripture:

2 Peter 3: 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

So now, because we have read and understood the prior verse, we now know that “through these” refers to God’s glory and goodness. It’s because of God’s glorious and good nature that we are able to receive and live into his promises for us. 

There’s a lot more to be said about this, but, now that we’re up to speed on the who, what, when, where and why, and we’ve laid down the rails for our scripture, we’re ready to start breaking down the concepts in the weeks to come!