2 Peter 3:15

2 Peter 3:15. And account the long-suffering of our Lord salvation. If Christ is referred to here, the passage becomes one of great importance in relation to the doctrine of His Person, as it speaks of Him in the same terms as have been already applied to God, and indirectly claims for Him Divine prerogatives. And this is made on the whole the more probable reference both by general N. T. use, and by the phrase, ‘our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' which comes in subsequently in the same paragraph (2 Peter 3:18). On the other hand, it is argued that the application of the title ‘Lord,' in 2 Peter 3:8-10; 2Pe 3:12; 2 Peter 3:14, rules its application here, and points to God in the large O. T. sense as the subject. The Divine delay is to be interpreted not as ‘slackness' (2 Peter 3:9) or procrastination, but as long-suffering, and the long-suffering is to be interpreted and valued as ‘salvation,' as the suspension of judgment with a view to a prolonged offer of grace. See also Romans 2:4. even as also our beloved brother Paul. In confirmation of what he himself writes, Peter refers to what had already been addressed to these Gentile Christians by the great Apostle of the Uncircumcision. On the difficulties raised by the disappointment of the expectation that Christ would speedily return, on the dangers likely to arise in the Church, on the attitude to be maintained in the prospect of the end, Peter was giving only the same explanations and counsels as had been given by Paul. The phrase ‘beloved brother' is understood by many (Huther, etc.) as an official term rather than a personal, indicating the ministerial intimacy that subsisted between the two. It is doubtful, however, whether it is meant to describe Paul specially as a valued associate of Peter's in the Apostleship, or even as a fellow-worker. The ‘our' links Peter with his readers, and gives the title ‘beloved brother' rather the force of a term of personal affection. Jewish Christians like Peter and Gentile Christians like his readers had this, among other things, in common now that they regarded Paul as a dear and trusted friend. Paul himself gives the title ‘beloved brother' twice to Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7). The man who now speaks thus fondly of Paul is he who at an earlier period was ‘withstood to the face' by Paul ‘because he was to be blamed' (Galatians 2:11).

according to the wisdom given unto him. Paul's counsel was more than his own personal opinion. As the expression of a ‘wisdom' which he received (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:10; Galatians 2:9; Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 2:7-8; Colossians 1:25, etc.),it is the weightier confirmation of Peter's teaching.

wrote unto you. To what Pauline writing or writings may Peter be supposed to refer? The question has been keenly debated and very variously answered. It turns upon two prior questions, those, namely, touching the subjects immediately in view and the persons immediately addressed. ‘those who think that the verse deals only with the subject last mentioned, namely the ‘long-suffering of our Lord,' naturally look for statements made by Paul on that particular theme, and identify the writing with the Epistle to the Romans which, in such passages as Romans 2:4; Romans 9:22, takes that strain. Those who regard this Second Epistle as directed not so much to Asiatic Christians as to Christians generally, conclude that the writing intended may be such an Epistle as that to the Hebrews, especially in view of the declarations in chaps. Hebrews 9:26, etc., Hebrews 10:25; Hebrews 10:37. Others fix on First Corinthians, in which so much is said on the subject of wisdom (chap. 1 Corinthians 1:7-9, etc.). Others, who take the mysterious subject of the Second Advent as the special difficulty on which Peter appeals to Paul, are of opinion that the Epistles to the Thessalonians are meant, both because their early date affords time for their general circulation even among remote Christians, and because they are so much engaged (e.g. in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:2, and the Second Epistle throughout) with the Lord's Coming. There is little reason, however, to suppose that Peter alludes only to the one subject of the Divine long-suffering, as that is specified in the same verse. That is itself but a part of the general exhortation in 2 Peter 3:14-15. It is most reasonable, therefore, to regard him as referring, in this remarkable tribute to Paul, to the general subject which he has been engaged with the end of the present system of things, the Lord's Coming, the duties to be inferred from the prospect, and the seductive errors of the false teachers. The ‘wrote unto you ' seems also clearly to identify the writing or writings with communications made to the same circle of readers as Peter himself addresses, and these readers, as the Epistle itself indicates (chap. 2 Peter 3:1), are substantially those to whom the former Epistle was directed. Among the Pauline Epistles we have several addressed to this Asiatic circle, Ephesians, Colossians, Galatians, not to speak of the Epistle to the Laodiceans (Colossians 4:16). And of these, if we are entitled to identify the writing with any of the extant Epistles, those to the Colossians and Ephesians best fulfil the conditions. In the former (e.g. chap. Colossians 1:22; Colossians 2:8) we find exhortations on the subject of the Christian life like those given here by Peter, and warnings like his against false teachers and a pretentious type of knowledge. In favour of the latter we have also the considerations, that it was probably a kind of circular letter, and that there are many points of affinity between it and the Petrine Epistles (specially the First).