2 Peter 3:9

2 Peter 3:9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness. The apparent delay in the performance of the Divine engagement is capable of a still more assuring explanation. It has a gracious purpose. Some construe the sentence thus ‘the Lord of the promise is not slack,' etc. But this is less satisfactory. The ‘slack' here (the verb occurs only once again, in 1 Timothy 3:15, where it is rendered ‘tarry') means tardy, dilatory, late. With the idea compare Hebrews 2:3.

as some count slackness. The persons referred to are supposed by some to be still the false teachers. In view of the very general nature of the statement, others, with more reason, deem them to be believers of weak spiritual perception, or doubtful faith. Simple as the words seem, the precise point of the clause is not quite clear. It may be understood in the more definite sense ‘as some consider it (that is, the Lord's mode of action in relation to the promise) to be slackness.' Or it may be taken more generally thus ‘as some explain slackness,' or, ‘according to the ideas which some form of slackness.

but is long-suffering to you-ward. The reading adopted by the R. V., ‘to you-ward, ' or in relation to you, is much better attested than the ‘to us-ward' of the A. V. It is also more in Peter's style, and gives greater force to his explanation, bringing it home immediately to his readers themselves. This conception of the Divine ‘long-suffering,' which is so frequent in the Old Testament, is prominent in the Pauline writings (cf. such passages as Romans 2:4; Romans 9:22; 1 Timothy 1:16). It appears a second time in this same chapter (2 Peter 3:15), and also in 1 Peter 3:20. When a human promise fails to be fulfilled according to expectation, those to whom it has been made are in the habit of attributing the delay to a slackness which betrays unwillingness or some personal end. But if the Lord seems to be slow in fulfilling His promise, that is not to be explained, Peter means, as men are tempted to explain such slowness on the part of their fellow-men, as due to forgetfulness, lack of interest, procrastination, or anything personal to Himself only. Its explanation lies in something which touches our interest, and illustrates His grace.

not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This is added to show what is meant by this long-suffering. This sentence has been dragged too generally into the controversy about the Augustinian view of predestination, and the Calvinistic doctrine of the limited extent, or rather the definite design, of the Atonement. On the one hand, theologians like Beza have interpreted it of the elect only. On the other hand, exegetes like Huther regard it as adverse to the Calvinistic theory. The passage, however, has little bearing on the question, the subject dealt with being not the elective purpose but the long-suffering of God, and the ‘willing' referred to being not ‘will' in the sense of the Divine decree or determining volition, but ‘will' in the wider sense of disposition, desire, or, as the R. V. puts it, ‘wishing.' For the thought itself compare Paul's parallel declaration in 1 Timothy 2:4, and, above all, the Old Testament statements which Peter may perhaps have had in view (Ezekiel 18:23; Ezekiel 33:11). For the phrase ‘come to,' compare Matthew 15:17, where it has the literal sense and is rendered ‘enter into.' In the Greek Tragedians it occurs often in the sense of moving on to, advancing to.