2 Peter
The Book of 2 Peter: An Introduction
The short answer
2 Peter sits among the short letters near the end of the New Testament — the ones most readers never quite reach. Frances Taylor Gench calls them the "little bitty letters" at the back of the book, and she is right that many of us run out of steam before we get there. That is a loss, because this small letter makes some surprisingly large claims.
The letter presents itself as a farewell message from the apostle Peter, written to believers whose confidence was being eroded from two directions: false teachers inside the community, and scoffers who mocked the promise that Christ would return. Chapter 1 urges readers to grow steadily in faith and goodness, grounding that call in eyewitness testimony and trustworthy prophecy. Chapter 2 warns bluntly about teachers who exploit their hearers. Chapter 3 answers the scoffers' taunt — where is this promised coming? — with one of the warmest lines in the New Testament: the Lord is not slow, but patient, "not wishing that any should perish" but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Then comes the letter's most historically remarkable moment. The author mentions Paul's letters and admits that in them are "some things that are hard to understand" (2 Peter 3:16) — things some people twist to their own harm. Here is the New Testament watching itself being read. Before the canon was even settled, this letter was already wrestling with how Christians should handle difficult Scripture, which makes 2 Peter one of our earliest windows into the church interpreting its own sacred texts.
Taken together, the letter's two great themes belong to each other: a God patient enough to wait for people, and a community learning, patiently, how to read.
What scholars say
These two excerpts answer, in turn, why so few readers ever reach 2 Peter and what its best-known promise is actually for: Frances Taylor Gench traces how Bible readers bog down before the short letters at the back of the New Testament, while John Goldingay laments that 2 Peter 3's word about God wanting everyone to come to repentance became a football between Calvinists and Arminians when it was meant to encourage us.
“We also venture past them now and then into Paul’s letters, though here the going gets more difficult, for as the author of 2 Peter complained early on, “There are some things in them hard to understand” (2 Pet. 3:16). But we stay the course, tortuous though some of Paul’s twists and turns may be, and make our way. Some of us foray beyond that as far as Hebrews, that most erudite of New Testament books, where we are likely to find ourselves bogged down completely in its complex and densely woven argument—mired in priestly imagery and sacrificial ritual. So we may not make it any further, to those little bitty letters at the back of the book such as 2 Peter and Jude, 1, 2, and 3 John.”
“Elihu knows of the truth expressed in 2 Peter 3, that God doesn’t want anyone to perish but wants everyone to come to repentance. That statement became a football kicked between Calvinists and Arminians, which is a shame because it expresses a truth to encourage us, whether or not we are people who need to do some repenting at the moment. Elihu knows that God watches over us like a father or mother who is more interested in seeing us pull back from wrongful styles of life than in chastising us for continuing to be involved in them. Admittedly, God is also willing to go in for chastisement if necessary. God is also like a master who has an interest in whether we are doing the jobs he wants done, a sovereign who has an interest in our loyalty and commitment, or a teacher who has an interest in the students taking notice of what the teacher says.”
What it means for you
If you have ever felt God is slow — slow to act, slow to answer, slow to set things right — 2 Peter reframes the delay. What looks like slowness is patience, and the patience is aimed at people: God waiting so that more can turn and come home. John Goldingay observes that this promise was too often treated as ammunition in theological debate when it was meant as encouragement. Hear it that way. And when you hit passages of the Bible that confuse you, take comfort that this struggle is as old as the New Testament itself: even 2 Peter found Paul hard to understand.
In context
2 Peter belongs to the cluster of short letters — often called the general epistles — tucked between Hebrews and Revelation. It follows 1 Peter and shares striking material with Jude, especially its warnings about false teachers. The letter builds in three movements: a call to grow in faith (chapter 1), a warning against corrupt teachers (chapter 2), and a defense of God's promised future (chapter 3). Chapter 3 is the climax, where God's patience, the coming day of the Lord, and the reading of Paul's letters all converge.