Scripture of the Day - Peter (IIPet.3:8-9)

"But, beloved, don't be ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

- II Peter 3:8-9

This passage comes from Peter's swan song letter (Second Peter) in which he is doling out wisdom to the people he will be leaving behind once he is martyred. He clearly senses his tour of duty in this world is nearing its end as evidenced in various comments sprinkled throughout the letter. It is also worth noting that unlike his first extant letter (First Peter) in which he addresses the churches in specific regions this latter letter is not addressed with any geographical specificity indicating it was an open letter intended to be shared as widely as possible, ergo, God's Church in general.

The older I get and the more often I read that passage above and the more I ponder it the more I sense it contains something hugely relevant today hidden in plain sight within it. Clearly Peter is warning God's Church in Peter's time that God is not coming back as soon as many folks then-currently alive believe and that they need to settle down and knuckle down for the longer haul. This passage continues to jump off the page when I read it and that phenomenon seems to grow stronger with time. I believe God is continuing to say to us today what He was saying to His Church back then what is communicated in this passage of Scripture.

I believe all genuine Christians need to live their lives in the here and now all the while being purified by that "blessed hope" that Christ might return this very day or hour. However, we all need to be well-grounded in sound doctrine and realize we can't effectively serve God if we are emotionally unstable living as if the world were ending today each and every day. This is what Peter's comments are intended to prevent, then and now.

Unfortunately, I see many Christians today not living in the moment and not taking care of their business in the here and now but instead focusing hysterically on End Times prophecy and apocalyptic millenarian alleged parallels with and connections to current events, events the like of which have been occurring off and on for the past two thousand years. God warns elsewhere in His word that we cannot ascertain the timing of things by "walking by sight" and that we will not be able to predict when God comes back by mere observance of current events. Yet, many of God's people disbelieve and disobey Him in this regard.

I have noted with consternation that many of these type of Christians don't have their shit together in their own lives in very fundamentally flawed ways and are reaping what they have been sowing. Instead of addressing what is wrong in their lives and with their walk with God they prefer to delude themselves into believing God is about to bail them out of their own mess any moment so they don't have to actually do anything. This attitude is lazy, stubborn, and doctrinally unsound.