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3:8 God’s time is not the same as ours. God’s patience is boundless, and what seems long to us is not long to God. The coming of Christ will happen not by our measurements but in God’s time. The delay we experience is in fact a blessing: it is time given us to prepare for the revelation of all hearts when the day of the Lord comes. Peter alludes to the letters of Paul, which also speak about the end times. Listen to them,
3:15 Peter says, but read them with care. Even the scriptures can mislead when they are misunderstood.
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g. [3:8] Ps 90:4.
h. [3:9] Ez 18:23; 1 Tm 2:4.
i. [3:10] Is 66:15–16; Mt 24:29.
j. [3:11] Acts 3:19–21.
k. [3:12] Is 34:4; Heb 10:27.
l. [3:13] Is 65:17; 66:22; Rom 8:21;
Rev 21:1, 27.
m. [3:15] Rom 8:19; Jude 24.
n. [3:17] Mk 13:5; Heb 2:1.
o. [3:18] Rom 16:27.
 PETER 
9The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.h 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,* and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by re, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.i
Exhortation to Preparedness.* 11Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought [you] to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,j 12* waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,k because of which the heavens will be dissolved in ames and the elements melted by re. 13But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth* in which righteousness dwells.l
14Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace. 15And consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you,m 16speaking of these things* as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.
V. FINAL EXHORTATION AND DOXOLOGY*
17Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.n 18But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. [Amen.]o
* [3:8–10] The sco ers’ objection (2 Pt 3:4) is refuted also by showing that delay of the Lord’s second coming is not a failure to ful ll his word but rather a sign of his patience: God is giving time for repentance before the nal judgment (cf. Wis 11:23–26; Ez 18:23; 33:11).
* [3:8] Cf. Ps 90:4.
* [3:10] Like a thief: Mt 24:43; 1 Thes 5:2; Rev 3:3. Will be found out: cf. 1 Cor 3:13–15. Some few
versions read, as the sense may demand, “will not be found out”; many manuscripts read “will be burned up”; there are further variants in other manuscripts, versions, and Fathers. Total destruction is assumed (2 Pt 3:11).
* [3:11–16] The second coming of Christ and the judgment of the world are the doctrinal bases for the moral exhortation to readiness through vigilance and a virtuous life; cf. Mt 24:42, 50 51; Lk 12:40; 1 Thes 5:1–11; Jude 20–21.
* [3:12] Flames. . . re: although this is the only New Testament passage about a nal con agration, the idea was common in apocalyptic and Greco-Roman thought. Hastening: eschatology is here used to motivate ethics (2 Pt 3:11), as elsewhere in the New Testament. Jewish sources and Acts 3:19–20 assume that proper ethical conduct can help bring the promised day of the Lord; cf. 2 Pt 3:9. Some render the phrase, however, “desiring it earnestly.”
* [3:13] New heavens and a new earth: cf. Is 65:17; 66:22. The divine promises will be ful lled after the day of judgment will have passed. The universe will be transformed by the reign of God’s righteousness or justice; cf. Is 65:17–18; Acts 3:21; Rom 8:18–25; Rev 21:1.
* [3:16] These things: the teachings of this letter nd parallels in Paul, e.g., God’s will to save (Rom 2:4; 9:22–23; 1 Cor 1:7–8), the coming of Christ (1 Thes 4:16–17; 1 Cor 15:23–52), and preparedness for the judgment (Col 1:22–23; Eph 1:4–14; 4:30; 5:5–14). Other scriptures: used to guide the faith and life of the Christian community. The letters of Paul are thus here placed on the same level as books of the Old Testament. Possibly other New Testament writings could also be included.
* [3:17–18] To avoid the dangers of error and loss of stability, Christians are forewarned to be on guard and to grow in grace and knowledge (2 Pt 1:2) of Christ. The doxology (2 Pt 3:18) recalls 1 Pt 4:11. Some manuscripts add Amen.