2 Peter 3:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In spring all creation, as we see, is brought to life. So also in the resurrection of the dead all human nature will be brought to life. In spring every grass and plant comes forth from the depths of the earth and appears in its own form. So also on the last day the dead will come forth from their graves, and each will appear in his own form. "For the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation" (Jn 5:28-29).

In winter trees and grasses seem dried up, but in spring their vitality is revealed. So also to those who do not know the resurrection of the dead, the dead seem as though they have perished. But holy faith teaches us that their life will appear on the last day. In winter both dry and sturdy trees appear alike. Yet in spring their difference is known. So also in the present age and in death itself, the righteous and the impious have the same outward appearance. But at the resurrection of the dead, a great difference between them will be revealed.

Sturdy trees and grasses in spring are clothed with leaves and various flowers. So also in the resurrection of the dead, the bodies of the pious and righteous will be transformed into a new, radiant, pleasing, and beautiful form, according to God's unfailing promise. "Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious Body" (Phil 3:20-21). "Beloved, now we are children of God; but it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know only that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 Jn 3:2). "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Mt 13:43).

Dry trees and grasses have the same unchanging appearance in winter and in spring, that is, unpleasant and black. So also impious and godless people will have an unpleasant, indeed even a most vile, appearance both now and then.

Christian, in spring you see the image and sign of the resurrection of the dead. You see what the resurrection of the righteous will be, and what the resurrection of sinners will be. Then all will receive according to their deeds. Live now as you wish to rise then. You await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. Therefore live not contrary to this, but worthily of it.

If you wish then to have a share with the pious, righteous, and holy, live now piously, holily, and righteously. What is now within a man will then appear outwardly. Is there piety? Then it will be shown. Is there impiety and hypocrisy? Then it will be revealed. Then "the children of God and the children of the devil will be known." Then "the sheep will be separated from the goats" (1 Jn 3:10; Mt 25:32-33).

If we wish, beloved, to attain the resurrection of the righteous, we must now rise spiritually with the risen Christ. Then, "as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:4). "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light" (Eph 5:14). "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection" (Rev 20:6).

“The Lord will fashion a new heaven and a new earth, new not in essence and matter. If someone builds a new house, this does not yet mean that he builds it from matter that did not previously exist.

“No. God once created matter and formed it into every possible kind and composition. What was necessary only for life here, but useless and superfluous for the incorruptible life there, He will abolish.

“What is useful He will give a new form, with incorruptible and unfading beauty. He will permit it to fill another and incorruptible world” (Theophylact).

What this new world will be in its essence is known, of course, to the One Omniscient. Yet with respect to the earth it will undoubtedly be spiritual-corporeal, corresponding to the state of the blessed and holy people.

They will rise to new life in a spiritualized form, spiritual-corporeal (cf. 1 Cor 15).

“In which righteousness dwells”: righteousness means the full and perfect correspondence of human righteousness with God’s righteousness, of human will with God’s will, and of human life and activity with God’s life and activity. Thus God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28).

Righteousness is indicated precisely as justice, in the narrower sense, partly to console believers in contrast to the injustice and calamities they endured from unbelievers. It is also to strengthen them amid the burdens of the time.

Yet the word here must not be restricted to the particular concept of justice. It must be taken in the broad sense of the blessed human life corresponding to the blessed life of God, so that holy people may be in God and God in them (Rev 21:3, 27).

Its chief purpose must be considered a certain fundamental change or renewal of the universe. In this way it will be prepared for the revelation of the kingdom of glory and adapted to the new conditions of being and life of the blessed members of this kingdom (below, 2 Pet 3:13).

"But the day of the Lord will come," just as suddenly, "as a thief in the night. In it the heavens will pass away with a noise, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." Because of it. That is, because of the coming of the day of God, "the heavens, being burned, will be destroyed, and the elements, being scorched, will melt" (2 Pet 3:10, 12-13).

What, then, will become of the earth and the heavens after such terrible destruction and burning by fire? They will not be turned into nothingness. Nor will they remain in their destroyed state. After being dissolved by the fiery process into their component and simplest elements, they will appear in a new, incomparably better and perfect form.

At the beginning of the world, from the formless and shapeless watery chaos, in the six days of creation, it was brought into a beautiful and well-ordered form (2 Pet 3:5). So also at the end of the world, from the fiery chaos, it will again be called forth by the same creative word of the Creator into an even more beautiful and more perfect being.

The word of God gives a very clear idea of this. The same holy Apostle Peter, after speaking of the fiery upheaval of the heavens and earth, immediately adds: "Nevertheless, according to His promise," that is, God's promise, "we await a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells" (2 Pet 3:13).

In the Prophet Isaiah it is said in God's name: "Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into the heart" (Isa 65:17). Again: "The new heaven and the new earth which I will make shall always be before My face" (Isa 66:22).

In the Apocalypse, the seer of mysteries John also says that he "saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more" (Rev 21:1). The holy Apostle Paul also says that "creation waits with hope for the revelation of the sons of God. For creation was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but by the will of Him Who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the freedom and glory of the children of God" (Rom 8:19-21).

Among the Fathers of the Church, Blessed Augustine reasons about this more clearly and intelligibly than all. "The fire that will burn the universe on the last day will change the corruptible qualities of its component parts. Everything that was connected with our perishable bodies will receive new qualities corresponding to bodies already incorruptible. Thus the whole world will be renewed and adapted to the nature of risen men" (On the City of God, Book 20, ch. 16).

As for the appearance and form that heaven and earth will assume after the fiery upheaval, this is hidden from men. Likewise, no one can say wherein the perfection of the transformed world will properly consist or how it will be manifested. For example, will the present kinds of animals only be renewed, or will they disappear altogether? Will our eyes be gladdened by plants, and so forth? All this is hidden from human knowledge for the time being. So also is the nature of the glory of spiritualized human bodies after the resurrection.

Therefore let us remember only this: the blessedness of the future kingdom of glory will be so great and ineffable that "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor 2:9).

Many modern scholars affirm that the present world must perish by fire, and terrifying volcanic eruptions make the possibility of such destruction intelligible. It is enough, for example, to recall how in 1885, through the eruption of Krakatoa on the island of Java, 23,000 people suddenly perished.

Yet the destruction of this world can be even more intelligible to those who consider what a mass of fire the various heavenly bodies contain. By merely touching the earth, they could melt it and reduce it to ashes.

The apostle names righteousness as the distinguishing mark of the new earth. “Everlasting righteousness shall be brought in” (see Dan 9:24), the ancient prophet said of the times of the Messiah.

Christ brought righteousness into our world, but the world did not fully receive it. Then it will have the fullness of its manifestation everywhere and in all things: in the truth of understanding, and in the complete holiness and righteousness of its inhabitants. For then God will be all in all (1 Cor 15:28).