And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation: as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you:
και την του κυριου ημων μακροθυμιαν σωτηριαν ηγεισθε καθως και ο αγαπητος ημων αδελφος παυλος κατα την αυτω δοθεισαν σοφιαν εγραψεν υμιν
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Paul wrote about this when he said, 'The goodness of God leads you to repentance' (Rom 2:4). If God's longsuffering leads to repentance, and repentance is saving for us, then it is evident that God's longsuffering serves our benefit and salvation.
To some, the all-wise Paul seems to say something obscure or difficult to understand, according to the word of the holy apostles. There is no doubt that he was filled with the highest wisdom, for Christ speaks in him.
Peter on the Apostle Paul. In his second epistle Peter exhorted to holiness of life and conduct. He also foretold that this world would pass away, while a new heaven and a new earth are expected, where, according to tradition, the righteous are to dwell.
He knew that because of certain not very clear judgments of the Apostle Paul, some unrighteous people take occasion not to care for the righteousness of their life.
They do this because they are confident in their salvation, which they suppose consists in faith. Peter therefore mentioned that in Paul’s epistles there are some things hard to understand, which people twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
The dissolute will not receive salvation. If all these things, and the rest whose unambiguous statements can be found throughout the Scriptures, prove false, then perhaps this interpretation of wood, hay, and straw may prove true (1 Cor 3:12).
It would mean that those will be saved through fire (1 Cor 3:13-15) who, while preserving faith alone in Christ, denied good works.
But if this teaching is true and plain, then without doubt another interpretation of that apostolic judgment must be sought. It must be examined in light of Peter’s words that in what Paul wrote there are some things hard to understand.
People must not twist these things to their own destruction. Against the clearest testimonies of Scripture, they must not make the most dissolute people confident of their future salvation, while such people most stubbornly give themselves to shamelessness and do not change through correction and repentance.
The enemy of our souls has turned some aside from the straight path, divided them by alien teachings, and taught them to interpret certain sayings of Scripture wrongly. But truth is one: the truth proclaimed through the glorious apostles and God-bearing fathers. It has shone like a radiant sun from one end of the universe to the other in the catholic Church.
According to the wisdom given to him, as if he said: not according to the wisdom he learned, but according to the wisdom he received from the Godhead on the road to Damascus.
Paul wrote in his epistles that Peter was deserving of reproof (Gal 2:11-14). Peter acknowledged that Paul, in the epistles he wrote, was worthy of admiration. For there is no doubt that if Peter had not read Paul's epistles, he would not have praised him. If he read them, then he found that in them it was said of himself that he deserved reproof. Therefore the friend of truth praised even the fact that he was reproved. He rejoiced in what had displeased another, namely that he was corrected in something he understood otherwise than he should have.
God's longsuffering leads to repentance, and repentance is saving for us. Therefore, certainly, God's longsuffering is for our benefit and salvation.
Those who thus distort all the Scriptures according to their own lusts damage themselves by their passions. The divine Scriptures do not suffer harm, but those who falsify them do.
Our beloved brother Paul. This title, which has served many as a pretext for rejecting the whole second epistle, indicates the close and peaceful relationship between the two great apostles. Therefore the supposition that the apostle Peter wrote the second epistle to uphold his own dignity, supposedly diminished by the apostle Paul's remark about Peter (Gal 2:11 and following), proves to be an invention. If Peter had looked unfavorably upon the apostle Paul, or had considered him a false apostle, as some interpreters try to suggest, he would not have hesitated to say this in the epistle. The apostles do so in relation to false teachers (Rev 2:2).
“And account the longsuffering of our Lord as salvation” (2 Pet. 3:9): consider the Lord’s longsuffering, by which He delays judgment upon the world at His coming, as salvific for you. It aids your spiritual perfection, and you may use this time as fruitful for yourselves.
“As also Paul,” and so forth: this connecting phrase refers not only to what immediately precedes, but to all the apostle’s preceding instruction or reminder. He was speaking of Christ’s coming and of the other things joined to it.
“Our beloved brother Paul,” and so forth: the ignorant and unstable, of whom the apostle speaks further on, may perhaps mean the false teachers and mockers mentioned above (2 Pet. 2:1, 3-4).
They likely abused the epistles of the holy Apostle Paul and falsely claimed that there was disagreement in doctrine between these apostles.
Perhaps they had heard, though of course they did not understand, that a certain clash had occurred between them in Antioch (Gal 2:11). Perhaps they misinterpreted it and troubled the believers.
In view of this, the Apostle Peter points to the Apostle Paul, thereby testifying to their mutual unity in doctrine and apostolic activity.
Thus he also confirms believers by this communion and unity between them, the chief apostles. For this reason Peter calls Paul, before the believers, beloved, which is in itself profoundly true, and brother, a fellow disciple and fellow apostle of Christ.
“According to the wisdom given to him”: this is also an indication of the high authority Paul enjoyed among the other apostles of Christ and among the faithful.
Wisdom marked all the teachings and all the actions of all the holy apostles. Yet among them it especially marked the chief apostles Peter and Paul, and the beloved disciple of the Lord, John, so that it is difficult to give precedence to any one of them.
Paul himself testifies of himself that he labored more abundantly than all. This is understood in word, writing, and deed.
“Yet not I,” the humble and wise apostle adds in qualification, “but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor 15:10).
“Has written to you”: no doubt this chiefly means Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, written especially for Hebrews and Christians from among the Hebrews who lived dispersed in the regions of Asia Minor.
To these regions the Apostle Peter also wrote his epistles (1 Pet. 1:1 and the note; 2 Pet. 2:1 and the note).
No doubt it also means those epistles of Paul written to the Christians of Asia Minor, who were certainly known to them and to the Apostle Peter. Hence the apostle says of Paul: “he has written to you,” namely the epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, and perhaps to Timothy.
The moral conclusion and instruction (2 Pet. 3:14-18): “Therefore, beloved, looking for these things, be diligent to be found by Him spotless and blameless, in peace. And account the longsuffering of our Lord as salvation,” that is, His delay in coming to the dread judgment.
“As also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,” for example in the epistles to the Ephesians, Galatians, and Colossians.
“As he speaks of this,” that is, of holy conduct during temporal life while awaiting the Last Judgment, “also in all his epistles,” especially in both epistles to the Thessalonians.
“Beware, lest you be carried away by the error of the lawless. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
2 Pet. 3:16. These words should by no means be understood as though Peter were diminishing Paul because his speech lacked clarity.
As the context shows, Peter’s words are directed not against Paul’s speech, but against false teachers. They considered Holy Scripture accessible to everyone’s understanding, assumed the role of teachers, and interpreted it according to their heretical thoughts.
We also find a reference to heretics who corrupt the Apostle Paul’s epistles in Paul’s own epistles (Rom 3:8; 2 Thess 2:2).
Therefore, by difficulty of understanding we must by no means understand a defect in Paul’s speech. Rather, we must understand the height and depth of his teaching, inaccessible to people untaught and unconfirmed in the faith.
After many different arguments intended to persuade Christians of the necessity of holiness of life while awaiting the Lord’s appearing, the Apostle Peter finally refers to the Apostle Paul.
Paul also taught the Christians of Asia Minor in epistles written within their regions: to the Ephesians, Galatians (see Gal 1:8), Colossians, Timothy, and others (see 2 Tim 2:10; 3:1, 13).
He refers especially to the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 2, where, among other things, the signs of Christ’s Second Coming, the antichrist, and the mystery of lawlessness are discussed.
Having referred to Paul’s testimony, the Apostle Peter uses the occasion to affirm the great ecclesial and canonical dignity of the epistles of the apostle to the nations.
He also warns against the incorrect understanding of them to which some resorted in order to justify their false teachings. As has been said, the Apostle Paul himself also complained of this (see 2 Thess 2:2).
Thus Peter was moved to mention the Apostle Paul by a sincere desire to serve the common work of salvation. He was not moved by any personal motives arising from Paul’s mention of Peter (see Gal 2:11), as some non-Orthodox interpreters claim, understanding Paul’s teaching one-sidedly.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 22 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS