2 Peter 3:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

One must turn away from such people, even if they take upon themselves the name of Christ in order to deceive. For the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was given for your security and salvation.

He says: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Mt 7:15).

And again: “Beware that you are not led astray, for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near’” (Lk 21:8).

And Paul cries out: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers” (Phil 3:2).

Those who kill the prophets and apostles are like those who destroy their words by impious teachings and evil deeds. The latter are even worse than the former, for they commit crimes not only against life, but also against salvation.

The concluding exhortation is to beware of being carried away by the false teachings of lawless men, to be steadfast, and to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Being forewarned”: about the danger to which you may be exposed from the false teaching of the false teachers and mockers of whom the apostle has spoken above.

“By the error of the lawless”: more precisely, by the deception of the corrupt (2 Pet. 2:7, 18; 3:3).

“Lest you fall from your own steadfastness”: the apostle said above of the readers of the epistle that they are established in the truth (2 Pet. 1:12). Yet this establishment does not exclude admonition and warning to take care not to be shaken in faith and grace.

Even those who are established can fall away from their establishment.

“Your own steadfastness”: they are established in the faith not by their own power, but by the mercy and grace of God.

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.

Earlier, in the third verse, the apostle called heretics insolent scoffers. That is, they are empty and frivolous people who, merely to display their worthless wit, are ready to mock the highest things.

Here, as the Apostle James also does, he calls them lawless in general. They are people for whom nothing is holy, and who recognize no foundations or orders of social and moral life.

Such, naturally, must be those who have fallen away from the true faith and the right Christian law.

Concerning these heretics, there have been and still are many opinions about precisely which heretics the holy Apostle Peter was denouncing.