2 Peter 3:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Finally, just as he ends the first epistle with a prayer, so also in the second he asks that they may increase in the Lord's faith.

Grow in grace, that is, in the faith of baptism, and in knowledge, that is, in the labor of faith.

As he completes the other epistles with good wishes, so also this one: he wishes them to grow in the Lord's faith.

The apostle ends the epistle with the same thing with which he began it: the desire that they increase in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Grow in grace and knowledge. See 1 Pet 1:2; 1 Pet 2:2; 2 Pet 2:5 and the note; Eph 4:15; Col 1:10. Unto the eternal day: day in contrast to night, a day that never ceases. The choice of this expression is explained by the apostle's saying in verse 8. In accordance with it, one may say here: eternity, a whole eternity, is with the Lord as one day. 'It is one day, continuing forever. It has no evening, and it has no morning. Nor is there a sun in it, for in it Christ is the Sun of righteousness' (Rev 21:23; 2 Pet 3:13), says Augustine. Amen.

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.

After giving Christians the final counsel to be cautious in dealing with false teachers, the apostle expresses a wish especially necessary for Christians in their present circumstances.

He wishes them growth in the gifts of grace, so that almighty and all-effective grace may strengthen and establish them against every device of the enemies of Christianity.

He then wishes them to be perfected in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Knowledge had been an essential subject of the apostle’s discourse from the very beginning of the epistle.

This was because the heretics deceived Christians by their supposed knowledge and presented themselves as people especially learned in all mysteries. He spoke of knowledge several times in the epistle, and with it he ends the epistle.