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

This was commanded through the preaching of the prophets and apostles. Therefore Paul also says, "having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Eph 2:20). For all of them proclaimed the coming of the Lord. One cannot disbelieve so many witnesses.

Why do I speak of prophets and apostles? Because they proclaimed both the first and the second coming of our Lord and Savior Himself.

The order of the sentence is this: that you remember the words previously spoken by the holy prophets, and the commandment through your apostles, according to the commandment of the Lord and Savior. For the preposition hypo, "by" or "through," applies to all.

He who is endowed with a pure mind remembers the saving truths he has heard and found in books. With all his strength he urges himself to follow them in deed. These saving truths were preserved in the sayings of the prophets and in the preaching of the apostles (Eph 2:20).

The words previously spoken by the holy prophets. Some think the apostle is speaking here about the appearance of false teachers, which he foretold either in oral preaching or partly in the first epistle (1 Pet 4:17). But it is more correct to see here the apostle's indication of the prophecy concerning the end of the world. The further meaning of the verse clearly shows that the apostles, in accord with the Savior's commandment, warned Christians against false teachers and foretold the coming of Christ. It is difficult to say which apostles Peter means here. Most manuscripts call them 'your' apostles, perhaps meaning the apostle Paul and his disciples. Other manuscripts read 'our,' in the sense of us, the apostles.

The words of the prophets, the Lord, and the apostles are the whole Old and New Testament, both written and handed down orally. The expression, of course, has a general meaning. The readers are to remember the word of revealed teaching and the rule of true life corresponding to revelation. 'Your apostles' means all those apostles who labored in planting and spreading Christianity among the readers of the epistle. Among these apostles were the chief apostles Peter and Paul, and John with his fellow laborers. Peter points to all of them, the apostles, so that the word of the Gospel may be firmer in the minds of the readers. This is especially necessary in view of the false teachers and mockers who were to appear, and had already appeared.

The sources of unbelief concerning the second coming of the Lord are these. By references to the writings of the prophets (Joel 1:15; Obad 15), to the words of the apostles, and also to Jesus Christ Himself, Saint Peter affirms that the end of the world and the second coming of the Lord will certainly take place.

In particular he refers to the apostles of Asia Minor: Paul, Barnabas, and Silas. Hence Peter's expression, "your apostles."

Saint Peter foretells the appearance of unbelieving deniers of this truth. He indicates the source of their unbelief and the arguments on which it will rest.

The purpose of the apostle's reminder that he is already writing a Second Epistle is to show that he considers the matter of his discourse sufficiently explained. It is the same matter about which he spoke in the First Epistle, namely, that they possess true grace (see 1 Pet 5:12).

Therefore they need only relate to Christianity directly, without prejudice, and soundly. They must not listen to heretical idle talk, but firmly remember what the prophets foretold and what the Lord Himself commanded through the apostles.

Peter includes himself among these apostles. He calls the apostles yours in the sense of the complete union of all true Christians with them.