Read & explore together
Final Exhortations
These closing verses urge believers to live carefully while they wait, to treat the Lord’s patience as salvation, to avoid being misled, and to keep growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Understanding the passage
The setting of these words
This passage comes as a concluding exhortation in a letter. The writer addresses the readers as beloved, refers to what they are looking for, mentions Paul’s letters and other Scriptures, warns about twisting difficult teachings, and ends with a call to steadfast growth and a word of praise to Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 3:14–18Main takeaway
This passage teaches believers to stay steady, read God’s message carefully, and keep growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Follow the letter’s teaching
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Be diligent while you waitThe passage begins with a practical response to hope. Because the readers are looking for these things, they are told to be diligent.
Explanation
The passage begins with a practical response to hope. Because the readers are looking for these things, they are told to be diligent. The goal is to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight. The emphasis is on careful, faithful living before God.
02The Lord’s patience has a saving purposeThe readers are told to regard the Lord’s patience as salvation. That means his patience should not be treated as delay without meaning.
Explanation
The readers are told to regard the Lord’s patience as salvation. That means his patience should not be treated as delay without meaning. The writer then points to Paul, calling him a beloved brother who wrote according to wisdom given to him. This links the exhortation with apostolic teaching.
03Some teachings are hard, so do not twist themPaul’s letters speak of these matters, and the writer openly says that some things in them are hard to understand.
Explanation
Paul’s letters speak of these matters, and the writer openly says that some things in them are hard to understand. The problem is not difficulty itself, but what ignorant and unsettled people do with it. They twist these writings, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
04Beware and keep growingBecause the readers know these things beforehand, they must beware. The danger is being carried away by the error of the wicked and falling from their own steadfastness.
Explanation
Because the readers know these things beforehand, they must beware. The danger is being carried away by the error of the wicked and falling from their own steadfastness. The positive command answers that danger: grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and give him glory now and forever.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does diligence look like in verse 14?
Notice the words linked to diligence: being found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.
02How does the passage describe the Lord’s patience?
Look for the exact phrase that explains its purpose, then connect it with the mention of Paul’s teaching.
03What two responses are set against each other in verses 17 to 18?
Compare the warning about being carried away and falling with the command to grow in grace and knowledge.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
2 Peter 3:14–18
14Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.
15Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,
16as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.
18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.