Reasons For Writing

by D. S. Parrack (England)

PAPER 6

"To Stir You Up By Putting You In Remembrance"  2 Peter 1.13

The scattered groups of believers to whom Peter was writing, see 1Pet.1.1, were “for a season,” v6, going through very difficult times. They were suffering physical persecution, “being tried with fire,” v7, and there were also some who, seeming to know something of their beliefs, were goading them as to their plausibility, see e.g. 2Pet.3.3-4. That is perhaps one of the most trying situations for young believers, to have to face being challenged on their own ground by people who appear to know as much, or more, of the tenets of their faith as they do themselves.

Peter wants to show them on what their thoughts should be concentrating, on what they should be relying, as a counter-weight to all of the harassment to which they were being subjected. He doesn’t attempt to make light of their problems or say that they don’t really matter, his readers knew them as being very real. Instead, towards the end of his second letter he says “This second epistle beloved I now write unto you in both which” so we are quite justified in considering them together, “I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour,” 2Pet.3.2.

Do we feel unable sometimes to stand up to the articulate, well-informed and perhaps well-educated detractors who both oppose what we believe and appear able to marshall logical arguments to support such opposition? Peter is writing to deal with just such a situation and the way he does it is to point us away from contemporary circumstances, in whatever age, and from the neatly formulated arguments of intellectually superior opponents. In doing so he first of all makes clear one overwhelmingly important fact. He shows that the Old Testament, referred to here as “the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets” is on a par with, and therefore as equally dependable as “the commandments of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour,” i.e. the New Testament. He confirms this stand later on by linking Paul’s letters with what he refers to as “the other scriptures,” see 2Pet.3.15-16, so putting them on the same level.

Just where though did those “commandments of us the apostles” come from, what authority did they have to speak on behalf of the Lord Jesus, “the Lord and Saviour”? We need to be sure of their credentials, both as regards who they claim to be and as to what they say.

First of all the apostles were chosen from among all the other disciples by the Lord Jesus Himself, see Lk.6.13-16. He confirms it as being His choice alone by saying, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you,” Jn.15.16. Then after His resurrection and immediately prior to His ascension, He gave them a commission. He Himself was going back to His Father in heaven, but they, for a while at least, were to stay in this world, acting and speaking on His behalf, see Jn.17.11-18. The actual words of the post-resurrection commission were “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,” Matt.28.19-20.

Having set out in his letters to encourage their memories, the apostle recognises that he still has a responsibility in the matter. He is not prepared to sit back and just wait for those memories to self-start. “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth” and such “putting in remembrance” was to be an ongoing activity for Peter. “Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.” He didn’t expect to be with them for very long, “shortly I must put off this my tabernacle,” i.e. quite bluntly, he expected to die fairly soon, but he wanted the results of his reminders to stay with them long after that. “I will endeavour that ye may be able, after my departure, to have those things always in remembrance,” 2Pet.1.12-15, and his endeavours were effective not only for his first readers but for us too.

Well, it was fine for Peter to talk about memories and how they can be a comfort. He himself, of course, had many vivid and personal memories on which he could draw. He could, just like John, have referred to the Lord Jesus as “The Word of life — which we have heard — seen — looked upon,” 1Jn.1.1, but we haven’t experienced anything like that. Peter acknowledges this when recalling one of the most outstanding of all of his own experiences, “We — were eyewitnesses of His majesty — when we were with Him in the holy mount,” Matt.17.1-5. But he goes on to say, that over and beyond all that “We,” which includes us, “have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.” Something “more sure” than a revelation like that which those three apostles had, is such a thing really possible? Yes, most certainly it is. That revelation was to just those three and revelations can be misconstrued or over-emphasised by the individuals claiming to have them. But of the “more sure word of prophecy” Peter says, “knowing this first that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation.” It isn’t just for one person or one privileged group. Nor is it merely the reminiscing of people who having themselves had experiences, want, as best they can, to pass them, on to others. “But the holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit,” 2Pet.1.16-2. We are not then relying on what Peter remembered, or perhaps thought he remembered; our confidence in the reality of what he wrote, is based on it being recorded in the Word of God.

So Peter doesn’t want us to have to depend on his limited understanding or fallible memory. After all he wasn’t always that good at understanding situations, see e.g. Lk.9.33 and Mk.9.5-6, nor of remembering sufficiently clearly, to put into practice some of the things which he had been taught by revelation (compare e.g. Acts 11.1-18 and Gal.2.11-12). Rather, his reminders are based on what the Scriptures teach and he applies specific passages to meet some of the needs and queries of his readers.

In his first letter for instance he speaks of the foretelling of the Gospel message by prophets as recorded in the Old Testament, see 1.10-12. He stresses, by quoting from Isaiah, the eternal nature of God’s Word and therefore its total reliability, v23-25. Then the dependability and assurance that we have in the Lord Jesus, spoken of, again in Isaiah, as “a chief corner stone, elect, precious,” 2.6. He cites Sarah as a Scriptural example to Christian wives, to which he adds, as a balance, how husbands should behave, 3.1-7.

In his second letter he again uses Old Testament patterns, this time to show how God differentiates between the justified and those still unjust, 2.4-9, then giving that enigmatic character Balaam as an example of someone who we ourselves would find difficult to evaluate apart from the clarification of the Scriptures, v15-16. As a corollary of this he shows the danger of, and outcome from, a false profession of faith, using a quotation from Proverbs to emphasise the point, v20-22. Finally he uses the Scriptural record of creation, and the events following it, as a response to challenges regarding the second coming of the Lord Jesus, an event which believers are encouraged to be “looking for and hasting unto,” see 3.3-13.

Peter then is doing what all good teachers among God’s people need to be doing. Not just telling their hearers what they ought to do, after all modern-day Scribes and Pharisees, just like their predecessors, are quite good at doing that, see Matt.23.1-3, but rather, demonstrating that what is being taught is eminently meaningful and practical. If we want believers to accept that reliance on the Scriptures is the only “more sure” way of knowing God’s mind on specific matters, we need to establish what the contemporary problems or difficulties are and then present the relevant passages of Scripture which answer those needs. Don’t worry that your hearers perhaps already know the letter of the Word, that may very well be the case, and, after all, you can’t remind them of something which they never knew. Do remind them though, stir up their memories. But bear in mind that for anything which is being taught to have any worthwhile effect it must be seen to be vitally real in the heart of the teacher. That does not mean that hearers have to rely on their teachers’ experiences second-hand, but on the Person who gave those experiences and who, by the Holy Spirit, makes them real by confirming them with, and relating them to, the Scriptures.

—to be continued (D.V.)