Thursday, February 5, 2026

PT-4 “Doctrinal Perceptiveness” (2 Peter 3:15b-17)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/5/2026 8:35 PM

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-4 “Doctrinal Perceptiveness”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  2 Peter 3:15b-17

            Message of the verses: “just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.  You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,”  (NASB).

            “just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16  as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17  You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.” (ESV)

            It looks like that I will be finished with this commentary on 2 Peter in a couple of more days after today.  My plans are then to move my Spiritual Diaries on Nahum from my morning Spiritual Diaries to my evening Spiritual Diaries.  My plans are to begin looking at the gospel of Luke in the morning and I have not yet made up my mind as to what I will look at after that in my evening Spiritual Diaries.  The thought has come to me to use both the morning and evening Spiritual Diaries to work on Luke as that book could take as long as five years to complete if I only do it in the morning.  I think that this will be a need of prayer to figure out what I will be doing as I am not too sure how complicated it will be by using both morning and evening SD’s on the same book of the Bible.

            John MacArthur writes “By distorting the Scriptures, the false teachers were simultaneously securing their own destruction (cf. 2:1, 3-12; 3:7; Jude 10, 13; Rev. 22:18-19), as well as the spiritual demise of their followers.”

(cf. 2:1, 3-12; 3:7; Jude 10, 13; Rev. 22:18-19)

“1 ¶  But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”

“3 ¶  And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not not asleep. 4  For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5  if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6  if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;  7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8  (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9  then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11  whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12  But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,”

7  But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”

“10  But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.”

“13  wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”

“18  I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19  and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

“That’s why Peter warns his beloved readers beforehand, so that they might be on their guard against the error such unprincipled men (Phil. 3:2; 1 Tim. 4:1-7; 6:20-21; 2 Tim. 2:15-19; Titus 1:10-16; 3:10).

(Phil. 3:2; 1 Tim. 4:1-7; 6:20-21; 2 Tim. 2:15-19; Titus 1:10-16; 3:10).

“2  Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”

“1 ¶  Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2  through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3  who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4  For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5  for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.  6 ¶  If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7  Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; “

“20  O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” 21  for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.”

“15  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16  But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17  and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18  who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19 ¶  But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’”

“10  For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11  They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12  One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13  This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14  not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15  To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16  They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”

“10  As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,”

Unprincipled (athesmon) is literally ‘without law or custom,’ and came to mean ‘morally corrupt’—the essential character trait of spiritual deceivers.

            “In keeping with Peter’s warning, believers must not allow themselves to be carried away by the unscriptural lies of false teachers (cf. 1 Tim. 1:18-19).”

 (cf. 1 Tim. 1:18-19).

18 ¶  This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19  holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,”

“Rather, they must be alert and discerning lest they fall from their own steadfastness.  Steadfastness (sterigmos) indicates firmness, or firm footing; it is the very opposite of being unstable.  Peter’s concern was not that his readers would fall from salvation, but that they might slip from doctrinal stability and lose their confidence in the truth (cf. 1 Cor. 16:13; Eph. 4:14; 1 Thess. 5:21).  For this reason, the apostle urged them to be spiritually perceptive, or discerning, so that their eternal reward would not be diminished (2 John 8).”

(cf. 1 Cor. 16:13; Eph. 4:14; 1 Thess. 5:21)

“13 ¶  Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”

“14  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

“21  but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22  Abstain from every form of evil.”

(2 John 8)

8  Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.”

2/5/2026 9:13 PM

 

No comments:

Post a Comment