October 25 – 2 Peter 1:12-21

Main Focus: Faith is sustained not by novelty but by remembering the trustworthy story of Jesus.

Verses 12-21 is about Peter contrasting the truth about Christ as revealed by God with the falsehood of man-made myths. In light of this certain truth, the church should be focused on living faithfully. Peter urgently reminds the churches to continue living in a godly way. The readers of this letter already know these godly qualities (cf. vv. 5–10) and are already established in the truth concerning life in Christ. Peter’s intent is simply to keep biblical morality in the forefront of the Christian’s daily pursuits. Peter expects that his execution by Rome is imminent (v.14). The nearness of his death seems to have been recently revealed to Peter. He recounts his personal experience with Jesus during the transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36a). He contrasts this truth with man-made myths. The content of Peter’s preaching is not of human origin but is based on direct revelation from God.

In verse 16 “myth” translates Greek mythos, “a story without basis in fact, a legend.” The gospel of Christ was no myth, because the apostles were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Peter had observed the “majesty” of Christ firsthand at the transfiguration. He knew that Christ had come in power; he was no mere literary character invented for a mythological narrative. But Jesus’ transfiguration also functions as a prelude and anticipation of his coming in glory. Readers learn from 3:3–4 that the false teachers believed that the second coming was also a myth, but Peter refutes this, underscoring the certainty of Christ’s return. Majestic Glory (v.17) is a name for God the Father emphasizing the transcendence of his glorious presence. At the transfiguration, God displayed the honor and glory of his beloved Son, a declaration by the Father of Jesus’ divine sonship. Peter emphasizes his own eyewitness status, and that of the other apostles, with regard to the transfiguration; he personally heard the voice of the Father declare Jesus to be his Son. If someone else had written this letter in Peter’s name, that person’s claim of eyewitness status would have been a lie.

The truth about Christ is based on the prophecies of Scripture (19-21), something even more certain than eyewitness testimony. Some have understood that Peter’s experience of the Transfiguration provides confirmation of OT prophecy, making the already-sure prophecy of the OT even more sure as confirmed by the experience of the Transfiguration. Others have understood “more fully confirmed” as an affirmation that the prophetic writings of the OT are even more sure than Peter’s spectacular personal experience at the Transfiguration, thereby underscoring the complete reliability of written Scripture. In either case, believers are admonished to pay attention to the certainty of the prophetic word. In the contrast between “we have” and “you will do well,” Peter is apparently emphasizing that the interpretation of the apostles (“we”) is to be regarded as authoritative for the church (“you”).

With regards to verse 20 there are two main views of this verse that have been proposed: (1) The first view, understands the verse to explain the origin of the prophecies of OT Scripture, namely, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from (i.e., originates out of) someone’s own interpretation (i.e., from someone’s individual understanding of events, visions, or other things), but rather, that “all prophecy of Scripture” came about from the Holy Spirit’s leading (see v. 21). According to this first view, then, Peter is assuring his readers that all the OT Scriptures that pointed to Christ were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that the readers should pay close attention to them (v. 19), perhaps in contrast to false teachers who were denigrating Scripture. The second view understands the verse to be speaking of how OT prophecies are to be interpreted, therefore some translations render this verse, “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of [or “for”] one’s own interpretation.” According to this second view, Peter is saying that one must interpret the OT Scriptures as they are interpreted by the apostles, and hence the interpretations of the OT by the false teachers should be rejected. Although this second view is possible, the first seems more likely, in light of the immediate context and Peter’s overall emphasis on the authority of Scripture.

No biblical prophecy was ever produced merely because a man wanted to prophesy (by the will of man). The prophecy in Scripture was given only by God through men, who “spoke” as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was the active, revelatory agent working within the OT prophets and through their lives and circumstances as they prophesied. This is a key verse for the doctrine of Scripture, indicating that Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, but at the same time men spoke God’s words, using their own personalities, knowledge, background, vocabulary, and style. “They were carried along” implies that the inspiration of Scripture was invisibly directed by the Holy Spirit, though without overriding the personalities of the human authors. Thus Scripture is fully the Word of God, even though it is recorded in the words of human beings. The exact way in which this was accomplished remains a divine mystery. What is true of OT prophecy is true of “all Scripture”.