Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Peter · About this commentary
What Kind of People Ought You to Be
2 Peter 3:11-12
11 Therefore, since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness, · WEB
The conclusion drawn from a dissolving universe is a question about character, not a program for survival.
Since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be? The question is the letter's pivot from doctrine to practice, and the answer given is startlingly modest: holy living and godliness. Not preparation, not withdrawal, not calculation of dates. Character.
The logic is worth stating plainly, because it inverts the obvious one. If the material order is temporary, the natural conclusion is that nothing matters; the letter draws the opposite, that only certain things do. What burns cannot be the measure of a life, so the measure must be the kind of person the life produced.
Verse 12 adds a phrase that has troubled readers: looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God. The word suggests hastening as well as hurrying toward — and taken with verse 9, where the delay exists so that all may reach repentance, the two fit together without strain. The thing that shortens the wait is the completion of the work the wait was granted for. Then the description repeats: burning heavens dissolved, elements melting with fervent heat.
held with reason What this mark means