Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Peter · About this commentary
Our Beloved Brother Paul
2 Peter 3:15-16
15 Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, · WEB
Peter cites Paul as an ally, admits parts of him are hard, and calls his letters Scripture in the same breath.
Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. The instruction restates verse 9 as a discipline: the delay is not merely explained, it is to be counted as a mercy while it lasts.
Then Paul is brought in — our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him — as writing the same thing to the same readers. The warmth is worth noticing, since Paul records having opposed Peter to his face over exactly the kind of question that divides colleagues permanently Galatians 2:11. Neither man's account of that conflict is softened in Scripture, and neither is it left as the last word.
Verse 16 is candid in a way few writers manage about an ally. In Paul's letters there are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist to their own destruction. The difficulty is conceded; the fault is placed on the handling.
And the closing phrase does something enormous almost in passing: as they also do to the other Scriptures. Paul's letters are grouped with the Scriptures, by a contemporary, while he was still writing them.
settled What this mark means