Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Peter · About this commentary
Not Slow, but Patient
2 Peter 3:9
9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. · WEB
The delay is given a motive, and the motive is that God does not want anyone lost.
The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness. The phrase as some count concedes how it looks while denying what it is. Verse 8 said the measure was wrong; this verse says the interpretation is wrong.
But he is patient with us. The delay is not inability, indifference, or forgetfulness — three things a waiting person naturally suspects. It is forbearance, and the letter has already used the same idea of the flood, where a preacher of righteousness worked while the world was warned 2 Peter 2:5. Delay has always been the shape God's patience takes.
Then the purpose, stated twice, negatively and positively: not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This is God's disposition toward the whole company, including the mockers of verse 3, and it is the most generous sentence in the letter. It also reframes the entire complaint. Every additional day the coming is postponed is a day granted to somebody — which means the delay the mockers use as evidence against God is in fact the clearest evidence of what he is like.
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