DID YOU KNOW
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” —2 Peter 3:18
Peter writes to believers who are learning how to live faithfully while waiting for Christ’s return. Their questions are understandable. If Jesus promised to return, why had He not yet come? Why did evil continue? Why were false teachers still able to mislead people? Peter does not dismiss those questions. Instead, he changes the perspective from delay to opportunity. The time between Christ’s ascension and His return is not empty space. It is mercy-filled time. Every additional day is another day in which someone can hear the gospel, someone can return to God, and someone already following Christ can grow in grace.
Did you know that what may look like God’s delay can actually be an expression of His mercy?
Peter writes, “Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation” (2 Peter 3:15). That statement completely reshapes the way we think about waiting. We often interpret delay personally. We wonder why God has not acted, why Christ has not returned, or why circumstances have not changed. Peter invites us to look outward instead. God’s patience creates additional opportunity for repentance, faith, and salvation. What seems slow from our perspective may be purposeful from God’s.
Earlier in the chapter Peter states, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The Greek word often translated “patient,” makrothymeō, describes long-suffering restraint. God is not reluctant or unable to fulfill His promise. He is extending mercy. The passage does not teach indifference toward evil or suggest that judgment will never come. It teaches that God’s present restraint has a redemptive purpose.
That changes how I view today. If this day exists partly because God continues extending mercy, then today carries spiritual significance. Someone may hear about Christ today who had not heard yesterday. Someone may recognize sin and turn home. Someone may forgive, reconcile, begin praying again, open Scripture after years of neglect, or quietly whisper, “Lord, I need You.” God’s patience provides space for those moments.
It should also change the way Christians speak about the return of Christ. Biblical expectation is never meant to produce idle speculation. Peter moves immediately toward conduct: “Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Peter 3:14). The proper response to Christ’s promised return is not obsession with dates. It is faithful living.
The question is therefore not simply, “When will Jesus return?” Another question may be more spiritually useful: “How should I live because He has not returned yet?”
Perhaps the person God has placed near you today is part of the answer.
Did you know that waiting for Christ should make Christians more active in love rather than less engaged with life?
Sometimes thinking about eternity can unintentionally make earthly life seem unimportant. Peter teaches exactly the opposite. Because Christ will return, what we do now matters enormously. Christian expectation should intensify love, holiness, witness, reconciliation, and spiritual growth.
Jesus expressed something similar when He taught His followers to live faithfully while awaiting their Master. In Matthew 24:46 He said, “It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.” The emphasis is not on the servant watching the horizon while neglecting the household. The blessed servant is found doing what the Master assigned.
That gives urgency a healthier meaning. Spiritual urgency does not mean panic. Panic produces frantic activity without discernment. Biblical urgency produces purposeful faithfulness.
Psalm 146 helps explain what that faithfulness looks like. The psalm warns us, “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.” It then describes the Lord as the One who upholds the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets prisoners free, gives sight to the blind, watches over strangers, and sustains the fatherless and widow.
Notice how practical that is.
Trust in God does not remove us from the needs around us. It sends us toward them.
If I believe Christ may return, then I should love more deliberately. I should forgive sooner. I should speak the gospel more naturally. I should notice the overlooked person. I should become increasingly unwilling to waste life on resentment, jealousy, petty competition, and arguments that accomplish nothing eternal.
The urgency of the gospel is not merely that time is short. It is that love has work to do while time remains.
Every act of genuine Christian love becomes a small witness to the kingdom that is coming. Feeding someone who is hungry does not save the world, but it reflects the character of the King. Sitting with someone who is grieving does not eliminate suffering, but it makes the compassion of Christ tangible. Speaking truth graciously to someone drifting from God may become the sentence the Holy Spirit uses to turn that person back.
Christians waiting for heaven should be among the most engaged people on earth.
Did you know that spiritual growth is one of the ways believers prepare for Christ’s return?
Peter closes his letter with an instruction that deserves more attention than it often receives: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Christianity is not merely a decision made sometime in the past. It is a life that continues developing toward Christlikeness.
The word translated “grow,” auxanō, means to increase, enlarge, or develop. Growth implies movement. A living tree changes because life is operating within it. Peter expects the same of Christians. Grace should deepen. Knowledge of Christ should expand. Discernment should sharpen. Love should mature. Character should increasingly reflect Jesus.
This is especially important because Peter warns believers about false teachers. He writes, “Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position” (2 Peter 3:17). The protection he immediately recommends is growth.
That is insightful.
We often think spiritual protection means knowing what is wrong. Peter certainly values discernment, but he also emphasizes becoming stronger in what is right. A person deeply rooted in Christ is less easily swept away by every new claim, persuasive voice, or attractive distortion.
Growing in grace means I increasingly understand that my standing before God rests upon Christ rather than my achievement. Yet grace does not make me careless. Grace trains me to live differently. Titus 2:11–12 says, “The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness.”
Grace both receives and reshapes us.
Growing in knowledge also means more than collecting biblical facts. The New Testament idea of knowing Christ is relational. I learn His words, observe His ways, trust His character, and allow Scripture to shape my response to everyday situations.
The question is not simply, “Do I know more about Jesus than I did five years ago?”
A better question may be, “Am I more like Jesus than I was five years ago?”
Did you know that God’s urgency is ultimately the urgency of salvation, not anxiety?
The readings for this day place human conflict alongside divine permanence. Second Samuel 20–21 describes political rebellion, unresolved bloodshed, famine, warfare, and complicated consequences from Israel’s history. Human affairs seem unstable. Leaders rise and fall. Conflicts erupt. Even strong people eventually discover their limitations.
Psalm 146 provides the corrective: “The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations.”
Human urgency often arises from fear. Something is happening, therefore we must control it immediately. Divine urgency operates differently. God is never panicked. He is sovereign, patient, purposeful, and attentive. What is urgent to God is not urgent because He is losing control. It is urgent because people matter.
That distinction can transform Christian ministry.
When we speak with someone far from God, we do not need desperation that manipulates emotions. We need loving seriousness. When we encourage another believer to grow, we do not need condemnation. We need the conviction that spiritual maturity matters. When we consider Christ’s return, we do not need fear-filled speculation. We need readiness.
Peter tells believers to “make every effort to be found at peace” with Christ. That is a striking phrase. Readiness for Christ is described not merely as vigilance but as peace.
The person secure in Christ does not have to fear His appearing.
The gospel itself creates that peace. Jesus bore sin, conquered death, and offers reconciliation with God to those who trust Him. The coming Judge is also the Savior who first came seeking the lost.
That means the message Christians carry is urgent because it is good news.
There are still people who believe they are beyond forgiveness.
There are believers who have become discouraged.
There are families quietly carrying pain.
There are people asking spiritual questions they have never spoken aloud.
There are neighbors who may know our schedule but not our Savior.
There are people who need to see that Christianity is more than argument and religious activity. They need to encounter the grace of Christ through people whose lives have been genuinely changed by Him.
That opportunity exists today.
We do not know how many more days will be given to us, and Scripture does not instruct us to calculate them. Instead, it teaches us to receive each one as grace.
So perhaps the life lesson of 2 Peter 3 is beautifully simple: do not waste God’s patience.
If there is someone you need to forgive, begin.
If there is someone who needs encouragement, speak.
If Christ has been calling you toward deeper obedience, respond.
If you have become spiritually stagnant, grow.
If someone near you does not know the hope you have found in Christ, look for a gracious opportunity to share it.
The return of Jesus gives the Christian future hope. The patience of Jesus gives the Christian present purpose.
Until He comes, there is grace to receive, truth to live, people to love, and good news to share.
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