{"id":1001,"date":"2009-06-16T18:37:36","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T00:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1001"},"modified":"2009-06-16T18:37:36","modified_gmt":"2009-06-17T00:37:36","slug":"2-peter-33-mockery-of-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/2-peter-33-mockery-of-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Peter 3:3 – Mockery of Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 Peter 3:3<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many today who mock Christians and who scoff at the truth of the Bible, but some day they will be silenced.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cfirst of all<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word proton<\/span><\/em>, which is an adverb that denotes \u201cpreeminence in importance or location.\u201d In this case Peter is not saying that this is the first in a series of things to know, rather he is saying that this is the most important thing to know.<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cscoffers<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word empaikt\u0113s<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201csomeone who mocks or scoffs at the truth,\u201d and it is often used of false teachers (like those we learned about in the previous chapter).<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter said a couple of verses back that he had written both this and the previous letters \u201cas reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.<\/span>\u201d The thing he wants his readers to remember is in the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the apostles. He now tells us what it is that he wants us to remember.<\/p>\n

He starts this verse off with, \u201cFirst of all.<\/span>\u201d The most important thing he wants his readers to remember is \u201cthat in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.<\/strong><\/span>\u201d These scoffers will be constantly under the servitude of their own lusts according to Peter. Instead of living a victorious life by the power of the Spirit of God, these false teachers live their lives controlled by their overpowering desires (the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life). Jude, in his short letter, says something very similar:<\/p>\n

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. <\/span>They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.\u201d<\/span> (Jude 17,18<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Peter will get into more detail in the next verse concerning the specifics of their scoffing. For now, let us consider that today there are many people in the world who mock Christianity and who portray Christians as mindless buffoons sitting in church pews droning on, \u201cBringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves \u2026\u201d These same people who make a mockery of what we hold dear and sacred are controlled by their own lusts. In fact, they are so enslaved to them that they can\u2019t possibly understand how anyone in their right mind could give up control of his or her life to God, because they don\u2019t know Him.<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our responsibility in the face of these scoffers is to live lives worthy of the Name by which we are called. We may not silence these scoffers while they are on this earth, but at the Great White Throne judgment when they stand before the one to whom we are submitted today, they will submit\u2026 and be committed\u2026 to the lake of fire. They will be eternally separated from the One at whom they are now scoffing, and on that day they will not think it so funny.<\/p>\n

So\u2026 live your witness before all<\/strong> the world and don\u2019t be a chameleon even though some may mock you!<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 Peter 3:3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. Truth to Learn There are many today who mock Christians and who scoff at the truth of the Bible, but some day they will be silenced. Behind the Words The word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[114,352,353,125],"class_list":["post-1001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-judgment","tag-mockery","tag-scoffers","tag-witness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-g9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}