{"id":1021,"date":"2009-06-24T20:36:13","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T02:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1021"},"modified":"2009-06-24T20:36:13","modified_gmt":"2009-06-25T02:36:13","slug":"2-peter-39-merciful-patience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/2-peter-39-merciful-patience\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Peter 3:9 – Merciful Patience"},"content":{"rendered":"

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2 Peter 3:9<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

God is very patient with sinners, but His patience will end one day, and many will suffer His wrath on that day.<\/p>\n

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

The word in today\u2019s verse translated \u201cslow<\/span>\u201d (\u201cslack<\/span>\u201d in some translations) is the Greek word bradun\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto be slow or to be delayed.\u201d I think a word in our modern vernacular which expresses it well is \u201ctardy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPatient<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek word macrothumia<\/span><\/em>, which is a compound word made up of macro<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201clarge or long\u201d and thumos<\/span>, meaning \u201cstrong feeling or passion, either good or bad (as if breathing hard).\u201d Hence, \u201clong suffering\u201d and \u201cpatient\u201d are good translations of this word.<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cwanting<\/span>\u201d is boulomai<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto be desirous\u201d or \u201cto be willing.\u201d There is another word translated \u201cwish\u201d or \u201cwill\u201d in the New Testament. It is the word thel\u014d<\/span><\/em>, but it includes the implication of intention and action. Hence, boulomai<\/span><\/em> refers to \u201cdesirous will,\u201d whereas thel\u014d<\/span><\/em> refers to \u201cdetermined will.\u201d You see, God is not desirous that any should perish, but He has determined that many will.<\/p>\n

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

Now, to answer your question, \u201cWhy is God taking so long, and what is He waiting for?\u201d The answer is, \u201cHe loves all of mankind and is desirous that all should be saved.\u201d Now, let\u2019s see what this really means.<\/p>\n

Peter tells us in this verse that God is not tardy in carrying out His promise. <\/span>And what is the \u201cpromise\u201d that Peter is referring to? It is the promise of the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, on the Day of Judgment.<\/p>\n

Now, if He is not tardy, why hasn\u2019t it happened yet? Peter says that it is because God is very patient. The implication is that God is holding his wrath in check, wrath that would destroy all of sinful mankind. And Peter tells us why God is holding back. He is \u201cnot wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.<\/span>\u201d The word \u201cwanting\u201d is a key word in this verse. As was pointed out in Behind the Words<\/strong>, this refers to God\u2019s desirous will. It is not God\u2019s desire that any should perish, He wants all mankind to repent of their sins, and He is holding back His wrath to give everyone the greatest possible opportunity to repent and submit to Him. So, what is it that will prevent God\u2019s wrath from destroying us? Faith. That is, belief in the sacrificial death of the Son of God as payment for our sins. The Apostle John says it in his gospel account, through the words of Jesus, Himself:<\/p>\n

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.<\/span> (John 3:18<\/span><\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

We should be proclaiming the gospel message to everyone. The good news that all men are sinful and guilty before God but that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross to pay for that sin. Let us not be ashamed of it! Let us proclaim it from the roof tops because His patience will not last forever!<\/p>\n

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

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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<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Truth to Learn God is very patient with sinners, but His patience will end one day, and many will suffer His wrath on […]<\/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":[371,204,372,373],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-desirous-will","tag-faith","tag-patience","tag-wrath"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-gt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021","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=1021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}