First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture) Quotes

“describing the intense purification of the present world, such that it becomes the dwelling place of God’s righteousness? Peter does not say, but there is precedent that may”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The call to wait for this day is the standard New Testament exhortation.[191] But the notion of “hastening” this day’s coming is unusual. What does Peter mean? He may mean that by our prayers and manner of life we can participate in God’s purpose to shorten the time and hasten the day of his return. The day of God will come when God so wills, and not according to our efforts or calculation, but our prayers and way of life may help prepare the way for the Lord’s return.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The conclusion is clear: the false teachers have it wrong. They are not reading the Scripture correctly. The Lord is not slow or delaying the fulfillment of his promise; he is simply giving space for all to repent and turn to him, which is his aim in the first place. But in the end, the Lord will come again, suddenly and decisively. With this coming the present heavens and earth will pass away, and all the works that human beings have done will be disclosed for what they really are.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out. The biblical background is probably Isa 34:4 (LXX): “And all the powers of the heavens shall melt, and the sky shall be rolled up like a scroll: and all the stars shall fall like leaves from a vine.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Though God is patient, the day of Christ’s coming will occur suddenly and without further warning: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The “day of the Lord” is an expression drawn from the Old Testament (Jer 46:10; Joel 2:1–11; Amos 5:18–20) that here refers specifically to the second and glorious coming of Christ.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The verb is in the present active tense, indicating ongoing, active patience by the Lord. He is giving space for all to come to repentance. Along with 1 Tim 2:4, this is one of the strongest biblical assertions of God’s universal desire that all come to salvation. The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but desires repentance (Ezek 18:23); his kindness is meant to lead to repentance (Rom 2:4), and he waits to have mercy on all (Rom 11:32).”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Time is simply not an issue for God. There is no real distinction between one day and a thousand years in his sight. The point, though, as the next verse indicates, is not the insignificance of time, but rather its true and essential significance. Time is filled with meaning and possibility because it is the context in which we are given the opportunity to turn to God.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“In the words of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn: “We gladly affirm the Christian understanding . . . that unaided reason can attain basic knowledge of the purposes built into nature and the intelligence behind it. But it is only through God’s self-revelation in Christ, and our response of faith, that we can begin to glimpse the ultimate purpose of the cosmos and to trust in God’s provident care of all cosmic details.”[187]”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“This, then, is Peter’s answer to the scoffers’ second objection. The world has not always remained the same! To the contrary, by the powerful word of God the world was brought into existence, and by that same word it was destroyed in the flood. The flood is a type of the greater judgment that will come by fire, when God will judge all people and bring destruction upon those who persist in ungodliness.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The earlier cataclysm came by water; the future judgment will come by fire. Just as God’s “word” brought about the great flood, so by that same word the world will be purified by fire. From beginning to end, God’s word is the agent of creation, judgment, and new creation. It is crucial to recognize, however, that Peter’s focus is not in fact on fire but on judgment—on God through his word bringing the entire cosmos to judgment, especially the lives of human beings.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Peter the flood serves as the prime biblical model for how God acts to judge, demonstrating his radical intervention in the world. The flood, then, is a †type of the greater judgment to come (see Matt 24:37–39).[186] In other words, the world has not always been as it is, as the scoffers claim. It was originally formed by God’s word through water, then deluged with water, and finally made new with the receding of the waters. Peter charges the false teachers with “deliberately” or “willfully” ignoring this—they don’t want to believe in God’s judgment, and so they overlook and ignore the clear biblical testimony.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“According to the New Testament we are living now in the last days between the first coming of the Lord and his second, final coming (Acts 2:17; Heb 1:2).”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The term “scoffer” appears only here and in Jude 1:18 in the New Testament. The phrase, “scoffers will come [to] scoff” reflects a typically Hebrew repetition formula that is meant to emphasize the activity of scoffing. Who are the scoffers? Those who mock and show scorn for the promise that Christ will return and judge the world.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“the overall Christian way of life (see 2:21), but it may point more narrowly to Christ’s command to “watch” for his return and to live faithfully until he does (Mark 13:33–37).”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Since man’s freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the aid of God’s grace can he bring such a relationship with God into full flower.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“All this is meant to be a cautionary tale for Peter’s readers. If we are listening carefully we should hear an echo of what Peter said at the beginning of the letter. Just as these teachers previously “escaped the defilements of the world,” so we too have escaped “from the corruption that is in the world” (1:4). Just as they attained “knowledge of [our] Lord and savior Jesus Christ” (2:20), we too have attained “knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (1:2). There is an implicit warning to us not to be “unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:8) as these false teachers are proving to be. Peter ends this part of the letter on a sober note, and he intends for us to pause and resolve not to imitate those who have turned back from the way of Jesus Christ.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Why is their last state worse? Because they commit the sin of apostasy and actively turn away from the source of life they have come to know, deliberately choosing again the evil from which they had been delivered.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The truth expressed here is that when people have come to know Christ and then turn back to their old way of life they are worse off than those who never came to know Christ at all.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Verse 19 is extremely significant. Peter claims that these false teachers promise freedom to the new converts, though they themselves are slaves of corruption. With a touch of irony he shows that their offer of freedom is empty: how can those who are enslaved lead anyone to freedom?”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“In this closing section of chapter 2, Peter continues his condemnation of the false teachers. It is part two of the charges against them. But we can also recognize in these verses a counterpoint to the opening of the letter. Whereas 1:3–11 presents the life of glory and virtue lived in Christ, 2:17–22 displays the exact opposite: a life of slavery and corruption cut off from the life and power of God.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“In summary, the false teachers are foolish and arrogant, given over to sexual immorality, and motivated by greed.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“As a result of all this Peter says they are accursed children. This is a strong indictment. Peter believes these teachers have fallen under the Lord’s curse because of their attachment to sin, their headlong pursuit of what is wrong, and their deceptive ways.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The image of irrational animals is used to show their ignorance. The idea is this: just as animals are born, captured, and then killed for food without any possibility of rational activity and life, so these teachers display an irrational, animal-like existence.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Noah, we live in an indisputably “godless world”; like Noah we are called to be heralds of the gospel by the lives we lead and the words we speak, holding out hope that the “patience of our Lord” (3:15) will result in salvation for many.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The condemnation of “disordered desire” marks the entire letter (1:4; 2:10, 18; 3:3) and is one of the most serious failings of the false teachers. But what”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Just as he rescued Noah and Lot, the Lord will also rescue the Christian faithful.[171] And just as he brought judgment on the angels who sinned and on the wicked in the time of Noah and of Lot, the Lord will bring judgment on “the unrighteous” in the final judgment.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“This judgment by fire is particularly apt as a model for what will happen on a grand scale when Christ returns (see 3:10–12). Here Peter explicitly describes the Old Testament as providing an “example,” or “model,” for his own time and for the future.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“flood is an apt type of the judgment to come. “Noah, preserved from the old world to be the beginning of the new world after the flood, is a type of faithful Christians who will be preserved from the present world to inherit the new world after the judgment.”[”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“The story of Noah effectively illuminates both sides of Peter’s central point: God knows how to spare the godly while at the same time punish the ungodly.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):

“Employing an unusual expression, Peter says that God put the angels in “Tartarus” and committed them to the chains of deep gloom found there. “Tartarus” is the name drawn from Greek mythology for the deepest region within †Hades, which is the equivalent of the biblical term †Sheol.”
― Daniel A. Keating, First and Second Peter, Jude (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture):