2Pe 3:4-13 | TNotes | STEP | 3:4 From before the times of our ancestors: The false teachers were probably claiming that, for all of God’s promises to intervene in history, things had not really changed and never would.

3:4 ^a From before the times of our ancestors: The false teachers were probably claiming that, for all of God’s promises to intervene in history, things had not really changed and never would.
3:5 ^b Creation is the first evidence that the false teachers were wrong: Change does happen. If God made the world, he certainly can destroy it.

• brought the earth out from the water: See Gen 1:2 ^c, 6-10 ^d.
3:7 ^e The Old Testament associates fire with the day of the Lord (see Isa 30:30 ^f; 66:15-16 ^g).
3:8 ^h Peter alludes to Ps 90:4 ⁱ. God operates according to his time scale. He will send his Son in his own good time.
3:10 ^j The very elements themselves might refer to the basic components of the physical universe or to the sun, moon, and stars.

• will be found to deserve judgment: The Greek text here is difficult; the reading followed by the NLT probably means that creation will appear before God at the time of judgment, and he will find it to deserve his judgment.
3:12 ^k looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along: God’s people can hasten the end by their repentance and godly living (cp. Acts 3:19-20 ^l).

• the elements will melt away: Cp. Mic 1:3-4 ^m; see also Isa 63:19–64:1 ⁿ.
3:13 ^o the new heavens and new earth: See Isa 65:17 ^p; 66:22 ^q; Rev 21 ^r.