How good are you at living a holy life?
Passages like today’s can be tricky. This is from the NIV Bible and it makes it sound like, “You better live holy and godly lives because Jesus is coming again with fire and judgment!” In a way that is what it’s saying, but not necessarily in the way many people would hear it. So, what does it mean?
Let’s look at the context and another translation to help us understand.
Surrounding Context
Before we get to the meaning, let’s first take a look at the surrounding context. At the beginning of the chapter, God (through Peter) warns the readers (who are assumed to be Christians) that in the end days there will be scoffers who say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” In other words, “Do you REALLY believe Jesus is coming again? It’s been so long. Can’t you see it’s all myths and fairytales?”
Then God says not to be deceived by those scoffers. Jesus is definitely coming…and coming with fire. After which, God explains why Jesus hasn’t come, yet: