2 Peter 3:17 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Therefore, seeing ye know these things before Respecting the coming of the Lord to judgment, in what an awful manner the scene will close, and what dreadful vengeance will be executed on all the wicked, and especially on those that pollute the Church of Christ, into which they have professed to enter; and that scoffers will arise and ridicule the promise of Christ's coming, as also the danger there is of misunderstanding and misinterpreting the Scriptures, and so of being seduced and perverted thereby. Here St. Peter teaches that one great purpose for which the prophets were inspired to foretel the corruptions which were to arise in the church, and the evils which were to befall the sincere disciples of Christ, was to put them on their guard against these corruptions, and to arm them with fortitude to bear persecutions. Beware Be on your guard; lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, (αθεσμων, the lawless,) fall from your own steadfastness In the faith and practice of the gospel; that steadfastness which, by God's assistance, you have hitherto retained. But To prevent this falling away; grow in grace In every Christian temper; and in order thereto, conscientiously and diligently use the means appointed. And in the knowledge of Christ That is, in faith, the root of all piety and virtue; faith implying that knowledge of him which is communicated by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, mentioned Ephesians 1:17, and promised John 16:14. To him be glory, εις ημεραν αιωνος, to the day of eternity An expression naturally flowing from that sense which the apostle had felt in his soul throughout this whole chapter. Eternity is a day without night, without interruption, without end. Amen Dr. Benson remarks, that when this word is placed at the beginning of a sentence, it is an earnest asseveration. In the conclusion of a sentence, it imports an earnest wish that it may be so. The doxology, with which this epistle concludes, is evidently directed to Christ, as are some of the other doxologies in Scripture.