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

Knowing this first That your faith in the prophetic word may not be shaken, but that you may be armed and prepared for the trial; that there shall come in the last days The expression here used, επ ' εσχατου των ημερων, is different from υστεροις χρονοις, future, or latter times, (1 Timothy 4:1,) and from εσχαταις ημεραις, the last days, 2 Timothy 3:1. It is also different from επ ' εσχατων των χρονων, these last times, 1 Peter 1:20. And it probably means the last part of the days of the world's duration. Scoffers Or mockers, who shall ridicule the expectation of such awful events, and deride the truths, promises, and threatenings of the divine word; walking after their own lusts Influenced by their appetites and passions, and their earthly and sensual inclinations. Here the apostle has laid open the true source of infidelity, and of men's scoffing at religion. “They may pretend to religion,” as Dr. Benson says, “but they are governed by sense and appetite, and they take refuge in infidelity, and scoff at religion, to make themselves easy in their vices.” “When the apostle wrote this passage, there were Epicureans and others among the Gentiles, and Sadducees among the Jews, who ridiculed the promises of the gospel concerning the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, the destruction of the earth, and a future state of rewards and punishments. Wherefore, seeing the scoffers, of whom St. Peter here speaks, had not yet appeared, but were to come in the last period of the duration of the world, it is probable that they were to arise in the church itself. Accordingly they are reproved, (2 Peter 3:5,) for being wilfully ignorant of the Mosaic history of the creation and of the deluge; and Jude says, (Jude 1:18-19,) the scoffers separated themselves from other Christians, and had not the Spirit, though they pretended to be inspired. The evil of scoffing at the doctrines and promises of the gospel may be learned from Psalms 1:1, where scoffing at religion is represented as the highest stage of impiety.” Macknight.