2 Peter 1:16-21; Matt. 17:1-13, REMAIN in God’s word

Peter’s duty was to remind us of important spiritual truths from the Bible.  Our duty is to remain in these truths of the Bible.  We need to heed the light of Scripture until Christ comes for us (v19).  The dawning of the day is a reference to the return of Christ.  So is the arising of the morning star in our hearts.  Peter was aware that he was about to die, meaning it did not seem now that he would be on the earth when Christ returned.  The same could be said of those who were the original recipients of his letter and of many generations since then.  But Peter’s words (God’s word, the Bible) are for God’s people that they might be established until that day comes.


Therefore Peter wants to assure them that what he has written is, in truth, the word of God.  What he left behind as a reminder is both an eyewitness account (v16-18) and an inspired account (v19-21).  (We should note that these reassurances are also to provide a contrast with the doomed preachers that are the subject of 2 Pt. 2.)

·        God’s word: an eyewitness account, 1:16-18.

The event Peter refers to is, of course, the transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-13).  This was one of the time God audibly of His Son: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear Him!  The words were in response to Peter’s suggestion they build three tabernacles for Moses, Elijah and Jesus.  In other words, Peter not only saw the majesty of Christ; he also received a rebuke from God for failing to recognize the uniqueness of Jesus, the Son of God.  Peter learned his lesson.  He speaks of the majesty (greatness) of Jesus and the excellence of the glory of God the Father.


Peter’s reference to cunningly devised fables is a rebuke of the preachers that were trying to draw away believers from their pure devotion to Christ.  Cunningly devised is the Greek word sophist referring to wisdom.  Peter did not record words that came from the imaginations of philosophers or men of wisdom.  Even though the event he speaks of is extremely unusual, with Jesus’ transformation into a Man of great glory, Peter actually saw this happen.  The strange and fantastic stories of Greek mythology that were part of the Gnosticism that attacked the Church were seen by no one; they were the product of men’s imagination.


Peter’s recollection of the transfiguration is critical.  It spoke of the power and coming of Christ.  In the next chapter he will note the false teaching that speaks of a supposed delay in Christ’s return.  It is a teaching that ultimately denied the Lord who bought them (2:1).  What Peter saw and heard on that occasion is a clear repudiation of the false teaching.  For us, living now almost 2000 years later, the attacks on the majesty of the Lord Jesus has not stopped.  We need this same assurance that the men God used to record Scripture knew what God wanted said.  What we call the New Testament has the same authority as the Old Testament on which Jesus put his own stamp of approval.  Jesus promised to bring the truth to the minds of His Apostles (John 16:13-16).  Peter is declaring that Jesus’ promise was fulfilled in his epistles.