Devotional 8 October 2025

Peter ties this verse back to his earlier statement that “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you” (2 Peter 3:9). What we perceive as delay is actually divine mercy: “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). This same mercy that restrains judgment also grants us time to grow in understanding His Word.

Peter does something remarkable: he places Paul’s writings alongside “the other Scriptures,” affirming that even in his own lifetime the early Church recognized Paul’s letters as divinely inspired. Paul himself acknowledged this divine origin, writing, “These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit… not in words taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10-13). The “wisdom given him” was not of man, but of God.

Yet Peter also admits what many of us quietly confess, some things in Scripture are difficult. But difficulty is not danger unless it is mixed with pride. The problem, Peter says, is not that Scripture is unclear, but that some are “ignorant and unstable,” unwilling to submit to the text or the Spirit who authored it. Like the serpent in Eden (Genesis 3:1-5) or the tempter in the wilderness (Matthew 4:6-7), they twist the Word for their own ends. Such misuse leads not to enlightenment, but destruction (Jude 4; 2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Therefore, we must be “diligent to present [ourselves] approved to God… rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). God’s patience toward us is the same patience that invites us to study, wrestle, and mature. The Lord who delays His return is not absent; He is teaching us to wait and to grow in understanding until the day His Word is fully revealed (Proverbs 2:1-5; 2 Peter 1:19).

Let us then receive both His patience and His Scriptures with humility, trusting that the same Spirit who inspired the Word will also illuminate it in due time.