The Story: The Lord is patient. He has his own schedule and timetables. He knows them; we don’t. What we know is that we are called to be witnesses, not to indulge vain speculations about things we cannot know (Acts 1.7, 8). If contemporary Christians had expended as much energy reaching their lost neighbors as debating their preferred eschatological schemes, we’d have probably won a good many scoffers and not a few honest seekers more than we have to date. Everything that is familiar to us is coming to an end in God’s time. We need to be preparing for that, and part of that preparation is to urge our unbelieving neighbors – even those who scoff at our beliefs – to repent and believe the Good News of the Kingdom of God. When all the works done on the world are finally “exposed”, will any of those be seen to be works of witness we have done?

The Structure: Peter is rightly hard on false teachers (chapter 2) and scoffers (chapter 3). But, like God, he does not desire for them to perish eternally. We need more of that mindset toward the lost. These last days are the time of restoration, in which God is calling out a people of His own possession, so that we might declare His many excellencies to the watching world (1 Pet. 2.9, 10). How can we continue, day after day, in our present state of Gospel complacency? The thief is coming upon all men, whether in the form of death or the day of wrath! Are we warning, pleading, and urging them to reach repentance in Jesus Christ?

What would recommend as a strategy for you and your Christian friends to begin being more consistent in reaching out with the Gospel to the lost people around you?

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “Blind to the Truth: 2 Peter 3.1-10,” simply click here.

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.