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“GETTING AWAY WITH IT”
Our courts are backlogged with cases that need to be tried. If cases come before a judge, the delay of prosecution often allows the criminal to escape punishment. And, if he is punished, he may well receive a diminished sentence. All of which means that criminals and sinners are more inclined toward their pernicious ways, because they have a good chance of escaping prosecution, judgment and punishment.
God’s delay in bringing the final destruction of the world caused scoffers in the first century to say, “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation," (2 Peter 3:4). They meant to imply that since each day the sun rises and sets as it always has and the world goes on, then the Lord is not going to return in judgment. Their assumed conclusion was, “If the Lord has not come, he will not come,” which means that they will not have to give account for their evil ways. Peter uses three arguments against their false conclusion.
Argument number one -- "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the word that then was, being overflowed with water, perished," (2 Peter 3:6). Things have not always continued as they were God destroyed the world once and now the earth and heavens are kept by the same word in store against judgment that shall be by fire this time.
Argument number two -- "…one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," (v. 8). This is not a formula intended for prognosticators and speculators to set their end-time dates but means that time is of no significance to the Lord – man is a creature of time and regimented by the ticking clock but God is not.
Argument number three -- "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," (v. 9). Some considered his slackness and delayed judgment a sign that his promise would not be kept. Rather, his delay indicates his longsuffering and his desire that all should have sufficient time to repent. Because he promised it, it shall surely come to pass in his own good time (Hebrews 6:10-20).
Disciples can also adopt this distorted perception. Jesus said, "But and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers," (Luke 12: 45-46). This one is not a scoffer, but a servant and yet he too interprets the delay of returning as a sign of “getting away with it.” Neither shall he escape condemnation -- his portion shall be appointed with the unbelievers.
Scoffers scoff because life goes on but they are willfully ignorant of the evidence that there will be a retribution for their evil deeds. Some servants act unbecoming to their master's desires in belief that a delayed return means there will be no recompense for their disobedience or that they will change someday. Unconvinced by God’s promises in revelation, time may well be the only thing that will convince some of the folly of such a philosophy. But then it will be too late -- "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3a). -- Jim R. Everett
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