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2 Peter 3:15–16
“Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”
One of the most remarkable features of Peter’s second letter is the brief but weighty reference to the Apostle Paul in 2 Peter 3:15–16. In just two verses, Peter accomplishes something of enormous theological significance: He places Paul’s letters on the same level as “the other Scriptures.” This is an early and authoritative recognition that Paul’s writings are not merely human correspondence but divinely inspired Scripture, carrying the full authority of God’s Word.
Peter also acknowledges what any honest reader of Paul knows: Some things in his letters are “hard to understand.” The difficulty lies in the subject matter, for the deep things of God are beyond our full comprehension because we are finite and fallen. Scripture is clear in matters essential to salvation, but that does not mean that every passage yields its meaning without effort. The Westminster Confession of Faith affirms that while not all things in Scripture are equally plain, “those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation” are taught so clearly that the ordinary person can understand them (1.7).
The problem arises when “the ignorant and the unstable” twist these difficult passages to support their own agendas. The false teachers in Peter’s day apparently seized on certain statements in Paul, perhaps his teaching on freedom from the Mosaic law (Rom. 6:14–15; Gal. 5:1) or his expectation of Christ’s imminent return (1 Thess. 4:15–17), and bent them to justify both moral license and the denial of the second coming. They misread or distorted Paul’s teaching and arrived at conclusions that Paul himself would have repudiated.
This twisting of Scripture is not merely an ancient problem. It happens every time someone isolates a verse to prove a point that the broader canon contradicts, every time grace is used to excuse sin, every time God’s love is invoked to deny His justice, or every time Christian liberty is redefined as moral autonomy. The antidote is not to avoid difficult texts but to read them within the whole counsel of God, comparing Scripture with Scripture and submitting our interpretations to the wisdom of the church’s historic confessions.
Peter’s warning carries a solemn consequence: Those who twist the Scriptures do so “to their own destruction.” The stakes of interpretation are eternal, and how we handle the Word of God matters not merely for our theological accuracy but for our very souls.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Difficult passages of Scripture are not an excuse for neglect but an invitation to deeper study. Let us resist the temptation to flatten hard texts into easy slogans and instead read them in light of the whole counsel of God. The effort that we invest in careful interpretation is an act of reverence toward the Author who inspired every word.
For further study
- Luke 24:44–49
- Acts 17:10–12
The bible in a year
- Psalm 119:105–176
- 1 Corinthians 6
- Psalms 120–125
- 1 Corinthians 7