Message summary: Some of the Bible's teachings are hard to understand. How do we handle such passages?

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"And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother 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. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability" (2 Peter 3:15-17).

This coming Sunday I will be teaching our Crossroads Adult Bible Fellowship class of about 60 who are peers our age. We are studying through Thessalonians and my portion Sunday is 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. I teach on a team with several other teachers.

This is a notoriously hard passage to interpret in part because Paul is giving instructions about what he had told the Thessalonians verbally when he was with them ("Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?" 2 Thessalonians 2:5) and we don't have the tape or transcript of that teaching! They had heard but we haven't.

In our daily text Peter, in his own second epistle, mentions Paul as a beloved brother. This is indicative that Paul's teaching early in the church age was well known and valued. In fact he had also written to these same people, "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".

What a kind word considering that Peter and Paul had once had a dispute recorded in Galatians 2. "But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned" (Galatians 2:11). This could have resulted in lasting division and animosity between the two but it did not. It's a good example of perseverance in relationships.

But the part of the daily verse I want to consider today was this candid admission by Peter concerning Paul's writings, "There are some things in them (Paul's writings) that are hard to understand".

Some of the Bible's teaching, like the portion I am sharing from this Sunday, are indeed hard to understand. Some teachings make sense to us, others we accept by faith, not fully understanding with our mind. However I have learned that there are many previously hard teachings that become easier to grasp after a period of maturation and experience as a Christian. But that's not the case with all!

The daily text goes on. Being hard to understand, there are those who are ignorant and unstable who twist the words to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. That happened then, it happens now. That's why, although we can appreciate new insights into a text, we should be wary of novel interpretations that may be twisting the meaning. Thus far into the church's history there really is nothing new under the sun.

Peter's final exhortation in our daily passage is just as needed today as it was in the First Century, "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability". The "error of lawless people" abounds in our own age as it did Peter's. Let us stand firm in the truth of God's Word.

Be encouraged today! Hebrews 3:13