2 Peter 3:12

2 Peter 3:12, in plain English

As you look forward to God's day coming, you should be actively living in a way that hastens it—longing for it, preparing for it, not dragging your feet spiritually.

Why it's here

You might think, "If God controls the timing, what difference does my holiness make?" Peter says your spiritual life matters. You're not passive observers waiting for an event—you're participants in God's story, and your faithfulness actually matters to how history unfolds.

Who's speaking

Peter, calling you to active spiritual engagement

Where it sits in the story

This combines divine sovereignty with human responsibility—a tension that runs throughout Scripture. Your choices matter within God's bigger plan.

The scholarly reading

Believers should eagerly anticipate and even hasten God's day—participating in hope for the new cosmos where the present heavens and earth will burn and be remade.

Language and setting

The phrase 'hasten the coming' (Greek: speudontas tēn parousian) perplexed commentators for centuries: how can mortals accelerate cosmic events? Medieval exegetes (Hugh of Saint Victor, Aquinas) suggested that repentance and intercessory prayer cooperate with God's purposes, aligning human will with divine telos. Modern scholarship (Schnackenburg, Neyrey) notes that the Greek speudontas can mean both 'hurry toward' and 'anticipate eagerly.' The sense may be: through ethical striving and intercession, the believer hastens psychologically and spiritually toward that day, becoming aligned with God's redemptive momentum. The 'dissolving by fire' (ekpyrōsis) again invokes both cosmic transformation and purification.

Voice

Peter, encouraging active, eager participation in eschatological hope.

Significance

This corrects passivity in eschatological faith—believers are not merely waiting but working, not merely hoping but hastening. The eschaton becomes not external event imposed upon unwilling creation but the fulfillment toward which the redeemed actively strain.

10But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.

11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness

12as you anticipate and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.

13But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

14Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort to be found at peace—spotless and blameless in His sight.

Read all of 2 Peter 3 — Scoffers will say: where is the promise of his coming? But God isn't slow — he's patient, not wanting anyone to perish. The day will come like a thief.