Sermons on 2 Peter 3:15-16
The various sermons below converge quickly: they read 2 Peter 3:15–16 as Peter’s sanctioning of Paul’s letters and therefore treat those epistles as Spirit‑given, authoritative material for the church. Each speaker links apostolic authority, the Spirit’s work, and the practical use of Paul’s writings—insisting these letters belong alongside Scripture for worship, instruction, and defense against distortion. Nuances emerge in emphasis: one sermon treats Peter’s remark as doctrinal confirmation of a once‑for‑all apostolic deposit that undergirds the church’s foundation; another reframes “hard to understand” passages as an ethical prompt to patient, loving study; a third reads the verse as a call to communal custodianship—preserving, circulating, and obeying apostolic teaching.
Their contrasts are telling for sermon strategy. One approach privileges systematic proof and canonical status, arguing from Peter to the fixed authority of Paul’s epistles in doctrine and practice; another adopts a pastoral‑epistemic tack, making the text a summons to disciplined, love‑shaped interpretation that guards against distortion; the third emphasizes ecclesiology and praxis, urging local churches to be responsible keepers and transmitters of apostolic writing. Choosing among these will shape your application—press the congregation toward doctrinal certainty, train them in patient exegetical perseverance, or mobilize them for collective textual stewardship—
2 Peter 3:15-16 Interpretation:
Establishing the New Testament Canon: Authority and Apostolicity(Desiring God) understands 2 Peter 3:15–16 as Peter explicitly endorsing Paul’s letters as part of the developing canon and uses that endorsement theologically to argue that Jesus’ commissioning of authoritative spokesmen (the apostles) plus the Spirit’s promise to guide them makes the apostolic writings a completed, foundational deposit of truth—Piper treats Peter’s remark not simply as historical evidence but as doctrinal confirmation that Paul’s epistles function “as scripture” alongside the Old Testament, that they transmit “wisdom given” by God, and therefore merit the same use in worship, instruction, and the church’s foundation.
Thinking and Loving: Knowledge Rooted in Love(Desiring God) reads 2 Peter 3:15–16 as a pastoral exhortation about how Christians should engage difficult Scripture: Peter’s labeling of Paul’s letters as containing “wisdom given” and “some things hard to understand” is taken to mean these texts are Spirit?taught and authoritative, and the real pastoral application is epistemological and moral—students and pastors must persist in hard study as an act of love (not abandon difficult texts), because failure to work through hard material is what allows “the ignorant and unstable” to twist Scripture to destruction.
God's Faithfulness: The Power of Scripture and Community(Cornerstone Independent Baptist Church, Enola, PA) treats 2 Peter 3:15–16 as straightforward canonical testimony: the sermon interprets Peter’s words as proof that the earliest churches already regarded certain apostolic letters (Paul’s) as Scripture, uses Peter’s warning about distorters as a pastoral call to heed apostolic writings as divinely authoritative, and applies that to contemporary confidence in the New Testament—that Paul’s epistles are to be read, obeyed, and preserved as God?breathed Scripture.
2 Peter 3:15-16 Theological Themes:
Establishing the New Testament Canon: Authority and Apostolicity(Desiring God) emphasizes a distinct theological theme that the canon’s authority is rooted in Christ’s unique authority and his deliberate choice of authoritative spokesmen—the sermon frames the New Testament not as a random anthology but as a once?for?all deposit delivered through authorized apostles whose teaching, by virtue of Christ’s promise and the Spirit’s work, is the nonrepeatable foundation of the church and thus normative doctrine.
Thinking and Loving: Knowledge Rooted in Love(Desiring God) advances the distinctive theme that correct Christian knowing (right thinking) is ordered to love: when Peter calls Paul’s letters Spirit?given “wisdom,” the sermon reframes hermeneutical effort as an ethical virtue—intellectual perseverance in interpreting “hard” texts is itself a form of Christian love that protects others from distortion, so epistemology and ethics are tightly linked in the life of the church.
God's Faithfulness: The Power of Scripture and Community(Cornerstone Independent Baptist Church, Enola, PA) draws out a distinct ecclesiological theme from the verse: Peter’s classification of Paul’s letters as Scripture implies a corporate responsibility—local churches are the custodians and circulators of apostolic writings, so preservation, copying, and mutual sharing of apostolic texts are theological duties grounded in the canonical status Peter affirms.
2 Peter 3:15-16 Historical and Contextual Insights:
The Formation and Significance of the New Testament Canon(David Guzik) situates 2 Peter 3:15–16 within the contentious second?century milieu by surveying extra?biblical writings (Didache, Epistle of Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas) and rival movements (Marcionites, Montanists) to show why church leaders felt pressed to close and defend the canon; Guzik uses Peter’s endorsement of Paul as early evidence (alongside citations by Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp) that apostolic letters were circulating and being treated as authoritative in worship, thereby explaining canonical development as a pragmatic response to heresy, oral tradition limits, and the fading of firsthand apostolic witnesses.
Establishing the New Testament Canon: Authority and Apostolicity(Desiring God) provides contextual background about first?century assumptions (Jesus’ claims to authoritative speech, the apostles as “sent” representatives, the Spirit’s promise to guide apostolic witnesses) and uses that context to explain why the early church naturally moved to recognize a body of apostolic writings as Scripture—Piper treats the cultural expectation of prophetic and authoritative teaching plus the institutional role of the apostolic band as the historical soil in which Peter’s statement about Paul’s letters made canonical sense.
God's Faithfulness: The Power of Scripture and Community(Cornerstone Independent Baptist Church, Enola, PA) supplies concrete historical markers tied to 2 Peter’s claim: the sermon notes early dating of the apostolic autographs (by ~AD 100), cites Clement of Rome (c. AD 96) and Polycarp (c. AD 115) as evidences that apostolic books were already quoted and used as Scripture, and explains the practical practice of copying and circulating letters among congregations (Colossians 4:16, 1 Thessalonians 5:27) as the historical mechanism by which Peter’s designation of Paul’s letters as “scripture” was realized and preserved.
2 Peter 3:15-16 Cross-References in the Bible:
Establishing the New Testament Canon: Authority and Apostolicity(Desiring God) groups a broad set of cross?references around the point that apostolic teaching is foundational: Piper appeals to Luke 24:27 and John 5:39 to show Jesus’ fulfillment of Scripture, to Luke 6 and John 14/16 to demonstrate Jesus’ selection and Spirit?endowment of apostles, to Jude 1:3 and Ephesians 2:19 to argue that apostolic teaching forms the unrepeatable deposit/foundation, and to 1 Corinthians 14:37 and 1 Corinthians 2:12–13 to show Paul’s own self?claims about speaking Spirit?taught truth, using these passages to read 2 Peter 3:15–16 as an internal New Testament confirmation that apostolic letters carry the same normative weight as the Old Testament.
Paul's Apostolic Authority and Divine Commissioning(Desiring God) connects 2 Peter 3:15–16 to Paul’s own legalistic claims about his letters: the sermon points to 1 Corinthians 14:37 (“the things which I write are the Lord’s commandment”) and 1 Corinthians 2:12–13 (Paul contrasts spirit?taught words with human wisdom) and treats Peter’s labeling of Paul’s letters as “wisdom given” and “scripture” as corroboration within the New Testament that Paul’s epistles function as divinely authoritative instruction.
Thinking and Loving: Knowledge Rooted in Love(Desiring God) links 2 Peter 3:15–16 with 1 Corinthians 2:6–13, reading both together to show that Paul’s wisdom is a Spirit?taught wisdom and that Peter’s reference to “wisdom given” echoes Paul’s claim that apostolic teaching is not human philosophy but Spirit?taught truth; the sermon then uses that theological pairing to ground its pastoral exhortation to patient, loving study of difficult texts.
God's Faithfulness: The Power of Scripture and Community(Cornerstone Independent Baptist Church, Enola, PA) marshals multiple biblical cross?references in direct service of proving apostolic writings were treated as Scripture: the sermon highlights 2 Peter 3:15–16 itself, then adduces 1 Timothy 5:18 (Paul’s citation “the laborer is worthy of his hire” likely echoing Luke 10:7 and treated as “Scripture”), 2 Thessalonians 3:14 (Paul treats his epistle as authoritative for church discipline), Colossians 4:16 and 1 Thessalonians 5:27 (instructions to read and circulate epistles among congregations) to show how early New Testament practice matched Peter’s canonical description.
2 Peter 3:15-16 Christian References outside the Bible:
The Formation and Significance of the New Testament Canon(David Guzik) explicitly deploys early Christian writers and movements when interpreting 2 Peter 3:15–16: Guzik cites Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp (their quotations of Paul’s letters show early recognition of Pauline authority), and he surveys influential extra?canonical texts (Didache, Epistle of Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas) and heretical actors (Marcion, the Montanists) to demonstrate the historical pressures that made Peter’s assertion—that Paul’s writings were scriptural—both significant and decisive for the church’s closing of the canon; these patristic and extra?biblical sources are used to show not only reception but the polemical context in which canonical boundaries were defended.
God's Faithfulness: The Power of Scripture and Community(Cornerstone Independent Baptist Church, Enola, PA) pairs the biblical claim in 2 Peter with explicit reference to early church figures and a modern textual scholar: the sermon names Clement of Rome and Polycarp as historical witnesses who quote or treat New Testament books as Scripture (Clement c. AD 96, Polycarp c. AD 115), and it cites modern author Wilbur Pickering to summarize scholarly observations that copies of apostolic writings were in circulation by the end of the first century and that it was normal practice to make copies for each assembly—Pickering’s point is used to buttress the sermon’s argument that Peter’s canonical assessment had immediate and practical consequences in the life of the churches.