New? February 8 Devotional
February 08, 2025
2 PETER 3:3-4 | 3 First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts 4 and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!’
Honest questions can spur our development as disciples. Doubts can be the spring board to new levels of faith. Jesus never suppressed questions but rather encouraged them. The Old Testament raises every basic question concerning life’s most difficult realities, including the problems of injustice and tragedy and their relation to God’s character and purpose. But the members of the faith communities whom Peter addresses in these verses are not bringing honest doubts to their communities in the search for truth, understanding, and deeper commitment. They are “scoffers.” A scoffer has abandoned a central premise of the faith and is determined to convert others to his view. He has become a critic who mocks belief. Here the scoffer suggests that belief in the return of Christ is ludicrous, since he has not reappeared in the flesh, and “all things continue as have since the beginning of creation.”
Do you know anyone who has moved from honest, faithful questioning to becoming a scoffer?
Gracious God,
Grant me the courage to begin, honestly, where I am, asking questions and pursuing answers when I have doubts. Real faith seeks understanding. Show me the way to greater depth and more profound truth.
Amen.
