"The Longsuffering Of God"

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) Guided by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Peter wrote these words, but just what does he mean. Well, back in verse four we see the scoffer scoffing and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." In other words, the unbeliever was saying, "I see no signs of His coming."

This should give us a hint as to what the apostle means in verse nine. He is simply answering the objection that the scoffer set forth earlier; and the answer is, "The Lord has promised that He will come again, and His promises are solid, unlike some others who make promises." But then Peter goes on to imply that God, in His wisdom, has delayed the Lord's coming (in other words, He set the date way out in the future) because the job that Jesus and the apostles began is far from finished. He goes on to declare that God is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

There were many in the first century that believed that Christ would come back again in their lifetime but this was not in God's plan…nor was it His nature. Oh…make no mistake…the date and time of His return is set and the day is known to God. In Acts 17:31 Paul said to the men of Athens, "He (God) has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained." Knowing that the day is set and God sees that day coming ever closer, He must be greatly pained to know that the job is not yet complete.

The command that we have is to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved and he who does not believe will be condemned." (Matthew 16:15, 16) We have not been into the entire world and we have not preached the gospel to every creature. The onus is on us!