27.11 | Scoffers With Scoffing
2 Peter 3
‘…knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.’
2 Peter 3:3
Have you ever had someone laugh at your idea?
Putting an idea out there can feel a little vulnerable. We worry, when we take this risk, that it may not be the best idea, or that another will have a better idea, or that our idea may be criticised, contradicted, or ignored. A good many excellent ideas remain unshared from such fears.
And yet, there is maybe no more brutal response than laughter. Most of us find the idea of being ridiculous worse than being wrong. Wrong happens. You keep your dignity. But ridiculous feels humiliating, ridiculous feels patronising, ridiculous makes you feel small.
There’s a word that Peter uses today that is important for the heart journey of the Christian:
Scoffing.
Scoffers, Peter says, will come with scoffing.
It’s not a word we often use. My kids use it sometimes to describe eating something quickly, but that’s not what Peter is talking about.
A better translation might be mockers. The word used has connotations of finding something childish, foolish, or absurd. Scoffers who come with scoffing are those who look your ideas of faith up and down, and ridicule them.
Of all the teachings of our faith, it is the phrase Jesus is coming soon that often makes us squirm. The inner scoffer gets to work on us before the external voices of scoffing do. We hear such words, and images of the lunatic come to mind—soothsayers of doom and maniacs on the margins. We worry that holding such beliefs, let alone speaking them, or living as if they were so, will be seen as ridiculous.
And yet, it is exactly into this warning that Peter comes. He could warn of many things here, but he knows that it is the scoffer that will wreak a particular kind of havoc in your soul. For the fear of the scoffer dampens our hope, sterilises our faith, and cuts the heart out of our urgency.
Hear Peter’s rebuke. For most truly the scoffer does not reveal the true quality of your idea, but only reveals themselves to be a scoffer. Many of the greatest ideas have been laughed at. Many of the greatest truths have been initially mocked. It is the experience of the pioneer and inventor and explorer to endure mockery, and yet to keep going anyway.
Hear Peter’s words: do not lose your stability—for our assurance is built upon the clear and stable confidence that He is certainly coming soon. Stay steadfast, for the imminence of His return is an essential, calmly offered, and firmly presented truth of the New Testament witness. It is the reasonable outcome of the Resurrection. It is the clear promise of our Lord. It is the consistent hope of the Scriptures. It is an idea of such beauty, that has furnished and beautified the inner life of many a faithful disciple, even as the scoffing world laughs in their faces.
For as we learn to stand strong in these essential truths, a deeper change happens. We grow in grace. We grow in knowledge. We learn to navigate unstable times, and yet learnt to do so in the steady confidence in the promise of our Lord.
For He is coming. He is right around the corner. And these days of instability and warfare, of confusion and tribalism, of the superficialities of hedonism, the dysfunctionality of the narcissistic age, and every scoffing of every scoffer will certainly come to an end.
For the Great Day approaches. And it will come soon.
Reflect:
Where do you experience, or fear, scoffing? Does this affect your heart?
Pray:
Lord Jesus,
Establish me:
Establish me in strength of mind
And strength in my ways.
Establish me in the surety of your promises,
And of the coming Age.
Establish me in what you said,
And what you say.
Establish me,
That I may be a presence of stability and hope.
And Lord,
Where scoffing has invaded my heart—
Doubts and trivial ideas,
Hedonistic ideologies and diluted Christianity,
Purify me—
That I may tread the path of courageous confidence,
In the heavenly road
Of resilient hope.
In Your Name,
And awaiting Your return,
Lord Jesus,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Daniel 3-4 | Psalm 136:1-16