What Does 2 Peter 3:1 Mean?

III. (1, 2) Just as the two halves of the first main portion of the Epistle are linked together by some personal remarks respecting his reason for writing this Epistle (2Peter 1:12-15), so the two predictions which form *the* second main portion are connected by personal remarks respecting the purpose of both his Epistles. (1) **This second epistle, beloved, I now write.**—Rather, *This now second epistle I write, beloved;* or, *This epistle, already a second one*—implying that no very long time has elapsed since his first letter, and that this one is addressed to pretty much the same circle of readers. There is no indication that the first two chapters are one letter, and that this is the beginning of another, as has been supposed. With this use of “now,” or “already,” comp. John 21:14. **Pure minds.**—The word for “pure” means literally “separated”—according to one derivation, by being sifted; according to another, by being held up to the light. Hence it comes to mean “unsullied.” Here it probably means untainted by sensuality or, possibly, deceit. In Philippians 1:10, the only other place where it occurs in the New Testament, it is translated “sincere.” (Comp. 1Corinthians 5:8; 2Corinthians 1:12; 2Corinthians 2:17.) The word for “mind” means “the faculty of moral reflection and moral understanding,” which St. Peter, in his First Epistle (2Peter 1:13), tells his readers to brace up and keep ready for constant use. These very two words are found together in a beautiful passage in Plato’s *Phaedo, *66A. **By way of remembrance.**—We have the same expression in 2Peter 1:13, and the translation in both cases should be the same—*stir up in putting you in remembrance.*