<p>3:3 <i>Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts</i>- The &quot;first&quot; or most important (Greek) thing they were to understand when it came to Bible teaching about the last days was &quot;that there shall come in the last days mockers&quot;. The presence of false teachers within the ecclesia would be one of the clearest signs of the second coming. The Lord &quot;began&quot; His Olivet prophecy with a warning about false teachers, as if this would be the first main sign (Mk. 13:5). Likewise Paul says that it was needless for him to write to the Thessalonians about the &quot;times and seasons&quot; of Christ's return. &quot;For yourselves know perfectly (clearly) that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night&quot; (1 Thess.5:1,2); i.e. it would be when there were unready elements within the ecclesia, to whom Christ's return would be thief-like. In similar vein, John taught that the believers could be certain they were in the 'last days' of AD70 because of the presence of false teaching (1 Jn. 2:18).</p><p>Connecting this with our comment on 1 Thess. 5:1,2, it may well be that the 'false teaching' is not so much in terms of basic abstract doctrine, but in the encouragement of a way of life that is not alert for the second coming. As we progress through 2 Peter 3, and indeed the entire New Testament, it becomes painfully obvious that this class of people were to arise <i>within</i> the ecclesia. As there were false teachers among natural Israel, so there must be within the New Israel (2 Pet. 2:1). Peter implies that this fact is a major theme in the teaching of all the apostles and Spirit-guided brethren. There are a number of connections between the descriptions of these people in 2 Pet. 2, and the language of 2 Pet. 3.</p><p>Such false teaching was something which Peter was prophesying: &quot;There <i>shall</i> come... scoffers... saying...&quot;. But now the tenses change to the present: &quot;For (because) this they willingly <i>are</i> ignorant of...&quot;. Even then these brethren had shut their mind to Bible based reasoning, refusing to consider the power of God's word as exhibited in the Old Testament. It was therefore only a matter of time before they started speaking forth false ideas. And Jude's allusions to 2 Peter 2 are because the situation predicted had by his time already started to come about, in the AD70 context.</p><p>The &quot;mockery&quot; was in order to justify the indulgence of &quot;their own lusts&quot;. I have noted several times in chapter 2 that the false teaching was rooted in a justification of lust, especially sexual lust. The reality of the second coming ought to be a guard against sexual misbehaviour. The subconscious desire for most false teaching is in order to make the way easier and justify human lust.</p><p>This links up with the false teachers of 2 Pet. 2 being styled &quot;them that walk after the flesh in... lust&quot; (2:10). Thus, as always, the motivation for the questioning of true doctrine, in this case that of the second coming, was in order to justify a fleshly way of life. There seems a connection of thought here with the Lord's reflection that the servant who felt the Lord's coming was extensively delayed would start to &quot;eat and drink with the drunken&quot; and beat the fellow-servants. Peter's later reference to the Lord's thief-like coming for such brethren (:10) indicates that there is a connection here. This would show that Peter is interpreting the Lord's description of the man who thought that the Master was delaying His coming, as meaning that in reality he was questioning whether his Master would ever come. This must surely be where a disinterest in prophecy ultimately leads- in a man's heart, anyway.</p>