2 Peter - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

VUL
2 Peter 1:12 propter quod incipiam vos semper commonere de his et quidem scientes et
confirmatos in praesenti veritate
LWB 2 Peter 1:13 Indeed, I consider it my duty [responsibility], as long as I am in
this tent [alive in this body], to keep on stirring up your mind by way of
remembrance [teaching doctrine by repetition],
KW
2 Peter 1:13 Indeed, I consider it due you as long as I am in this tent to keep on
arousing you by means of a reminder,
KJV
2 Peter 1:13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting
you in remembrance;
TRANSLATION HIGHLIGHTS
Peter considers it his duty and responsibility (even privilege) to keep on stirring up their
minds by way of remembrance (Iterative Present tense). This is a idiomatic way of saying
he is going to repeat some of these important doctrines over-and-over again, even though
he knows they have heard them before. Crucial teaching needs to be repeated so during
times of crisis they will automatically kick-in and help us pass the test. Peter is making a
promise to continue repeating these truths as long as he is alive. The phrase “in this tent”
(Latin: tabernacle) is an idiom for being alive in his physical body. The body is a
temporary dwelling place that we inhabit during our earthly life. The real “you” is a soul
with existence that continues outside your physical body.
RELEVANT OPINIONS
Peter is not referring to normal nighttime sleep but to a lack of attentiveness. Too often
we rest on the laurels of past achievements and fail to be alert. We are lulled asleep, as if
we are living in peace while the spiritual warfare against Satan and his cohorts is raging
all around us. (S. Kistemaker) Sometimes we can do that work all the better when the
shadow of approaching death is falling upon us. Our testimony seems more real, deeper,
and more convincing, when it comes from men who are on the point of departure, whose
immediate future is in the world beyond the grave. (B. Caffin) The body is a covering to
the soul; it keeps it from being exposed to the glare of the world. The connection of the
body with the soul is not so close but that it can be quickly removed as a shepherd’s tent.
(R. Finlayson)
He would shake them out of their spiritual drowsiness and alert them to the surrounding
danger. Peter knew that repetition played an important part in firmly fixing these truths in
their minds. (D. Hiebert) The obligation remains as long as life lasts, and it consists of
thoroughly arousing the minds of the saints. Minds or memories are the seat from which
action proceeds and the most that any believer can do is to arouse his mind. (H. Hoyt) He
would arouse their minds to action by reminding them of the truth they had learned from
the Word of God. The preacher and teacher should be an intense student of the Word,
bringing to his hearers fresh, new truth with the dew of heaven upon it. But there is a
place for the repetition of the old truths which the saints know well. Much of it has not