Articles
Hard to Understand
“And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” – 2 Peter 3:15-16.
Peter correctly states that some of Paul’s writings are hard to understand. Based on this, some have wrongly asserted that Paul’s writings are impossible to understand, showing that they do not understand Paul or Peter.
Peter does not say that everything Paul writes is hard to understand.
Peter does not say that anything Paul writes is impossible to understand.
Peter says that some things Paul writes are hard to understand.
“Hard to understand” means that we must exert more effort to understand some of Paul’s writings. Higher math is harder to understand than the multiplication table, but it is not impossible to understand. It simply requires more effort to grasp it.
Carefully read what Paul says about his own writings in Ephesians 3:3-4: “how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ).” Paul expects his readers to reach his level of understanding.
The Lord’s plan for becoming a Christian does not fit the description “hard to understand.” This plan is so simple that children can grasp it. This plan was easily understood by thousands of sinners the first time they heard it (Acts 2; 8; 16, et al.).
Ignorance of the gospel is no excuse.
- Hard_To_Understand.pdf (109.02 kB)
