Dear church,

Peter’s second letter is about living in the light of the return of Christ. It’s also about the dangers of false teachers and false prophets.

Peter felt it was important to point out the fact he and the other apostles are eyewitnesses of the life of Christ. “We were eyewitnesses of his majesty,” Peter wrote.

We know eyewitness testimony is extremely valuable in making decisions about things. Often, we’ll put eyewitness accounts above other types of evidence. It is human nature to take seriously a person we know was there, on the scene, to tell us directly what happened.

In the dash to find evidence of voter fraud in the recent presidential election, witnesses are coming forward with stories. It is up to us to decide whether to believe them. Of course, we’re free to discard those stories as false if we so choose.

Peter appealed to the fact that he was an eyewitness. Some false teachers likely were saying something to the effect that Peter’s teachings amounted to “cleverly devised myths.” A myth is more or less a story – a fictional story.

All Peter could say was “no.” He saw it. He heard it.

And it is up to a person to believe – or not.

To some extent, we are living in a dark time. And we see forward without the clarity we might normally want. And yet, there’s a promise that the day will dawn and the morning star will rise in our hearts.

Until then, we pay attention to the words of Peter and the apostles and the prophets. We hang onto them like we would hang onto a lamp in a dark place, just before the dawn.

And this is why we read Scripture. We would do well to pay attention to Scripture, to internalize it, to puzzle over it, to put our hope in its words.

Thank you for reading it each day.

Chris