Christians in every age have loved to discuss what they call "the teaching of the Church." And in every age there have been people who sought to make this teaching unified, whole, and unambiguous. They wanted it to be such that one could easily find in it the answer to any question that arose, and an answer that was completely...
Christians in every age have loved to discuss what they call "the teaching of the Church." And in every age there have been people who sought to make this teaching unified, whole, and unambiguous. They wanted it to be such that one could easily find in it the answer to any question that arose, and an answer that was completely clear and allowed no ambiguous interpretations. Such that no one would have any doubts left. But judging by Peter's words, in the Church that Holy Scripture itself offers us as a model, things were by no means like that. There was no complete unanimity in it, no total unambiguity. Even the apostles themselves did not always and in everything understand one another.
Some passages of Paul's letters were, as we can see, not especially clear to Peter. This is not surprising: after all, Paul, who had received a full rabbinic education, at times thought in images and concepts not very familiar to a simple fisherman such as Peter. Yet Peter himself is not troubled by this. He knows that he and Paul understand some things differently, but in the main thing they are united. If the Church were yet another new religious organization or community, everything would not be so simple. For a religious organization, even if it is a relatively small movement, questions of doctrine are always fundamental. They are precisely what determine the life of that organization, including its spiritual life.
But Christianity is not a new religion; it is a new life. Life cannot be regulated by prescriptions, norms, rules, and theories set in advance. The Savior Himself refuses such regulation: the only thing that, according to His design, was to unite His followers was love for one another and union with Him Himself. Everything else was left to the discernment of the Church itself. Only those who are living can decide what forms their life should take and how it will unfold in the concrete conditions in which they have to live. That is why in the first Christian times the Church knew no single unified teaching: it did not need one. Christ was enough for it.
Of course, there could always be people who would prefer to engage in various kinds of intellectual exercises over one or another text read in the Christian community. Whoever seeks testimony in Paul's letters finds testimony; whoever seeks occasions to argue and exercise his intellect finds such occasions. But this has been so in every age of church history, and such people will always find material for their exercises. A unified teaching does not save one from this. But it can create the illusion of life where there is none. It is generally human to compensate for the absence of genuine life by talking about it. But no conversations, theories, or concepts bring us closer to the Kingdom. Peter understands this perfectly, as does Paul.
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3:14 Labour that whenever he cometh ye may be found in peace - May meet him without terror, being sprinkled with his blood, and sanctified by his Spirit, so as to be without spot and blameless. Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22.
3:15 And account the longsuffering of the Lord salvation - Not only designed to lead men to repentance, but actuallyconducing thereto: a precious means of saving many more souls.As our beloved brother Paul also hath written to you - This refers not only to the single sentence preceding, but to all that went before. St. Paul had written to the same effect concerning the end of the world, in several parts of his epistles, and particularly in his Epistle to the Hebrews. Rom 2:4.