Verse 1
Peter’s first letter was most likely 1 Peter. Of course, Peter may have written many epistles, so we cannot be sure that 1 Peter is in view. [Note: Bigg, p. 289.] The apostle implied that he wrote this present letter soon after the earlier one. This second epistle, he said, went to the same audience in northern Asia Minor (cf. 1 Peter 1:1), primarily Gentile Christians. His purpose in writing the second letter was to refresh his readers’ memories (cf. 2 Peter 1:13). "Sincere" means unflawed by evil. He gave his readers credit for not having embraced the teaching of the heretics yet.
"An effective antidote to false doctrine is to recall and dwell on the teaching already perceived." [Note: Andrew McNab, "The General Epistles of Peter," in The New Bible Commentary, p. 1149.]
"The English ’sincere’ is from the Latin words sine cera, ’without wax.’ Some pottery salesmen would use wax to cover cracks and weak places in pottery. Such a cover-up could be detected only by holding the jug up to the sun to see if any weaknesses were visible. Such a vase was ’sun-judged’ (the lit. meaning of the Gr. eilikrines). God wants His people to have sun-judged minds, not those in which their sin spots have been covered over." [Note: Gangel, p. 875.]
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