HARD SAYINGS

( 2 Peter 3:15-16) "And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."

Peter, in the above verses, is commending Paul as a divinely inspired writer but explains that he sometimes writes about things that are hard to understand. He is not saying that Paul's writings are hard to be understood but there are some things about which he writes that are hard to be understood.

For instance, the people had a hard time understanding the resurrection of the body. So they asked the question, "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?" (1 Corinthians 15:35). Paul went into some detail in regard to the bodily resurrection and finally concludes not with the direct answer to their enquiry but to the fact that there is a resurrection and we will have a great victory over death through Christ Jesus if we are faithful. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58).

It seems that many found it hard to understand that the Lord was not coming soon. The Thessalonians, in particular, were confused about the matter. Paul assures them concerning this. "That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand" (2 Thessalonians 2:2). And reassures them in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and tells them to "... comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

There may have been other things that were hard to be understood but God gives us enlightenment on the things that we need to understand in order to go to heaven. People are still confused on the subjects mentioned and many are wresting them to their own destruction.

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