Patient With Who?

2 Peter 3. Peter's second epistle deals with last days and chapter three concludes on that note. The breakdown of this letter looks something like this:
1. Cultivating Christian Character-- ch.1.
2. Condemning False Teachers---- ch.2.
3. Confidence In Christ's Return--- ch.3.
And today's reading in ch.3 breaks down as follows:

• The Delay of the Lord-- 3:1-9
• The Day of the LORD-- 3:10-18

The verse I want us to meditate on today is verse 9. The scoffers that mock Christ's delayed return (v.3-4) don't understand that God's delay is for their benefit. "God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim.2:4) and He is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (v.9). But pay close attention to the first and middle part of this verse. God is not slack or late concerning His promised return, as the scoffers accuse, but rather "is longsuffering toward us...." Longsuffering, patient towards who? Towards us. Peter includes himself in the "us". Peter is writing to believers and he, being a believer as well, includes himself in the "us." Dear Christian don't miss this. God is patient with "us" Christians. Why? Because we are slow to get the Gospel out in these urgent last days. God doesn't want anyone to perish, but He has entrusted the Gospel to "us". And yet in these last days, the church is apathetic and lethargic about evangelism, while men and women and boys and girls are lost and are perishing. Thank God for His patience with us, but let us now quickly be about the Master's business of telling others about this Good News, the Gospel. What Good News? The Good News that God solved our sin problem nearly 2000 years ago. God is patient with us in our neglect of this, but as the days roll by, His patience could be wearing thin. It's time to be silent no more.