We have in 2 Peter a letter where those that received it were facing serious problems just like we do today. There are two troubles that Christians have always faced: Troubles from without and troubles from within! It seems to me that often if we handle the troubles from within the troubles from without are far less! It’s no wonder that Satan does all he can to increase our troubles from within. If you trace Satan’s work from the beginning you will find that he has always attacked faith and trust in God’s Word as we see in Genesis 3:1 where he craftily engendered the lie, “Has God indeed said…?”
Satan has always been committed to spreading doubt of God’s love and truth and has done so by creating a world system that is contrary to it as well as infiltrating God’s Church with agents who will sow seeds of doubt. An ineffective Christian is a great tool in his arsenal and there is no better way to accomplish this than to have people who can be used and counted on to disseminate doubt, and no better place for them to do so than the pulpit of God’s Church!
God’s interest is in your maturity in a relationship with Him.
Peter was aware of this and took the time to write to these mostly Gentile believers who were familiar with Paul’s letters. False teachers were so wicked that they were twisting some of Paul’s words to fit their lies (3:15-16) and the bulk of their lies seems to have been aimed at the soon return of Jesus as 3:3-4 where he calls them “scoffers” who mockingly sow the doubt of “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”
A church that is uncertain about the truth about which they believe and has no foundation will be easily moved and ineffective in outreach and Satan knows this. Furthermore, a church that doesn’t seek to continually grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus will also lack the maturity to be effective in its witness.
Once you have the Truth of God you must continue in it but before you can continue you must remember with great conviction the value of the truth which you started with! The bible is not a mathematical book that is concerned with numbers, what the Bible is concerned about is truth! It is unfortunate that the church is more interested at times in numbers than in truth. It must NOT care so much about how many attend but rather what one transformed by truth can be and do!