The Bible Says
2 Peter 3:8-9 Meaning

In 2 Peter 3:8-9, Peter observes that God is outside of time and views a day and a thousand years as being the same. Having just told his readers about the prophetic Word that promises that a judgment day is coming for all unbelievers where they will be judged by fire, Peter now contrasts (beginning with But) with God’s loving and patient character: But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day (v. 8).

But (v. 8), introduces a contrast to the prophetic promise of coming judgment, do not let this one fact escape your notice. The word fact is inferred, being added by translators. The Greek word “heis” means one. The one thing Peter wants the readers to focus on is the reality about God and time; God is not bound by time. What is a long delay to humans is nothing to God. This is a fact that is overlooked by the carnal mockers.

Notice that Peter addresses his readers as beloved because he has a deep affection for them. It is from a heart of love for them that Peter points them to some of the characteristics of God’s nature: His reckoning of time and His great patience and love for people. Peter’s desire for those whom he is discipling is to stir up and remind them to make all their decisions with the final goal in mind, which is to be prepared when they meet Jesus in the coming day of judgment (2 Peter 3:1, 11-12).

Drawing on Psalm 90:4, Peter tells us that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day:

“For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night.”
(Psalm 90:4)

This does not mean that God experiences time more slowly or quickly than we do, but rather that God is not bound by time at all. God created time but is not stuck in time. While human beings experience existence as a succession of moments-past, present, and future-God created the whole of space and time at once.

All events, which from our perspective unfold sequentially through history, are timelessly present to the divine mind. From the standpoint of eternity, God is not waiting for tomorrow to arrive. God beholds all of history-its beginning, middle, and end-in a single, undivided act of knowledge and love. That is why the prophet Isaiah also reports God as saying, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come” (Isaiah 46:10).

Einstein’s general relativity theory helps us glimpse this reality from a human perspective. Modern physics tells us that space and time are woven together into a single four-dimensional continuum called “spacetime.” Events that we would call “past” or “future” are equally real within that continuum, but how we perceive them depends on our frame of reference.

In this way, relativity offers a picture analogous to these biblical passages in that God transcends all of the frames of reference existing within creation, apprehending them all at once. Conversely, we are confined to our own temporal slice of reality and perceive "now" relative to our reference frame. That we have a specific frame of reference also gives the context for our memories of the past and our anticipations of the future.

St. Augustine observed that our experience of time is a “distention” of the soul-each moment of consciousness is stretched by memory (the past), attention (the present), and anticipation (the future). Yet God’s eternity contains all of this timelessly. When Scripture says that “a thousand years are as one day,” it is asserting that all lengths of time are present at once to God.

Peter’s assertion that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day tells us that God’s timeless consciousness embraces every moment of time. From a human perspective within the universe, time appears to vary with gravitational gradients (as the theory of relativity predicts) where a day near a black hole might span eons elsewhere. But this relativity pertains to creaturely experience, not to God's. God created spacetime itself.

As Colossians 1:16-17 says, God created all things in heaven and on earth, invisible and visible, including the spiritual realm and the physical realm, and "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." This indicates that God is both within His creation, experiencing it as we do, as well as beyond His creation where He sees all that is at all points in time.

We experience time within an eternal embrace as the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1-4). What we as humans might experience as eons of time can be enfolded in a single, eternal divine decree from God. Given this view of time, Peter asserts: The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (v. 9).

The mockers wrongly conclude that since God has not (from their limited perspective) been quick to carry out His promise of judgment, this means that no judgment will come. The word translated slow is the Greek “bradynō,” which can also be translated “slack,” “tardy,” “to tarry,” or “to delay.” God is not late. He is not behind schedule; He is not procrastinating. He is not slow concerning His promise. Rather, God is patient toward the human race, giving us time to come to repentance.

It is not unusual for humans to be impatient for God to bring justice. The prophet Habakkuk opens his book by complaining to God that He is tarrying in bringing judgment against Israel for the injustice he sees (Habakkuk 1:2). In Revelation 6:10, the martyrs dwelling in God’s heavenly throne room cry out to God for His delay in bringing justice against those who slayed them upon the earth. God told the martyrs to “rest a little while longer” until the number of martyrs is complete (Revelation 6:11). He told Habakkuk that He was soon to raise up the Chaldeans against Judah to judge them (Habakkuk 1:6).

God will bring all things to justice but prefers reconciliation. As He says in Ezekiel 18:23, “‘Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘rather than that he should turn from his ways and live’?” God answers this rhetorical question in Ezekiel 18:27 by making it clear that His desire is for the wicked to come to repentance. God never changes (Hebrews 13:8). In the Old Testament, He desired for the wicked to repent, and in the New Testament He is no different. God delays justice, giving people time to repent because He is not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

The word wishing in the phrase that God is not wishing for any to perish comes from the Greek word “boulomai,” which means “willing” or “desiring.” The root of “boulomai” is “boulé” and can be used to reference a meeting of authority figures to counsel with each other and make decisions. Elsewhere in the Scripture, “boulomai” is translated “wanted” (Act 15:37), “planned” (Matthew 1:19), or as in Acts 5:33, where the Sanhedrin “intended” to kill the Apostles, but were dissuaded.

Here, Peter is saying that God is not wishing or willing or planning or intending for any person to perish. It is not His plan or purpose that people should go to the Lake of Fire. Those who end up there do so because of their own choice; they rejected God. God wants to be reconciled to His creation (2 Corinthians 5:20).

We can note that Verse 9 asserts that He wants for all to come to faith and have fellowship with Him. That God desires for all to come to repentance means that there is not one single person God does not desire to accept into His family and have a share in His inheritance.

This means God does not want any individual that He has created to experience the coming day of judgement where that individual person will be cast forever into the Lake of Fire (1 Timothy 2:4-5, John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:19-20).

God is not only patient, but He is also so full of love and compassion for people that His desire is for all people to come to repentance. For the unbeliever, an application of this would involve putting their trust in Jesus Christ as God’s Son who died for their sins so that they can receive the gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. For someone who is already a believer in Christ, an application of this would involve a willingness to turn from sin and walk in obedience to Christ that they might walk in fellowship with Him and gain the promised rewards of life for that obedience.