Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Peter 1:15

"Yea, I will give diligence that at every time ye may be able after my decease to call these things to remembrance." — 2 Peter 1:15 (ASV)

Moreover, I will endeavour. I will leave such a permanent record of my views on these subjects that you may not forget them. He meant not only to declare his sentiments orally, but also to record them so that they could be read when he was dead. He had such a firm conviction of the truth and value of the sentiments which he held, that he would use all the means in his power so that the church and the world would not forget them.

After my decease. My exodus (Greek: exodon), my journey out, my departure, my exit from life. This is not the usual word to indicate death, but is rather a word indicating that he was going on a journey out of this world. He did not expect to cease to exist, but he expected to continue his travels to a distant dwelling. This idea runs through all this beautiful description of the feelings of Peter as he contemplated death. For this reason, he speaks of taking down the "tabernacle" or tent—the temporary dwelling of the soul—so that his spirit might be removed to another place (1 Peter 1:13), and for this reason, he also speaks of an exodus from the present life—a journey to another world. This is the true understanding of death, and if so, two things follow from it:

1. We should make preparation for it, as we do for a journey—and all the more in proportion to the distance we are to travel and the time we are to be absent.

2. When the preparation is made, we should not be unwilling to embark on the journey, just as we are not now when we are prepared to leave our homes to visit some remote part of our own country or a distant land.

To have these things always in remembrance. By his writings. We may learn from this:

1. That when a Christian grows old and approaches death, his sense of the value of divine truth does not diminish at all.

   As he approaches the eternal world, and from its borders observes the past and looks to what is to come; as he remembers the benefits the truths of religion have bestowed on him in life, and sees what a miserable person he would now be without the hope the gospel inspires; and as he considers the whole influence of these truths on his family, friends, his country, and the world—their value rises before him with a magnitude he never previously perceived, and he desires most earnestly that these truths should be seen and embraced by all.

   A person on the verge of eternity is likely to have a very deep sense of the value of the Christian religion. Is he not then in favourable circumstances to estimate this matter correctly?

   Let anyone imagine himself in the situation of one who is on the verge of the eternal world (as all, in fact, soon will be), and can he then have any doubt about the value of religious truth?

2. We may learn from what Peter says here that it is the duty of those who are approaching the eternal world, and who are the friends of religion, to do all they can so that the truths of Christianity "may be always had in remembrance."

   Every person's experience of the value of religion, and the results of his examination and observation, should be regarded as the property of the world and should not be lost.

   As he is about to die, he should seek, by all the means in his power, for those truths to be perpetuated and spread.

   This duty may be discharged in several ways:

   • By some, in advice offered to the young as they are about to enter on life, giving them the results of their own experience, observation, and reflections on the subject of religion;
   • By some, through an example so consistent that it cannot be soon forgotten—a legacy to friends and to the world of much more value than accumulated silver and gold;
   • By some, through solemn warnings or exhortations on their deathbed;
   • In other cases, by a written account of their conviction and experience of the value of religion, and a written defence of its truth and explanation of its nature—for every person who can write a good book owes it to the church and the world to do so;
   • By others, in providing the means to publish and spread good books in the world.

   He does a good service to his own time and to future generations who records the results of his observations and reflections in favour of the truth in a readable book. And though the book itself may eventually be forgotten, it may have saved some people from ruin and may have played its part in maintaining the knowledge of the truth in his own generation.

   Peter, as a minister of the gospel, felt bound to do this. And no people have such a good opportunity to do this now as ministers of the gospel. No people have more ready access to the press. No people have so much certainty that they will capture the public's attention if they write anything worth reading. Commonly, no people in a community are better educated or more accustomed to writing. By their very profession, no people seem so much called to address their fellow human beings in any way in favour of the truth. It is therefore a matter of great wonder that those who have such opportunities, and who seem particularly called to this work, do not perform more of this kind of service in the cause of religion.

   Soon to die themselves, how can they not desire to leave something that will bear an honourable, though humble, testimony to truths they value so highly and are appointed to defend?

   A tract may live long after the author is in the grave; and who can calculate the results that have followed the efforts of Baxter and Edwards to maintain in the world the remembrance of the truths they considered so valuable?

   This short letter of Peter has shed light on the path of people for eighteen hundred years now, and will continue to do so until the second coming of the Saviour.