Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Peter 3:10

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up." — 2 Peter 3:10 (ASV)

Peter’s fourth argument against the false teachers reaffirms the early church’s teaching that the day of the Lord will come suddenly. Jesus taught that his coming would be as unexpected as the coming of a thief (Matthew 24:42–44), an analogy often repeated in the NT (cf. Lk 12:39; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Revelation 3:3; Revelation 16:15). The “Lord” in these texts is Jesus in his exaltation and should be so understood here. In that catastrophic day “the heavens will disappear” with a loud noise made by something passing swiftly through the air. The sky will recede “like a scroll, rolling up” (Revelation 6:14), and the earth and sky will flee from the presence of God (Revelation 20:11). “The elements” (GK 5122) could be the basic materials that make up the world; those commonly thought of in NT times were air, earth, fire, and water. But it is also possible that Peter is looking at three realms (the heavens, that of the heavenly bodies, and the earth), and that the “the elements” refers to “heavenly bodies,” those mentioned in other eschatological passages (Joel 2:10; Mark 13:24—26; Revelation 6:12–13). The phrase “the earth and everything in it” probably refers to all human products that will be destroyed.