“Steadfast Unto the End”
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there would be faithful ones able to discern the signs of the times.
While a large number of professing believers would deny their faith by
their works, there would be a remnant who would endure to the end.
Peter kept alive in his heart the hope of Christ’s return, and he
assured the church of the certain fulfillment of the Saviour’s promise,
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive
you unto myself.”
John 14:3
. To the tried and faithful ones the coming
might seem long delayed, but the apostle assured them: “The Lord is
not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a
great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth
also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
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“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner
of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein
the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise,
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
“Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be dili-
gent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as
our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him
hath written unto you.... Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these
things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the
wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Peter’s imprisonment in Rome
In the providence of God, Peter was permitted to close his ministry
in Rome, where his imprisonment was ordered by the emperor Nero
about the time of Paul’s final arrest. Thus the two veteran apostles,
who for many years had been widely separated in their labors, were to
bear their last witness for Christ in the world’s metropolis, and upon
its soil to shed their blood as the seed of a vast harvest of saints and
martyrs.