What Does 2 Peter 3:15 Mean?
And hold the slowness to heat of our Lord as deliverance, just as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you according to the wisdom given to him;
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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;THE KEY
The Lord’s restraint in anger is itself deliverance: the patience you experience is the salvation this verse names.
THE MEANING
The Lord’s slowness to flare meets you as deliverance in the time that remains open. The wisdom shared through Paul’s words is still reaching you, helping you recognize patience as part of your rescue.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Delay can feel like proof that God is absent or rescue has failed; this verse names the Lord’s patience itself as deliverance.
THE ROOT
μακροθυμία
makrothymia
GROWS FROM
μακροθυμ- (μακρός, makros, “long” + θυμός, thymos, “heat, anger”)
Long heat: being slow to flare.
“slowness to heat” in this verse is makrothymia. The word carries “long” into “heat”: anger does not ignite quickly. Here that restraint is more than waiting; Peter calls it deliverance, the open interval in which a way forward remains.
ALSO GROWS
makrothymeō: to be patient, to endure patiently
μακροθυμέω
This verb shows the same slow-to-flare quality as an active way of bearing time; Peter names that patience as salvation.
makrothymos: patient, slow to anger
μακρόθυμος
This related word describes a nature that does not flare quickly, illuminating the Lord’s longsuffering as the character of deliverance.
σωτηρία
sōtēria
GROWS FROM
σωτηρ- / σωζ- (the σῴζω word family)
Rescue; bringing someone safely through.
“Salvation” carries the concrete sense of deliverance: being brought out and through. The verse joins that deliverance directly to the Lord’s patience, so the time held open is already part of the rescue.
ALSO GROWS
sōzō: to deliver, rescue, bring safely through
σῴζω
This verb makes the noun’s deliverance concrete: the Lord’s patience is bound to the act of bringing through.
sōtēr: deliverer, rescuer
σωτήρ
The related name for a deliverer shows that salvation is an act of rescue, the very work this verse associates with patience.
THE PATTERN
The Lord’s slow-to-flare patience keeps the way open for deliverance and turning.
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Or do you look down upon the fullness of his kindness, and the holding back, and the slowness to heat, not perceiving that the kindness of God leads you to turning?But for this reason I was shown faithful love, that in me first Jesus the Anointed One might point out all his slowness to heat, for an imprint to those about to lean their weight upon him unto the life of the ages.THE THREAD
Or do you look down upon the fullness of his kindness, and the holding back, and the slowness to heat, not perceiving that the kindness of God leads you to turning?Romans uses the same Greek word, μακροθυμία (makrothymia, slow-to-flare patience), and places it beside God’s goodness. That goodness leads you into turning, showing how the patience Peter calls deliverance opens a way for response.
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