Vacillation in Difficult Scriptures is Unbelief

It's important as a mature Christian to have an opinion, more important conviction, on the difficult things of Scripture. This isn't just personal opinion, but it's clearly what the apostle Peter is getting at in his second letter.

"...our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures." (3:15-16)

Notice that it is the "unstable" one's who "twist" Paul's letters and the "other Scriptures." This unstability in the Greek can refer to vacillating. Vacillation is going from one opinion to the next and never ever having conviction. Continual indecision on biblical matters is not a sign of humility, but rather unstability and even ignorance, and leads to the twisting of the Scriptures. The Scriptures get twisted when accompanied by an ignorant and unstable attitude toward them. The Scriptures are always meant to be united with faith (Hebrews 4:2), and if there is no understanding there will be no faith in what God has said. This then leads to using the Scriptures wrongly by one's ignorance and vacillation. Ignoring and vacillating with the difficult themes of Scripture is a faith issue. Vacillation is unbelief. Peter then, is encouraging the believer here to become stable by going into the hard things and come out steady and deeply rooted in the truth. If not, one becomes susceptible to error and false teaching and because one is constantly vacillating one can eventually be "carried away" (v. 17).

"You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability."

Next, Peter says because I've told you this, because I've said that Paul and the Scriptures can be difficult and can be easily twisted and never believed: you must believe! You must seek for stability and replace ignorance with knowledge and vacillation with conviction. Do it for the sake of Jesus. Do it because you want to know Jesus more and receive more grace (v. 18).

Yes, all this should be qualified with the equally biblical truth that humility before the text and a realization of the difficulty of understanding the deep things of God is always to be the attitude of God's people. But indecision, laziness, and apathy in coming to resolution is the opposite of growing in knowledge and grace and is not humility but prideful ignorance (v. 18).

Therefore let's not be vacillating people in our pursuit of understanding doctrine--even the hard things of Scripture. Do not remain ignorant and unstable as a Christian. Become a "growing" Christian. Do it for Jesus' glory, as the end of 2 Peter in the context of these very things reminds us:

"To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (v. 18)