This is the seventeenth in a series of twenty-one summaries of the New Testament letters. The seventeenth is 2 Peter, and the outline comes from Peter Leithart:
a Fruitfulness in Knowledge of Christ, 1:1-11
b Reminder of the Power and Coming of Christ, 1:12-21
c False Prophets, 2:1-3
d God Knows How to Protect the Righteous, 2:4-10a
c' False Teachers, 2:10b-22
b' Reminder of the Day of the Lord, 3:1-13
a' Encouragement to Perseverance, 3:14-18
The 'a' pattern is linked by a call to perseverance. In the first section, faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love all abound to make knowledge of Christ productive, but those who don't have them are nearsighted and blind. (1:5-9). In the second section, believers are to make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace. Peter chastens those who distort what they struggle to understand.
The 'b' pattern links the first coming of Christ with a later coming. In the first section, Peter describes Jesus coming in power. (1:16) and how these weren't cleverly devised stories. In the second section, Peter says that people will be scoffing, and asking, "where is this 'coming' he promised?" (3:4) The day of the Lord will come like a "thief." (3:10). Both sections mention the word of prophets. (1:20-21, 3:2)
The 'c' pattern connects two sections about false teachers. The first section describes them as secretive, greedy, expoloitative, fabricators. The second section describes them as blots and blemishes, unreasoning animals, experts in greed.
The central 'd' section reasons from biblical truth that "...the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment." (2:9)
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