3:17 wicked. The term “wicked” here means “unsettled” or “lawless.” These men were “unlearned and unstable” (II Peter 3:16) in the Scriptures, and so were leading others astray with their twisting of God’s Word to fit their own opinions. There are many such teachers today as well, so “beware.”

3:18 grow in grace. Note Ephesians 4:15. Peter had referred to “newborn babes” (I Peter 2:2,3), after first indicating that “we” (all believers) have been born spiritually (“begotten again”) by Christ and His resurrection to an eternal inheritance, and are being “kept…through faith” (I Peter 1:3-5). He concludes his two epistles by urging us not to remain babes in Christ, but to “grow”! Our growth should be in both doctrine and practice, each being inadequate by itself. His first epistle emphasizes “grace” (with eight occurrences), the second “knowledge” (with six occurrences).