Do you remember the mood in the United States in the months following 9/11?Fighters patrolled the skies. Police were on constant alert. Nobody ignored suspicious activity. Airline security reached its all-time peak. – We had different levels of threat: Red, Orange, Yellow. Everybody knew the threat of unexpected attack was real and pervasive. It could come at any time, anywhere, from anybody.

But as time went on and we were removed from those events of 9/11, the original alertness began to wanre and before long, few people knew what threat level the Department of Homeland Security had set, and later on, most didn’t care.

We grew complacent and just wanted everything to return to normal. And before long no one was really on the alert. We were back to business as usual.

That is the same kind of thing that was happening in Peter’s day with regard to false teachers.

Intellectually believers knew the dangers, the risks, and the threats.They were doing what they could to be Christlike. But they needed a reminder, a wake-up call. And that’s what Peter does in this last chapter.