Thus, with all things [subject to] such dissolution, what kind of person does it mean you should [aim to] be, in taking up the way of life set apart for you?
We then look forward eagerly to the coming of the Day of God, playing our part in the hastening on of that day on account of which the heavens having been set of fire will be dissolved and the taken-for-granted elements (of life) will themselves be melted in the great heat.
But a new heavens and a new earth is what we wait for according
to His promises, a realm in which righteousness is securely at home.
Before Him, says Peter, upon whom everything in earth and in heaven depends, those who hold back and resist His judgement will not prevail. They will be overcome. All things are destined to such dissolution.
And the amazing teaching - how can Peter presume to go this far? we ask - is nothing less than the co-operation of those "saved - but only just" [μόλις σώζείται] in the ongoing process in this creation which is now looking ahead to the Day of God - God's Great Sabbatical Rest into which we are invited to share as the fulfillment of our lives because that is what God has determined will be the fulfillment of His purposes in us.
We can't exactly imagine what the city will be like? How could the roads and streets and paths be lined with gold. Not only what does that mean for us now, but what would it mean then? But we are called by this spectre of gold and fulfillment to develop our imagination about our true destiny, our true homecoming.
And how are we to do that?
We are called, here and now, to " play our part", to hasten the Day of God. And just as Peter has said that he had been decisively informed by Jesus Himself, about the meaning and purpose of the days which God had allotted to Him to live out, so by hearing His word
If you love me keep my commandments
and obeying, we find ourselves freed from all the misconceptions, the myths and wilful fantasies by which we have hitherto propelled ourselves along in this life.
It is not necessary.
Since the City of God will be where all things are given their due we live now as those who anticipate that righteousness, hastening the day, by seeing it brought to fruition in our lives, here and now. It's out of our hands. What is put into our hands, however, is this letter which reassures us that the lord knows what He is doing and will surely bring to pass what He has ever purposed. And in the meantime our life is to take up this way of life that has indeed been set aside for us.
Again we recall that this is Peter, the slave of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the restored belovéd friend, who was commissioned to feed the lambs of Jesus, to tend His sheep and to feed them. This is the letter of a shepherd who, inspired by the Good Shepherd, knows that his time is given him in order to participate in the "hastening on of the day of the Lord".