1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
If you are a believer and a student of the Christian life, you have likely experienced the difference between physical sight and spiritual sight, and the war that wages therein. Every human being sees the physical dimensions of life-- to touch, feel, taste, possess, hold, and to glory in the physical reality of this world. Then Jesus talks about being "born again", and our eyes are opened not to additional physical realities, but to a spiritual reality (the true reality)-- to a God who is holy and full of glory. And there is so much more to be seen beyond what we see here and now.
Pain is physical, then all the more we are awakened to spiritual pain and suffering. Love is earthly, then all the more we our sight is illuminated beyond the temporal to see love in light of eternity. Glory is for here and now, then all the more our senses are lifted to the heavens, to the holy and eternal weight of glory in the face of Jesus Christ stretching into forever and ever.
The Christian life is war-- it is war to see with new spiritual eyes, while our old eyes linger and tempt us to settle with the here and now.
This is what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 6:22-23 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." How we fight to see (or not) is how our hearts will be full of light (or not).
Peter says he wants to remind his beloved brothers and sisters of Christ regarding the spiritual word of God and the spiritual promise of God (2 Peter 3:2,9) because the physcially-focused scoffers are coming (2 Peter 3:3-4) who insist on the physical, the life and pleasures for here and now.
If you have time, the Psalmist makes the same discovery in Psalm 73.
Psalm 73:3 "For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."
Psalm 73:5 "They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind."
Psalm 73:9 "They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth."
Psalm 73:16-17 "But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
Peter draws us back in (2 Peter 3:8-10) in the same way the Psalmist sees in full-- the glory of God is too wonderful for us to understand, too magnificent for us to comprehend. God is not like us, He is holy. His ways are too high for us to consider. And He will return in full splendor and majesty, with His Name being worshipped above all names, as both the Just and the Justifier. And then we will really see Him.
1 Corinthians 13:12 "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."