2 Peter 3:8-15: Renewal Implies Not Clinging To The Status Quo

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. - 2 Peter 3:8-15

 Peter told believers who were toughing it out that in the world that In all this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7) The timing and the language at the start of this first letter is very similar to the timing and language at the end of the second letter of Peter.  There is a period of time, Jesus is revealed, the world is stripped back to its essentials. The degenerative effects of sin that scar God's people and his creation and they can be renewed in the new heaven and the new earth. 

Peter implies that God's timetable for all this happening is less about dates and more about the readiness of his people to receive him. We should live "holy and godly lives" will "speed its [the day of the Lord] coming." The contrast is with the world which is being destroyed. The implication is that if we are so attached to this world and the way things are now then we will not long for the renewal that God plans.  If God doesn't find that his own people do not long for his return, then he will wait.