A rather pompous deacon was endeavoring to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life.
"Why do people call me a Christian?" the man asked.
After a moment’s pause, one youngster said,
"Maybe it’s because they don’t know you."
I wonder…..could that be said of us? Are we more interested in looking like Christians, than being Christians? Are we more interested in what people think about us, than how we live? By that I mean, are we trying harder to look like we are living a Christian life than we are at actually living the Christian life?
Some time ago I did a funeral for a family. This family was very concerned about their image as a Christian family. The man who had died, though he grew up in the church did not lead a Christian life, in fact he lead a life that was quite the opposite, however, the family informed me that….wonderfully, near the end of his life, he found the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit came upon him in power, and his life was full of the Lord.
When the family spoke about his life, they spoke of his childhood, when he had been in church and they spoke of the last few weeks of his life, when he had given his life over to the Lord. The 50 something years in the middle didn’t seem to exist. When I asked, repeatedly about those pagan years they ignored the question, and spoke about
“the Christian era of his life”. At one point they even requested that I not even mention those “hard times”.
It seems they were very embarrassed about this man’s life. How he had lead his life had ruined the “Christian” image of their family and they were determined that in his death he would be a stain no more.
I was taken back. If they would go this far to protect their family image,
how far would they go in their personal lives to do the same?
I tell you, in the end, I was wondering if they made up the whole thing about him finding Jesus at the end of his life.
Appearances. Oh how we can fool ourselves.
In the book of 1 Peter, which we finished on Ash Wednesday,
the Apostle Peter encouraged us to live holy lives. He encouraged us to live holy lives not only when times were good, even in the most impossible of times. Remember one of the powerful keys he gave us on how to live well during difficult circumstances – foster a gentle and quiet spirit. One that does not react, one that does not attack back – even if we have a right to, because God is in control and he will see us through.
Now in this first chapter of 2 Peter, Peter continues to focus on holiness. He is telling us what we should strive to be, and not just appear to be.
We will examine this passage in three parts verses 1-4, verses 5-7, and verses 8-11. As we go through these verses remember it is not by our power that we achieve, but by God’s power. Also note: Peter is writing to believers about sanctification, not to the unbelievers about salvation. We see this right off in verse one: "To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:"
Through the righteousness of Christ, we have been given faith. I didn’t create my faith – it was given to me. I think many of us make the mistake in thinking that we always had a faith of one kind or another….In our culture we talk a lot about faith. In American society,
when some one tells another, “Keep the faith brother” it usually isn’t about faith in Jesus Christ, but refers to whatever you believe in at the moment or more often, an admonition to keep rooting for your favorite sports team.
“Peter – keep the faith” is the encouragement of another Oakland Raider fan as we live through another year of deep disappointment.
But the San Antonio Spurs are doing fairly well, aren’t they?
Biblically, either we have faith or we don’t. Either I have faith in Jesus Christ – and therefore have faith or I just don’t, period. See, I start out with nothing. I mean nothing. Emptiness. Can you remember how empty you felt? I may have believed in all kinds of things. But until I come to the Lord Jesus Christ, I do not have faith. In fact, the Holy Spirit even gives us the faith to believe.
See verse 1 – we receive our faith. If I already have faith, why do I need to receive faith? Peter is not saying that we are given more faith, does he? We are simply given faith. Bam. That’s humbling isn’t it?
When Peter says a faith as precious as ours, he doesn’t just mean the apostles faith, but all of us who believe. This faith that we all posses equally among believers, by a gift, how precious it is.
The knowledge he speaks of there in verse 2, is referring to knowledge gained at conversion. This is an knowledge that has inceptive force upon us. When we were pagans we were ignorant. Now as Christians we know about God. This knowledge is not knowledge of God on its own, but is contrasted with pagan ignorance. Why? Because it is precious in this sense: This is how you were – in darkness; This is how you are now – in light.... how precious, we now know how to act.
Now this knowledge is also powerful, for with it, we have all we need for life. See that in verse three. God’s power comes upon us, at conversion, and gives us knowledge. With this knowledge we are set to live how God wants us to live. God has not held back.
If you are waiting for more, your wasting your life, you already have what you need. Now it might not seem like it. But that probably is because you rely on your own power and not the power of God
As we move on through this section we will get to a list. As we go through that list, keep in mind, you already have all you need to make happen. What Peter is asking….Our efforts are based upon the sovereignty of God and his sufficiency. We have escaped the corrupt nature of sin by following Jesus Christ which destines us to become like Christ. We see this in verse 4.
Our faith is kindled at conversion, and the Christian participates in the divine nature in the present, and in the future.See, our problem is sin. Sin corrupts us. But by the power of Jesus Christ we have escaped the power of sin, by this freedom from sin we experience the divine nature of God.
Peter is speaking to those who live in a culture where what he has just said can be taken in the following ways: Mystery religions - through ritual, there was a union with a god, sometimes through ascetic purification. Platonic thought – the soul regained its divine state through philosophical contemplation. Hermetic – secret knowledge was the means of gaining the divine.
Peter means none of that.
Not participation in God, as in I become part divine but in the nature of heavenly immortal beings. For example: Angels have this knowledge of who God is.Not only that, they experience God.So we like them have a knowledge and an experience of God and therefore participate in the divine nature of God. It has nothing to do with becoming god like.
Here Peter is not denying the Greek idea of immortality. He is taken up the idea and showing how it is fulfilled by the resurrection.
So Peter tells us that we have been given our faith, that we had no faith before Jesus, that we have been given a knowledge and are no longer ignorant about God, and that we have all we need to live a holy life – here right now.
Now he tells us what is expected. Remember you have everything you need………Verses 5-7 (take a look in your bibles) Character qualities. What Peter lists here should be evident in our lives and on their way to becoming more evident, not the appearance of, but the reality of.
I know a lot of us, skip on through the lists we find in Scripture. We get the gist of them and move on. Yet, here this is a very important list Peter is giving us. These are not in random order, or simply examples.
They are a chain, each linking to the other, each building on the other.
This is the picture of a holy person in action. This is a picture of a person who will overcome, even in difficult circumstances.
Peter starts with Faith, which of course, as we have seen is given to us by God. We do not supply it and it begins as a saving faith. It is the basis for believe and behavior, everything else builds on it. If you have not come to faith – you cannot possibly pursue the course Peter outlines. Faith is a given, and to it you add goodness.
Goodness – odd it should come before knowledge! You would think we would know and then be good. Yet, the goodness comes from God also (verse 3). By goodness we are able to recognize the excellence of God
and embrace it as part of our lives. So we see the excellence of the character of God that we gained through faith and we then want to pursue it. This leads us to the rest of the list.
Today many Christians pursue an excellence in worldly standards and appearance rather than moral character. We saw this at the start of the sermon. People who are more concerned with looking Christian than being Christian. Sadly, they live that way long enough and they cannot tell the two apart.
Knowledge – as pagans we were ignorant of the kingdom of God now we know. But here it is more that not being ignorant, it is also a doctrinal knowledge – as revealed in Scripture - also an experiential knowledge – as experienced through the Holy Spirit.
Our knowledge of who God is, and the word of God leads to
self control – literally means in the Greek, restraint, get a grip on oneself. It is the concept of a person being master the flesh
For sin is what keeps us in bondage.
That self control leads to perseverance – not personal bravery, stoicism, but trusting in the hope. This enables us to persist – even when we suffer, as Peter spoke of in 1 Peter. It is the frame of mind and character which persists in doing right.
Godliness – very unusual word in the bible, it is generally used by the pagans. Peter uses it here to show practical application. Remember as in 1 Peter, Peter is concerned about action, not just theory.
Brotherly kindness – specifically Christian. Phileo love, a love based upon what we share in common as Christians. I love you because you are my brother or my sister in Christ. Sin not only alienates me from God, but also from others and we saw last week, love covers a lot of sin.
Love – agape for all. Agape is not rooted in what a person does, but rooted in what God is.
So Peter chains all of these together and says, all of these should be no problem for you. And by living them you will show your holiness. And be living a Christian life – not just appearing to
Let’s look at verses 8-11. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective
and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
keep you from being idle….
This verse is difficult to render into English. Basically what the ancient idea is that you affirm an idea, by denying its opposite. I would say the best way to put it is: by exhibiting this chain of attributes, you push the effectiveness of sin out of your life by concentrating on working on these in our lives. Sin that we are not even working on will fade away.
This is similar to what we saw last week: That when we go through difficult circumstances with a gentle and quiet spirit, by not reacting as we used to – attacking back, getting furious, planning ways to get someone back. By reacting how Jesus wants us to humbly , with a gentle and quiet spirit, sin (that is how we used to react) is diminished in our life.
Here we see that by using these characteristics, they replaced
Their opposites in our lives, doing the same thing - Reducing sin in our lives and our problem is sin, not something like self esteem.
Then here is a warning for us: If we do not see these in our life than perhaps we are blind. Blind, the word here means not a severe blindness, but poor eyesight. It is more of a refusal to see, spiritually. We receive sight at conversion, our pagan ignorance is illuminated,
but if we do not carry through with the moral obligations of faith we become blind to it - Like the family with the funeral.
Looking at verse 10. So then make every effort to have these in your life, so you are not slowly becoming spiritually blind, so you will benefit from the reduction of the power of sin in your life.
Note: Peter is not saying that you can lose their salvation.
Let me end with this: Failure in the Christian life is not due to poor self esteem. Failure in the Christian life is due to – sin. That is why what Peter is telling us is so pertinent this morning. Amen.
