Reading 2 Pet 1:5-10; 3:1-10
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.
It is very easy to skip over such introductory words, but here we have two descriptions of the Hebrew Christians. I wonder how we measure up.
Holy brethren
The first description of the readers is holy brethren. You get two terms for the price of one.
Brethren
The readers are called brethren, not because they were all from the same human family, but because they had all been adopted by the same heavenly Father. As this verse puts it they all shared a heavenly calling (JB Phillips). They were God’s children, brothers and sisters of Christ, of one another, and of the writer.
We have already seen that ch. 2 v 11 says of Jesus He is not ashamed to call them brethren, v11. There are many today who would love to be the brother or sister of some actor or singer. Is it not infinitely more wonderful to have the King of Kings and Lord of Lords call Himself our brother! How wonderful it is to be part of God’s family.
1Jn3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
This is amazing! God loved us so much that not only did He want to save us, but He also took us as His family! With all of our different personalities, backgrounds, traits and quirks we are one big, if not always happy, family. As Paul put it in Romans 8 we can call God Abba - Daddy - emphasising the closeness of our relationship and the depth of His love.
Rom 8: 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
Interestingly Scripture calls all Christians sons - even the daughters! This is to make it crystal clear that we all share equally in all that belongs to Christ. In Jewish tradition most of the inheritance passed to the eldest son and usually nothing went to any daughters. Interestingly the Romans treated all children, including adopted children, equally.
It is easy to talk loudly of our love for Christ, but what about His people - our brothers and sisters. Do we love each other? Do we grieve when they grieve? Are we there when they need help?
If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.(1 John 4:21).
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. … 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)
Do we behave as adults or petulant children? Are we concerned with each other, or only with ourselves? Are we getting on with the family business together or spending our time playing with our toys, squabbling or throwing tantrums? In our prayers do we ask for His wisdom, presence and strength or just toys to play with? There is a Church to build and a war to fight.
Holy
But the Church is not just any family, brethren, but holy brethren - a holy family. What does holy mean? To many it means being overly religious - holier than thou people who behave as if they are so much better than others. The Greek words for holy, sanctified, hallowed, and saint all come from the same root word - that which is set apart, pure, and kept for God’s use. While those words are used to describe the Holy Spirit, the name of God (Mt 6:9), Jesus (Jn 10:36), and the angels (Lk 9:26), they are also used to describe us as Christians. We are called holy, sanctified or saints because God has set us apart for Himself, not because we have done wonderful things.
This is not a commandment to be holy, but a reminder that we already are. That is how God sees us because of what Christ has done. Hebrews 2:11 reminds us that He is the one who sanctified us when He saved us, He set us apart for God’s special use. You probably have some heirlooms, posh china or cloths that are kept for use on special occasions. You wouldn’t use that china for the family or wear those clothes to do the gardening. In the same way Christian’s are set apart for God’s use. We are holy.
It does not matter, in the slightest, who or what we were before we were sanctified. We may have been refined, cultivated, amiable, moral, and religious; or we may have been degraded, immoral, depraved, the very scum of society. We may have been poles apart, but we all needed to be sanctified, the highest as well as the lowest, or we could never be called holy brethren. The very worst needed nothing more, and the very best nothing less. Whatever we were, in God’s sight we are now holy brethren. This is equally true of the feeblest child of God as of the greatest. We all have a clean slate! This being the case we should love and treat one another as brothers and sisters.
Of course, misusing our special possessions may ruin them, but it does not change the fact that they are special. It is the same with us. When we sin, we damage ourselves, but that does not change the fact that we are special to God. He has set us apart for Himself. Having through sovereign grace this holy standing, we certainly ought to be holy in our walk. We should never act, speak or even think in ways that are inconsistent with our high position as "holy brethren." Only holy thoughts, holy words, holy actions are appropriate for those upon whom infinite grace has transformed into holy brethren. Anything less dishonours our heavenly Father, the one who died to make us holy and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct (1Pet. 1:15) Do we live as holy brethren?
Partakers of the heavenly calling
The holy brethren are only holy because they are partakers of a heavenly calling. It is heavenly because heaven is where it comes from, heaven is where it leads and it is the only calling which has a heavenly quality.
It is this calling that arrests ordinary men and women and changes them into holy brethren. Left to ourselves we would have continued along our sinful way. From our perspective it seems as though we sought God, or responded to His offer of salvation. Scripture expresses the gospel in this way and I am happy to do the same. For example:
Mt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Acts 16:31 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."
Rom 10:9 if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
1Co 1:21 it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Of course from God’s perspective things are very different, as we should begin to understand once we are saved. He took the initiative and called us to Himself. As Paul puts it in Ephesians God granted us life when we were dead in trespasses and sins 2:1. A corpse can’t seek God or even respond to an invitation.
John 6: 44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."
John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you
Ro 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.
God himself loved us and planned our salvation even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. He awakened us from our sin and brought the saving word home to our hearts. He gave us the desire and faith to believe.
There is no conflict between these two views of salvation. Someone has described it as a door on the outside of which are written the words “Whosoever will may come.” Only when you have passed through and look back do you see that on the other side is written “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.”(Eph 1:4,5).
We have a high, a heavenly calling and it demands a heavenly focus. Jesus said: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where tthieves break in and steal; 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Mt 6:19
Where is our focus? Is it on heaven or on the earth and our life down here? If it is the latter then this verse also gives us the prescription for the sickness that afflicts us.
Consider Jesus
Do you struggle through life, finding it hard to put one foot in front of another without letting the Lord down in some way? The remedy is to consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Do you wonder if God could ever forgive you for your indifference, sin, rebellion, or unfaithfulness? Then focus on Jesus!
We must focus on Jesus if we are to know God’s blessing. We have already looked at this idea in ch 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. There we focussed on the idea of looking to the Jesus of Scripture - particularly Heb 1 - as our Saviour.
Consider Jesus literally means to fix the mind upon Jesus Christ. It expresses devoted attention and continuous observation and regard of something. The writer exhorts believers who were encountering persecution to consider Jesus. He tells those who were thinking of reverting back to Judaism to consider Jesus in light of all that he had explained about His glory and majesty.
This isn’t a call to some mystical visualisation of Jesus Christ. The context is quite clear. To consider Jesus means that we look to him as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. The One sent from God to reveal Him to us; the One who represents us before God as our High Priest.
• Do you doubt your salvation or even wonder if there is such a thing as salvation - then consider Jesus!
• Do you wonder if God could ever forgive you for your sin, rebellion, and unfaithfulness - consider Jesus!
• Do you struggle to put one foot in front of another without failing miserably - consider Jesus!
• Do you struggle to cope with tremendous problems - consider Jesus!
Whatever our sins, doubts or problems the answer is to be found in Him, and in Him alone. We must focus on Jesus if we are to live our lives as holy brethren in accordance with our heavenly calling. Jesus is our supreme and perfect example.
Peter said that Christ set us an example that we should follow. Many today talk about following Jesus example, but few of them think about what that means. Peter went on to explain that Jesus: committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth. "1 Pet 2: 22. We can only follow His example and live as holy brethren if we focus on Him and enjoy His power flowing through us - the transforming power of His Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
How wonderful it is to have One at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens who understands us completely and who loves us come what may! One on whom we can count in all our weakness, and troubles! What comfort is here for all the holy brethren! What blessed assurance! Our great High Priest bears us upon His heart continually before the throne. We are in His blessed hands, and can never fall through. He lives for us, and we live in Him. He will carry us right through to the end. Here we rest because He says to us, "Because I live, you will live also." John 14:19.
Until He comes or calls, let us consider Jesus. May we see His love and glory displayed in the Scriptures and meditate on Him; following faithfully, with our eyes firmly fixed on Him. Consider Jesus!
