2 PETER 1 V1-11 MAKE SURE
What were your school reports like? Did you ever have these words written about you by a teacher “Great potential but lazy.” I never had the words “great potential” but I may well have had the word “lazy” written on a few occasions. But far more importantly would those words apply to your Christian life? If you were to get a report card concerning your Christian life would it read - “Great potential but lazy?” The uncomfortable truth this morning is that those words are far more accurate than we would care to admit. 2 Peter is written to believers who are in danger of becoming lazy and growing cold in their Christian faith. In this letter the apostle Peter sets out to remind them of the Christian basics of the faith. Peter is coming near the end of his life and knowing time is short he writes this letter to the believers, probably, in Asia Minor, but the letter does not state clearly to whom it is addressed initially. Peter is probably in prison in Rome, facing death, when he pens this letter and it is probably dated 64-68 AD. The key word in the letter is ‘knowledge.’ 11 times Peter mentions ‘to know, knowledge or full knowledge of God’ in this short letter. So the main thrust of the letter is to encourage the believers to know God and the practical outworking of that knowledge in their daily lives. So let us this morning turn to the first 11 verses of the 2nd letter of Peter.
VERSES 1-4 INTRODUCTION.
These verses reflect the standard introduction of a letter in 1st century AD. Simon Peter, the author, designates himself a ‘servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.’ By this introduction Peter reminds the believers of several things – 1st that he once was Simon but after meeting Christ became Peter. His life was changed, hence he describes himself as ‘a servant.’ A servant is one who is no longer his own but belongs to someone else. He is no longer his own master. He has been bought with a price – in Peter’s case the cost was the blood of Christ (1 Cor. 6v19-20). As a servant Peter is a man under the authority of another and he follows his master’s instructions and will, not his own. He further describes himself as ‘an apostle.’ I know I have told you this before but to be an apostle you had to have seen the risen Christ and have been called by God. Peter as an apostle has authority in the church as one who speaks the Word of God. He is in fact God’s messenger to them. He, along with the other apostles (including Paul), alone had the authority to lay down the teaching of the faith.
Then Peter goes on to say to whom this letter is addressed. Look at how he addresses them – READ 1b. He addresses them as those whose faith is as precious as ours (the apostles). Even though he is an apostle he recognises and he wants them to understand that in the Christian faith everyone is equal and everyone is given the same gift of faith by God the Father through Christ the Son by God the Holy Spirit. Look at what he says to them – ‘you have received a faith’ – faith, their faith, is a gift from God which they have received. On what basis was this gift bestowed? Well Peter tells us – the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. This gift of faith is bestowed on believers on the basis of the righteousness of Christ – not anything they themselves have done. In essence Peter is saying to them here – you are saved by grace and not by anything of merit in your own life. From this fact Peter moves on to pronouncing a blessing upon them (verse 2). I want you to note in verse two that ‘grace and peace’ comes not from their circumstances but from a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I think some of you here this morning need to hear that. Grace and peace comes to your life not through your circumstances but through a relationship with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without that relationship you will not have grace and you will not have peace in your life.
Verses 3-4 Peter now writes to them of what they have received through faith. Look at verse 3 – a startling verse. Did you notice what the believers have received by God’s divine power? “Everything needed for life and godliness.” Such a statement really makes a mockery of Christian lives which are dead and ungodly, doesn’t it? If we have received by the power of God all that we need for ‘life and godliness’ then how can we live such mediocre lives as Christians? Note again that ‘life and godliness’ are a gift from God by his divine power – nothing that we have in ourselves but they are free gift of God when we know God and are called by his own glory and goodness ( a reference to Jesus – John 1v14). Yet God is not finished there says Peter. No, God is no miserly giver of blessings. He bestows ‘great and precious promises’ – which are that our sinful human nature will be transformed by our participation in his divine nature – with the result that we are no longer ruled by evil desires but in fact escape their corruption. In four short verses Peter has laid out before these believers the wonderful transformation in their lives which came about when they came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and received by grace the gift of salvation.
OUR RESPONSIBILITY - VERSES 5-9
How is your spiritual report card this morning? Does it say ‘lazy?’ Would it say ‘Needs to work harder?’ In these next four verses Peter outlines for the believers some of the things which are required in their lives if they are to move beyond spiritual infancy. I want you to note that Peter began this letter by outlining what God has done in the life of a believer and now he turns his attention to the believer’s responsibilities. Here he outlines the spiritual disciplines in which the believer co-operates with God. He calls them to seek a progressive and active Christianity. In Ephesians 2 v8-10 Paul points out that we are saved by grace alone but that having been saved we are then called to progress in sanctification – that is exactly what Peter is saying here also. In verses 5-7 he sets forward a chain of 8 virtues – each one linked to the others. Like any chain break one link and all of the links are affected. This is not a list from which you pick and choose, like an a la carte menu. This is your required daily intake of food in order to grow as a Christian and I assume you do want to grow in your faith?
Look at how he begins verse 5 – following on from what he has written about faith from God – the believer is to ‘make every effort.’ Who is to make the effort? The believer. That phrase ‘make every effort’ literally means to provide lavishly or to make a rich provision. Originally it was used to speak of the person who paid the expenses of the chorus in a play. He paid for everything, covered every expense. Provided for the costumes, the make up and their living expenses. Nothing was left off the list. Therefore Peter says do the same in your spiritual life. He then sets out what is to be added to faith in order that they might grow in the knowledge of God.
Goodness – an attribute of God, of moral excellence. How is it added? By exposing and opposing sin in our lives.
Knowledge – this is to grow in the knowing God and that can only be done by time spent in his presence in His Word, in prayer, in fellowship and in praise. Without knowledge of God how can you know what goodness is?
Self-control – the exact opposite of the excesses Peter mentions in 2 v3 and 2 v14 – of the false teachers and the sexual abuse of the pagan world. Note will you whose responsibility self-control is – the believers. Stop blaming ‘sin’ as if ‘sin’ was some force out there – ‘sin’ is you. We talk today about ‘problems, weaknesses, addictions, illnesses’ – friends call it what you like but much of it boils down to lack of ‘self-control’ – sin. Peter says add it on to your faith – and that only comes by hard work and discipline.
Perseverance – the mindset which seeks to see things from the eternal perspective and not the temporal. The heart which does not give up when the going gets tough, when times are hard and everything around you is lying saying ‘God does not care.’ But also the heart which perseveres with God and trusting him when times are good.
Godliness – I recently read a pastor who said that the greatest need of his people was his personal holiness. I understood what he meant by that. How can I call any of you to be godly if I am not being godly in my own life? Godliness is to be an outward and visible sign of my faith in Christ. You know the truth is I get tired of telling non-christians to look to Jesus and not to Christians who are living ungodly lives. Where did Jesus say people would see him? In those who were his followers. Friends some of you here this morning are claiming to follow Christ and you are living such ungodly lives you are a scandal to the gospel. This morning God calls you to repent and to add godliness to your faith. You know in your own heart this morning what God is saying to you about those things which are not of him and which need to be repented of and rooted out. Peter told the 1st century believers they needed to be godly in the midst of a pagan world and nothing has changed in the 21st century.
Brotherly kindness and love – faith in God will be seen in love for others and in the warm affection believers have within their fellowship. Let me say to you we can become smug and complacent about this all too easily. The believers to whom Peter is writing must have been in danger of forgetting these things or else he would not needed to have reminded them concerning them. Let us heed the warning also this morning.
Verses 8-9 the result of adding all these things on to their faith – is that their lives will be productive and fruitful. The result of not adding them on to their faith is that they have forgotten that they have been forgiven and cleansed from their past sins and are so short-sighted that they are in fact spiritual blind. This morning if you lack these virtues in your Christian life, and if you are not actively pursuing them, then you are already on the road to forgetting from what God has rescued you. Your eyesight is already growing dim and the evil desires of this world are already beginning to corrupt your heart and to lead you away from God.
MAKE SURE – VERSES 10-11 – all Peter can do in light of what he has just written in the first 9 verses is to urge the believers to make sure and secure their election (their calling to faith by God). Peter uses legal terminology of validating a will to exhort the believers to validate their election by doing what he has said in verses 5-9 and the result will be a rich welcome in heaven. They will not be those who ‘escape by the skin of their teeth’ (1 Cor. 3.15), but will hear ‘well done good and faithful servant, enter into your heavenly rest’ (Matthew 25.21). Peter wants the fact that one day they will stand before God to be the motivation for how they live as believers. It should be a motivation for us also.
CONCLUSION.
Quite simple this morning – just one question: Your spiritual report card how does it read? This morning I believe this to be a timely word from God to us all. Those of you who do not know the gift of salvation because you have never come to Christ and repented have an opportunity to do so now. Those of you who are on the Christian life because of the grace of God are asked by God this morning to add these virtues to your faith – that requires spiritual discipline - which is an intentional development of these virtues in your life for the purpose of spiritual growth so that your character might be transformed into one which truly reflects your Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
