What Manner Of Person Ought Ye To Be

Let me show you. These words appear in Peter’s great chapter on the second coming of Christ. Peter was telling us some of the things that would occur before Christ’s second coming.

-In verses 3-4 he tells us there will be scoffers. We read, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

Notice, the scripture says the scoffers are “...walking after their own lusts.” That is, every day THEY WANT ALL THAT THEY SEE! They see plenty of what the world has to offer and they want it all. As a result their minds dwell on EARTHLY THINGS and they SCOFF AT THE THINGS OF GOD!

Why would these people scoff at the things of God? Because they are SPIRITUALLY IGNORANT!

Notice why they are ignorant. Verse 5 tells us, “...they WILLINGLY are ignorant...”

That is, the Lord’s way was available and they choose to not learn.

This is why some will not come to church to hear God’s Word preached and taught. They choose to be ignorant. The last thing they want to hear is what God has planned for their lives. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN PLANS. They do not want anyone, NOT EVEN GOD, TO TELL THEM HOW TO LIVE.

Peter said that people would CHOOSE to be ignorant about looking for the second coming of Christ.

Peter said their spiritual reasoning will be as that of a man who has waited a long time for someone and finally got tired of waiting and decided that party was not coming. HE GAVE UP ON THAT PERSON.

Peter assures them that just because a long time has elapsed since the Lord left did not mean He was not going to return.

Look at verses 8-10. We read, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this ONE THING...”

That is, they might choose to be ignorant about many things, but they had better not choose to be ignorant about this. Why? “...that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

While it has been almost two thousand years since Christ left, and that may seem like a long time for us; according to God’s time clock it has only been a couple of days. Why?

Again, look at verse 8b, “...one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

After reassuring his readers of the CERTAINTY OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, he asked them a sobering question. Verse 11, “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness.”

Peter said, in so many words, that if everything this world has to offer us will be dissolved, then a wise and sensible man will spend his life seeking those things that will outlast the world.

Let me show you two ways people are spending their lives.

I. MANY SPEND THEIR LIVES SEEKING THAT WHICH IS SECULAR.

There is nothing SACRED TO THEM. Their entire lives are build around this world in which they live. They give God no place in their lives.

• All their thinking is about the world.

• All their desire is for the things of the world.

There is no place in their lives for God.

The apostle Paul warned the Colossians of this danger.

He said, Col. 3:2, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

The secular life is a wasted life. Peter said that before the second coming of Christ people will build their lives on the foundations that the world has to offer them. But the day will come when it is all going to cave in on them.

Jesus tried to warn people of that danger.

Look at Matthew 6:19-21. We read, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”