2 Peter Week 2

2 Peter 1:5-11 Fruitful in Christ    https://youtu.be/sGkFJz-Zthg

Introduction

Last week I explained I was beginning a series based on 2 Peter, a letter rather eccentric in various ways, but powerfully helpful in its defence of the glory of Christ in response to the errors being promoted by false teachers at that time. Although of a quite different sort, cruel and fatal errors are being introduced into the Church in Perth in our own day. This will occupy later sermons. In his wisdom Peter, instead of directly attacking the heresies, seeks to strengthen the foundation of Christ in the lives of the little Church of his day. God has called us to be as much like Jesus as possible, and the means by which Christ’s life is worked into our lives is his by “very great and precious promises” expounded in the Bible. Baptist preacher and theologian John Piper uses an helpful illustration for this: “We are the light bulbs of our neighborhoods; God is the distant generator of electricity; and the cables that carry the power are God’s promises.”[1]

Exposition 1:5-11

“For this very reason[of growing into the divine nature] , make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” [2]

This passage is a call to action, hence the stress on “every effort”. The principle, “since God has given power for godliness, strive to become godly!” lies at the heart of New Testament ethics as an ethics of response to grace[3]. That Peter’s list starts with faith and climaxes with love agrees with the rest of the New Testament[4]: confident trust in God’s promises is the way we receive the Lord’s power, and love[5] is the goal and summit of life illuminating the way into the kingdom of God.

Experience teaches that believers who try to float along in life and ignore the urgency of these exhortations drift away from the Lord because the power of temptation that never goes away. In the wisdom of God, he allows the world, the flesh and the devil to be always too strong for us so that we might constantly and deeply depend on him.  Bearing the fruit of faith requires due diligence. The Lord spoke to me some years ago in a disturbingly memorable way[6] about the lazy servant in the parable of the talents, the first servant was given 5 talents and industriously made 5 more, the second was given 2 and made another 2, the third servant was given one talent and hid it out of fear of his master’s wrath. This servant was cast into the outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 25:30). Incomprehensibly, but actually understandable in the light if the total irrationality of human evil (Jer 17:9), in the light of all the rich things the Lord has blessed our nation with Australians have the attitude of the lazy servant. When we stop striving to grow in the power of the Spirit, we run the clear and present danger of drifting into great peril. Peter isn’t advocating the power of personal achievement, but an ever deeper sharing in God’s holy life.

In terms of his moral list, y “virtue” he means growing in the excellence of the self-giving love and service that culminated in the cross, by “knowledge” he means deeper inner knowing about how to live with/for Jesus, his emphasis on “self-control” stands in contrast to the self-indulgent lifestyle of false teachers (2 Pet 2:2; 3:3) and the “sinful desire” which robs us of godliness of life, by  “steadfastness”[7] he points to patience, single mindedness and determination, the reference to “godliness”( cf. 1:3) ultimately means Christlikeness[8] and “brotherly affection” points to the uniqueness in the ancient world of how Christians treated each other as “brothers and sisters”, as kin. This is still a powerful testimony as ever.

His final attribute, “love”, sums up all the affections so far listed, for the love of Christ alone “binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14), only love can make possible the difficult, practically impossible, as all married people know, task of living with and for others which Jesus commanded (cf. John 13:34). The evidence that God’s power has been given to us and accepted by faith is that we are now making every effort (as verse 5 says) to advance in the qualities of Christ. To use a metaphor, we must never judge another person’s spiritual genuineness by how close he/she is to heaven but by how hard s/he is stroking.

v.8 “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The revelation-knowledge of God’s glorious promises always inspires us to grow in godliness , but some people after making a strong start in the Christian life become indifferent, unfeeling and careless in using the means of grace and drift into destruction, to quote from Peter’s next chapter, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” (2 Pet 2:20). Soon after I became a believer I joyfully saw several of my old friends make similar commitments, tragically, under the influence of a young woman who encouraged him to strive for material gain one of them gradually drifted away from the living reality of Jesus. Even though he could quote the scripture, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”” (John 20:29), trust in the Lord is exactly what he tragically lost.

Until about 20 years ago I used to wish that growth was entirely made up of a series of crises that made sudden spurts in godliness possible, but Peter teaches the opposite, most growth is incremental. What causes ineffective and unfruitful growth is conversion without commitment to maturity. Such a person has committed the sin Peter now lays bare.

v9. “For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.”

The image of spiritual blindness is routine in the New Testament (Matt 15:14; 23:1; John 9:40f; Rev 3:17) and is most commonly warned about by Jesus himself. The forgetfulness which Peter refers to is a decision to wilfully shut one’s eyes to a truth already received, literally it points to a wilful commitment to “having received forgetfulness”. For people who become totally focussed on the immediate matters of life the future becomes a haze, and the promises of God are swallowed up in a blur of worldly longings. This is what it means to be spiritually short-sighted. When such people look to the past, the forgiveness that made them so excited at first is virtually forgotten, now, all they can see is an empty prayer and a meaningless ritual of baptism.  They can no longer sense baptism as an entry into an entirely new and permanent way of living (Acts 22:16; 1 Cor 6:11; Eph 5:26; Tit 3:5; 1 Pet 1:22), the ongoing power of baptism stays alive only through repentance to a former way of life and a great ongoing commitment to Christ as Lord. When I was quite newly saved, I remember an older Christian brother taking me aside and making sure that I have not only repented of certain sins but permanently forsaken them, left them behind once for all (Luke 3:7-9). This was very serious but very wise counsel.

Gratitude for sins forgiven is a staple for all Christian growth and desire to become more like the Forgiver, that is like God revealed in Christ. Jesus himself made this clearest in the climax of the parable of the two forgiven debtors by explaining what moved the heart of the “sinful woman” to outrageously pour expensive ointment on his feet and then try to dry them with her own hair, ““I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”” (Luke 7:47). In our context, where this side of the cross all is forgiven, the greater the revelation of forgiveness, the greater the love for Jesus.

vv. 10-11 “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling (make sure, ratify) and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

The New Testament often couples being called by God and being chosen by him (Matt 22:14; Rom 8:28-30; 1 Cor 1:26-27; 1 Pet 2:9; Rev 17:14). God chooses us once and for all, but we must respond, or “walk in a manner worthy of his calling” (Eph 4:1). We must be careful NOT to think/live, as if striving after virtue could create assurance of God’s call and our election[9], biblically, our faith and effort are inspired/evoked, drawn out of us, by a revelation of Christ’s faith-filled living and sacrifice. Peter never speaks of “attaining” salvation, but only of it being “richly provided” (1:11). Lack of diligence in the Christian life may be a sign that we were never called or chosen by the Lord and so never actually born again or among God’s elect/chosen ones. Paul can speak about those who “receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor 6:1); this is a disaster for there is no necessary reason to stumble or fall on the path to God’s kingdom. He is able to “keep you from falling” (Jude 24)

Whether we are chosen by God isn’t that mysterious[10], “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14 cf. 2 Peter 2:3). The confirmation of your election is essentially found in your faith in the gospel, then evidence in your progress in Christlikeness. If there were in Peter’s audience those who are self-assured in salvation without feeling any need to pursue the godly virtues he lists, his message is that virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly affection, love are not the wages we must pay to earn entrance into God’s eternal kingdom, but witness that our trust in God’s promise is genuine.

11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ[11].”

The language “richly provided” speaks of the lavishness of divine generosity[12], God is like a patron who lavishly receives a guest arriving at the end of a long and difficult journey to his home. The “eternal kingdom” of Christ is uniquely expressed here in terms of the endless blessedness which believers will enter into as they continue to hold fast to Christ[13].  We need to be careful, Peter never speaks of the saved “going to heaven” but of a total transformation of life when the whole character of existence is transformed at the end (3:12-13) and we with it. We enter into God’s kingdom by sharing the divine character of love, self -renunciation and sacrifice, by giving away all of our life to the Lord and for the good of all creatures that they might be united to him.  Living out the virtues isn’t a means to an end, but a sort of early acclimatisation to the end which will come for us in Christ

Conclusion

Are we making every effort towards becoming as much like Jesus as is humanly possible? After all, it is Christ who is the perfection of faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness with godliness, brotherly affection, and love. If being like Jesus is not our one great concern it must be because we have closed our eyes to his all-surpassing beauty exposed in the great promises of scripture. If we have forgotten the humble exhilaration of being forgiven divine renewal is always on offer. Allow the Holy Spirit to open your heart and give you words of desire for Jesus…