2 Peter 1:1-11

2 Peter 1:1-11

When Joey Barrow was a teenager, his schoolmates labeled him the class sissy. At eighteen, while the other guys were involved in more “masculine” activities, Joey was taking violin lessons. One day, they called him “sissy” one time too many. Joey smashed the boy who made fun of him smack on the head with (you guessed it) his violin. It didn't help. The story simply brought another round of laughter from Joey's classmates.

One boy didn’t laugh. Big, strapping Thurston McKinney decided it was time Joey got involved in something with a little more muscle. Thurston exercised regularly at a local gym and invited Joey to come along. As always, Joey had his violin with him. “If you want to work out with me,” said Thurston, “you'll have to rent a locker.” Locker rental was fifty cents. The only money Joey had was what his mom had given him for that week's violin lesson. So Joey borrowed some gym trunks and some old tennis shoes from Thurston, rented the locker with his violin money, and put the violin inside.

The first time Joey sparred with Thurston, Joey flattened him. The dazed response of Thurston, who had already won a Detroit Golden Gloves Championship, was, “Boy, throw that violin away!” With the money his mother had intended to finance weekly violin lessons, Joey kept a permanent locker. Five years later, Joey Barrow turned twenty-three and became the heavyweight boxing champion of the world!

Books don’t say much about Thurston McKinney, but he took Joey Barrow under his wing. Joey dropped his last name, Barrow, so his mother wouldn’t know the newspapers were talking about her son. The world knew for years before she did that sissy Joey Barrow had been transformed into the unbeatable “Brown Bomber,” Joe Louis.

Another transformed man wrote the letters of 1st and 2nd Peter. His name is Simon Peter. His transformation did not produce a fighter, but just the opposite. Peter was transformed from a fighter into a servant of Jesus Christ. So dramatic was the change in Peter's life that he wrote these two letters to remind his readers that Christian faith was never intended to remain unchanged or static. Christian faith always adds something. It is always growing. Christians continually experience change or transformation in their lives.

John Henry Newman wrote:

Growth is the only evidence of life.

And the same is true of our spiritual lives. We are to continually be growing in our faith and trust in God.

Turn with me to the first chapter of 2 Peter. Last week we finished Peter’s first letter so tonight we move on to his second one. This letter differs in at least two ways. First, this second letter is shorter. It’s only three chapters as opposed to five. And second, while the first letter dealt with difficulties the churches were facing from forces outside the church, Peter addresses problems they are facing from within the church in this second letter. The first letter was written to encourage and comfort, this second letter was written to warn and confront.

Let’s get started with Peter’s greeting.

2 Peter 1:1

In his first letter, Peter identified himself as apostle:

1 Peter 1:1a Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ . . .

Now he identifies himself by both names – Simon Peter. Additionally, he only called himself an apostle in the first letter, but adds servant in the second. Jesus called us to be servants. After describing how the world uses power and authority to dominate others and get their way, Jesus said:

Matthew 20:26-28 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

This was a difficult lesson for the disciples and often for us as well. It was a discussion Jesus had with the disciples on at least three occasions, the last being in the upper room. It seems that Peter eventually learned it.

In this letter, Peter does not identify his readers. His first letter was addressed:

1 Peter 1:1b To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia are all located in what is now Turkey. While Peter doesn’t identify his readers in the second letter, perhaps because of the fear of persecution, it is generally assumed he is writing to the same churches he wrote in his first letter. In chapter 3 we read:

2 Peter 3:1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.

Wherever these readers lived, their faith was under attack not from unbelievers, but from false teachers. So in this introduction, Peter makes reference to “a faith as precious as ours.”

Faith is the noun form of the verb “believe” and means to trust. In particular, it means to trust Jesus Christ the Savior from our sins. The author of Hebrews defined faith this way:

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

A couple of verses later he added:

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Faith is accepting something as true even though we can’t see or prove it and we can’t please God without faith.

Have you ever heard of the Automated Highway System (AHS) or the Smart Road? Engineers and inventers have been working on these kinds of systems for years. At one point the Department of Transportation gave $200 million for research and testing of such a system. The Automated Highway System would purportedly relieve traffic congestion with “super cruise control” in heavily congested cities. Basically, the cars would drive themselves – doing all the steering, accelerating and braking through computer navigation systems.

The eight cars you see in this picture were driven in tight formation at highway speeds by a fully automated system in a 1997 demonstration of the Automated Highway System on I-15 in San Diego, CA. All of the drivers have their hands sticking out the window to show they aren’t actually driving. Researchers and government officials claim they have the technological capacity to make such a system work, but there is one challenge they have yet to address. Can you guess what the one problem is?

Mike Doble, Buick’s technology manager, said:

The only thing we can’t do yet is get people to comfortably trust the system. It’s not a technology issue. Would you ride in a car, traveling at high speeds, closely spaced with other cars, being driven completely by a computer?

Trust is always the biggest question or challenge, especially when it comes to our relationship with God. Like someone on a trapeze – will we let go and trust that God will catch us? God is certainly a master, teacher and driver we can trust and submit to. When we submit ourselves to God, we will experience the blessings of submission.

Peter described our faith in Jesus as being “precious.” In Greek, the word was used to describe a foreigner who asked for and received citizenship in a country. They then had the same rights and privileges as others who lived there. As followers of Jesus, we have been given a citizenship in the kingdom of God. Our faith, like that of the apostles, is precious to God and should be to us.

Peter points out that we have this citizenship not because of what we have done, but because of our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross. The righteousness of Jesus is bestowed on us because of our faith in him. Because he took our sins away we can now live in a right relationship with Jesus.

2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Where does Peter say our grace and peace come from? They come from our knowledge of God and Jesus. An important word there is “of.” It’s not knowledge “about” God and Jesus. The word “know” or “knowledge” is more than a dozen times in this short letter. This knowledge is not a mere intellectual understanding of some truth, though that is included. The word “know” means to understand from experience. This knowledge involves a living participation in the truth. Jesus said:

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Jesus wasn’t saying that eternal life is found through knowing about him, but knowing him personally through a relationship with him. There are plenty of atheists who can tell you about the God we worship but they don’t know God or Jesus personally. Peter is talking about a personal relationship with Jesus. David wrote:

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Don’t take someone else’s word for it. Experience the goodness of God yourself. Know God personally.

That was Paul’s greatest desire for himself as well. Paul had a relationship with Jesus that very few others have ever had and yet his it was still his desire to know Jesus better.

In the next few verses Peter gives the ingredients needed for spiritual success. The verses are like a recipe, if we follow them we will be pleased with the results.

Two confirmed bachelors were talking and their conversation drifted to cooking. “I got a cookbook once,” said the first, “but I could never do anything with it.” “Too much fancy cooking in it,” asked the second. “You said it. Every one of the recipes began the same way, ‘Take a clean dish and....’ ”

Peter lays out a recipe for spiritual success. In verse 8 he says:

2 Peter 1:8 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.

And then in verse 10 he adds:

For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

2 Peter 2:10b Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings.

How’s that for a promise? Let’s back up to verse 3 and begin working through the text.

The first ingredient for spiritual success is the provision.

2 Peter 1:3-4 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

First of all, notice that Peter declares how God has already given us everything we need for a godly life. God had provided everything we need for spiritual growth and success. Let that word “everything” sink in. Everything means everything! Peter wasn’t the only one to say this. Paul wrote said this to the Ephesians when he wrote:

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

God has already blessed us with everything we need to live faithful and godly lives.

Notice again Peter’s mention of knowing. We have received all that we need through our knowledge of him. Let me emphasize again that this knowledge is not just intellectual knowledge, but is relational and experiential knowledge that comes from walking with God and depending on his Spirit.

We tend to emphasize doing – doing the right thing and not doing the wrong thing. While these are important, the Bible emphasizes relationship. We understand that in our relationships with each other, but have a harder time in our relationship with God. As a husband, it’s not enough for me to just do the right things and avoid the wrong, a marriage is a relationship and it’s not much of a marriage without it. God wants us to know and experience him.

In verse 4, we notice that God has given us promises. While Peter doesn’t go into any detail about what these promises are, he describes them as both great and precious. These promises are great, meaning they are exceedingly outstanding. And they are precious (not the same word for precious as in verse 1) meaning they are prized or valuable.

Talking about the promises of God, John Bunyan wrote:

The pathway of life is strewn so thickly with the promises of God that it is impossible to take one step without treading upon one of them.

Equally important is the assurance we have that God will keep the promises he makes. The Bible makes that abundantly clear. David wrote:

Psalm 145:13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.

God always keeps his promises.

While Peter doesn’t specify which promises he’s talking about, he does mention the outcome of these promises – they enable us to share in God’s divine nature. As Christians we are given the Holy Spirit as a deposit or guarantee of what is to come. The New Testament describes our bodies as temples for the Spirit. Somehow, a part of God lives in us making it possible for us to escape the corruption of the world. We have the power of God living in us that enables us to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. One third century preacher declared: “He became what we are to make us what he is.”

So, every provision for spiritual success is ours. Everything we need is available. We have God’s very great and precious promises. And we participate in the divine nature.

The second ingredient for spiritual success is the plan.

2 Peter 1:5-7 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

To accomplish anything worthwhile you need a plan. It has been noted that any plan includes three Ds: Dream, Decision, and Discipline.

Dreaming is the easy part because it doesn’t require me to do anything. As I dream I think about where I’d like to be or what I would like do. I can dream all I want about going to get in shape or learning to speak a new language. Dreams are great, and we must start with a dream, but if that’s as far as we get, then we have not gotten very far.

Once we have a dream, then we must make the decision to pursue the dream. This includes making decisions about how to achieve the dream. We have to decide what steps to take to get to our dream. If I’ve decided to get in better shape I may need to get a gym membership. If I’m going to learn a new language I have to decide how I’m going to learn it. What books or courses will I need? Making these decisions moves us toward our dream. This is harder than just dreaming, but it is still not the hardest part.

The hardest part is the discipline. Discipline is the hard work of following through with the decisions that lead to our dream. It’s going to the gym when I’d rather sleep in. It is sticking with the course and finishing it.

Peter gives us this plan for spiritual success, but he begins by clarifying that it’s going to require a lot of effort, which is why he tells us to make every effort. It’s not just a little effort or some effort, but every effort. We are called to contribute to what God has done. In other words, just taking the gifts and claiming the promises are not enough. Paul captured this idea in his letter to the Philippians when he wrote:

Philippians 2:12-13 12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

We work it out as God works in us. Our spiritual growth and success is a partnership with God. There is the expectation that we will strive with all diligence to do everything we can. Paul described how he cooperated with God in his ministry.

Colossians 1:28-29 28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

Paul says he labors with the energy God gives him. It is God who provides what is needed, but we still have a role to play. There is a partnership.

We might compare it to the power steering on your car. The power steering makes it easier to turn, but you still have to turn the steering wheel. The power is available, but it requires us to do something. The car won’t turn by itself.

However, have you ever been driving and have your car stall? The power steering then goes out making it harder to turn than if you didn’t have any power steering. If we try to live a godly life and don’t rely on the power God makes available to us, it’ll be harder than if we’d never become Christians. God’s power is available, but we still have to work at living for God. But it takes a plan.

Several months ago I was helping Mary Anne bake some cookies. I wasn’t paying attention and just started adding ingredients. If you know anything about baking you know the ingredients have to be added in order. You start with the wet ones and then add the dry. The cookies were edible, but not as good as they would have been if I’d followed the directions.

Peter says there’s a progression. Notice the characteristics Peter gives, eight in all: faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. We start with faith and add to it goodness. Then we add to goodness knowledge. When all is done we end up with love. We can’t pass on the ones we don’t like or find too difficult because the qualities build on to each other and overlap each other.

Peter says it starts with faith – everything starts with faith.

To faith, we are to add goodness – this is moral excellence.

To goodness, we are to add knowledge – knowledge is indispensible to Christian life and service – especially the knowledge of God and his word.

To knowledge, we are to add self-control – self-mastery, literally “to hold one’s self in.”

To self-control, we are to add perseverance – steadfastness, patience, endurance.

To perseverance, we are to add godliness – it is a love for God and the things of God, it includes being godly and reverent toward God.

To godliness, we are to add mutual affection or brotherly kindness – this is the Greek word philadelphia – we are to love our fellow believers.

Finally, to brotherly kindness, we are to add love – this is agape love – unconditional love in action for all people.

This won’t just happen. We have to make the decision to make every effort to add these qualities to our lives. Then we have to discipline ourselves to stick with it until we reach the goal. Many want instant spiritual growth and success, but it doesn’t come instantly. It comes after years of practicing spiritual disciplines of Bible study, prayer, fellowship, worship, fasting, giving, witnessing, and serving. It comes through remaining faithful through a lifetime of struggles and trials. Are we willing to put forth the effort? Are we willing to pay the price? As they say, no pain no gain.

And the third ingredient for spiritual success is the promise.

2 Peter 1:8-11 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. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Saying this is a promise sounds pretty strong, but this is the word Peter used in verse 4. Peter is not the one making the promise though, it’s God. If it were Peter making the promise we might have some reason to doubt, but not since it is God who makes it.

Peter says that if we have the qualities he discusses in these verse that we will be productive and will not stumble in our faith. He’s not saying we will never sin, but he’s saying that we will not fall away from the faith. Peter was concerned about his readers being led astray by false teachers.

This promise is conditional though. Peter says we need to possess these qualities in increasing measure. We need to keep growing in them. If you do these things, then you will never fall. Conversely, Peter says if we do not add these things and do these things, then the opposite will happen. We will be nearsighted and blind and forget the value and importance of our salvation. But if we follow the plan he’s laid out for us:

We will have a productive and effective spiritual life

We can make our calling and election sure, and

We will have a clear vision of the value and importance of our salvation

The story is told about a man who was born with an awful facial deformity. He grew up alone, rejected, sad and depressed because of his deformity. When reaching adulthood, he decided to move to another town to begin a new life. On his way to the new town, he discovered a mask that would make him look handsome. At first the mask was uncomfortable and he was afraid that people would find out who he really was, but he continued to wear the mask every day. In his new hometown, he made many friends and fell in love. But one day, an evil woman from his old town came and discovered his true identity. In front of his friends and fiancé, the evil woman forced him to remove his mask. When the mask was removed, it revealed a very handsome face. The man’s face had perfectly conformed to the mask he had worn.

Becoming like Christ is analogous to this. We are to put on Christ and attempt to live like Christ and look like Christ. At first it may feel unnatural or uncomfortable, and it may be very difficult. But every day, we must put on Christ, and keep striving to be like Christ. Over time, we will grow to look and act more and more like Jesus.