Peter's Vision of the Diligent Christian Life - 2 Peter 1:2-11

Proclamation of Blessing 1:2-4

After introducing himself, Peter follows the customary approach of the apostles to epistolary writing and proclaims a blessing to his readers. He does in a three subtle movements that encompass the whole of the Christian life.

We can rightly divide the Christina life into three sections or movements, and we can label them a dozen different ways depending upon our purpose.

Past, justification, positional righteousness.

Present, sanctification, progressive righteousness.

Future, glorification, perfect righteousness.

Peter’s proclamation of blessing covers the whole spectrum here, from past to present to future.

Let’s look closely.

Present Blessing

Peter’s present blessing comes in verse 2: grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Grace and peace are those two great benefits of salvation that we receive as a result of our faith in Christ. In him we have received grace upon grace. In Him we have peace with God.

Peter’s proclamation demonstrates that these blessings and benefits are not only poured out when we are first saved, when we first repent and believe, but that they are a perpetual mark of the Christian experience. Grace and peace are being multiplied to us whether we’ve been walking with the Lord for 8 minutes or 80 years.

This is a precious and comforting truth.

But Peter qualifies this truth for us. He says that grace and peace are multiplied to us in knowledge.

Now this is an interesting rub for Peter, and one that runs contrary to the flavor of the day in American Christianity. Going all the way back to Charles Finney and the revivalists, American Christians have had a captivation with feeling. They go to church because they want an emotional experience. But Peter is clear here: the true multiplication of grace and blessing in the present has little to nothing to do with how you feel and everything to do with what you know. Now I’m not saying that Peter is opposed to emotion or feeling or that the Christian should be a rigorously disciplined stoic with no sense of affection for the things of God. But what Peter is saying is the foundation and source of grace and blessing which can and will lead us to affective response is knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord.

I’m going to go down a path here that might be controversial but I’m going here because it needs to be said and I believe it is just this type of thing that Peter has in mind as he writes this letter. This word from Peter makes me skeptical of things like the “Asbury Revival.” There are a number of issues I have with what went on there over the last few weeks but what I will say in this context is simply this: what was being put forth at Asbury was a mile wide and an inch deep. It was focused on getting people to “feel” a “move of God” rather than on real discipling and discipleship. A brief study was done on the most common words spoken from the front at Asbury. The words Spirit, feel, and “this place” were in the top five, being spoken hundreds of times. The words repent and gospel were in the bottom 5. You could count how many times they were spoken on one hand. The words doctrine, Bible, discipleship, Word, and get this: church, were not uttered at all.

What happened at Asbury is an example of the individualistic emotionalist approach to Christianity that is so common in our nation today, and Peter speaks strongly against it throughout this letter.

For Peter, doctrine matters. True knowledge of God and of Christ matters. In fact it is of central importance. The Great Commission is centered upon doctrine and discipleship: make disciples and teach them. If true grace and true peace is to be multiplied to us, it must be multiplied in the context of true and full knowledge of God and of Christ.

For us then, we must be people of the book. We must be Christians in our heads before we are Christians in our hearts. We must let our feelings be guided by our thoughts, and not the other way around. We must pore over the Word and study it and ingest it. As Scott and I have been regularly encouraging you all, get in the Word. Study it. Know it.

The present blessing of God in your sanctification depends upon it.

Past Blessing

Peter grounds his proclamation of present blessing for sanctification by looking backward to God’s past blessing in justification.

Now speaking in the past tense, Peter encourages us to look backward to what God has already given us - namely, everything necessary for life and godliness, all that pertains to being born again and then walking in that new birth.

Let’s break this sentence down a little bit.

First, all that we need is granted by divine power. Peter implicitly acknowledges the singular and monergistic work of God in bringing life and righteousness to sinners.

Second, this grant contains all that pertains to life and godliness. Peter speaks here of the sufficiency of Scripture for saving knowledge and a Godward walk. This full knowledge of God is enough to save and it is enough to satisfy and it is enough to sanctify. Nothing need be added to these words in order to make them efficacious unto salvation.

Third, the grant comes through the full knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, just as the blessing of sanctification comes through that same full knowledge. Simply put, you can’t be saved and converted and born again without knowing who Christ is and what He has done. Knowledge of Him is a prerequisite for believing in Him. Now you don’t need to know much. Paul says that all we need to know is Christ and Him crucified, and elsewhere he says that the matters of first importance concerning Christ are these: that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose on the third day. You at least need to know and affirm that in order to receive this grant.

Fourth, the grant is in conjunction with a glorious and excellent calling. The grant of all things pertaining to life and godliness is in direct parallel with the calling of God upon our lives. This calling encompasses both the doctrine of the gospel call, or the external command to repent and believe the gospel, as well as the doctrine of effectual calling, or the sweet and spiritual, internal and irresistible summons of God to believe in Christ and receive the gospel. Peter is clear: God does not call us and then fail to give us that which we need to fulfill and walk worthy of our calling.

For us then, there are two takeaways here.

First, we need to remember that we have everything we need to receive new life and to walk in that new life right here in God’s Word. We have no spiritual need that cannot and will not be met in accordance with this Word. It is a fountain of life and a well of wisdom from which to draw. Our salvation and sanctification require no medical analysis, no Freudian psychology, no self-help manuals. What you need to be a faithful Christian in the world today is contained in the timeless and eternal truth of this book.

Second, we need to be reminded that our calling and blessing are completely a result of God’s power. No good or bad that we have done can remove us from the excellent and powerful grip of God. Let this truth therefore be a temper to both our arrogant pride which thinks that we might accomplish our salvation and sanctification in our own power, and to our feeble faith which doubts whether or not we are truly held fast in His hands.

Future Blessing

Verse 4 moves us to Peter’s proclamation of future blessing.

Not only has Peter reflected on the present blessing of sanctification and the past blessing of justification, he now looks to the future blessing of glorification.

Peter frames this blessing in the language of promises, which he doesn’t define or qualify here, he simply describes them as precious and magnificent.

I urge you to reflect on the strength of the language here. We’ve established the personal nature of this letter for Peter. This is his heart. Peter, the big burly fisherman, speaking with an almost indescribable affection regarding the promises of God. They are precious and magnificent, and for Peter, these promises are the way that we participate in the divine nature.

This partaking or participating is perpetual. Peter doesn’t attach a tense to the word partake here. It’s perpetual. We are always becoming greater partakers in the divine nature, according to the precious and magnificent promises of God. And these promises belong to us on the basis of our freedom from sin and lust, according to the end of verse 4.

This theme runs in bold print throughout the New Testament, beginning with John 17:22-23

John 17:22–23 LSB

“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

The theme continues throughout the New Testament with Paul speaking frequently of being conformed into the image of Christ, and the apostle John reflecting at the end of his life on our future hope: that we will see Him face to face and we will be like Him.

For Peter then, these promises of future glory throughout Scripture are an anchor of the soul in the midst of trial. This was the entire theme of Peter’s first letter, and while he is less concerned in this second letter with matters of suffering and glory, he nevertheless keeps the theme in his field of vision here.

So what is there for us in this promise of future blessing? In a word, hope. Hope that is not shaken in the midst of suffering. Hope that is not moved in the midst of the madness. Hope that does not falter in the fire. Hope that will one day pass away when we see Christ face to face, and our natures are fully renewed into His likeness. We will see Him, and we will be like Him.

Peter opens his letter with a proclamation of blessing that reminds and assures us of our salvation and our hope in Christ.

But this blessing requires a response. We have escaped corruption, so what does the life of freedom look like? It’s not drinking sparkling water on the beach. Peter now moves to exhort his readers to diligence.

Exhortation to Diligence - 1:5-7

Peter says in verse 5 “apply all diligence.” The Christian life, certainly fraught with blessing as we have seen, is not a life of ease or sloth or laziness. Walking worthy of these blessings requires spiritual sweat. This exhortation to diligence is woven throughout 2 Peter, much in the same way as the theme of full knowledge. If the church is to survive against the attacks of false teachers, we must be diligent, and we must be doctrinal.

And what is it that we are to diligently apply ourselves to? Peter gives us a rapid fire list of things we are to diligently apply ourselves to in faith. Don’t lose that here. Faith is critical. Only in restful reliance on the obedience of Christ can we ever obey fruitfully in this life. Don’t lose sight of the fact that all these virtues are couched in the context of faith in Christ.

So what is the list? Let’s look

Moral excellence

Some translations render this virtue, and I like that. It’s an old word and it carries some dignity. This person is virtuous. A basic definition of virtue would be something like “alignment with high moral principles.” Moral excellence makes sense then. This picture of moral excellence is painted nowhere more clearly than the book of Proverbs, which teaches us practically what morally excellent and upright behavior looks like in all walks of life. I believe we can sum up the teaching of the book of Proverbs on moral excellence in this way: the virtuous person is trustworthy, hardworking, gets up early in the morning to provide for others, makes wise financial decisions, is committed to health and physical fitness, cares for the poor and needy, is a leader in the community, is committed to the principles of free-market capitalism, speaks words of love, truth, and wisdom at all times, puts their family first, is well-known and well-thought of, and finally, the virtuous person is the person who fears Yahweh.

Knowledge

Peter further exhorts us to diligence in knowledge. Peter has already talked about this. The diligent Christian life is one of diligently pursing the knowledge of God. Diligently pursuing sound doctrine. American church culture today is doctrine-averse. Doctrine divides, they say. Doctrine is only for seminaries and Bible colleges. That is patently false and patently opposed to the Scriptures. Doctrine matters. Truth matters. Knowledge matters, and it matters for everyone.

Biblical illiteracy may be the biggest problem plaguing the church today. People who profess Christ simply do not know their Bibles. But I am so thankful to be part of a church who takes the Bible seriously. In the last 5 years, West Hills Church has gone through the gospel of John, the Ten Commandments, selected Psalms, Proverbs, Titus, Malachi, Ephesians, Acts, the Sermon on the Mount, Revelation, Daniel, Esther, Deuteronomy, Philippians, Romans, Hebrews, Isaiah, and 1 Peter.

I would encourage you tonight, as I have been so often in recent days, commit yourself to regular ingestion of God’s Word. Commit yourself to systematic study of the doctrines of Scripture. For Peter, this is not optional. This is part and parcel of the Christian life and must be pursued with diligence.

Self-control

This is the characteristic of self-discipline. Limiting the excesses of carnality so that you might be more singularly focused on what truly matters. This is the virtue of the athlete and the solider, the apostle Paul’s two favorite illustrations for this virtue.

I am reminded of the late Kobe Bryant, Lakers superstar, NBA MVP, Olympic gold medalist, and world champion, who famously woke up at 4am every morning to shoot 1000 shots a day, sacrificing other lesser desires so that he could focus on the one thing that mattered most: winning championships.

I am reminded of the Navy SEALs, the most elite military special operations unit in human history, who train annually just a few hours south of here in Coronado, enduring the most brutal conditions imaginable, so that when they arrive on the battlefield, they are unfazed and prepared to lead and win.

Kobe Bryant was not a Christian. I would wager most Navy SEALs are not either. Yet they embodied, far better than most professing Christians, this virtue of self-control. Are we committed to disciplining ourselves, to focusing on what truly matters, and giving up lesser pleasures so that we might be wholly committed to serving Christ in all that we do?

Perseverance

What is perseverance but long-term self-control? It’s easy to do something once. It’s hard to do it for a lifetime. Peter’s encouragement here is simple: keep on keeping on. Good times and bad times will come in equal measure in this life. But those blessings Peter gave us back in verses 2-4? The faith that he started this list out with? That’s the fuel in the engine of perseverance. God will preserve us to the end if we are in Christ by faith. But we still have to forge ahead, walking worthy of this calling through the ups and the downs until He returns or calls us home. That’s perseverance. The question for us is this: will we persevere?

Godliness

This word means something like reverential piety. Not long ago, Stephen Nichols, president of Reformation Bible College, was asked in an interview about the example of Godliness or piety from church history. He said this:

So what can we learn from the piety of the Reformers and the Puritans? We need to recognize that piety is ultimately godly living. That’s all it is. It’s recognizing that the call to being a Christian is a holistic call to all areas of our life. There is no area of our life that is outside the view of worshiping God. It’s either going to be done to advance our self-interests and our own well-being, or it’s going to be done to advance God and in worship of Him.

The Puritans grasped that. It wasn’t, “Okay, I’m going to spend four hours in prayer, four hours in Bible study, and neglect life.” It was: “I’m going to pray and study my Bible. I’m going to dig into this Bible. But in all of life, I’m going to worship God.” And they had a capacious view of what serving God meant.

Sometimes I think we bifurcate these things. We say, “This is spirituality, and that’s the church stuff. Then there’s my job, my family, and my hobbies, and I don’t know how they fit. So, they don’t.” The Puritans would not get that. So, I think they help us.

Let’s get back to that. Let’s have that capacious view. Let’s recognize what worshiping God and serving God in all of life really means. Not just Sunday, but Monday to Saturday.

Are we Godly people? Are we devoted to God? Are we Christians Monday to Saturday or only on Sunday? Peter’s exhortation is that we would be diligent to live coram Deo, before the face of God, at all times, not just on Sundays and Thursdays.

Brotherly kindness

This is philadelphao love, the love of a family. Peter discussed this at length in his first letter. Are we committed not only to God but to one another? Are we committed to serving one another with our words and deeds, encouraging and exhorting one another, building one another up at all times? Are we pursuing unity? These are all the marks of brotherly kindness.

Love

This is agape love, sacrificial love, love that would lay it’s life down for it’s friends and it’s enemies. How far are you willing to go in this love? Peter says we must be diligent to pursue it, as individuals and as a church.

So why does Peter want us to have all these virtues in our lives? He gives us the reason in verses 8 and 9 as he warns against fruitlessness.

Warning against Fruitlessness 1:8-9

For Peter, the goal of the Christian to be useful and bear fruit. Bearing fruit is a critical part of the Biblical conception of the Christian life, and it ties in directly to one of my favorite Biblical-theological themes, that of the vine in the vineyard that bears much fruit. We’ve discussed it before. The life of the Christian is to lived abiding in Christ, the true Vine, who causes His branches to bear fruit, namely the fruit of the Spirit. Peter’s 7 virtues here, while not explicitly categorized as such, are fruit of the Spirit as well.

He encourages us then to apply ourselves diligently to having these things and increasing them daily. There’s something important to note briefly there. It’s easy for Christians, especially those who have been walking with the Lord for a long time, to think they’ve made it. That they don’t need to keep increasing in their Godliness and Christ-likeness. I haven’t even been walking with the Lord for a long time and I sometimes feel that way. Peter’s encouragement to us here is to always keep increasing in these virtues, to continue to build them into our lives in new ways. This, according to Peter, renders us useful and fruitful in the full knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Peter paints a contrast here, between fruitfulness and forgetfulness.

Fruitful - Verse 8

Peter’s exhortation is to usefulness and fruitfulness in the knowledge of God. Dr. Greg Behle told me in college that the type of Christian he dreads most is the fat Christian. What he meant by this is a Christian who possesses all the true knowledge of the Scriptures and is a theological titan, but is not a fruitful or useful Christian. This is a special danger for Christians who take the Bible seriously as we do. We must not ever lose sight of the fact that our call, according to Peter, is to be diligent to be useful and fruitful Christians, Christians who have real impact for Christ in the world. This is why Christians must be Christians outside the walls of the church. Christians must work as Christians, play as Christians, be Christians at school and Christians on the street.

Peter contrasts therefore the fruitful Christian with the forgetful Christian.

Forgetful - Verse 9

The forgetful Christian is the one in whom these virtues, these diligent disciplines are not present. Peter charges this person with being blind and nearsighted and forgetful. Peter contrasts the full knowledge of the fruitful Christian with the blindness and nearsightedness of the forgetful Christian. This is a normal analogy in Scripture, with knowledge equating to sight and the ability to see. In other words, those whose view of Christ and His Word is small and nearsighted will have a weak and anemic Christian life. On the other hand, those whose view of Christ and His Word is true and full will have a useful and fruitful Christian life.

The sum of the matter is this: a Christian whose heart and mind are full of Christ, full of His Word, full of sound doctrine, full of good theology, will have a natural desire to apply themselves diligently to Christian virtues, and thereby be fruitful and useful for Christ’s work in the world.

Assurance of Eternity 1:10-11

Peter gives a second and parallel exhortation to diligence, this time to be diligent to make your calling and choosing sure.

Now this is a tough passage, and as a church who champions the sovereign grace of God in election and justification and in all of salvation, we might shy away from this and try to explain it away. We might say “Well, Peter is not really saying confirm or ensure or whatever, it’s just a figure of speech.”

I would respond by saying “How exactly is this a figure of speech?” What Peter seems to be saying is that our diligence in pursuing Godly virtue is a confirmation, a validation, a verification of our calling and election.

So what do we believe about good works then? Are they necessary? Peter says they are. How do we explain this?

Here’s Francis Turretin:

Institutes of Elenctic Theology Third Question: The Necessity of Good Works

There are three principal opinions about the necessity of good works. First is that of those who (sinning in defect) deny it; such were formerly the Simonians and the modern Epicureans and Libertines, who make good works arbitrary and indifferent, which we may perform or omit at pleasure. The second is that of those who (sinning in excess) affirm and press the necessity of merit and causality; such were the ancient Pharisees and false apostles, who contended that works are necessary to justification. These are followed by the Romanists and Socinians of our day. The third is that of those who (holding the middle ground between these two extremes) neither simply deny, nor simply assert; yet they recognize a certain necessity for them against the Libertines, but uniformly reject the necessity of merit against the Romanists. This is the opinion of the orthodox.

While there is certainly much more that could be said, we must affirm with Peter that this diligence in confirming our calling is essential.

Why is that? According to Peter in the second part of verse 10, it is because diligence has a persevering effect. It keeps us from stumbling. So let’s think about Peter’s chain here. Peter proclaims a blessing according to the true and full knowledge of God. He exhorts us to apply ourselves diligently to virtuous behavior in light of that blessing. Therefore, this blessing of knowledge and this diligent pursuit of virtue go hand in hand, and when you bring them all together, you are kept from stumbling.

No doubt then, seeing this connection, Peter had the words of Christ in mind when he wrote this:

John 16:1 LSB

“These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.

We have already discussed the life context from which Peter writes this letter. So much of what he writes here comes out of that experience in the final hours of Christ’s life, both what Peter saw that night and in this case what he heard that night.

The knowledge of Christ and the diligent pursuit of virtue will produce a stable and secure and persevering Christian.

Let me put this in a memorable way for you tonight: Doctrinal Christians are diligent Christians, and diligent and doctrinal Christians are durable Christians. Christians who are durable enough to withstand the trials and temptations and tribulations of this world, endure the attacks of false teachers, and at least receive an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom of Christ.

Peter is clear: we’ve tasted of that even now. We already walk as those who have entered the kingdom and yet look ahead to the fuller reality of that kingdom that has not yet happened. That full reality is our end goal. Full access to Christ’s kingdom. Full participation in the divine nature.

This is Peter’s vision for the Christian life: Doctrinal, diligent, durable Christians. Christians who know what they believe, who walk like they know it, and who have full confidence and assurance in their final destination.

So when things get tough for you as a Christian, be reminded and assured of these realities: as much as God has blessed you, is blessing you, and will bless you, is as much as you should be diligent to pursue virtue, and thereby verify and confirm your status as a child of God.

May we walk in accordance with this even tonight.