The Sevenfold Path
Notes
Transcript
2 Peter 1:1-15
2 Peter 1:1-15
This morning we’re going to be in the first chapter of 2 Peter.
I think I started the sermon last I preached with something like this: “When you have limited opportunities to preach, it’s always difficult to figure out what passage to use.”
As I was reading this week, I came across these verses in 2 Peter 1:12–15
12 Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.
13 I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder,
14 knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
15 And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.
This is something that Peter has been repeating to believers for what we can reasonably assume is quite some time.
And in these few verses, you can see that this is written by a man who knows he is soon going to die.
We know that Peter has been serving Christ in His church for a little over thirty years at this point:
Shortly after the ascension of Jesus, around AD 33, Peter gives his sermon at Pentecost through which 3,000 people come to accept Christ as Lord.
I would encourage you to read or re-read the book of Acts to see the trajectory of Peter’s ministry in the years that follow.
In AD 54, Nero becomes emperor of Rome.
Close to ten years later after Nero claims control, 1 Peter is written - sometime between 62 - 64.
In AD 64, the Great Fire of Rome causes severe destruction. Nero infamously uses this to place blame on the Christians.
In AD 66, three major things happen:
Peter writes the book of 2 Peter.
Peter is executed.
The Jewish people in Judea revolt against Rome.
Just a few short years later in AD 70, Rome lays siege to Jerusalem, and Roman forces led by General Titus (who would later become Emperor Titus) completely devastated the city, and destroyed the Second Temple. The Romans rename Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina, and build a temple to Jupiter (whom the Greeks would call Zeus) on the site of the Second Temple.
There is a phrase in studying history that goes like this: “The past is a foreign country.” Those of you who have visited or lived somewhere outside this country - when you plan to go to a foreign country, you prepare yourself by studying the language, cultural customs and norms, and maybe even unique dangers that another country may present.
In a very similar way, these dates and events color our reading of this passage. There’s a relatively newly coined word: “Sonder.” It’s the feeling of realization that every person you see has a life as complex and vivid as your own.
This was written to real people who had real, robust lives; they had thoughts and ideas that are not far from our own; they had families, jobs, and hobbies; they had fears and opinions. Taking a moment to put ourselves in their shoes helps to bring these words to life.
An evil emperor has control of your country, one that has long struggled to be free from the oppressive foreign government. He has caused mass destruction in his own kingdom, and is now using that as an opportunity to blame, persecute, and execute you and your family.
You’ve heard rumblings of a rising rebellion, poised to strike back at the empire at any moment. The future is terribly uncertain and full of political strife, to the point where you don’t even know if your capital city will survive the next few years.
Now, a man that has had a tremendous significance to the life of the church, who you likely have at least seen and heard personally, is about to be executed by the government for his faith (and he knows it). Mount Harmony Baptist Church receives a letter from this man, containing the final words of wisdom you will ever hear from him this side of heaven, and he says “I know you’ve heard this from me a hundred times, but I need you to remember this.”
You’re going to lean in a little closer and pay more attention.
5Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
6and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
Every illustration I found online for these seven things were either pyramids or bricks laid one on top of the other. I’ll admit at first my inclination was to view it as a pyramid as well, but Pastor Martin - bastion of wisdom that he is - said “It’s really more of an expanding spiral.” So we’re going to think of this as an ever-expending path that we walk on in our journey of discipleship.
The seven steps:
Moral Excellence
Knowledge
Self-Control
Perseverance
Godliness
Brotherly Kindness
Love
You’re going to hear a lot of quotes today, because these concepts that Peter addresses are so deeply integrated into the Christian life, that there is an untold amount of discussion on these ideas, and because of that there are quotes that are incredible in both their quantity and their quality.
Before we get to these seven things, when Peter says “in your faith,” we know that the entire journey that follows assumes faith in Christ.
Moral Excellence
The word used here is ἀρετή (goodness) which is the same word that Peter uses in verse 3 to note God’s own excellence. More than our modern conception of “goodness,” which sometimes (at least for me) falls into the realm of good-enough-ness, ἀρετή refers to the concept of excellence of any kind.
Bonus: ἀρετή is where the name Aretha comes from, which is associated with virtue, excellence, or righteousness.
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle
To be a “moral person” is not simply to know. You can’t start with knowledge: eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was what got Adam and Eve expelled from the garden. To be moral is to understand that there is a good and there is an evil and striving for the good. Simply knowing isn’t enough without a foundation of morality.
“Moral excellence,” it should be noted, is not an attitude but an action.
John F. MacArthur
Knowledge
But knowledge itself isn’t to be ignored, it just cannot be the foundation. If you swap the places of these first two things, it leads to exactly what you see today: people calling what is good evil, and what is evil good.
If you start with knowledge, then your worldview must necessarily start with you. This was the folly in the garden: exchanging the truth of God’s moral excellence for your own faded, cursed reality.
(I don’t want this to feel like I’m attacking any other denominations), but this is why you cannot co-equate reason and experience with Scripture. Both reason and experience are extensions of our own intellect, our own knowledge. To hold to this idea of co-equality is to live your life not in line with God, but in line with the very sin that caused the fall in the first place.
To begin with knowledge is to admit that we hold to, and rely upon our own nature, and the visible world around us to inform God’s Word, not the other way around.
Nature has given to us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Roman Moralist and Tragic Poet)
So this knowledge that Peter speaks of must flow from God’s moral excellence, not lead to it.
1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,
3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.
The true knowledge is that of Christ Himself, and all treasures of knowledge and wisdom are found only in Christ.
The knowledge that Peter speaks of here is also that knowledge of Christ that leads us into a deeper relationship and reliance on God.
Spiritual knowledge of Christ will be a personal knowledge.
Charles Spurgeon
But Peter does not stop with knowledge, it’s just the second step on the path.
Self-Control
The third step is where the rubber meets the road.
The moral excellence of God, and our deepening knowledge of the things of God lead to the practice of self-control.
This practice of self-control naturally flows from the first two of Peter’s seven steps.
Having the knowledge of God’s Word control our minds is the key to righteous living. What controls your thoughts will control your behavior. Self-control is a result of mind-control, which is dependent on knowledge.
John F. MacArthur
We’re going to tie this in with the next step very quickly.
We live in a world that says “Why limit yourself? You can have it all!”
Godly self-control says “Deny yourself”
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
The great Christian duty is self-denial, which consists in two things: first, in denying worldly inclinations and its enjoyments, and second, in denying self-exultation and renouncing one’s self-significance by being empty of self.
Jonathan Edwards (American Evangelical Preacher)
But the world isn’t going to stop throwing every pleasure of the flesh at you just because you overcome sinful desires one time: thus, Peter’s addition to self-control: perseverance.
Perseverance
Maybe this is where you start to hit a roadblock on your path: you’ve been okay up until this point, but now the weight on your back is so great that it feels like you’re on your hands and knees, crawling for every last step on this path. We all have different types of weight on us; for some it may feel like you’re just trying to hold your family together. For others, it may be a sin that you’re struggling with, or even a sin that you’ve overcome that keeps rearing it’s ugly head over and over, like waves on a stormy sea wearing you down with every break. For others still it may be severe loneliness: your sea is calm and still, but you feel like you’re floating alone in isolation.
Maybe for you it’s none of these: these are just three examples of the weight we as humans tend to bear here on this earth. That weight can cause us to struggle to put one foot in front of the other on this path Peter is laying out for us.
By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
Charles Spurgeon
You may be frustrated at the small steps you seem to be taking, but the question is “have you stopped?” Are you still striving for the goal? Are you still pressing against the world, or is the tide starting to pull you backward? If you feel like you’re stalled, then reach out. Cry out to Jesus: he doesn’t just set the path for us, looking down on us with exasperation every time we struggle: he remains with us on the path.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Aren’t you glad that you have a savior that understands what it means to be tempted, and shows compassion on us when we fall short? So call out to Him. He will never leave you or forsake you. He sent His Spirit to live within you and to guide you. He’s given you brothers and sisters in the church, adopted into the same eternal family that you are.
So persevere! Push for that next step. Set a goal for yourself and then reach for that goal.
Because the act of perseverance is still not the last step:
In the final book of the Narnia series (spoiler warning), Aslan the great lion is leading his people into Aslan’s own country, and as they run along side him, he keeps shouting “further up and further in.”
Each step leads us closer to godliness.
Godliness
The purpose for which we have been chosen is to be conformed to the image of Christ, to be servants of God, to be people of obedience who live lives of godliness and righteousness.
R. C. Sproul
I don’t always agree with Sproul, but this is a very well-worded quote.
The entirety of the Bible is about godliness, and so to truly define it, you need to read this for yourself.
But examine what this quote says for a moment:
You were chosen.
Ephesians 1:4 “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”
Your purpose in life is to be conformed to the image of Christ.
Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
You are called to be a servant of God.
1 Corinthians 4:1 “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”
Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
We are all to be “people of obedience who live lives of godliness and righteousness.”
Brotherly Kindness
Up until this point, the steps on this path were focused on the vertical relationship - me to God.
But now we get to the point where we recognize that a relationship with God cannot just focus on “me.” You are, right now, surrounded by people who love God and whom God loves. We share each other’s burdens, we take joy in each other’s triumphs, our tears flow with those who are grieving.
This is not a detour on the path, it’s the natural progression of a life that is lived for God. Charles Spurgeon is almost harsh in his treatment of this thought:
You who never know what a groan is, or a falling tear, are destitute of vital godliness.
Charles Spurgeon
The word used here in the Greek is φιλαδελφία, which comes from one of the four main words used for love in Greek.
φιλέω - Brotherly Love
ἔρως - Romantic Love
στοργή - Familial Love
ἀγάπη - Unconditional Love
But maybe you’re thinking, “Listen, I’ve got my relationship with God in hand, maybe I’m a little rough around the edges with other people, but that’s just how I am.” - or - “I’m just being honest with people. I’m a truth-teller, that’s my spiritual gift.” However you try to rationalize it, you can’t escape Jesus:
John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
“Well I have love for my brothers and sisters in Christ, I just don’t really show it.”
How is anyone supposed to see it if you don’t show it?
The act of loving one another is essential in our identity as believers.
But Peter doesn’t stop at just loving other Christians.
Love
Some scholars don’t put much stock in the specific word used for love, but here it’s vital:
Brotherly kindness is φιλέω, but this word for love is ἀγάπη: unconditional love.
This is the “for God so loved the world” kind of love.
This is the “greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” kind of love.
This is the “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” kind of love.
Do you see what’s happening as you further along this path?
You begin with the foundation of moral excellence, and then through knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and godliness you keep filling up and filling up, then your personal relationship with God begins to overflow to those God has placed in your life as part of your adopted family. But then the overflowing can’t even be contained to the people who you would call friend: you begin to see the world the way God does.
You begin to see sinners not as annoyances in your daily life, but as people in desperate need of a Savior.
You begin to see even the most vile earthly adversary in the same light as we see Paul before his conversion: “If only this person would see the truth of the Gospel, they could change the face of this earth for the glory of God.”
We don’t know who God is going to use, and so, as Matthew 5:44 says, we “love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us.”
Now don’t hear me saying “come one guys, this is easy!” This is the most difficult journey you can take. Every single step runs counter to our sinful nature. It’s a hard path, but Peter helps us to understand why it’s an important to walk in it.
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
If you develop these things, you will be useful and fruitful.
If you don’t develop these things, you’re walking through life blind.
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
Prayer
We’re going to enter into a time of response. For the next couple of minutes, I want you to listen to how God is calling you to respond. It’s not a matter of if He’s calling, but what He’s calling you to. We all struggle at milestones on this path. Now is a time for you to reach out, to call out to God and ask Him to guide you, or to help you bear the weight that is pinning you down. Maybe you’re struggling with someone here, and you need to repair that φιλέω, that brotherly love. Maybe you’re bitter with the world, and you can’t see how you can love your enemies. Maybe you’ve never made the decision to make that first step. Whatever God is calling you to today, He’s listening for you. He’s waiting for you. He’s here with you.
