Ladder of Confidence

The difficulty of being at a Christian school or growing up in church

2 Peter 1:1-12

v1) a faith of equal standing with ours

Connecting these believers with the disciples

This connections is through Jesus

Jesus’ claim to be God is why he was killed (Mark 14:62 “And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”” )

According to Mark, Jesus claimed to be God 3 different ways

V4) partakers of the divine nature

Via Salvation

Ephesians 4:24 “and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

v5) reason is verses 3 & 4

Referred to as the Ladder of Faith or Peter’s Ladder

faith is our bottom rung/ starting point

virtue = excellence of character/ integrity

knowledge=

self-control= temperance

a midway stage in a distinct moral progress of the believer, which commences in faith and culminates in love.

2 of the 4 uses in NT refer specifically to chastity

variations also refer to drunkenness

This passion to be good soldiers of Christ expresses itself not in excess but in sober discipline; it is the true imitation of a Master, whose life, as Bernard says, was the ‘mirror of temperance’.

steadfastness= patient endurance/ refusal to give up or be obedient to God regardless of circumstances

godliness

comprehensive term for the practice of Christian personal religion, the worship and service of God and the rendering of reverent obedience to his laws

“fear of the Lord” in the OT; “obeying the Gospel” in the NT

its an attitude of submissive obedience and a response to revelation (ie., to be set apart)

All allegedly evangelical teaching should be tested by asking whether it makes for godliness- i.e. whether it enforces God’s demands adequately, and whether it exhibits correctly the gift of renewal in Christ from which alone godliness can spring

brotherly affection= phileo

love= agape

v8) if these qualities are yours and are increasing

v9) Lacks these qualities= BLIND

1 John 2:11 “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

v10) Therefore= v.8&9 (reason)

“you will not fall [to false teaching]”

Context of the whole letter

1 John 2:7–10 “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.”

We must remind ourselves, and be reminded.

IF our response is “this again” or “this is all we talk about”, we have already stopped climbing this ladder.