Living Joyfully

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, 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. 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. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

In verses 3 and 4 Peter makes some grand and powerful statements.

He begins by telling us that His (Gods) divine power has granted yo us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Ponder that for a moment…all things for life and godliness.

Life…includes singleness, trials, hurts, wounds, victories, celebrations, death, divorce, marriage, parenting, potty training, pregnancy, boyfriends and on and on…

Godliness…wait what? all things for godliness? How are we to be godly? Well he goes on to say that through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. You see in our knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ we receive all things for godliness. Like what though? First of all we receive the Holy Spirit. This is how the divine power gets to us, through the Holy Spirit, and in this divine power we have the ability to be godly. To do the things of god, to be virtuous, to be knowledgable, to be self-controlled, to be steadfast, to be godly, to be a brother or sister of affection, and to be love.

Then, we are granted the precious and very great promises of God, like all the promises He makes to us in the Bible, really! They are yours, and with them He again says we are partakers, (def. “to take or have a part or share along with others, to participate in) in the divine nature. We share in the power of God and participate in this power to escape the corruption that is in the world, the corruption that is caused by sinful desire.

But wait I thought he was going to tell us how? He is take a look...

English Standard Version Chapter 1

5 For this very reason, 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 Peter 1:5–7 ESV

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

2 peter 1:

Peter knew we, (the slow to learn, descendants of Adam; you know the people just like the Israelites of the Old Testament) would need to be taught, and then reminded…several times, how to do this. So he wrote it instructions into the passage, and kept it simple. Three steps.

I. The first step is to make every effort...

Once the have believed, the information given to us about the divine power, the all things for life and godliness, and the precious and very great promises, we have to go to work. We make every effort to add to this faith the seven qualities, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love.

“Make every effort”, is a phrase that literally means, to make every effort...to do one’s very best in attempting to do something, to do one’s best, to make every effort to, to try as hard as possible.

2 peter 1

2 Peter 1:8 ESV

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.

to do one’s very best in attempting to do something—‘to do one’s best, to make every effort to, to try as hard as possible.

What are we trying to do? To add to our faith these qualities.

2 Peter 1:8 ESV

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.

2 Peter 1:8 ESV

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 next part of the instruction from Peter is given with another promise.

II. If these qualities are yours and are increasing...

You will be effective and fruitful, this is the promise in the positive expression. Peter gives it to us in the negative expression stating they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful, which is the negative way of saying you will be effective and fruitful, and again this comes through knowing Jesus Christ.

However, the key to the verse is to make them yours, you have to reckon them to yourself and let them be increasing.

If you had need of $1000 to pay a debt, and I told you that I had just transfered $1000 into a bank account in your name at the local community bank, would you have what you need to pay the debt? No, you have to go to the bank take possession of the $1000 and then use it, spend it to pay your debt. This is called reckoning it to yourself, and this is what you must do with these promises and truths Peter gives us.

You must make them yours, take possession of them and own them. And the more we do this, and the more they increase in our lives, the more ready and able you are to spend or use them.

2 Peter 1:9 ESV

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

“Danger Will Robinson, Danger...”

You may not be old enough to recognize that reference, but it was a line from the robot in an old TV show warning the young boy Will Robinson that danger was near.

Peter adds a warning to our practical understanding of how to apply these truths and qualities to our lives. He warns us about being nearsighted, I don’t know if you understand what it is to be nearsighted or not, but I do. I wear glasses to correct nearsightedness, without the glasses I cannot see past my arm. Everything outside of my immediate surroundings becomes blurry to the point of blindness. So I cannot see past myself.

This is what it is to be spiritually blind as well, unable to see past pride, fear, or self-centeredness, and when we find ourselves in this place we forget that we were ever cleansed of our former sins and we begin to live again in sin.

2 Peter 1:10 ESV

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

Back to the instructions...

III. the final step in Peter’s instructions to us is to practice these qualities...

Again, now that we have reckoned them to ourselves we are ready and able to use them and to put them into practice. This isn’t necessarily practice like you would practice the piano, but more of the idea of putting them to use, into practice, as we live our lives and walk out our faith.

When we do this it puts us in a position, in Christ, to never fall.

This is a huge promise, a promise that only God can keep, but one that if we follow the instructions laid out for us by Peter, and believe the truth and promises given us in and through our knowledge of Jesus Christ , we will receive.

2 peter 1:11-

2 Peter 1:11–12 ESV

For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

And as we finish up this study it is good to remind you, as did Peter to, always be reminded of these instructions, even though you know them and they are established in the truth that you have. And to allow us to continue to remind you to keep you rooted and grounded in the truth.

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