Peter's Purpose

Peter’s Purpose

2 Peter 3:1,2

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.  I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.

early every book of the New Testament contains one succinct sentence which will identify the Spirit’s purpose for the book.  In our text for this message, Peter, the Big Fisherman, presents his purpose in writing the two epistles which bear his name.  I wrote my first letter, says Peter, to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  I have written this second letter to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  Clearly, if Peter’s letter is of value as a guide to our maturation, wholesome thinking is of great importance to the child of God.

Ere we examine what in particular Peter would have Christians remember, it will be valuable to examine the means of and the approach to wholesome thinking.  The words Peter used and which are translated wholesome thinking are interesting if only because they are somewhat rare in New Testament literature.  Our translators have translated the word eijlikrinh' with our English word wholesome.  There is good reason to believe that the word would commonly mean unmixed or pure.  The Latin form of that word is sincerus, from the two Latin words sine cera which meant without wax.

In the world of the New Testament, households depended upon pottery vessels for the conduct of daily life.  The pottery vessels would be used for storage, for cooking, for transportation of liquids and for various other household requirements.  Obviously, for use in cooking or for storage or transportation of liquids, it would be important that the pottery be uncracked.  Therefore, those purchasing pottery in the market place would examine most carefully the pottery displayed for sale in order to detect any cracks which might be present as result of the firing process.

Then, as now, unscrupulous individuals were all too willing to take advantage of the unwary, and they learned quickly that small cracks and weak places in the pottery could be masked by sealing them with wax.  The wax would take on the characteristic of the glaze covering the exterior of the urn or the ewer and would not be readily apparent to the unsuspecting buyer.  The careful buyer, however, would take the vessel into the daylight, and holding the pottery up to the sky examine it to see if any light filtered through.  Those vessels which passed the test were said to be sine cera, or without wax.  Such a vessel was said to be “sun-judged,” which is the literal meaning of the Greek word eijlikrinh'.  If I may make a play on the words, Peter is urging God’s people to have “Son-judged” minds, not those in which sin spots have been merely covered over.

What is in view, then, is purity of heart, a mind which deals realistically with sin and does not attempt to cover over evil.  Peter is quite concerned that Christians should quickly confess sin, submitting to the purifying process of forgiveness which always follows confession of sin.  There can be no cleansing, no purifying presence of the Spirit of God, until sin is confessed and the heart is purified.  The mind of the believer must be sincere, unmixed with merely human concepts of right or wrong.  To attempt to make cultural norms the standard by which we live or to attempt to submit faith and practise to community standards is to attempt to mix light and darkness.  It cannot work.

I suppose the translation wholesome thinking is as good as we can possibly expect.  Other translations speak of arousing pure minds, or stirring sincere minds, and even provoking sincere understanding.  Diavnoian is translated thinking in our text.  The idea conveyed to the first readers of this letter is that of understanding, intelligence, or disposition.  The concept focuses especially on the way of thinking rather than focusing on the process of thinking.

Peter is plainly saying that he wants Christians to think in a particular manner, and that manner of thinking is to be pure or unadulterated.  He wants Christians to be open, honest and real, displaying motives which are singularly holy.  The false teachers to whom he has been pointing for more than twenty-two verses, were precisely the opposite.  They were obscure, secretive, dishonest and plastic.  One of the marks of a mature Christian is openness and honesty in the manner in which they live their life.

Perhaps you are tempted to think that a Christian is untouched by sin.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Outsiders often attempt to impose a burden of sinless perfection on the children of God.  It is an attempt to force the child of God into a mould which is both unrealistic and unreasonable.  Paul warns against succumbing to such pressure when he writes: Don’t let the world press you into its mould [Romans 12:2 Phillips]. With the cry “A real Christian wouldn’t …” (you can fill in the blanks with any action), inhabitants of this fallen world attempt (with a surprising degree of success) to dictate the lifestyle of the child of God.  I have news for any such people – a real Christian is capable of sin; but a mature Christian is quick to seek forgiveness through confession.

The Christian who is quick to confess sin is unstained by sin, but the lack of soiling is not because sin is not present in that saint’s life.  The unsoiled Christian is cleansed by the blood of Christ because he is quick to confess sin, quick to forsake pride, and quick to accept the forgiveness of Christ.  The unsullied Christian realises that life is lived out before the watching world and does not fear failure so much as loss of spiritual vitality.  The unblemished Christian is more concerned that he reveal the power of God through a life reflecting humility and honesty than through assuming an unreal persona.  We are given a choice; we may either be real, or we may adopt an avatar and then lurk behind our fantasy alias.  Either we are what we appear, or we are a mere phantasm, a figment of our own fallen imagination.

Solomon said, He who walks with the wise grows wise [Proverbs 13:20].  Just so, if we will exhibit wholesome thinking, we must invest time walking with those who think in a wholesome manner.  Too many Christians fellowship with the world and then marvel that they cannot think in a wholesome manner.  Someone has accurately observed that you cannot drink skim milk all week long and give cream on Sunday.  To be godly we must walk with those who are godly, endeavouring to grow toward godliness instead of seeking to be confirmed in our hypocrisy.  To walk with God requires that we live honestly, without pretension or deceit.

Peter Wanted Christians to Remember the Words Spoken by the Holy Prophets.  If we will be stimulated to wholesome thinking, we must first remember the words spoken by the holy prophets.  We must saturate our thinking prophetically, making every effort to think as the prophets thought.  Immediately I can see that some are confused.  “How can we think prophetically,” they wonder?  “Must we actually peer into the future to discover God’s agenda?”  That is not what Peter has in mind; rather he is encouraging us to think how we may fulfil God’s will through looking for the coming of Christ.

Tragically, too many contemporary Christians are conditioned to think of the prophets only as seers.  While many Old Testament prophecies do speak of events which were yet future when they were delivered, all alike were characterised by the one common feature of pointing to God’s Messiah.  From Genesis to Malachi, from the Torah to the Prophets, Peter has cited the Hebrew Scriptures.  All alike are to be received as the very mind of God and applied as He intended.  Is there a page of the Old Covenant which does not point to Jesus?  He is witnessed on every page of the Old Covenant as God speaks again and again, promising that His Messiah shall come and that He shall reign.  Every prophecy promises that God shall put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and that He shall put down all rebellion when Messiah reigns.

When after His resurrection Jesus walked beside the two unnamed disciples journeying toward Emmaus, He listened to them as they discussed the disquieting events of the days immediately past.  He asked them what they were discussing and they responded with a note of dejection that He must be a stranger since He was unacquainted with all that had transpired.  They then told Him their version of Jesus of Nazareth.  “Oh,” they lamented, “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people” [Luke 24:19].  There is a delicious irony in this recitation as they tell Jesus about Himself.  The only thing wrong is that they are ignorant of Him!  It is not simply that they were unaware of His presence, but they were ignorant of the fact that He was not a prophet!  He was Lord of the prophets!  Yet, they were so focused on what might have been if only they had been in charge of the affairs of this world that they failed to notice the Lord of Glory walking beside them!

Now, listen carefully to the words which Doctor Luke records as Jesus responded.  How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? [Luke 24:25,26].  With that introduction He began with Moses, the Book of Genesis, and proceeded through all the Prophets, explaining to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself [Luke 24:27].  Throughout the Old Testament are found prophecies, each pointing forward to the coming of Messiah.

It matters very little to me how pious or devout one may be.  Nor does it matter how precise an individual is in the practise of his faith.  If that person fails to see God’s Messiah at work in the pages of the Book, he is simply a poor sinner playing at religion.  Far too many self-professed evangelicals are ignorant of the Word of God and unaware of Christ.  They have a passing acquaintance with the words of the Book, but they are ignorant of the Author of the Word.  Peter would say that they cannot think in a wholesome fashion until they seek and find the Messiah on each page of the Book, beginning with the pages of the Old Covenant.

I do not mean to imply that the words spoken by the holy prophets have nothing to do with righteous living.  In fact, holiness of life was a major message of the prophets.  The knowledge that Messiah has come and the certainty that He is coming again momentarily should impel an individual to live a holy life.  When an individual lives a life which does not value the truth, which does not endeavour to be righteous in attitude as well as in actions, which fails to be godly, that individual does not believe that Christ is coming again soon.  Nor dare we claim to believe His coming if we fail to do that which the prophets command, which is to reveal the glory of God among us through righteous and holy lives.

Peter Wanted Christians to Remember the Commandments of the Apostles of Christ.  While we make a distinction between the prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament, they served the same God.  They are not in competition; they complement one another.  Peter has already referred to the testimony of those who walked with Jesus and he shall yet make reference to the words of the Apostles of Christ, especially those of Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, in this final chapter of his second letter.  All that the Apostles have spoken is to be received and treasured, just as those words of the Old Testament are to be received and treasured.

If the holy prophets of the Old Testament warned that we must live holy lives because Messiah is coming, the command given by our Lord and Saviour through the apostles is that we live holy and godly lives because we know Him.  Did you ever begin to count up the commands of Jesus?  You need not be a mathematician to make the count, for His commands are few and simple.

As you go make disciples of all nations [Matthew 28:19].  The surest evidence that the contemporary church does not believe that Jesus is coming soon is that we don’t make disciples.  It is not that it is difficult to make disciples; it is that we don’t even try.  If I have not spoken to another of my Faith, if I have not endeavoured to win another to life in Christ the Lord, if I have not prayed for the lost, pleading that God will save them, I do not believe His Word and I am disobedient to the command He has given.  A holy life will lead us to witness, just as Peter has written in his earlier letter.  There, he wrote: live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us [1 Peter 2:12].  My manner of life should be such that it invites questions from the pagans about me.  If it does not, I am failing my mandate as a Christian.

The other command which Jesus gave and which is related to us by His apostles, is that we are to love one another [John 13:34].  Divine love is active and not passive, as some seem to think.  It is a tragic truth that the church of this day walks so far from God that she cannot recognise love.  Consequently she assumes that silence in the face of error is love.  Silence is not always golden … it is ofttimes yellow!  The minister of God, reflecting the love of God, is commanded to reveal the love of God through providing correction, rebuke and encouragement [cf. 2 Timothy 4:2].  May I point out that encouragement is the natural succession to correction and rebuke.  As Christians, we are responsible to speak the truth in love [cf. Ephesians 4:15].

We show love for one another through showing love for Christ.  We show love for our brother Christians by calling them to live up to the standard of Christ instead of lowering our own standard to their own concepts.  We show our love for our fellow saints through expecting and demanding the best conduct of them.  We show our love as believers in the Risen Lord of Glory through a holy life which is unpretentious and real.

Since Peter speaks of a single command given by our Lord through the Apostles, I suspect that it is the former instead of the latter.  My basis for this is the repeated emphases of his letters.  As he draws this letter to a conclusion he confronts scoffers who deride the return of Christ to judge and reign.  Peter does this by reminding readers that God longs for all to come to repentance [2 Peter 3:9].  He turns this to immediate advantage for believers by reminding us that this present world is destined for dust and that we must therefore live holy lives in light of eternity’s proximity, remembering that our Lord’s patience means salvation [2 Peter 3:15].

Peter’s Meaning Must be Applied to Our Own Situation.  We Christians of this day occupy a strategic position in a fallen world.  We may either be religious … or we may be godly.  We may either live in light of eternity, or we may live for the moment.  Our choice will determine the impact we make in fulfilling the command of Jesus our Lord and Saviour.  There can be little doubt that the church of this day has compromised with the world.  Equally evident is our lack of power.  One need but look about us to confirm that despite any bold words we may speak we are essentially dead.  We must not assume that a crowd means life, for even religious crowds gather without Christ’s presence.

That does not mean that Christ is dead, nor does it mean that we dare not dream great dreams or anticipate great demonstrations of power even in this day and even among us.  Christ the Lord is alive!  He lives and reigns and waits the contrition of the church that He may again bless His beloved bride – even us.  I have been preaching from Peter’s second letter, an admittedly pointed missive which must irritate any who choose to be religious without commitment to pursue holiness.  As the studies in this letter near the conclusion, we must hear Peter’s purpose to stimulate us to wholesome thinking.

Frankly, some among us have been thinking in an unwholesome manner for too long; we need to again stimulate wholesome thinking.  When we elevate culture above the Faith, our thinking is unwholesome.  When we value peace above purity, our thinking has grown unwholesome.  When we are silent in the face of the demand for truth, despite knowing that we possess answers to the questions posed, our thinking has become unwholesome.  When we dare treat the church as a private fiefdom instead of the holy bride of Christ, our thinking is unwholesome.  When we tolerate wickedness, however noble our motive may seem at the moment, our minds have been sullied.  In such an environment as that in which we now find ourselves, if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.  The demand is that we stimulate wholesome thinking.

It is old-fashioned to think that a busy people such as us would actually give time to holy introspection.  It is perhaps naïve to think that Christians today would actually give themselves to fasting and prayer to seek the blessing of God.  It does seem appropriate, however, to call the church, as many as love God and who grieve over the condition of His church, to observe a day of humble contrition.  I am calling Christians to seek Him, to seek His face, confessing our sin as a people and forsaking the unwholesome thinking we have tolerated for so long.  Without doubt, some among us will have individual sin which must be dealt with if unwholesome thinking is to be confronted and rectified.  I am asking that all who dare confront such sin set aside a day this week to consider the will of God and to discover His mind.  I am requesting that we set aside the remainder of this day and the whole of tomorrow as a day of fasting and prayer, a time of contrition and confession.

There has been serious sin tolerated within the Body of Christ.  If we do not deal with it, it shall surely continue to drain our energies and render us ineffective in our service and powerless before the watching world.  Should we not anticipate that our greatest days lie before us?  Should we not anticipate that we can see this building filled, to the glory of God?  Should we not anticipate that we will see souls saved … not occasionally, but constantly?  Should we not anticipate that we will live such godly lives among the pagans that they will ask us to give the reason for the hope that we have?  All this, and a thousand blessings beside, begin with the determination to live godly lives, to obey the command to be holy, to forsake all else that we may honour Christ.  Amen.