Staying on Target...

Precious Faith

Background

2 Peter is a book that warns against false teachers. Some teachers can be very polished in their teaching. They can have all the right answers, and yet they can be very misleading.

We as Christians must stay on target. Ephesians 4:13

Ephesians 4:13–15 NIV

until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

The New Testament was written to keep people on task. For the church, the New Testament has been a part of our Bibles since 397AD (Unger’s Bible Dictionary 178) This happened at the 3rd council of Carthage.

Not every writing that was attributed to the apostles made it into the Canon of Scripture. It had to pass the litmus test of doctrine. It would have been easy to write a document and put the Apostle Paul’s name or one of the disciples’ names on the top. there were probably other epistles written, but they weren’t preserved.

The 27 books in our New Testament, are unanimously held as Scripture by Protestants, Catholics, and Greek Orthodox traditions.

The New Testament was written to help believers to stay on target. We can go to it and see what is written and apply God’s word to our lives. We can know what we believe because we believe that

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 1:1–4 NIV

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Author

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

The NLT puts it this way. 2 Peter 1:1

2 Peter 1:1 NLT

This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.

Simon Peter is the one who got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus. It was Simon Peter who said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” It was Peter who scolded Jesus about speaking about His death. The Jesus said, Matthew 16:23

Matthew 16:23 NIV

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

It was Peter who denied Jesus three times. It was Peter who ran into the tomb and saw the Strips of Linen. It was Peter on the day of Pentecost who stood up and preached the gospel to a large crowd and three thousand were converted.

A Slave

This same Peter uses the word, doulos, which is most often translated Slave.

Life Application New Testament Commentary Greetings from Peter / 1:1–2

Peter identified himself first as a slave, meaning one who is subject to the will and wholly at the disposal of his master. Peter used the term to express his absolute devotion and subjection to Jesus Christ.

We might identify Peter as a fiery, somewhat rebellious fisherman, whom Jesus called to follow Him, but in Peter’s estimation, he was subject to the will and wholly at the disposal of the master.

Why would Peter call himself a slave? I thought that we were free in Christ.

Romans 8:1–4 NKJV

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Galatians 5:1 NIV

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

John 8:32 NIV

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:36 NIV

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

When you become a slave of Christ, you will never be more free in all your life.

“All to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him. In His presence daily live.

Here’s how it works. Matthew 6:24

Matthew 6:24 NIV

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Someone might say, I don’t want to serve God and I don’t want to serve the devil. I’ll just live my life and be neutral. The truth is that we are either serving God or by default, we are serving the devil. There is no in between.

The question is this, “Who do you want to serve?”

John 10:10 NIV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

What master treats a slave like a child and gives an inheritance to them. Romans 8:14-17

Romans 8:14–17 NIV

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

An Apostle

Peter was one of the twelve. He was an eye-witness of Jesus when He did His earthly ministry. Peter was there when they replaced Judas Iscariot with Matthias. He was a leader in the early church.

Life Application New Testament Commentary (Greetings from Peter 1:1–2)

“apostle” means one sent on a mission, like an envoy or an ambassador. Peter and the other apostles (including Paul...) had been chosen, called, and given the authority and responsibility to evangelize the world.

Peter was sent to preach the Good News about Jesus to the Jews, where Paul was sent out to preach to the Gentiles. Uniquely, it was Peter who was sent to the house of Cornelius, a God fearing Gentile. While Peter was preaching the Holy Spirit fell upon these Gentiles. A Gentile is anyone who isn’t a Jew.

I’m going to make an assumption today that most, if not all of us, are not Jewish. God used Peter to preach to the Gentiles and because of this, the gospel has been preached all over the world to both Jews and Gentiles.

As an apostle, they would plant churches and oversee the churches to make sure that they were staying true to Christianity. That’s why a lot of the epistles were written: To teach doctrine, to encourage, and to correct errors that were being taught.

Precious Faith

2 Peter 1:1 NLT

This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.

2 Peter 1:1 (ESV)

“...To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”

God is not a respecter of persons. He has no favorites. Peter wanted those that he wrote to know that their faith was of the same value as his.

1 Peter 1:3–5 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Jesus paid the same price for you as He did for me. He who knew no sin became sin for you and me that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

1 John 2:1–2 NIV

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Many think that it must be too good to be true. It can’t be possible that it costs me nothing. Salvation is free, it is a gift but it is by no means cheap. The gift that we receive for free, cost Jesus everything.

Matthew 16:24–26 NIV

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Will you take up your cross and follow Jesus? The cross represents dying to self, dying to our sinful desires, dying to our ambitions and following Christ.

When you’re a follower of Christ, when God the Father looks at you, He looks at you through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. You are righteous because He is righteous.

In Abundance

2 Peter 1:2 NIV

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

As you grow in your knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, may His grace, unmerited favour, His great love that He lavishes upon you be multiplied to you. May you know Christ and the power of His resurrection.

May His peace that surpasses all understanding be yours in abundance.

Paul prayed a prayer for the Ephesian church, and my prayer is that you too would experience the love of God.

Ephesians 3:14–21 NIV

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

We can’t stay at the same place in our knowledge of HIm. We can settle, we need to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s long to know Him more. Let’s long to spend time in His presence. Psalm 16:11

Psalm 16:11 NKJV

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

You will never regret spending time with the Lord. You will never regret trusting in Him with all your heart. He will never fail you. He will never forsake you. As you wait on Him, He will renew your strength!

Let’s pray!