SWTRBC-Week 5

Intro

Last week we discussed the Call to Action that Peter was giving to us in this Chapter of his letter and the Present Ramifications of not Answering this Call to Action.

If you haven’t been listening for the last 4 weeks, you need to go back and listen to the podcasts leading up to this one.

It will make a ton more sense if you do.

This week we get to peek at the Entrees on the menu.

The Apostle Peter is serving up for us a call to intentionally Supplement OR ADD TO our Faith certain virtues or attributes which he mentions in the following verses.

I just need to know one thing before we look at!

Can you SMELL WHAT THE ROCK’S BEEN Cooking?

It’s week 5 with lessons from Simeon Peter-the Rock Apostle.

Welcome to the ReMan Initiative

Opening Thoughts

Peter is has been cooking up something for a few minutes now and he is about ready to serve the main course.

The Rock Apostle lays out a list of virtues that he insists must be added to our faith.

The Practice of making lists of Virtues was a common practice in Peter’s day.

The Stoics and Philosophers of Antiquity often did this.

Peter co-ops this practice because the purpose for a list like this would have been readily noticeable to his readers. This was called a Pro-ko-pee, a list for Moral Advance.

There are some who might find it repulsive to say that anything can be added to the salvation work that Christ has done in our lives, but the Apostles would not agree with that position at all and this passage here clearly shows that WE have a responsibility and that there are expectations placed on us to ADD to or Supplement the work that God has begun in us.

We are saved by Grace, that is alone the work of God, but once we pledge allegiance to the Lamb of God there are expectations to how we show our love and our loyalty.

from Greene’s Commentary on 2 Peter

The grace of God demands, as it enables,.... effort in man.

We are to bring into this relationship alongside what God has done --- every ounce of determination we can muster.

To illustrate the way in which the Christian faith must be worked out in behaviour, Peter, like Paul before him, and many after him, selected a list of virtues which should be found in a healthy Christian life1

1 Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 18, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 85–86.

Before we get to the list, we need to take a minute to look closer at the Word translated as ADD or Supplement .

The Word is epichorēgō - You might notice that the prefix Epi-means over and above or on top of

A Choregos was a wealthy individual that who in Co-operation with poets and the local roman state funded the Choruses and shows.

This was a very expensive endeavor and yet Choregi competed with each other in their generosity to be the ones who provided the best equipment and training for the Choruses.

Greene in his commentary says “Thus the word came to mean generous and costly co-operation.

The Christian must engage in this sort of co-operation with God in the production of a Christian life which is a credit to him”

1 Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 18, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 86.

Are you picking up what the Rock is laying down here?

The Cost, the Effort, the Intention that we are to bring to the pursuit of this list is EPI-it’s over the TOP, it is ridiculously expensive, it becomes a driving passion within us that demands costly CO-OPeration with God.

Where we focus our energy , time, talents and money is still very relative and important to us today.

Like the shepherd and apostle he was, Peter uses a practice that was known and common to his brothers and sisters in the faith. He co-ops a stoic practice and uses it to show us the clear pathway that leads to growing in knowledge and intimacy with Christ.

In Greene’s commentary he mentions

“The great difference between Stoic and Christian ethics is that the latter (true Christian ethics) are not the unaided product of human effort, but the fruit of our being partakers of the divine nature.

Nevertheless, human effort is indispensable, even though it is inadequate”

Hmmm..indispensible and yet apart from the divine nature..completely inadequate. I was caught in that trap for so long. The trap that says “ you can remake yourself, you can reinvent yourself and the product of that re-invention will make you feel like you are enough”

Like any really good lie, there is a thread of truth running through this one.

You can re-invent yourself. There are thousands of stories of people who have done this, We pay big money to read their books, go to their seminars and watch movies about them, but the dark side of that process is that apart from the divine nature operating in this re-invention of a life...it will never be enough. True Joy and Wholeness will be JUST out of reach.

So in the knowledge that not all intentional action produces real life, let’s take a look at the list that Peter gives us as the objects of our focus and costly-co-operation.

2 Peter 1:5-7

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge; 1:6 to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; 1:7 to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love

Over the next few weeks, I want to dive into what each of these virtues means to us and how we can effectively pursue them in a way that supplements our faith.

It’s worth noting that while this list shows a literary ladder of sorts, these virtues are not meant to be seen in a successive order as much as they are to be been seen as virtues that feed and compliment each other.

A pursuit of excellence will most assuredly be accompanied with an increase in knowledge and the right knowledge put into practice should be evidenced by a life with Self-Control and when a person is operating in the virtuous fruit of Self Control, which the Apostle Paul plainly teaches is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, then perseverance is sure to be present and in operation as well.

These virtues feed into one another and the more we pursue these in our lives the more evident they become.

Let’s look at the first virtue mentioned

Excellence

The Greek word here is Arete’

The Word Means Valor, Nobility, an excellence of Character that reflects true bravery and authentic manhood.

What you will see in this list of virtues is that Jesus perfectly models all of these for us.

His life and the record that we have of it, is meant to be used, not as an Example but as THE EXAMPLE of what these virtues look like and how we are to live in them.

This is what being a disciple of Jesus is. It’s becoming a student of his example and practitioner of the virtues he modeled and how he operates in them.

Jesus operates in Arete’....in this sort of excellence.

Valor, Nobility, an excellence of Character that reflects true bravery and authentic manhood.

A life lived not for the betterment of oneself, but for the betterment of all mankind.

Jesus,

Living a life in complete obedience to our Father, loving those he comes into contact with true honor and respect, regardless of how sin has distorted their current image.

He first sees them as valuable and the objects of his Father’s love and by extension his own love.

He never treated the prostitute like a whore, but like a wayward daughter who was of immeasurable value and loved more deeply by God than she could imagine at the time.

He never treated Matthew like a traitor to his people for serving the Romans and collecting taxes from his own, but like a son who needed care and guidance to help get his feet back under him.

True Nobility is seen in how we treat and relate to others, especially those who are not like us or whom society would deem unworthy of such respect.

True Valor is seen when a man would sacrifice his own wants and desires for the sake of those around him, a man who would deny his own selfishness to love, honor and care for those placed in his life.

Authentic masculinity can be seen in Jesus when we watch how he treats the Women around him with Honor and respect in a culture that did not see women like this at all.

Authentic masculinity can be seen in how Jesus interacts with the Children around him, how he makes them feel wanted and important. How he condemns those who would ever harm or abuse a child in any way.

True Excellence can be seen in our King Jesus, who knowing what he was headed into, understanding it fully enough that the stress from just thinking about it causes him to sweat drops of blood,... STILL faces the hazard. He still goes to the cross willingly, finishes the work the Father gave him to do.

He was obedient, even unto death and at the cost of his own blood, he purchased for God

persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

What sort of excellence, valor and true masculinity is this that Jesus displays.

This is the sort of excellence Peter is asking us to pursue. Excellence that is inspiring and honorable, excellence that reflects the excellence of Christ.

This is the sort of excellence that he is inviting us to learn and walk in ourselves.

There are those of you who are listening to this right now and you feel this. You feel the move of the Holy Spirit inside of you and you know you were meant to walk in this sort of excellence.

You know that you have not been pursuing of walking in anything that even comes close to this BUT you want to so badly.

You spirit aches to be a man of true character and excellence.

And if you are in Christ, this is your calling and destiny.

God Most High, loves you and has given the power to pursue this and whats more, he expects you to do so.

If you are in Christ, I urge you to seek him in pray today, ask him to forgive your lack of urgency and attention to this call and to enable you to pursue it fully.

If you are not in Christ and yet this resonants with your heart and you know you need this.

I’ll ask you to simply stop what you’re doing.

Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, be full convinced in your heart and mind that he is the Son of God and that he did pay the full price for your forgiveness and rescue, accept that gift, offer him your loyalty and your commitment to learn to love him.

If you do this, tell someone else about it, ask God to direct you to a local church, publicly profess your faith by being baptized and let me know about this so I can welcome you into this amazing, diverse and powerful family.

Blessing

Until next week

24 ‘May the Lord bless you

and protect you.

25 May the Lord smile on you

and be gracious to you.

26 May the Lord show you his favor

and give you his peace.’