2 Peter 1

Glenda’s Long Swim in “The Incredible Series.” Glenda and Robert Lennon were four miles off the coast of Florida fishing alone from their yacht. Glenda decided to take a swim and soon found the current had carried her too far out from the boat. Her husband, hearing her cries, without thinking dove in and swam to her, but then realized they were both being carried out. He was a champion swimmer, but not she. They made a plan. He would swim against the tide to keep the boat in view until the tide ceased and he could reach the boat. She should save her strength and just float with the tide and he would come and get her. He fought the tide for six hours and just as the boat was about to disappear on the horizon the tide turned and his strokes carried him to the boat exhausted. The sun had set. His searching was futile—he could not find his wife. The next day on one last effort of search, the search party found his wife—twenty miles out and still alive. It was an incredible story.

Are we Floating or swimming?

Christians who just float never stay in the same place. Christians who disobey these verses and do not apply themselves with diligence to bear the fruit of faith, drift into great peril. We must strive even to stand still, the tide of temptation is so strong.

The evidence that God’s power has been given to you by faith is that you are now making every effort to advance in the qualities of Christ.

The reality of our experience is grounded in God’s transforming power.

2 Peter 2:3 seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue; 4 whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him

The chief point is that the very one who calls us, also enables us and transforms us. His power, we’re told, gives us everything we need. God follows through, He doesn’t simply call us.

He does not give us everything we lust after. He does not give us everything for every purpose. He does not give us everything we might need for some things we might desire.

But the eternal view is, you will see that what you need the most is godliness.

He does this by this great power that he displays, that he has displayed not least in the resurrection of Christ.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” He called us by his own glory and goodness. It’s the total impact of something.

We know His Pardon

The only way that you can know pardon—that’s grace—is through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so, you know pardon through the knowledge of Jesus Christ—verse 2 (2 Peter 1:2).

We know His  Peace

You know peace through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, because he says, “Grace and peace …” (2 Peter 1:2).

We know His Promises

“Whereby”—and he is still talking about knowledge—“are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” 1:4

In the context, they’re all gospel promises. The promises that transform you, that prepare you for a life of godliness, that prepare you so that you escape from the corruption of the world caused by evil desires.

We  participate in the divine nature, we have a new nature.

This is the only place in the New Testament that uses precisely this language.

What Does This Nature Do

It determines our Appetite

It determines our Behavior

What’s the nature of an eagle? It’s to fly. What is the nature of a fish? It’s to swim. What is the nature of a Christian? It is to live the Christian life. Nature determines appetite; nature determines behavior.

It determines our Environment

It controls where we want to be, squirrels climb trees; fish swim in the water. You can tell whether or not you are a child of God by the environment that you seek out for yourself.

It determines our Association

sheep gather in flocks; fish, in schools; Christians, in church.

How is our spiritual productivity

‘5 Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; 6and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; 7and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love

“For this reason, therefore, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge,” and so forth.

Because God has given us his promises and because his power does work in us; therefore, work at it.

Phill 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Here is what he says we need to add on to our living.

1:5 Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; 6 and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; 7 and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Virtue, moral worth

Knowledge intimate knowledge

Self-control

Patience, don’t give up

Godliness When people see you, they ought to be reminded of Jesus. That is, an awareness of God in all of life so that all of this conduct is God-centered.

Brotherly Kindness

Charity or sacrificial love

This God-centeredness has moral and social dimensions.

Verse 8: “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

These things are the outflow of your knowledge of God. God has called you and given you the power to be transformed and cast off the evil desires.

We must be reminded

12 Wherefore I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and are established in the truth which is with you

Our confidence in the truth is stabilized by constant review.

A theologian from the Mennonites stated his about his denomination.

Unfortunately, most denominations have done this. He said the first generation believed the gospel and thought that there were certain social entailments.

The next generation assumed the gospel and focused on the social entailments.

The last generation denied the gospel and had only the social entailments when there was nothing to be entailed to.

So in all of your desire to be relevant, to be focused or to be on the front end of thinking through epistemology or social concerns or public policy or dealing with abortion or whatever it is you’re interested in, don’t start merely assuming the gospel.

That must be the passion at the center of everything. Part of the way you achieve that is by review, by going to a church where you are constantly reviewing what is central.

There is vital important place in the Christian church for review, because we forget so soon. We are such a fickle lot.

We are encouraged to persevere because our foundation is established on historical witness.

v16 “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

Consider other religious systems,  Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam

Now Christianity. The same question in Christianity is not even coherent. Could God have given his revelation through someone other than Jesus? But Jesus is the revelation and he’s not an abstract man. He’s a first-century Jewish man, a particular man at a particular time and place. There are some facts that you have to believe about him to be saved, including his resurrection,

The way we come to know about what God has done in space and time is by witnesses.

Christian faith is profoundly tied to objective claims about what takes place in space-time history.

You cannot know those things with the knowledge of omniscience, but you can know them in any meaningful sense in a human knowledge sort of way through the reliability of the witnesses that have told us about these things. Our confidence in the truth is established on historical witness.

Our confidence in the truth of this is grounded in biblical revelation.

19 And we have the word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation.

This is not saying that the word of the prophets was uncertain until something else happened.

The idea is that the word of the prophets in Scripture, certain as it is, is confirmed by the arrival of that to which they pointed.

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.” That is, by the prophet’s own interpretation of the events that were experienced. “Rather, the prophecy …” What was written down, the words that have come to us. “… never had its origin ultimately in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

The point is that we should earnestly confirm our salvation by making every effort to advance in the qualities of Christ.

Are we making every effort towards moral excellence? Are we  making every effort to increase our knowledge of God’s character and his will? Are we making every effort to strengthen your power of self-control?

Are we making every effort to enlarge your capacity for patience?

Are we making every effort to cultivate godliness to develop a heart for God?

Are we making every effort to grow warm in your affection for your fellow believers?

Are we making every effort to stir up love in our will for the person we dislike the most?

If these things are in us and increasing, we will not be fruitless (v. 8), we will never stumble (v. 10), and you will enter the eternal kingdom of Christ (v. 11).

But if these things are not our earnest concern, then it is because we have shut your eyes to the beauty of God’s promises, and have forgotten the humble exhilaration of being forgiven.

The Word of God warns us against being lazy in our faith and drifting away from Jesus Christ our only hope. And the Word encourages us to fight the good fight of faith and take hold on eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12, 19); to lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and run with perseverance the race before us (Hebrews 12:1); to press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14