2 Peter 1:3-11 – 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. 4 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. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For 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. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
“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. 4 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.” Revealed within these scriptures is the struggle that is still with us. By having God the Holy Spirit within us, we have all that we need to live exactly, yes perfectly, as God has called us to live. We have all that we need to know and experience the fullness of God in our lives. With the Holy Spirit we have within us the ability to know the character, the qualities, and beauty of God. In all these things we have the full victory of God within us now, yet the victory is not complete until we are finally out of these bodies of death and revealed to be with Him in our eternal bodies (Romans 7:14-25). We must remember that we are born into this world as a citizen of it. Not the world that God intended us to live in, but a fallen world, a fractured world, a world that was pulled out of perfection because of the rebellion of man. Peter says that by the great promises of God we have escaped the corruption of the world. Escaped – like a wild animal that was trapped, and then released back into the wild, we run from what once held us. We run from temptation. We run from bad habits that lead us to sin. We run because Jesus has released us from the trap that held us prisoner so that we may be free. We run from a peril that would have been eternal death. Thank you Lord for setting us free. Freedom is to no longer be pulled in chains to do the things of the world, but having the chains broken so that we may be free to serve and please our God.
We are not only set free to flee the evil ways of this corrupt world, but once freed, we are guided by the Holy Spirit within. He is our teacher and our guide to, if we heed His voice, avoid the traps that the enemy sets along the way. Genesis 22:8 “Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.” Here a sacrifice was needed. When times were most desperate, the faith in God, and the knowledge of God Himself, that Abraham had, was borne out. God Himself provided Himself as the answer. Jesus is the Truth that set us free and He is the answer that, through the Holy Spirit, God provides to us to lead us home and avoid to be ensnared. Going further, should we stray and again be trapped, it is God Himself who, by the work of Jesus that was completed once and for all, will open the jaws of the trap that holds and hurts us, to set us free. God really has thought it all out. Our victory is complete by the promises of God. It is easy for us to draw back from promises because man makes promises and does not keep them. We must not equate the promises of God to the promises of man. God keeps His promises, He cannot do otherwise. He keeps them every single time. Every. Single. Time. Praise God, we are eternally safe in Him.
VV5-9 – As we grow in our faith, these characteristics that are inherent in God become ours. We become more and more like our God. We increasingly know more of who He is. Our faith in Him grows. Our trust grows. When we have a close friend that we spend a lot of time around, we both grow increasingly alike. Having heard pastors of megachurches, and knowing who their mentors have been, I smile as I hear speaking mannerisms often echoed in the one who was mentored. So we, looking to God, begin to sound like, and love like, He does. We truly become “Chips off the Old Block.” How wonderfully exciting! We have double meaning as we cry out “Come quick Lord.” Yes, come back soon and take us home. Also, yes Lord come back to the world by changing me. Come back to the world by living through me. May I become so much like You Lord Jesus that the world is drawn to You. Oh, yes, yes, yes! Make me new, make me like you Lord Jesus! And the world, will be drawn to you and it will be a better place. If all those who are called by His name would live as He has called us to live, the world will organically become much more what we vote and hope it will be. Praise God! Lord Jesus, please, make me new and live in and through me.
V10-11 – Make every effort to confirm your calling. What is the effort we are to make? We are to draw nearer to the Lord. We are to love Him more today than we did yesterday. How do we do that? We start our prayers off by, and also we do throughout the day, consider how great and wonderful He is, and how great and wonderful He has been to us. That leads us to gratitude and the giving of thanks. As we draw near to Him, as we “hang out” with Him more than any other person, as we love and treasure Him, we are transformed by Him. How does this confirm our calling and election? Knowing that we ourselves cannot change our evil ways, as they are being changed, we do not rob God and take credit for the changes in our lives. We readily thank Him and praise Him and point people who notice the changes to Him. Even in this is we find a mystery from the mysteries of God. He calls us to make the effort, and He enables us to make the effort, and somehow He leaves it our responsibility and gives us the blessing for doing so. Herein is the mystery that is involved in a God who has given us free will and at the same time chosen, called, elected, enabled and enables. How do all these come together? Good question! Yet isn’t it much more important that we know it does because He knows how it comes together. After all, He is the grand Architect of it all! Men argue about the how. I am most gratified that I am convinced that I know that the Lord has worked it all out and He Himself will never fail me. I am the one who testifies against myself that I often fail. I am the one who testifies that it is the Lord who never fails me. He never has. He never will. By the love of God I love God and by the love of God I pull closer to God. Within that, I have responsibility. Also, by that, God reveals that I am His own. It is the same principle that is with persevering through trials. God is good! God loves us. He has done it all. Yet He calls upon our free will. It is so beautiful. It is so mysterious. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God.