Now What?

Fruitful

I have the privilege of leading a small group for some ladies at my church. This past week one of the Scripture passages our pastor wanted us to look at was 2 Peter 1:1-9.

I loved it so much I decided I had to share it!

Now Peter wrote his first letter to encourage those who were suffering persecution for being believers.

He wrote his second letter to equip the believers to combat false teachers. Most scholars think he wrote it in prison while awaiting his execution.

The letter opens:

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.

Peter calls himself by his earthly name and the name Jesus gave him. This seemed beautiful to me, because it is true for all of us. We are who we are, yet at the same time, we are who He is making us to be. There’s so much hope in that – so much comfort in knowing He is not done with us.

He then refers to himself as a bond-servant. I love this term – It reminds me of a passage in the Old Testament where a slave who has an opportunity to become free determines that he loves his master too much to leave, so he has his ear pierced signifying that he chooses to remain a slave for life (Exodus 21:5-6).

Peter is declaring he is the Lord’s servant – he accepts the position willingly and it is permanent.

He also calls himself an apostle, which means sent one. Jesus sovereignly chose Simon Peter to be, not only one of His apostles, but the leader while he was an impetuous, uneducated, loud-mouth fisherman. Then Jesus equipped him to be the loving and wise writer of this letter. This same man preached the gospel to Jews and Gentiles not long after he had denied the Lord and hid in fear.

God worked marvelously in Peter – do we think He can’t do that for us?

So we have God’s election and we have our willingness – this is the Christian life as I understand it.

My pastor said Sunday that God chose Peter – and He knew what He was getting.

Same for us – If we are believers, God sovereignly chose us, and He will equip us for whatever work He wants us to do. Our response should be, like Peter, “Yes, Lord! Pierce my ear!! I want to be yours for life! Amen!!

Verse one continues:

To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

This letter is for every believer – right now.

Verse two:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

Peter is praying that we would continue to experience more and more grace and peace. That it would increase and increase in our lives – that we would be always moving from lesser to more.

This is what John Piper, pastor and author, thinks Peter is saying:

In other words, not only am I praying for grace and peace to increase, I am writing a letter to give knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ as kindling for the fire of the increase.

He writes more about it in the article below:

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/may-grace-and-peace-be-multiplied-to-you

Verses three and four:

Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

There is more here than I can unpack – but through Jesus’s work on the cross we have eternal life, and we have been given everything we need to live an abundant life right here and now. It’s already ours.

He saved us out of a decaying and rotten world system. He has bestowed on us the privilege of partaking of His divine nature. Instead of being slaves to sin and the desires of our flesh, we can rule over them and have true victory!

I know, this is not instantaneous in practice – at least it hasn’t been for me. But that doesn’t make it untrue – Our status with the Lord at salvation is set. Our working it out in life is a process.

Thus in verse five he begins to tell us how we can cooperate with God’s work in us:

Now for this very reason also,

The reason we strive for the qualities in the list that follows is because of verses three and four.

As D.A. Carson, theologian and professor, explains; The dominant biblical pattern is neither ‘Let go and let God’ nor ‘God has done his bit, and now it’s all up to you,’ but rather, ‘since God is powerfully at work in you, you yourself must make every effort.’

God wants our cooperation in the work He desires to do in us – that’s pretty cool, really. It’s not like He needs it, but He wants it. He wants it to the point that I’m not sure He will do all He wants to do in us if we don’t cooperate in His work, laboring with Him.

Verses five through eight:

Applying all diligence, – Giving it maximum effort

In your faith, supply moral excellence

John MacArthur, pastor and teacher, says, Moral excellence is excellence demonstrated in life - the ability to perform heroic deeds – the power to perform deeds of excellence.

Now when someone says heroic deeds I think of Captain America kicking some alien butt – but that’s probably not what it is.

Maybe moral excellence is quietly living with integrity. It’s doing the dishes, caring for the children, being faithful to our spouses, providing for our families, paying our taxes – It is telling the truth, keeping our word, standing up and walking worthy when it’s hard and inconvenient.

And in your moral excellence, knowledge

This is understanding and insight – not only knowing truth but applying it. It involves actively studying and applying God’s Word – we can’t be lazy Christians. We need to know what we believe – and live it.

And in your knowledge, self-control

This is a hard one for me – because as I’ve heard many say and often how I think is -“I do what I want!” Well, no we don’t – not if we practice self-restraint and self-control. And that is exactly what we need to do if we want to be what God wants us to be.

And in your self-control, perseverance

It is kind that Peter puts this one in – because we need perseverance to continue in this process. We will fall short – perseverance enables us to get up and try again. It’s the tenacity to hang on.

And in your perseverance, godliness

This is a big word – it’s too much for me to express in a blog post - basically it is wanting God. Jerry Bridges, author and conference speaker, does a far better job explaining it than I could ever do in his article linked below:

https://bible.org/article/what-godliness

And in your godliness, brotherly kindness

Brotherly kindness comes from the Greek word “philadelphia” – like the city of brotherly love. It is affection for or cherishing of another. Jesus told us folks would know we were Christians by our love for one another.  An easy way for the church and individual believers to be ineffective is for us to be biting and bickering with each other. Maybe we need to humble ourselves and repent more often.

And in your brotherly kindness, love

This is self-sacrificing love, 1 Corinthians 13 love. The love Peter said would cover a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). It’s the love that drove Jesus to the cross.

Let’s wrap up with verses eight and nine:

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

Oh, to be useful and fruitful for our Lord! Isn’t that what we want?  - To someday hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Through God’s grace, let it be so!!