2 Peter 1: 10-11
10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. 11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Pogo, a popular cartoon charter of days gone by once said, ‘we have found the enemy and they is us’. The very opening of this letter contains a profound truth that if not carefully read will escape our coming to know a beautiful truth that such a blessing is ours. It is an honor and a privilege, Peter writes and we came to realize that he is speaking of us, who were at one time Gentiles, not the chosen people of God. Now through the glory of Christ, we too have become uniquely chosen of God, elected by, if you please. So in these few words Peter addresses those once despised Gentiles as now having equal rights of citizenship with the Jews and according to Peter even the apostles themselves in God’s kingdom. We have not earned this, it is ours completely through grace. There are so many things, people and circumstances working against a simple but defining attribute of Christianity, love, just a pure simple agape love. It is how Christ loves us. In verses 3 and 4 there is a clear picture of this love of Christ. The love of Christ is a divine power, which cannot be defeated or frustrated by the sins and tragedies of this life. Sometimes we are frustrated, left helpless, unable to do His will and unable to meet the disasters of this life with compassion and love. The love of Christ is always backed by His power. It is always a victorious love. Here is a wonderful thought. Christ tells us what life is and through his generosity gives us all we need for true life and true religion. To us Christ gives a religion and a faith that enables us to be triumphantly involved in it. Christ is the one of great and precious promises, promises that through Him come true. ‘For Whoever’…That means me, it means us. Petter just keeps awaking our minds to truth in these two verses. Sin and corruption were so prevalent then as well as now that this common human trait still seems to over power people. Peter had to deal with the antinomians of his day and in our day they are still among us. These are people that use the grace of God as an excuse for sin. God’s grace is big enough to cover every sin.The grace of Christ will win the day, total forgiveness. They really believed that you could sin as often as you wished, there was enough forgiveness for all. Of course the flaw here is that this is simply not true. What is true is that people who think and talk like this are overcome with the fascination of sin and lust, they just want to sin. But through Christ we have the power to escape the world’s corruption. Now let’s be fair and honest. All of us will never be completely free of sin and the fascination that comes with it. As long as we live in this world sin will always be there; but with the presence of Christ we can and will overcome, He is our defense against such fascination. Christ makes it possible for us to become sharers in the divine nature.
Within the Church we find those who speak to going on to perfection. Peter in verses 5 and 6 says we must add virtue to virtue, propelling us toward Christian love. There was a group of people at that time, Stoics, that saw a continuous need for moral progress. They believed that in Christian life there had to be a steady advance toward moral behavior. It is a common trait of those new to the faith to have that exceptional moment of enthusiasm, then falling into a period of doing nothing and in some cases reverting back to being simply unchanged, failing to recognize that a Christian life is one of constant progress. Peter makes it plain that there must be on our part an all out effort to embrace the grace of God, we must be willing to work for what is good, find pleasure in our labour and stand strong in our faith. Everything at this point comes from faith…a faith that does not lead to a new life, that is not faith at all. It is a hard realization that faith is more that just a commitment to the promises of Christ…it is far away and above all a commitment to His demands.
In these verses we also find a list of virtues. It is an interesting fact that in the ancient world lists were quite common. Books were not so readily available and one way of teaching pupils was to compose simple lists that could be easily memorized. One commentary writes that these verses 5-8 can be referred to as the Ladder of Virtues. It is with these things and the grace and mercy of God that we can make known and strengthen our call. We must confirm this calling, election if you will into the fellowship of His people. Once more those verses…
2 Peter 1: 10-11
10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. 11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
The world this day is in great need of Godly people, Godly morals and for those who will continue till journey’s end. Will you accept your election and go on to a faith of continuous service in His name?
Life is Good
jk
From The Pew 