Wednesday Bible Study
2020-06-24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5RwUpDr00

Amen. Amen. Amen.

All right. So we are picking up in 2 Peter. I just say if you want to discuss something or if you have a question, just go ahead and stop me as we go through. I'm going to kind of do a little bit of an introduction, a little bit of overview. There are some great things in this text this evening. We're going to try to cover 3, verse 3 down to verse 9. I don't know if we'll get that far, but we're going to, I guess, give it the old college try and see. So two things to sort of see as a background as we're reading through not just here in 2 Peter, but in general throughout 2 Peter, two things that Peter is addressing. Remember, he's addressing, in part, theological error. He's going to deal with that for the entirety of chapter 2, talking about false prophets and false teachers. And one of the errors that the false prophets and false teachers were bringing into the church was a disbelief. They weren't believing that Jesus was going to return a second time.

So, in 2 Peter 3, verse 4, they will say, "Where is the promise of His coming?" And he's going to address that a little bit. And so, we'll actually see some glimpses tonight in this text, sort of a little bit of maybe foreshadowing of Peter's argument as he talks about the promises that will be realized when we are ultimately united with Christ in heaven. sort of have in the back of our minds, as Peter deals with these false teachers, is the problem of Gnosticism. We don't think very much about it, but the word just simply comes from the Greek word gnosis, knowledge, but it isn't sort of like a general knowledge that we would think of where we want to know something or know more. It generally was kind of a secret knowledge, a little bit of a cultic knowledge. Come to me and I will give you the secret knowledge and the secret

information on life, and you can only get that through me, and you can't find it from anyone else, which, you know, there's always a warning sign. There should be a warning sign for Christians when they hear somebody say, "Well, I've got something that nobody else has and nobody else knows about, and the only place you can get it from is me." And so Peter actually will use like 15 or 16 times in these three chapters, he'll talk about knowledge, and he's sort of underhandedly dealing with these people who are sort of in the beginning stages, and he's sort of in the background, it's in the background of his mind, this sort of cultic, special secret knowledge that people were trying to use to lure people away from the church, and we'll see it tonight as he talks about how we come to Christ through knowledge, how we grow in Christ through knowledge, and he points us to the right kind of knowledge.

in verse 4, and you have sort of two pictures. I'll give you kind of a brief outline. In verses 3 and 4, you have a picture of what God has done. That's very much the focus of these two verses, and then in verses 5 through 9, you have a picture of our response to what God has done, and so you sort of have these two pictures of one is here's what God has done. Secondly, here is how we respond. And here's how we build upon that foundation in order to have a solid Christian life. And I would say you can't have one of these without the other. That if you try to have a good Christian life without a knowledge of what God has done for you, ultimately you will either become very proud in your own accomplishments or you'll become very discouraged because you can't do it. And if all you have is knowledge of what God has done with you, done for you, but no practical application in your Christian life, we end up

not being changed at all. We just know a bunch of stuff with no application or practical ability in our behavior. And so we have these two things sort of working together. And you can kind of hear how he builds the argument. Listen to what he says in verse 3. "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." And so you have this sort of picture. You can sort of hear how it belts on each other. He'll say, "His divine power has given us something, granted us all things, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which..."

And so you sort of have these sort of steps where it belts upon each other. So before we dive into a little bit of explanation, anything jump out or any thoughts about where we're at right here? It seems to be contrasting knowledge to desire, maybe? What do you mean? Well, he finds that the ending one is... Sinful desire in verse 4? Yeah, and sort of contrasting divine power giving knowledge for life and goodliness, godliness, and then contrasting that to what he's worried about. Which is, yeah, sinful desire, running after sin, yeah. Now, that's something that I hadn't thought of with that, but that's a good point, is that his point is that God's knowledge, the knowledge of him, helps us fight our sinful desires, which we actually will see down in the practical application as well.

Really, these two verses are so encouraging, and I think that's something that we as Christians need, because we live, oftentimes, in a discouraging world, and we struggle, and we have a lot of heartbreak, and so we forget the good. And so I was thinking about when we were camping last week, and some of you heard this, one of our girls on, I guess it was Thursday night, we came back and we ran down to the restroom here to brush teeth and get ready for bed, and there were two spiders in the girls' bathroom, and that caused the problem, and as the ladies walked out, there was a snake, and it wasn't just like little snakes in there, and there was like hissing at them, and so our one girl was just like, you know, crying at the top of her lungs, "I just want to go home," right, you know.

And so in that moment, what happened? She had forgotten all of the fun, all the swimming, all the, you know, army training with the cousins, all of the excitement, all of the good food, right, because of the present difficulty. And I think the reality is that we all probably do the same thing, right? We have all of our difficulties, and we feel in the moment that we totally forget all of the good. And so one of the great things about this is these words in verses three and four is a picture of all of the good things that God has done for those of us who are so prone to forget. And in fact, that's part of what Peter is saying here. In fact, in verse nine, he'll say that, you know, if you don't see

these things, if you lack these qualities, that you are nearsighted, so nearsighted that you're blind because you have forgotten what God has done for you. And so let's just take a look at what God has done. First of all, it says his divine power. The picture there, dunamis, the Greek word, it's where the English word dynamite comes from. And so when they invented dynamite, they said, "Well, we need to find a word that really expresses its power." Back then, people actually, you know, learned other languages, and so they named it dynamos, you know, dynamite from dynamos, you know, in the Greek, this explosive power. But the interesting thing is the power here is not quite like dynamite. Because, right, dynamite, you ignite it, or you set it off with a blasting cap, and you have a big explosion, and what happens? It's done. This

power is a picture of continual power. This amazing power, and this word elsewhere is used, the same power that raised Christ from the dead. It's not a small amount of power. This is God's almighty power has granted to us, right, specifically to us as Christians, look at this, all things. And I like this because he doesn't say most things, or some things, or just enough things, but he says all things that pertain to life and godliness. And so notice what he does. He talks both in the physical realm, in terms of how we live here on earth, but also our spiritual life and how we are addressing eternity. And he deals with both the physical and the spiritual, that God, through his power, has given us everything through the knowledge of him who has called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious

and very great promises. That word great is great in the greatest sense. It's the biggest sense that you can get. It's the mostest. And he says these promises are great and they're overflowing. They are precious. And through them you have become partakers of the divine nature. And there has been debate through that. There have been some teachers who have said, "Well, you become God." That's not what he's saying. Look at what he's saying specifically, because you see it in the next sentence, from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. That there will be a time in the future where God has removed all sin, and we are without that corruption and without that sin. That we, in one sense, sort of share God's moral excellence. That is the promise for the future.

And there you get a glimpse of one of the debates that Peter is addressing with the return of Jesus, sort of in the background. As he says, "There is coming a day when everything will be made right." Any thoughts or comments about where we're at here? He seems to be speaking very specifically, but he keeps restating basically verse 2 about what God's gift is. Like he says, "May grace and peace be yours in abundance, in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus." And then he goes, "The divine power has given us everything, which presumably would include grace and peace in abundance." And then he keeps just finding new ways to say that. He's reminding us of God's good gifts sort of over and over. And then the basis of those gifts is a little bit knowing them. Like we have to know them. I really like the fact that there's

not anything extra you have to buy as a Christian. He said, "All things pertaining to life and godliness." And so we were camping this last week. We split up meals between all the different families. And so we were going to make a breakfast casserole one morning. And so we got down there and we're unpacking the coolers. And I said, "Hey, Rachel, did you pack the sausage?" And she said, "No, I didn't pack the sausage. Did you pack the sausage?" I said, "No, nobody packed the sausage." And so one of our cousin Cody was going back home. We said, "Cody, can you pick up the sausage?" We didn't tell him that we'd already cooked it and frozen it in freezer bags. So he's like, "There's no sausage." And so we were missing what we desperately needed. We've probably all experienced that. You buy something,

batteries are not included. You go to work on a project and you think you have all the tools and you don't. That's not the case with us as Christians. And I think that's a wonderful thing that God's divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and to godliness, that we have everything we need to live the Christian life. And I think that's a wonderful, wonderful thing. Any thoughts or comments before we move on? I mean, it seems like Paul does that a bunch when he talks to people and he's like, "People are coming and saying we need extra stuff," like in Galatians and such. And they're almost having the same kind of letters as Peter. And you can see the different styles. It seems to be a common discussion in the letters to the church.

Well, I mean, it's a common discussion now, too, is that you need to do this, or you need to have this, or you need to participate in this in order to have salvation. And that's the picture here. And, you know, it's interesting because in Paul's case, a lot of times, it's a physical practice. For example, you know, he talks specifically in Galatians about circumcision and following the Jewish law. But here, the extra thing they were adding was sort of extra-biblical teaching or extra-biblical knowledge or, you know, false knowledge from false teachers. And it's interesting to see that both of those are prevalent then. I think both of those are prevalent today as well. Any other thoughts or comments? Alright, so let's take a look starting in verse 5. So, 2 Peter 1:5. And it says, "For this very reason." And so, the very reason that what he's going to say next is because of his divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Because of this reason, here's how we respond. And so, notice that the response for the Christian is not that we are trying to earn all things, but because we've already been given all things. Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with love. For these qualities are yours and are increasing. If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins." And so there is a lot happening here. First of all, all of these things are tied together. This word "supplement," so you add to these things.

And so notice, first of all, I think that these are already existing. He's not saying develop these from scratch. These are some of the things that are given to us in life and godliness. And look in verse 8, "For if these qualities are yours and are increasing." The picture here is that we are growing in these qualities. And they sort of go in two directions. So five of these point toward our relationship with God. Two of these point toward our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, echoing that theme that we saw throughout Scripture. You see it in the Ten Commandments, it deals with your relationship with God and your relationship with others. You see it when Jesus talks about the two greatest commandments. The greatest is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.

And then the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself, dealing with our relationship with God and with others. That's what these do. And it's interesting that this picture of supplement, it's actually a theater word. A Greek theater word. And so when you had the theater productions, you would have different people involved in making these Greek plays or Roman dramas. They would make them happen. And so you would have guys who write, guys who act. Sometimes they would be sponsored by the state. But oftentimes you would have someone who donated a large sum of money. And oftentimes, you know, as sometimes happens, you want to outdo the guy next door. So you want to donate even more money. And so a lot of times there would be rich people who would sponsor like the chorus.

Those who would sort of, you know, sing and speak together and they would deal with the costumes. And so the more money they had, the bigger the chorus. And the picture here is sort of this big generosity. That you're not just sort of doing these a little bit at a time, right? Not just like a dash of salt or a pinch of pepper. But you're really pouring these out into your life. You know, sort of by, you know, sort of just pouring out in a big and a generous way. So anything stand out about this list to you before we unpack it just a little bit?

Well, it seems to be a positive list. Like, rather than saying, "Don't do the heresy," He's saying, "Do the positive things," which is similar to the fruit of the Spirit. It's not just, "Don't do the bad things, but do the good things." Right. Yeah. And I mean, Jesus says, you know, remember He speaks about the guy who He casts out the evil spirits from His life, and He says, "If you don't fill that house with something positive, that Spirit goes out, gets a bunch of His friends who are even worse than He is, and moves back in." And so, it's not simply, "Don't do the bad," but it's also, "Fill your life with the good." And I remember from my childhood listening to something, because my parents were always listening to Christian radio, and it's like, like I said,

"Well, if you spend all your time doing the do's, you won't have time to do the don'ts." And that's really true, that if we focus on this kind of growth, that it becomes easier to move to holiness and to avoid sin. So, these characteristics, so he says, "Take your faith," and remember, he's talked a little bit about this already, "to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing," in verse 1, "or like precious faith." He says, "To that, donate or pile on virtue," or some translations will say "goodness," and the picture here is sort of moral excellence. He talks about knowledge, which is practical wisdom. He'll talk about self-control, which the picture of this is not chasing after everything you want, and so I always think about this like with our dog, because if he sees something he wants, generally something that smells bad,

like he runs after that, and so like when I take him out at night, I'll take like a little rubber ball and kind of toss it in his direction to get his attention because once his focus is on that, that's where he's going. His desire, and he's going to run that direction. Self-control is saying, "Yes, I have these desires, but I am not going to pursue them." It's sort of a steadfastness in, you know, the virtue and the knowledge. And then the second thing he says, talks about steadfastness. And this is interesting. It means unmoved in the midst of distress, right? Something that's not tipping over or being blown away, or as Paul says in Ephesians, "Tossed around by waves," that it stands firm. Steadfastness with godliness, both a right feeling and right behavior toward God.

And then he says, so all of these things have to do with how we relate to God, whether that's in right living, whether that's in practical wisdom, not chasing after our desires, standing firm in the midst of trials, seeking to know God and to be found in Him, and to be like Him. He says, "With this brotherly affection, and with brotherly affection, love." And so caring for those in the church, but also that word that Christians are familiar with, agape, that love that loves when it is difficult, when you don't get paid back for it, when it's hard. And he says, "Add all these things together." And the picture is that these qualities should be in the Christian's life. And so, in part, this is a reminder of where we're supposed to be walking. It's also a challenge to us to say to our life, "Are these increasing? Am I seeking to grow in these by the power of God?"

Because he's granted me all things that pertain to life and godliness. I should be growing in these things. He says, "If we aren't, we will be ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." There's nothing worse than trying to grow something and having it be unfruitful. I was talking to our neighbor about our pepper plants last year. I really like jalapenos, and I grew some pepper plants. They started out so well, and then they got about this tall and just stopped. And I don't know if they had too much water or not enough water or too much sun or not enough sun. They just stopped. And what Peter says to the Christians is, "Don't let your life be like that." Don't be unfruitful. And eventually, what happens to the unfruitful pepper plant?

Where he's like, "We're done with this, finished that, but threw it in the compost pile." What happens to the Christian who stagnates and begins to not bear fruit? There has to be correction, and if correction is not heeded, this is a serious, serious matter. Any thoughts or comments? Well, it kind of reminds, it brings to my mind, the parable of the sower. And these, you know, the qualities are yours and are increasing. They've rendered either useless nor unfruitful. Well, that would be the fourth place where the seeds are, right? So, what true Christians are is where there is proof to be had, you know, and not in those other places where you're being choked off by the worries of the day, or, you know, eaten by birds, or, you know, screaming about. Really sunk down into the good soil and into the good horde.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it can also be, you know, I know some people, they have a conversion offense, right? And they can tell you on this day, at this time, well, well, you know. But for others, it's much more of a process. And so, for me, this is something that helps the believer affirm for themselves that, yes, I am growing in Christ. Because some or more of these areas you will recognize in yourself, and others will recognize in you as growing. If you are truly converted. Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting, because I had that conversation one evening this last week with a friend, and I was like, "What are the evidences of growth?" I mean, that's how you ultimately judge. Because there are some people who have a great experience and maybe have a great testimony, but they have no growth.

But then there's others who, it's the other side of that. They have a massive amount of growth, but they may not have that. Dramatic story or moment. Yeah, absolutely. Any other thoughts or comments? It's definitely a test for, if someone is saying, you know, there's a secret knowledge that you need, he's kind of saying it's going to be plain, you're going to be able to see this. Yeah. He's saying this isn't going to be a secret kind of knowledge. It's not hidden somewhere, right? It's out in the open, yeah. Yeah. No, I hadn't. That's an excellent, excellent point. Yeah. So I like verse 9. "For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins." So what the picture is, is a picture of a wrong focus. Those who lack these qualities, they're focused on the wrong things.

And I think that's so convicting for us because it's really easy for us to get focused on the absolute wrong thing and put the wrong thing in the place of priority. And this is a call to evaluate. You know, don't be so nearsighted that you don't see anything else. He says it's a warning to Christians, it's a wake-up call to those who have done it, and it's also a call to remembrance. One of the reasons I think that it's so important when we gather together around the table is to remember that we're cleansed from our former sins. What happens if you forget that? He says that you'll be blind and you won't grow in these qualities. Literally, this is an incredibly important thing to remember that we are cleansed from our sins by the sacrifice of Christ.

Two things I was thinking about as I was reading through these two sections, and I think Peter does, well, through the power of the Holy Spirit, a great job of correcting two attitudes that we as Christians oftentimes have. And so one is the attitude of apathy. Sometimes as Christians we might say, "Well, look, God has given me everything I need for life and godliness. I'm all set. I'm just going to sit here. It's all taken care of." And we just become apathetic, and we don't seek growth. We don't move forward. And Peter, notice what he says. He says, "Yes, God has given you everything you need, but you also grow and increase, and you chase after these things, and you bring to mind your remembrance of the fact that you are cleansed with sin, which strengthens you to pursue holiness even more."

That the true Christian is anything but apathetic. Now, on the other side of that, there are those who put the entire weight on their shoulders, right? And they say, "Well, I've got to do this." And, you know, we used to look for external signs, you know, "Do they do this? Do they do that?" And it's all on us, that I must do it. Notice what Peter says. He says that you and I are strengthened by the power of God for everything, but we're also seeking to grow, right? It's not all, "I'm just going to sit back." It's not all, "I have to take care of this all," but it's rather that God is at work. And as Paul says when he says, "Work out your salvation, for it is God who works in you, both the will and the work for His good pleasure." You're working out what God has worked in. That these two things go hand in hand.

That God has worked, and because of that, we are energized and strengthened for growth, and so we want to see growth in our life. And I think he corrects both the error of self-sufficiency, I've got it all taken care of, and the error of laziness and apathy, both in this text. Any other thoughts or comments? I think it's helpful, too, that he's telling us where to focus that faith energy, as opposed to some other places where we might be inclined to. For example, we might be inclined to think that we are expressing our faith by condemning all the evil that we see around us. That's not what's pictured here. What's pictured here is something more positive, like be the example for people to follow, as opposed to the judge. Or the berater. Let your light shine before men, and they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Absolutely. Yeah, that's a wonderful observation. Any other thoughts or comments? Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer, and we'll wrap it up. Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to be here. Thank you for your word. Help us to see, in the midst of the struggles of life, that you have truly given us everything that we need for life and for godliness. And help us, as we seek to grow, that we would remember that we've been cleansed from our sins, that we remember that we have a hope that your promises are precious and they're glorious.