In his first letter, Peter taught us that there is a way of living that is different from the earthly way. Peter taught us that living a life that pleases God involves setting aside our self serving ways and actually loving people in a way that recognizes their value as beloved children of God. In his second letter, Peter teaches us how to grow into Christ-likeness. Peter also teaches us how to spot false teachers, and a good deal of his letter is about teaching us to discern between the real and the counterfeit.
Quite a few years ago, I read an article that was written by a US Secret Service Agent. The Secret Service is responsible for fighting the use of counterfeit money, and the agent had to attend training classes in order to learn how to identify counterfeit money. In the article, the agent said that, going into the class, he expected to see all kinds of counterfeit money, but the entire class was taught using only real money. The agent said that, once you were thoroughly familiar with real money, the counterfeit became easy to spot. So it is that a genuine and deeply rooted knowledge of Jesus and His teachings will make it easier for the believer to recognize counterfeit teachers.
Peter again begins his letter by identifying himself. As with 1st Peter, he asks us to keep in mind the fact that he speaks as an eyewitness to the life and teachings of Jesus. He then identifies his audience as “those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours”. Then he says something interesting. “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ our Lord.” Instead of using the word xero which is the common Greek word meaning to know or to recognize something or someone, Peter instead chooses to use the word epignosis which means to know something thoroughly; or to have a precise and correct knowledge of something; what, in today’s language we might say was knowing something inside out and backwards. And so here we are, not even out of the introduction to his letter, and Peter is already laying the foundation for one of the central themes of his letter; the importance of having an intimate and thorough knowledge of Jesus’ life and teaching.
As he begins the body of his letter, Peter states that God’s divine power has given us everything that we need to live a godly life through our epignosis (There’s that word again) through our precise knowledge of “Him who called us by His own glory and goodness”. Peter goes on to say “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.” What does this mean? It means that it is through our epignosis , our precise and correct knowledge of Jesus, that we are recipients of God’s promises and that through this precise and correct knowledge we find our path to participating in the divine nature, in other words, to become Christ Like.
Remember from 1st Peter, that our goal is Christ Likeness. Through our thorough and intimate knowledge of Jesus and His teachings, we have been given the necessary tools to grow into a person through whom the love of God can be reflected to the world. It’s here that Peter begins to explain to his readers that, though the gift has already been given, the fact that we’ve been given this gift is not enough. Once received, it becomes our responsibility to take that gift and to allow God’s Holy Spirit to shape us into Christ Likeness.
Peter wants his readers to understand that Christ Likeness is a two-way street. While it’s impossible for us to develop Christ Likeness on our own because the transformation of our hearts and minds can only be done by God, through His Holy Spirit, this transformation still requires work on our part. Peter spends the rest of the first chapter teaching us what we need to do in order to change our understanding from xero into epignosis . From knowing about, to knowing.
Peter gives us a roadmap for this journey. “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
Our life’s work is to make all of these things components of our character.
When Peter says goodness, he uses the Greek areth which speaks specifically of moral excellence. It’s goodness of the sort that leads to virtuous behavior. When he speaks of knowledge, he uses gnosis, the root of the word for precise knowledge that we learned earlier. Self-control is directed inward, as egkrateia is a word which, according to Strong’s means “the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions”. And Perseverance is directed outwards as one’s patient bearing of life’s trials. Godliness should be self-explanatory, but it’s kind of interesting to note the position of this word in Peter’s list. Peter intended this list to be progressive, as character begets character, and Godliness is almost at the end of the list, followed only by two words that we have already learned. Mutual affection is fileo, the word for love as you would love a brother or family member, and agape, which is the word that defines the sacrificial love of God. As important as Godliness, or Christ Likeness is, even that attribute, is ranked behind love in its importance. As we grow into Christ Likeness, Faith, Goodness, Knowledge, Self-Control, and Perseverance are all essential components of Godliness, and sincere love springs only from a heart that has been transformed by Godliness. So as these virtues compound within us, Peter says that they will prevent us from being unproductive in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter knows that his time is short, and soon, according to tradition, Peter will be crucified upside down by the Romans. And so, Peter’s message bears an urgency.
“So, I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”
Peter reminds us that his teaching comes not from cleverly devised stories, but is rather the actual account of one who was an eyewitness to Jesus’ glory. Peter himself saw the transfigured Jesus, and heard the voice from heaven proclaim “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Peter declares his message to be “completely reliable” and says that we would do well to pay attention to it. Ya’ think?
Our part in this journey towards Christ Likeness involves a few different things. First is the study of the Word. Peter makes the point that scripture came about not because of a prophet’s interpretation of things, because the origin of prophecy is never human will, but rather, a prophet’s words come from God as the prophets are moved to speak by the Holy Spirit. The Bible was given to us that we might KNOW God. Not know about Him, know him. By immersing ourselves in the Word, and particularly by immersing ourselves in studying the life of Christ, we develop an intimate understanding of God. Jesus is God in the flesh. Isaiah called the Messiah “Emmanuel” which means God with us, or God among us. To know Jesus is to know God. To study the life and teachings of Jesus is to understand what God is all about. What He likes and dislikes, what is important to Him and what is not important to Him, and what His priorities are not only in a heavenly sense, but also very much in the sense of what happens in this life, in the here and now.
More than study though, we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit, and I think this deserves an explanation.
The prophet Elijah had made an enemy of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who had promised to kill Elijah. Elijah was on the run when God confronted him, and Elijah actually asked God to take his life. Instead, God sent an angel who touched Elijah and gave him strength, and then prepared something for Elijah to eat. After Elijah was refreshed, God told Elijah to “stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord was about to pass by”.
In 1 Kings 19 we read: “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.”
I would never be one to limit what I thought God could do, but I would say that it would be extraordinarily unusual for the Holy Spirit to speak to us in an audible voice. The Holy Spirit speaks to us mostly in thoughts, ideas, and notions. This is why it is so critical to know God, not to know about Him, but to know Him.
For one who is not intimately familiar with the life and teaching of Jesus, the ability to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit is severely impaired, and that person is susceptible to being misled by the voice of Satan, who also speaks in thoughts, ideas, and notions; just different ones. And remember, Satan’s most effective tool is to impersonate God. This is why learning to recognize the authentic Word of God is so incredibly important, and that ability to recognize the authentic Word of God comes only from intimate familiarity with the life and teaching of Jesus.
Remember our Secret Service agent? The ability to recognize the counterfeit is a product of intimate familiarity with the real thing. Peter will speak at length about counterfeit teachers in the coming chapters, so we will spend some time talking about that in the coming weeks.
In addition to our study of the Word, we also need to be spending time in prayer… regularly. I don’t remember where, but I once read that prayer is not about us asking God to do our will, prayer is about asking God to incorporate us into His will. As we read the Gospels, we find that Jesus regularly seeks solitude to pray, and if prayer was vitally important to Jesus, it must be to us as well. Prayer is an indispensable component of the spiritual life, and something that we, as those aspiring to Christ Likeness, need to find time to make a regular part of our lives.
Lastly, our spiritual growth requires learning from our elders. Again, the words presbuteros and presbutera indicate a man, or a woman (respectively), having seasoned judgment, and not necessarily meaning someone who is older than we are. Peter understood his responsibility as a servant and apostle to share the insight that he had gleaned from his journey, and so it is that everyone who has progressed along their path to Christ Likeness has experiences to share that would teach or encourage others. Part of your call is to share these experiences and not to worry about how you will go about sharing them, because God has promised us that the Holy Spirit will guide us. Does anyone remember what God said to Isaiah? He said “I have put my words in your mouth”. Like the song said this morning, Moses had stage fright and David brought a rock to a sword fight. And God picked twelve outsiders nobody would have chosen and He changed the world.” The one essential component in being able to be used by God, is a willingness to be used by God. When we are faithful to serve, He is faithful to provide for our needs in that service.
The evangelist Billy Sunday once said “Spend 15 minutes a day letting God talk to you through the Bible, 15 minutes a day talking to God in prayer, and 15 minutes a day talking to someone else about God. As we seek to grow in Christ Likeness, this is great advice. When the day comes that we stand before our Lord and Savior in person, NOTHING we do in this life will be more important than the time we invested in seeking to become like Jesus.
And now, I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about something that is somewhat obliquely related to the text today. The beauty of God’s concept of becoming Christ Like has always fascinated me because as we grow in Christ, we come to the realization that God is not trying to turn all of us into clones of Jesus. God created us with unique personalities for a reason. Our personality is not something that He ever wants to take away from us. He has always intended for us to be uniquely… us. What the process of becoming Christ Like does, is it allows us to retain in our entirety who we are, but to have that person transformed into a person whose heart is filled with love and compassion and grace. Our individuality is something to be celebrated, our diversity something to be enjoyed! If God wanted robots, He would have made robots, but what he wants is for us to be us in all of our wonderful diversity. And that applies not only to us individually, but to believers universally as well.
This is something that I wrote a few years ago that I’d like to share, and hopefully something for us to keep in the front of our minds as every day we re-commit ourselves to this quest for Christ Likeness.
Try to imagine how awful life would be if every voice sounded alike and sang only one note; if every instrument sounded the same and played only one note.
Music is made possible by a wonderful diversity of pitches and timbres. Soprano, altos, tenors, and basses, strings, winds, brass, and percussion are all able to be combined is ways that can bring one to ecstasy, or bring one to tears.
God, in His wisdom created a wonderfully diverse planet; not only in order to create beautiful music, but to create beautiful art, wonderfully different foods, diverse literature, and a plethora of other things that have sprung from different cultures from across the globe. Different cultures cause people to think in different ways, with each culture making its own unique contribution to the whole; and every bit of this is God breathed.
There is no room in God’s Kingdom for those who would belittle cultures other than their own. In fact, to belittle other cultures is to question God’s wisdom in creating them in the first place.
Just as Jesus taught his contemporaries that loving your neighbor meant loving the despised Samaritans, so His command for us today is to love those who are different from us. Our world is wonderfully diverse by design, and that diversity is something to celebrate, not to deride. We need to learn to love without borders.
May God’s love fill your hearts and minds today to overflowing, that you may reflect His love to a world in desperate need.
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