The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:8-11  (day four)

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you…

Peter is not saying that we earn our salvation through diligence, knowledge, or kindness. Many of us have tried to earn and secure our salvation through performing enough good works, leading enough Bible studies, or going on another missions trip. That will fail every time, because that is not the system God designed. We receive salvation by grace through faith, through no righteousness of our own. It is a merciful gift from Jesus that we cannot earn.

In response to this gift, though, we are called to a life of goodness and godliness displayed in our speech, actions, and inner life. Every time we grow in diligence, or provide moral excellence, or increase our knowledge of God, we are confirming God’s work in us. Every time we exercise self-control or choose perseverance in the faith, it’s like we’re shouting “Amen! Jesus saved me!” Every expression of brotherly kindness and love are really a cry of “Hallelujah! I’ve been set free!” We do these things out of celebration for the gift of salvation.

When we grow in these things, our life becomes one big “Amen! I have been redeemed!” for all to hear.

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:8-11  (day three)

For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

In Peter’s pastoral care, he does not condemn people who struggle; rather, he acknowledges how difficult it is to navigate the world. Who has not felt as though a circumstance or a person or an event or a disappointment or a time of suffering is an unfathomable mystery that leaves one lost and afraid? Peter says, “Yes, people will stumble through darkness when they can’t make sense of the world. But you can learn to see better. Your brothers and sisters – the church – will teach you. Little by little your eyes will adjust to the brightness of the way of Christ.” You were made to see. And you will.

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:8-11  (day two)

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; v. 10

“These things” refers to the fruit of the spirit mentioned earlier in the text. (Moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love) This is the list we studied last week. Returning to these hallmarks of our faith journey will keep us centered and give us a purpose. Frankly, by focusing on these attributes of faith, they will begin to consume our thoughts and actions and take the place of anything that would hinder us from growing. The stronger we become in these areas the more likely we will weather any crisis. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:5-8  (day seven)

… and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. vs 7

Is your heart heavy this week? We grieve the loss of a young mother in our congregation to cancer. We grieve the loss of a young father who was assassinated for speaking his conservative (and often Christian) beliefs. There were murders in trains and shootings in schools. To make all this worse, social media has been wrought with division as people seek to make death political.

In the midst of the heaviness of death, there is a spark of life. There is a call being made to unification. There is a call being made to boldness. There is a call to kindness. There is a call to love.

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. vs 8

Do you want to be useful in this call? For us to be effective in loving the world around us in such a time as this, we need to invite the Holy Spirit to instill in us a desire to increase all these qualities of a complete faith. If we increase in these things, we are promised Jesus will increase in us. If Jesus increases in Us, we are promised that Jesus will increase in the world.

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:5-8  (day six)

²⁰ And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Mark 4:20

Where there is faith, there is the expectation of growth. That is how the Kingdom of God works. Last week, Peter reminded us that God’s divine power has already given us everything we need for life and godliness. That is a remarkable claim—especially when we remember that the early church had far fewer resources than we do today. Yet they grew.

What becomes clear is this: genuine faith always produces growth and bears fruit in the lives of others. It cannot remain stagnant. To belong to Christ is to be drawn into His life, and that life is always moving outward—maturing, multiplying, and blessing others.

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:5-8  (day five)

One of the approaches I use in my Re:Verse reading and study, is to look at different translations. Sometimes a word or words used in other translations resonate better with me – causing me to think deeper and reflect more clearly. That happened this week. In verse 5, translators used the words – add to your faith, supplement your faith, building on (your faith), applying diligence. There is action and activity required on my part to grow my faith. There is work and dedication needed on my part for “increase” (verse 8). Reminds me of Paul’s writing that God is at work in us resulting/requiring that we work as well.  Jerry Bridges describes it this way:

A farmer plows his field, sows his seed, and fertilizes and cultivates—all the while knowing that in the final analysis he is utterly dependent on forces outside of himself. He knows he cannot cause the seed to germinate, nor can he produce the rain and sunshine for growing and harvesting the crop. For the successful harvest, he is dependent on these things from God. Yet the farmer knows that unless he diligently pursues his responsibilities to plow, plant, fertilize, and cultivate, he cannot expect a harvest at the end of the season. In a sense he is in partnership with God, and he will reap its benefits only when he has fulfilled his responsibilities. Farming is a joint venture between God and the farmer. The farmer cannot do what God must do, and God will not do what the farmer should do. We can say just as accurately that the pursuit of holiness is a joint venture between God and the Christian. No one can attain any degree of holiness without God working in his life, but just as surely no one will attain it without effort on his own part. God has made it possible for us to walk in holiness. But He has given to us the responsibility of doing the walking; He does not do that for us.

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:5-8  (day four)

For this very reason…

As Aaron wrote last week, our salvation came at a great personal cost to Jesus, and it is our obligation to walk in the honor of His victory. For this very reason, we are also called to walk in a way that is worthy of the calling/love/grace/salvation/mercy that we have received (Ephesians 4:1-3). I know that I am loved because of what Jesus did for me. There is no middle ground there. He loved me first, and now I am called to respond to that love in growth and walking in a way that is worthy of that.

I know that my wife, Ashley, loves me. I do not need to question it or live every day as if I must earn her love for me. For this very reason, my responsibility is to grow in that love and respond to her love in a joyful pursuit of not living unworthily of it. There is a vast chasm in my life between living unsure of her love for me and living in a way that is because she loves me. One side of that chasm is filled with joy, while the other side is not.

How much more is it with God, then? For this very reason, we are called to live our lives in a way that is a joyful response to understanding that Jesus loved us first and died for us, even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). We should grow in Him because He loves us despite our sin, not because we must earn His love. So, for this very reason, rejoice always and live a life worthy of the calling you have received!

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:5-8  (day three)

…and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Each attribute listed by St. Peter builds toward love. Years earlier, Jesus, issuing his new command to love one another, took stock of all the world’s grasping for power and forcing its way, and, right in the middle of the mightiest empire the world had ever known, pronounced love the pinnacle of any and all acts, whether human or divine. John (let us love one another, for love is from God), Paul (faith hope and love remain, but the greatest of these is love), and here Peter all testify to love. How is it that they so confidently affirmed the Lord’s words? Was it that “Jesus said it so that settles it?” Or was it rather that they underwent love’s healing presence within their deepest selves? Read their stories and see.

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:5-8  (day two) …and…v. 5, 6, AND 7

Have you ever taken a spiritual gifts inventory? When you get results you will hear people saying, “I have the gift of hospitality, or patience, or kindness, etc.” This isn’t the way Peter presents this list in these verses, and I am certain that Paul would agree. If we are not careful when we take those assessments, we will tend to think gifts are some sort of side dish that we can choose one with our meal – but you can only get one! Peter says apply diligence as a starting place, and then add – and, and, and, and. There should be a measure of all these characteristics in our walk. Sure, you may have an abundance of one gift, but in some measure, they should be present in us all. So, add some love, AND joy, AND peace, AND patience, AND kindness…you get the idea.