DAY #227 - 2 Peter 1:1-4

JOEL REDMON is writing the blog this week:(Joel is an Elder at Church of the Valley)

1Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, 
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

BACKGROUND
As we go through the first two chapters of 2nd Peter it is important to understand the environment at the time of the writing. Within a generation of the death and resurrection of Christ issues surfaced in “the faith”. From a human perspective, it is not difficult to understand what started to happen. Christian’s were either in the camp that Jesus would return at anytime living a life of expectation of his return or as the years past started to cast doubt on Jesus’ return and ultimately upon the promises of God.

2nd Peter was written to get the readers focused on the truth and not all of the false teachings and doubts that had surfaced through the passage of time.

IS THIS RELEVANT TODAY?
This writing is very much relevant to us today. We are much further removed from the death and resurrection of Jesus; we have so many religions of the world with easy access to the beliefs of these religions; the false teachers have easier entry points into our day-to-day lives via the advancement of technology and television and lastly, everyone is so busy that time to study and meditate on God’s word is hard to come by.

This backdrop will be posted everyday just as a reminder of why 2nd Peter was written and the relevance to each of us as we continue our quest to live the lives that God has planned for each of us. It is in this vein that Peter wrote this passage to remind us of the foundational truths.

2 Peter 1:1-4
Peter opens with a salutation that is familiar yet extremely important especially in consideration of the times. He identified himself as a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. The foundational truth for us is that each of us is a servant. But the key is whom are you serving? On a high level our choice is clear, either we serve God or man. But sometimes the subtlety of our day-to-day decisions causes conflict in clearly reflecting who we indeed serve. However, it becomes more and more clear as we grow in our spiritual journey.

Keeping the background in mind, Peter introduces to whom the writing is intended. “It is to those who through the righteous of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith” v1b.

We have to keep in mind that our relationship (salvation/faith) with Jesus was made possible not only by the love of God (grace) but the working of the Father (God) and Son (Jesus). This characterizes righteousness. This is important to understand and have clarified because many will talk about God and even talk as though we all have the same faith. But what distinguishes the Christian is the truth that our faith is through the righteousness of God and Jesus. As Ephesians 2:8 reminds us it is a gift! It is not something we have attained by our doing.

Continuing the salutation, Peter advises us that if we want to have an abundance of grace and peace we will get it through knowledge of God and of Jesus. Peter is now starting to lay the foundation for us. The foundational truth is that grace and peace will be in our lives when we truly know God and Jesus. The word knowledge used is a Greek term (epignosis) that describes a personal knowledge and relationship. This level of intimate knowledge is foundational for a life in Christ. Yet it is the one that is most difficult for us. We should not be surprised by all the demands on our time that keep us from spending time growing in our knowledge of God and Jesus. These demands are really robbing us of grace and peace in our lives!

A few things about this word knowledge:

• The focus is targeted. It is not about learning all the faiths and beliefs of the world. It is about striving to increase our knowledge of Jesus. It is reflecting Philippians 3:10…I want to know Christ.

• We are to strive to be experts, not novices, in our knowledge of Jesus.

• We are to relate this knowledge to our lives and identify who we are. After all, is not the quest for mankind is to find purpose and meaning of life. It is actually simply captured in Galatians 2:20…”I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Concluding today’s blog, Peter takes us to our SO WHAT of all of this. Remember, just like what we face today, when this passage was written there were false teachers that caused confusion to Christians. So how do we get to the truth? As discussed above, Peter said all things start with an intimate relationship and knowledge of God and Jesus. Peter builds on this foundation with the truth that because of God’s divine power that is at work in us, believers have everything that is needed for living a Godly life. This divine power provides us what we need to understand and hold onto God’s rich promises to us. It is the holding onto God’s promises that will bring us peace. Peter is challenging us today:

• To strive to have an increasing knowledge of God and Jesus
• To spend time learning the promises of God

The benefit to us is lives influenced and directed by God evidenced by the eternal impacts on others and the lack of the world’s corruption influencing our lives.