“Second Peter 1:1-4”

Thursday, September 21, 2017

“Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

--- End of Scripture verses---

Peter introduced himself to his readers simultaneously as their leader and their peer. As an inspired “apostle of Jesus Christ” he had the Lord’s authority to issue commands, and as “a bond-servant” who possessed “a faith of the same kind” as theirs, he could appeal to them as a fellow servant and brother in Christ (verse 1). Peter issued some stern warnings and rebukes in this letter and he had the delegated power to be heard and heeded, but he had also shared in the same trials and spiritual struggles of all humanity and required “like, precious faith” to overcome and reign victorious.

There is a very old adage that says “knowledge is power”. This phrase is never truer than when we acquire “the knowledge of God” from His word (verse 2). God has imbued His inspired word with the power to transform lives for the better and save souls for eternity. God’s “grace and peace” are “multiplied” to us when we learn, love and obey the written word that He has perfectly preserved for us. God’s “divine power has granted to us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness” (verse 3) and packed it powerfully within the pages of our Bibles (the reliable versions anyway). Through the Bible God tells us everything we need to know to be saved and acquire eternal “life,” and everything we need to know to stay saved by living righteous lives of “godliness”.

Friends, it is impossible to overemphasize the value and importance of learning God’s will for you. You will find the word “knowledge” repeated five times in the first eight verses of Peter’s second general epistle. We simply cannot trust our own feelings or hearts when it comes to matters of salvation and eternity (Jeremiah 17:9), and we cannot afford to take another man’s word for what is true and right in God’s sight (1 John 4:1). It is obvious that false teachers challenged the authority of Peter and the other Apostles, and claimed to have a special knowledge that the Lord’s true, chosen ambassadors did not possess. The Holy Spirit makes it clear that we can only trust the words of the Lord Jesus that have been revealed, recorded and preserved through the writing of His inspired prophets and Apostles (1 Corinthians 14:37; Ephesians 3:4-5; 2 Peter 1:19-21).

We can only learn of God’s “precious and magnificent promises” (verse 4) from the Bible, and it is only through believing and obeying that we can realize the fulfillment of those promises. Those promises include, but are not limited to, the grace, peace, salvation and home in heaven that God extends through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. God’s word teaches us how to “become partakers of the divine nature” by escaping “the corruption that is in the world by lust.” The lusts of our “flesh” corrupt and condemn us spiritually (Romans 6:20-23; 2 Peter 2:10; 1 John 2:15-17), so we must repent of our sins and have them washed away by Christ’s blood in the waters of baptism (Acts 2:38; 22:16), and arise to walk as God’s new, spiritual creations (Romans 6:4). The more we resist our lusts the more we become like our Holy Father in heaven, and ultimately we will share in His glorious nature for eternity if we remain faithful until death (1 John 3:2).

Please read 2 Peter 1:5-11 for tomorrow.

May we all glorify God with our lives this blessed day!

-Louie Taylor

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