Our intellect and other gifts have been given to be used for God’s greater glory, but sometimes they become the very god for us. That is the saddest part: we are losing our balance when this happens. We must free ourselves to be filled by God. Even God cannot fill what is full.
— Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997)
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
~2 Peter 1:5-10
Oh great, how in the world do we do all these things?!?! Giving all diligence add the following to our lives: Faith, Virtue, Knowledge, Self-Control, Perseverance, Godliness, Brotherly Kindness, and LOVE?
IMPOSSIBLE!
You’re right. We can’t do it. But just slow down and read the whole chapter. Peter (yeah, the guy that once PROMISED he would never deny Jesus, and even cut off Malchus’ ear a few hours after making the promise – and then weaseled out of that human promise three times a few hours after that) gives us the answer in spades. Peter is now a seasoned warrior. He’s got the whole-armour of G_d well-fitted to his being. Knowing Peter’s “pedal-to-the-medal” approach, he probably never takes it off (hint: we might want to take follow his lead here. just sayin’). So what does he say?
Verse 1: We’ve obtained our faith by the righteousness of Jesus, not our own.
Verse 2: Grace and Peace are multiplied to us by knowing Jesus.
Verse 3: Jesus has given us everything we need in life.
Verse 4: Jesus gives us awesome promises that actually make us partakers in His divine nature.
Verse 11: Jesus will supply the entrance into His kingdom
Do we see a pattern emerging? We go and do all of these really good things because Jesus made them possible, Jesus empowers us to do them, Jesus wants us to live alongside Him, and Jesus will lead us through life; on home to live with Him in His kingdom.
Jesus makes, gives, fills and completes us. This leaves no room for self-motivated effort. It is vital that we don’t ever get this twisted. It’s all about Jesus. Are we starting to see clearly that it’s all about Jesus? 🙂
Mother Theresa of Calcutta lived the godly life Peter proposes in this chapter. And she also spoke of how it all worked. It is G_d filling us with the power to live godly lives; not our gifts, not our intellect. And Peter makes it clear throughout his writing that it is G_d in the Person of Jesus Christ through the presence of His Holy Spirit that makes this whole thing work.
As we keep reading 2 Peter, we see that Peter had actually seen Jesus glorified on the mount of transfiguration. He had a glimpse into what things were going to be like in the future. This glimpse had Peter convinced that Jesus was the Absolute Real Deal, and that heaven was going to be AWESOME. So, among all men, Peter knew for sure that the Holy Spirit was the actual Spirit of Christ dwelling within him – giving the wisdom and power to exhort, preach and prophesy these things.
So, an application comes to mind. Peter was not calling us to do all sorts of good things so that we could one day enter the kingdom of G_d. He was calling us to live godly lives because we are already partakers in the kingdom. Christ has saved us, His Spirit dwells within us. It simply follows that our behavior would be the behavior of heaven! Heaven is surely a place of great virtue, astounding knowledge, total self-control, eternal perseverance, utter godliness, wonderful kindness and infinite Love.
Why not start living like heaven… right now?, says Peter.
Really good question beloved.
