(Be sure to read the Bible verses mentioned each time they are mentioned or referenced to capture their meanings associated to the following writing or you will miss why something was said or written.)
Where is Christian devotion? Is it a Christian attending church or a church-filled Christian bringing the church to someone else (outside of the church)? Is it a Christian going to prayer in the morning to then be discouraged that others are not there and/or rebuking some for their lack of devotion or is it a prayer-filled Christian who did pray while blessing someone else unaware? Three true stories. (1) Two Christian men were sharing Jesus with people by passing out flyers at an apartment complex. These two Christians saw two other men—an elderly man struggling with his son or grandson to help carry an ice chest filled with groceries—and here is what happened. One Christian handed a flyer to the older man and began to walk away. The other Christian offered and gave his assistance to carry the groceries up the stairs allowing the elderly man to not carry anything up the stairs in the cold weather. (2) A Christian man was selling something and awaited the buyer. The Christian man received a call that the buyer had to take his son to a doctor and would be delayed. The Christian man sadly was only concerned about the sale of the item rather than asking where the son was to be taken and offered to pray over the child, even if it meant he would have to leave the church briefly. Instead the Christian man just only offered his availability. The item still remains unsold. (3) A Christian man on his way to morning prayer took a detour to help out two people whose vehicles’ windows were covered with ice from an ice storm that was just finishing. The Christian man knows what to do with ice while these two do not. So without telling the two car owners, he drove over, scraped the ice off, and then left unannounced so when these two went to morning prayer and/or one went to work, they were not delayed more than they could have been, and unaware of who did this deed for them. Did he arrive to prayer later than the start time? Yes. But did it matter?
A singular verse was laid upon my heart last night during dinner. And with this singular verse of scripture apart from the context of other verses, can be read and interpreted with a different and incorrect meaning. 2 Peter 1:10 says (emphasis added) and this is the Apostle Peter speaking to Christians, not sinners, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble”. If this verse were by itself and we laid out a list of Christian duties or expectations with this, we could transpose this verse to say, “…be more diligent to make your salvation sure, for if you ____ (fill in the blank) you will never stumble”. There are, though, two things to lift to help clarify the meaning of this verse.
First is the word “therefore”. This is a transitional or conjunction word associated to something previously said. So what did the Apostle Peter say? Included and after his warm greeting and keeping the focus upon Jesus, Peter said in verses one, three, and four, “To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ…as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
So what are these great and precious promises and how do we become partakers of the divine nature to escape the corruption in the world? Peter continues in verses five through nine with a list of Christian character traits and then an admonition, “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.” What I noticed is that the list of traits begin and end with what could be a progression. Another way to look is that these are not progressive steps but simply if we have one virtue then it naturally (or ought to) begets another virtue. Regardless of which way we take this, there is a pattern “self others” that I did notice. Example, faith (self focused, not faith in self but to say “I have faith”) and then the word virtue (others focused). Then virtue (ok, so I have virtue; self focused) to knowledge (others focused, with how and when to treat people with your virtue by the faith alive in your life). So then knowledge (ok, so I have knowledge) to then self-control (when to share your knowledge). Some early converted Christians like Keith Green, somewhat myself, and others we had an unbridled zeal. We wanted to share Jesus but in doing so sometimes we offended more than we helped by our passion that was not expressed under self-control. So this self-control Peter wrote is not “I have self-control to not drink a beer or gossip or whatever”. This is harnessing the passion so it may be properly focused. There is an illustration used concerning sharing Jesus to the lost that we don’t walk up to someone with a halogen lamp blinding them so that the Word is an offense or an annoyance. The light ought to begin as a warm glow to invite, but ought to be lived out and not just words, lest we be deceived as the Apostle James the Lesser said in James 1:22. So from self-control (back to self) to perseverance (others), how to put up or endure with people. Speaking specifically on this for a moment, it does take self-control to not get offended, annoyed, frustrated, disappointed, and/or agitated while two Christians are working with each other. There is a line that can be crossed by an older Christian of instructing or guiding to blazing both barrels because what we easily and graciously would work through now have become an annoyance. Additionally we can push growth faster than the Holy Spirit desires to grow and mature a new Believer as well as the Holy Spirit sometimes wishes to work on the older Christian dormant or character traits that have been long overdue to be addressed and using another Christian (or even a sinner) will sometimes be the hammer and chisel God chooses to use to refine us. This is why, especially more so as a pastor/preacher/teacher, we need to be careful with how we conduct ourselves, especially with new Christians and the world. We desire grace, even when we’re wrong but sometimes are quick to point out flaws or give a rebuke even if we don’t have all the facts or we are addressing the surface sin without realizing there is a much deeper issue. For example, someone is hooked on a drug and has been hooked for a long time. We could coldly say “give it to Jesus” or challenge the person to say a prayer for salvation. But what Jesus often did is He went to the heart of the matter. So why hooked on a drug (beyond the intoxicating lure, taste, etc. of the drug)? To escape? To escape what? If we will take the time to lovingly explore that rabbit hole with the person or as I have said to unpeel the layers of the onion skin, eventually we will get to the heart issue (and not just a blanket attitude of sin or sinner). Will it take time? Yes. Will it take self-control and perseverance, absolutely. Why? Because Jesus left the 99 for the one. There is a reason why the shepherd placed the sheep on his shoulder and not used the staff to spank (but this is another matter for later exploration). So from perseverance (self) to godliness (others, as in others benefit from our godly behavior). An example whom my pastor shared about a man nicknamed “Diablo” (the Devil) in a city in New Mexico. He got saved. As a result, stuff stopped being stolen, anger wasn’t displayed with fighting, etc. Others benefitted by the man becoming a Christian. Do people benefit by us being a Christian or do we offend? So from godliness (ok, I’ve got this) to brotherly kindness (example Philippians 2:4). This was shown by the Christian who helped carry the heavy ice chest up the stairs rather than letting the other two men struggle with it or the one who scraped the ice from the windows or the one who could have with going to the clinic (see Matthew 25:43,45). Brotherly kindness is more than doing good deeds. It is serving others with no reward sought or thanks expected. It is the Good Samaritan who spent from his own pocket and ready to give more when the injured man had no way to pay back. It is offering to help those who cannot do for themselves, let alone give back. It is serving others who bite back at you. And it is also someone who will bless someone even when they lack on their own. I cannot help but to think of a man from another Fellowship church who took people out to eat or helped others when financially he could barely take care of himself. And yet because of this man’s good heart, many were not just “said a prayer at an altar” but became who they became as Christians because of this man’s warm heart. Finally from brotherly kindness (ok, we’ve got it) to love (others). Love is more than physical affection or gifts given. Love is explained in a host of scriptures but here are a few: John 15:9-13, Matthew 5:43-44, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 2:10, 1 John 3:16, 1 John 4:7-12, 1 John 4:16-21, Ephesians 5:25. Love was shown by Jesus in Luke 23:34 and Luke 23:42-43. Love involves serving, forgiving, giving, sacrificing, etc. So with the encompassing of all of these character traits, we see that in order for the great and precious promises to exist and to be lived out in our lives, that our lives ought to be striving (not as a check list or badges of honor to parade or not some desired reward on earth or in heaven) to involve these traits actively in and through us.
So then finally, let us look upon two particular words found in verse 10 of 2 Peter 1: call and election. Is this call a calling like toward pastoral ministry or to generally serve in a church? No; however, it had been used incorrectly when taken out of context to focus on that. Is it a call as in toward salvation? No. With modern American English, we view that word (outside of ministry or a Calling) like making a phone call; as in we are reaching out to someone for a reason. But the word call or calling is G2821 an invitation. But there is a root (G2564) to this, which means to bid, call forth, as in ask for someone to come forth or make themselves available. But even this has another root (G2753) which means hail, order, or command. When looking at this final perspective and we tie all those character traits into verse 10, it would then read (in a condensed version), “So we need to make more effort to be loving, self-control, have perseverance, etc. to make His command and election sure so we won’t stumble.” This reminds me of when Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment…” concerning loving one another (see John 13:34-35). So what of this election? So is this about salvation like in Colossians 3:12 and Matthew 24:22 and 24? Not exactly. This election (G1589) means to be chosen or divinely selected. This reminds me of Jeremiah 1:4-10, John 15:16, Ephesians 1:4, and Romans 5:8. But this election also has a deeper meaning (G1586) which is a compound meaning to call out like in 1 Peter 2:9 and Isaiah 9:2, which then ties in Matthew 5:14-16. Which this compliments what the verse 10 of 2 Peter 1 says, “if you do these things you will never stumble”. This stumble is more than an object in our path that trips us up (which this is very applicable). This is like walking in a dark room and our feet find those children’s toys that no one apparently saw and put away when it was light in the room hours prior to us now groping our way through the dark room to the kitchen for a drink of water. So let us then tie these two meanings from call and election. Peter speaking or challenging, “Be even more diligent to fulfill Jesus’ commandments because since you were called from darkness to light and we have and we give love because if not you will stumble and if you stumble, you will make others stumble as well.”
Lastly, I want to look upon another word found in that verse and that is diligent. This means to make active or conscience effort. This is not passive; this is not our life is a pinball machine to be bounced around by Divine bumps and redirections, nor is it “if God wants me or doesn’t want me to do X then close/open the door”. Whether you want a sports term of practice over and over to perfect and sweat or in a physical-labor job to get in and work hard, it takes exertion and effort. It is spent and being spent (see 2 Corinthians 12:15). It is Paul’s compulsion that drove him to live out Jesus, “…what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28, one of my favorite verses) and ought to be (especially for Christians who are pastors and leaders) our compulsion that pushes us to give all. But why should there be a diligence in this? After all, the Christian life isn’t a sprint but a marathon. Many years ago when I was an early Christian, I would had viewed this diligence as the unbridled zeal to just go go go. And although this is not every Christian or even many Christians, but sadly I have seen a few Christians whom I NEVER would had suspected or expected to walk away from fellowship to turn to just religion or away from God entirely. To attend dutifully and serve ministries whom young men dreamed or aspired to have, to walk away because of poor choices for poor substitutes of what God truly offers. And this isn’t a point a finger at others in judgment. It serves as an example that offenses, events, life (sickness, divorce, death), and the Devil will take their shot/s and sometimes that event or one shot too many pushes Christians to part ways with their church and/or a relationship with God (to either no relationship with God or just settle for religion). And we cannot lift ourselves up in pride to say “not me” like Peter did in Matthew 26:33 because it took just a few hours later and Peter denied knowing Jesus and cussed. With that said, I close with this final warning and challenge for all of us to remember. Matthew 26:21 Jesus spoke to His disciples, “…Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” We need to daily remind ourselves in not just what we say but in what we do and how we treat other people that if our behavior—our diligence to make our call and election sure—that we reverently ask Jesus, “Lord, is it I” (Matthew 26:22) concerning denying Jesus? And will this denial cause others to turn away or to never accept Christ? Let us make sure.