Are You Practicing The Essentials Of The Christian Life?

Good Morning Friends,

Who do you take advice from? Who speaks into your life and you want to hear what they have to say? Maybe it is someone who matches your speech…or perhaps someone transformed. Peter to many was such a person. He was a leader of the new Christian movement but also authentically weak. What counted was that he was changed by the love of Christ. Because Peter experienced the depth of the power of God through the love of Jesus firsthand, he was able to be used by and in the power of the Spirit to help people discern the difference between authentic Christianity and the false teachers. Sharing this wisdom, we have some of Peter’s last words coming from the grave though the common ground of the cross in the experience of the Christian life to guide us. Here we begin to grasp the importance of what we have as a Christian. Here we are urged to grasp in the moment right now what we have and what should come out of the knowledge of being a Christian. Are You Practicing The Essentials Of The Christian Life?

Scripture: Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

2 Peter 1 (NRSV)

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:13-26 (NRSV)

But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.

1 Timothy 6:11 (NRSV)

Message: Today’s scripture is about knowing what comes next in passing on what is important to those now following Christ and trying to discern the truth in the teachers who lead them. It sets forth the qualities of Christ as a reminder to remember what we have been gifted through a relationship with Christ and all that we need for the new life. In this relationship of the cross and empty tomb of Jesus we are called as the elect to not forget what Christ has done for us. We are to remember Jesus is Lord and he died so that we might live. And what we have been given, if with trust Jesus and His diving power, is nothing less than everything we need for life and living for godliness. Here Peter and those writing in his memory convey a mature faith that keeps the main thing the main thing. The passage is profound. We have been granted new life from the inside, that is beyond breath and transformative in the converting work of the Holy Spirit. The foundation of understanding of the Christian mission is first in realizing the main thing is trusting in the power of the transformative unity with Christ. This is something the world cannot understand. The life-giving Spirit opens our eyes. And it is not simply a Jungian collective unconscious. It is so much more. It is the cosmic Christ that takes us this Lent on a journey of Mercy from the Transfiguration to the Cross and Grave and Resurrection. Nothing else is like it. And what is interesting is that this life in Christ through the knowledge of Jesus sustains us individually but also collectively. As Paul says in Philippians, what is begun in us will be completed. God had mercy on Paul and Peter and on us and for this reason of mercy we have everything we need for life in the new nature of Christ. It is not a checklist on performance. It is human nature to struggle any time we feel a loss of power. Maybe we feel guilt or fear and so desire power and control to feel better. But it is a fantasy that the more power and control we have, the safer we are. Our old nature is a driving force in this insanity. The old nature’s driving force is ‘I want for me the greatest amount of pleasure for the least amount of pain.’ We all have that in us. The new nature has a drive to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. There is nothing wrong with seeking appropriate pleasure and appropriate avoidance of pain, but it needs to be a secondary consideration to glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. The process here is important for it involves both the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Note that Peter has a list of qualities which includes some in Paul’s list in Galatians. But Peter does not emphasize the work of the Spirit, as true and as essential as the Spirit’s work is. Peter emphasizes the Word of God. He speaks of our salvation and our sanctification as the result of knowing God through His revealed Word. This is the thrust of the entire first chapter of 2 Peter and prepares us to confront the ways false teachers seek to undermine the Word and turn saints from the truths of Scripture. How quickly, how easily we are turned from the truths God has revealed in His Word to the alleged “truths” of men, who appeal not to the spirit but to the flesh. So, let us recognize that the knowledge of God not only saves us but sanctifies us. This does not happen independently of the Spirit, but through the Spirit, as God illuminates the Word in our hearts. This Christian growth is neither automatic nor is maturity merely a function of time. It is all a bit of a mystery and yet today’s 2 Peter passage makes several contributions to helping us to understand the essential of being Christian. First, it shows that the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man are not incompatible. We need not choose one in place of the other. The sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man are interdependent truths. Man cannot contribute to salvation. Though the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, God did for us what we could not do for ourselves. All we must do is receive it, and even this occurs by divine grace. But once we have come to faith in Christ, we are to diligently strive after godly character—for God has provided the means for life and godliness. We strive in our Christian walk because He has given us the means. The sovereignty of God should never be an excuse for passivity or inactivity; rather, His sovereignty is the basis for disciplined living.

And So, election has nothing to do with the campaign trail. If you are trying to gain salvation on your own covering up your disbelief. Stop it. If you have not come to a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot possibly pursue the course Peter prescribes in today’s text. To enter into that “faith,” which is of the same kind as the apostles, you must know God through Jesus Christ and find the righteousness you desperately lack in none other than Jesus Christ. Knowing Him brings grace and peace. Only by His power are we granted everything necessary for life and godliness. The basis of our salvation is the work of Christ, and the basis for our future hope is the promises of God. All we need to know about these is recorded in God’s Word. Trusting in God’s provisions, as revealed in God’s Word, makes us partakers of the divine nature and delivers us from corruption and false teaching. Taking on the divine nature does not happen quickly, it happens by the process of sanctification. While this sanctification is individual, it also takes place through the body of Christ, the church. The process of sanctification is completed not in this life, but when we are with God in glory. In the interim we need to be aware of the dramatic contrast between the love and knowledge of Jesus reflected in the character of faithful teachers and the flawed character of those who are false teachers and would lead us astray.

Pray our motivation as Christians is in living out our union of heart, mind and life in Christ. Pray we realize that in the beginning of our faith God has given us everything we need. Pray we realize that the key is the cross. Pray we fall in love with Jesus. Pray we have a salvation that refines and a salvation that endures. Pray we have a salvation that removes our hearts of stone and keeps us in God’s perfect peace. Pray we never want to stop learning about Jesus. Pray we press on and learn more. Pray we realize that being Christian is not about looking good but engaging in a process of getting to know Jesus and as we know more, love more and as we love more, share more of the qualities that make a difference in us. Pray we grow in the grace, mercy and knowledge of Christ daily. Pray we honor Jesus because in Christ we have life. Pray we embrace the gift and call of holiness and the call to godliness. Pray we have the godly qualities that keep us from being ineffective in knowing Jesus and his love. Pray we have a heart that never stops learning about Jesus and his love. Pray we pursue the fruit of the Spirit and be guided in knowing the Word of God and the attributes of God so we might not only recognize those who distort the truth of the Scriptures and seek to seduce people, but also so we might discern the truth in those who shepherd others.

Blessings,

John Lawson