2 Peter 1
1Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us
through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2Grace and peace be multiplied unto
you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath
given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the
knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5And *beside this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6And to knowledge temperance; and to
temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7And to godliness brotherly kindness;
and to brotherly kindness charity.
8For if these things be in you, and
abound , they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first
verse of second Peter is pretty common as epistles go; it tells us who he is
what his ministry is and that he received that ministry from by faith through
the Father and Son.
The second
verse itself while stating the great truth that our grace and peace are
multiplied by us ever coming to know the Father and His Son better is still
common; at least as epistle intros go.
Do you
remember how I have said Peter states big concepts in small ways with a matter
of fact attitude that if we are not careful can be missed? Well get ready for
verse three.
Peter tells
us that God has given us by His divine power all things that pertain to life
and godliness. When we consider that He is life and godliness is a noun form of
something which God has claimed as devoted to Himself.
The Father
has by the means of His Son provided us with life. Moses described a way of
living in relation to God and man and concluded that what he had set down was
way of life to those who lived in the way described in the law. Those who lived
in a way that was opposed to what the law described are in the way of death.
The children
of Israel by the same pride that Adam had fallen by thought they could generate
this life by their own power and might. This blindness of trust in the flesh of
Adam blinded them to what Moses had proclaimed to them “Hear o Israel YHWH( a
personal name denoting relationship) is our Elohim (YHWH in the role of creator
showing it was YHWH who is to will and do in us to form and make us) YHWH is
one (Human math says 1+1=2, 2 is > 1, YHWH’s math says 1+1= 1, 1 is > all,
Your Father does not add himself to you, nor add you to Him but instead joins
you to Him and Him to you) and thou shalt love YHWH your Elohim with all thine
heart and with all thy soul,and with all thy might (love is not an emotion it
involves all the emotions anger, joy, desire, repulsion, etc. Love is a
decision of commitment. So it is we cannot reserve any piece of ourselves for ourselves
or we remain separate and not one with Him) and these words which I command
thee this day shall be in thine heart (only by the hand of YHWH forming you can
you become the life described in the law but He cannot be your maker if you are
determined to be your maker in any part of your being.)
The reaction
of Israel to this offer and promise is “we will do all these things”. If we go
this route of making our lives try to resemble what the law describes we will
find that the law is a mirror reflecting back at us the death and sin at the
core of our being.
When this is
seen men react in two different ways some become broken and by fear of the Lord
throw themselves at the feet of YHWH for mercy and find there the hope of His
promised salvation. The other reaction is to run deeper into darkness; to convince
them that they are acceptable to The Father by a standard of their own choosing.
This number includes the religious hypocrite for sure. However the lost are the
biggest hypocrites of all making their own standard of what good is then violating
it when it suites them all the while saying they know God approves of them and
no one has the right to say otherwise including YHWH. Yeshua proclaimed that He
came that we might have life and life more abundantly. When we place this statement
alongside other proclamations He has made of He did not come to destroy the law
but to fulfill the law, that He is the way the truth and the life, and that He
and the Father would come in and abide within those who would trust in Him then
an understanding begins to form in us.
The writings
of Moses are a witness of Yeshua and so the law is not now or ever our enemy
but the self-generated life of our old man was and is opposed to the law it is
this old self-generated life of the old man which was nailed to the cross for
us in Messiah. That by that death we might become partakers of the divine life
of the Father living in us.
As our faith
remains in the redemption of YHWH the old man’s self is baptized into Messiah’s
death and we are raised up with His life generated in us. The love of YHWH in
us is not produced by us but it is the Fathers promise that as we trust Him as
our maker He is bringing us to a love (a decision of commitment) that consumes
all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength.
The heart of
man is deceitfully wicked (twisted) and as such much of the time it fools us
into thinking we are leaning completely on the Master when in truth we are
trying to bring things to pass. So it is that our Father is a revealer of the
heart and His Word is able to divide between soul and Spirit even unto the
marrow.
Fear not
only believe If our heart condemn us YHWH is greater than our heart and the
power over all flesh has been given to Yeshua, we trust that He is able to keep
that which we have committed to Him until that day when corruption puts on
incorruption.
We in the
modern church see the end of our faith as being a provision of worldly goods or
a miraculous show of power or a powerful and effective ministry of the work of
the Father, but Peter draws a different conclusion of how our diligence to
trust and rely on only the Master will manifest.
1) Virtue also called righteousness from
faith to faith is the righteousness of Messiah revealed in us, seek ye first
the sovereignty of YHWH your Elohim and His righteousness
2) His righteousness living in and
through us not generated by our self but by His Spirit will bring us into a
oneness of knowing Him. Not merely learning about Him but to experience His
life as our life.
3) By Him living through us as us we
will no longer be driven by the lust of things for we have been joined to the
maker and owner of all things and we know He withholds no good thing from us
and as such we have no reason to store up for our self
4) As those things that the old man
stored up within us as treasures are spoiled by the Father as His Spirit shows
us they were delusion, deception, and vexation of soul we develop peaceful
patience by assurance that the Father is forming both us and our brethren into
His image
5) This patience makes us truly a person
belonging to God as we have released our desire for creating our own life in
this world and the next.
6) The beam being out of our own eye we
now can see clearly that our brother is in need of the Father and we desire to
be a witness and vessel of the Fathers life
7) This desire becomes compassion to the
degree that by our love for the Father we have a love with no bounds for our
brother as was seen in Yeshua that even our life we will lay down for our brother’s
well-being.
In verse
eight Peter concludes if these thing are found in you then you have passed from
simply having the life of the Father in you to the abundant life of The Father flowing
out from you like living water to the end that our Master is the firstborn of
many brethren.
