2 Peter 3:14-18, “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

Aiming Properly – Focusing on What Actually Matters and Living in Freedom That we Might be Saved

The world is going to burn, the heavenly bodies are going to melt, and all known flesh will cease to exist. God tells us that he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end – yet God has no beginning as we would understand it and he has no end. He is the beginning and the end of this time and of this world; but after the end of this life we, His children do not end but are adopted into eternity with the Father. We await him in a fallen world, sojourners as the Israelites were in Egypt and in the wilderness, but his promise, Christ’s promise, has us waiting for the new heaven, the new earth and a state of rightness with Holy God that we have never known. In this spirit of waiting dutifully for our Father, eyes open and minds clear, there is a call to be found with proper aim. Peter has already told us to stay sharp and aware, Jesus told us in multiple parables to remain aware and alert, that we might not be taken unaware by His coming. In Leviticus 11:44 (which Peter quoted in 1 Peter) God says, “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.”  There is no way for us to become holy of our own accord. Under Levitical law, holiness was attained through acts of praise, sacrifice and cleanliness before God, but to look at the context given by Jesus in the New Testament it was never about laws for the sake of laws, but laws that promoted a spirit of surrender and servitude before God. 1 Samuel 15:22 says, “And Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”  The only way we can be holy, the only way we will be found as Peter says, “without spot, blemish and at peace” is through God and our spiritual and physical submission to His will. I’ve heard it said by practicing Jews that Judaism is a works based religion while Christianity is supposedly a faith based one, but that our claims, like in James 2 about faith leading to works are just roundabout ways of making things works based. Their logic misses the point completely – faith without works is hollow, insincere and has no driving force behind it – but works without faith are just as empty and pointless.

In Isaiah 52:11 it says, “Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.” My study bible points out that this cross references with Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues…” Speaking here of the fall of Babylon, this reminds us that part of being found holy before God, and submitting to his will is in distancing ourselves from the world. James 4:4 says, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” There is no cozying up to the world and it’s wickedness, and being found as a righteous servant before the Lord. As Jesus says, in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters…”

“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation…”

Peter echo’s his own words from verse 9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” We must be careful always to remember that God is perfect in all ways. He doesn’t delay out of negligence, complacency, or contempt. His timing is out of mercy and patience.

“… just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.”

Romans 2:3-4, “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

2 Corinthians 5:1-5, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

It’s not as if there aren’t more examples, but in these two sections Paul directly covers what Peter just addressed. In Romans, their message concerning God’s patience mirrors one another, both reminding us that it is meant to lead us to repentance and salvation – it is kindness that is often mistaken for weakness. In 2 Corinthians he addresses how this ties into God’s promises and draws our attention to what awaits us in eternity.

“There are some things in them that are hard to understand…”

Peter acknowledging this about Paul’s letters immediately reminded me of what Paul himself said about some of his writings in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?” There are elements of the Bible that are so profound in their truth they even resonate with the flesh. Flesh can be aware that we didn’t come from nothing, flesh can feel a void, a longing to draw close to a god-like figure, even if the way it manifests is idolatrous and perverse. There are some spiritual truths so plain and so loud that flesh can stomach them, like milk to an infant. But it is the Spirit that opens the eyes, that allows the maturity of understanding in the faith that we were directed toward in 1 Peter. It is only in the Spirit that we grow to digest the solid food that is the wisdom of God’s word.

“…which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other Scriptures”

There are two very important points driven home by this one statement. Firstly, we’re called back to everything Peter wrote about false teachers. They twist words of truth, blaspheme God, and bring about their own destruction. It also reminds us once again that the apostolic era is drawing to a close and that the writings of the apostles that form the New Testament all carry the same authority as the history, prophecy and poetry that make up the Old Testament. By noting that the false teachers will twist the Spirit directed writing of Paul “as they do the other Scriptures” he gives it all equal standing, which is just as crucial for us today as it was the early church.

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.”

Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Jesus quotes Psalm 6:8, “Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.”

Romans 4:5-8, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’”

Here Paul quotes Psalm 32:1-2, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”

Peter reminds us that we’ve been warned, what is coming should not catch us by surprise. Remaining vigilant in the Spirit and obedient to God’s will protects us from stumbling. The verse from Matthew makes clear that works without Christ at the center, things that we do of our own accord are nothing more than lawless deeds – it’s about God or nothing at all. It is entirely by our faith that we’re counted righteous – yes that faith in its fruitfulness will lead to works, but it is the faith that sanctifies and the works that give justification to the faith.

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

This sends me back to section of text that took up its own sermon, 2 Peter 1:3-11, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

We can’t afford to grow complacent; we can’t stop working in the Spirit – but this isn’t “work” as we perceive worldly work. This is living in a state of Spiritual abundance, of submitting to God and flourishing in Him. It would be a mistake to grow confident in ourselves for the sake of ourselves or to rest on the laurels of our spiritual development. We can’t lose sight of the fact that it’s by the providence of the Living Lord of Hosts, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – it is by God that we have what we have and are able to continue to grow.

“To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

In this I see a parallel to the closing of the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:13, though this part is not included in all manuscripts, “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”

The closing puts the focus succinctly where it’s supposed to be – on God. It reminds us of the day of his coming that approaches and it draws attention to the eternality of His glory. In all things, let the glory be to God for all eternity.

Pastor Chris’s sermon on the text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FflPYLjvtzU