The Daily Devo with Steve

This is a really ‘strong’ chapter. As is often the case in reading scripture, context is very important. Peter is talking about false teachers here, people knowingly leading others away from God. And, it is important to differentiate between someone who is ignorant of the truth and someone who knows the truth but uses otherwise. In a lot of this chapter, Peter is describing the consequences of knowingly false teaching, self-serving teaching, and exploitation. His point is that this particular variety of sin carries with it a direct consequence from God. Most sin hurts us directly and ripples into the lives of those we love, whereas this sin directly hurts those around us, and can benefit us in the short-term...God doesn’t like that one bit. And this sin, knowingly false teaching, pushes people away from God...which he also hates.

But look at verse 21, it says: "For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness then after knowing it turned back from the holy commandment delivered to them." That immediately reminded me, as I was reading it this morning, of John 6:67, when Jesus has done some miracles (including the famous walking on water) and then he goes into some really strong teaching and it exposes a divide between those following him for the right versus the wrong reasons.

Go read John 6:67.

Notice the character in there with Jesus? It is Peter, the same Peter that wrote this letter. I love his question to Jesus, “To whom shall we go?”

In other words, we can't unsee the truth. Our only choice is after seeing truth or to except it and to do the work to develop our faith in ourselves, or to reject it. In choosing to reject it though, we are really just deferring it. Truth is truth. When we deal with the consequences of God's truth during life we can experience the joy associated with the truth; life change, fellowship with God, love, joy, etc. If we choose deferral, we deal with it later and longer (forever).

So that is the question for today, simply “Am I willing?”

...willing to accept grace...to be changed by it...to apply myself to growth by it...to be humbled by it...to submit to it...all of it...am I? Am I REALLY?

As hard as that teaching from Jesus seems, and as hard as this question is, the truth is that life is hard. It can be hard with God or hard without God, and I'll take the former over the latter every day of the week!

One of the things that plagues the Christian faith is the proliferation of the works-based salvation mindset; the idea that our behavior, our ability to sin less, has a relationship with our salvation. That is simply not true, and even a cursory read of the New Testament demonstrates that.  What is admittedly a little more difficult to get at for many of us becomes this question, “What is the point in behaving then?”  This is a little more of a tricky question, because most of the answers presuppose a faith in God. The truth is, behaving is irrelevant if you don’t believe in God.  But, for us believers, Peter gets at one of the answers to this question here in 2 Peter 1:8

“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.”

This is also one of those verses where all of the material around this particular verse supports this verse, so it's important to read all of it.

In the study of behavior change, there is a lot of evidence that points to the fact that removing unwanted behavior is much less effective than replacing it. It stands to reason that our faith may operate similarly; instead of focusing on all the things God wants us to avoid, perhaps we should focus on those things to which we have been called.  Peter lists those for us as virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. Paul lists these in various places in his writings as well.  Maybe if we focused on these behaviors, not as a way to avoid God's punishment, but as a way to understand God and to have a more personal relationship with God, our relationship with behavior change might improve.  It stands to reason as well that in doing these things it would be hard to simultaneously behave in a way that would displease God, it's hard to love somebody and intentionally hurt them at the same time.

So, for today, my question to ponder throughout the day will be thinking through what I can do to be a little more like God, in a small way, as I live my life today.

Before getting into the chapter by chapter study of 2 Peter, I did my full read through this morning. As I went through the entire letter one passage really specifically stuck out to me.

2 Peter 19 says:

“They promised them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For what overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”

Wow, that last sentence, so strong! There is so much teaching about the dues and especially adults in Christian living, from Scripture, but it generally isn't a particular action that is what is so important, but the heart. Just about anything can become an idol, and therefore a bad thing...so we must be on guard against what is attempting to overcome us.

So here is the question I am considering for myself today - “What, in my life, now controls me that I once controlled?  What appetite?  What behavior?  Or how about this - what HABIT now runs on autopilot and controls me without my thinking about it, needs up-rooting?

A huge theme in Peters writing his self control. We see it come up in all of his letters. And that's exactly what this is about. Today I will be conscious of my appetites and especially my habitual behaviors to see if I can identify what's controlling me, and where I need to take back control.

I love the reminder in verse five that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. It is just another example from Peter that demonstrates an interaction with God in our lives; that our actions can influence how God interacts with us. Yesterday I was reading of how our prayers can be hindered if we don’t live out our mandate of brotherly love with others, and here we see another connection between God and us.  In someways, Peter is making a relationship with God more “tangible”.

But, for me, perhaps the most powerful two verses in all of this letter come here in 6 & 7

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

That is so strong! Three things jump out at me from this text:

1. At the proper time: unfortunately, this is not at a time of my choosing, nor on a timeline of which I am on aware.  This is a real shot any sense of control that I might have over my life!

2. Exalt: I am essentially setting up a scenario where God holds me in a high regard when I humble myself in my life; again, we see the cause-and-effect relationship between the way we live and how God interacts with us.

3. Because he cares for you: this phrase sounds so personal. It’s not just that God loves us, but that he is concerned for us, and he wants to respond to us. We just have to get out of our own way by being humble and living out our calling of brotherly love.

Great stuff!

Looking at 1 Peter 4:7 “... For the sake of your prayers...”, and connecting it back to 1 Peter 3:7 “... so your prayers may not be hindered...”, we can see a relationship between our actions and how our prayers are 'heard' by God.