Prayer for Growth

Text: II Peter 1:2-11

What Knowledge Brings - II Peter 1:2-4

Peter begins with a blessing to his readers. He desires that they receive grace and peace in abundance. The phrase “grace and peace be multiplied to you” is found only here and in I Peter 1:2 in the New Testament. These come through the knowledge of God, the Father, and Jesus Christ. It is only within the sphere of the knowledge of the Father and the Son that grace and peace can be found. The Greek word epignosei refers to intimate knowledge of a subject. “Knowledge” then is a key topic in this epistle.

Jesus, through his divine power, has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. “Life” refers to our conduct here on earth and “godliness” refers to our conduct before God. He has given these to us through the true knowledge of Jesus (Romans 1:16; John 17:3). This is in contrast to knowledge that brings pride (I Corinthians 8:1) or that pretends to be truth (I Timothy 6:20). And through this knowledge, he calls us by his glory and excellence (II Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 1:18-19; I Peter 2:9).

By his glory and excellence he has also given us precious and grand promises (II Peter 3:13; I Peter 1:4). By these promises we can become partakers of God’s divine nature (II Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10; Hebrews 12:10; I Peter 1:23). The Greek word for "nature" is phusis. Like our English word, it has a range of meanings that must be determined by the context. Here it means an object's disposition or natural characteristics. Thus, Peter is referring to sharing some of the characteristics of God. When we become partakers of God’s nature, we escape the corruption in the world that resulted from lust (Mark 7:21-23; I John 2:15-17).

Class Discussion:

1. What subjects are included in “life”?
2. What subjects are included in “godliness”?
3. What does “all things” leave out?
4. Pantheism claims that God is in everything. How does this passage contradict that belief?

Areas to Grow In - II Peter 1:5-7

Faith

Many think of faith as a feeling. It isn't; it is trusting someone or something. I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow, barring the Lord's return. It isn't a feeling that makes me think the sun will come up. It is a decision that I make based on the evidence that I've seen that allows me to act as if it will happen even though it hasn't yet. When the Bible says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6), it is not talking about having a feeling that God exists or a feeling that God rewards the faithful. It is a decision that you make that you trust that God exists based on the evidence that you have seen. Because of that trust, you then act as if God is present even though you do not at this moment see Him.

Faith is something that grows. "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other" (II Thessalonians 1:3). None of us have perfect faith. All of us have ample room to grow our faith further. When I have faith in something, it doesn't mean I necessarily have faith in all aspects. I might trust my boss to give me my next paycheck, but I might not trust him to keep me employed until I retire. When Peter got out of the boat to walk to Jesus, he had faith ... for a while. "And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" " (Matthew 14:29-31). Notice that Jesus did not say Peter had no faith; he only said that Peter's faith was small. Peter doubted, but it didn't mean he lost his faith completely. After all, Peter had enough faith to step out of the boat -- the other disciples did not do that much. But Peter let the violence of the storm cause him to doubt that he could continue to do what he was doing.

Faith grows personally. As your parents raised you, they passed on their knowledge of the faith to you. "And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). But like any teacher of God's word, your parents can give you knowledge of God's word, but they can't directly impart their personal faith in that word. That personal faith must develop within each individual. "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase" (I Corinthians 3:5-7).

Faith develops in response to the written word of God. "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17; also II Timothy 2:15). It is the message and not the messenger that causes faith to grow in an individual.

Moral Excellence / Virtue

Virtue is doing what is right. It is civilized behavior. The Greek word being translated is arete, which means manliness in doing what is right. It is people acting according to a standard that is greater than mere instinct because “right” is not defined differently for each person. Virtue is taking a stand that is worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). It is the courage to do what is right.

Jesus calls us by his virtue (II Peter 1:2-4). We have to put our knowledge of what is right into action. Jesus is our ultimate example of putting the right knowledge into the right action

The idea of virtue is that the standard of living we are striving for is far above us. Thus, we work toward being like Christ (Ephesians 4:15-16).

Often virtue is translated as moral excellence. Virtue is not moral mediocrity. “It’s good enough” is not good enough. When we strive for better, then we will be productive (II Peter 1:8, 10-11 notice the emphasis on doing). Doing the minimum necessary is not a virtue.

Knowledge

"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:9-10). The word of God is the guidebook for our growth. Christians should never feel they have had enough of it or have learned all there is to know. "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious" (I Peter 2:2-3).

The 17-18th century Scottish novelist, playwright, and poet, Sir Walter Scott wrote of the Bible:

“The most learned, acute and diligent student cannot, in the longest life, obtain an entire knowledge of this one volume. The more deeply he works the mine, the richer and more abundant he finds the ore; new light continually beams from this source of heavenly knowledge, to direct the conduct and illustrate the work of God and the ways of men; and he will at last leave the world confessing that the more he studied the Scriptures, the fuller conviction he had of his own ignorance and of their inestimable value.”

If you work at understanding something, you can grasp new ideas easier and constantly grow in knowledge. If you stop learning, then you will start losing ground and can actually go backward.

Jesus used parables that confused the disciples. The parables were not difficult to understand once a person gets a sense of how they operate, yet the great religious minds of the day completely missed the points while the humble hearts of common people, eager to learn, grasped them. Thus the lack of understanding would prove how poorly these great minds knew God’s Word. The disciples were particularly blessed because the things they would understand were things prophets in the past eagerly desired to learn but were unable to do so.

So even when a person has a small amount of understanding, it will lead him to greater understanding as he continues to search and study God's word. A person who thinks he has all he needs, who doesn't apply himself to trying to learn more, will lose ground in the amount that he understands.

“The Bible has a great deal to say about the need to meditate on God’s word. As we meditate, excogitate, and ruminate, we experience a deepening of insight and apprehension. There are surface truths that every sincere seeker can readily receive. But there are profound matters which are not easily grasped and implications not soon apparent. Such knowledge is like a seed that needs to grow into a mature plant. Such development requires pondering truth and dwelling on it. It involves the recognition that we have biases and presuppositions and it demands the effort to lay these aside in our study and examine and then reexamine. It calls for the humility to listen to what others think.” [Ken Green]

Self-Control

An important aspect of Christianity is self-control (Acts 24:25). It is mastery over our wayward inclinations (I Corinthians 6:12). Many fall back into sin by letting their desires and emotions overwhelm their reason. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, and we need to add it to our faith (Galatians 5:23). We must exercise self-control in all things (I Corinthians 9:24-27). In reality, there is no excuse for sin. We can resist Satan’s temptations (I Peter 5:8-9; James 4:7; I Corinthians 10:13). This doesn’t mean we won’t fail at times, but then we always have room to grow (I John 2:8,10).

Perseverance

“As Peter continued to list the characteristics that one must add, he named "patience" as being essential in our lives to keep us from falling and to insure us a part in the "everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior" (II Peter 1:5-11). James wrote: "Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the purpose of the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful" (James 5:11). Therefore, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we must have patience if we would walk in the favor of God” [Forest Moyer].

The word here expresses a willingness to wait, even through disagreeable times. It is probably best illustrated by God's longsuffering with mankind. "What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?" (Romans 9:22-24). Mankind, as a whole, has not been the most loveable of God's creations.

Our behavior in rebelling against our God would have tried anyone's patience. Yet, we find that God has put up with the bad in order to save the good (II Peter 3:9). God's tolerance of man's sins is not endless, but it is very long, giving us every opportunity to improve.

Patience is a required character trait in a farmer (Mark 4:26-29). It takes a year’s worth of effort to bring in a crop and until that crop is gathered, you do not know how effective your efforts have been. The farmer prepares the soil and scatters the seed, but the actual sprouting of the seed is not under his control. Exactly how it happens is not something he needs to know. The farmer plants the seed, but it is God who causes it to grow. “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase” (I Corinthians 3:5-7).

Those who work toward the spreading of the kingdom need reminders that growth doesn’t come all at once. The word of God is scattered and eventually, some of it grows. Even then it takes time for the Christian to mature to the point that he can begin spreading the word in turn (I Peter 2:1-3; Hebrews 5:12-14). We may not know how the word causes a Christian to mature, but we can see the results in a Christian’s life.

Even in the face of sin, we are to practice longsuffering. Listen to the words of Paul, "And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak. be longsuffering toward all" (l Thessalonians 5:14). Lest we think it un-Christian to be longsuffering with the erring, consider our personal condition before the Lord. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9).

The following makes a good illustration:

“The nation was in the midst of the Great Depression and drought in 1930. I was fifteen. My mother and I lived alone on a small West Tennessee farm. We were attempting to scratch out a bare living from a worn-out farm with whatever abilities an ignorant boy, a widowed mother, and one mule and a plow could muster. That fall the rainfall had been so minute that the planter tracks could still be seen.

“After a tiring, fruitless day, Mother sat by the coal oil lamp reading of God's love for man. With all the impatience of a teenage boy, I halted her reading from the thumb-worn Bible with this question: "Mother, you tell me God loves us. He has a funny way of showing it! We have worked our fingers to the bone for the entire growing season, yet we will harvest little from these parched fields. We have done all man can do. All this soil needs is rain, which only God can send. If God loves us, why doesn't He make it rain?"

“With the patience which comes only from faith and years of trials, Mother paused, raised her head from the pages of her beloved Word of God, and replied, "Son, you are making a serious mistake. You are assuming that God is interested in growing cotton and corn. He isn't! He can do that without you and me. God is interested in growing men. I dare say that, in future years, if God grants such to you, you will look back on 1930 as a terrible year for growing corn and cotton. But, if you learn the message God is teaching, you will recall this depression year as a great one for growing men!"

“Mother was right. Want teaches what abundance can never know. Without a drought and a mother who understood it, I might never have known II Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” ” [Dwayne Laws].

Godliness

Peter is referring to the same thing he discussed in his earlier letter. "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy" " (I Peter 1:13-16). As a Christian learns and lives by God's teaching, he takes on the characteristics of his teacher. God is providing us with a training regimen that leads us to godliness. “On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (I Timothy 4:7-8).

“The Lord calls us away from sinfulness and into godliness, "out of darkness and into his marvelous light" (I Peter 2:9). This transition is also described as a rebirth: "you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God" (I Peter 1:23). John emphatically declares that this rebirth changes the way we live: "no one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God" (I John 3:9-10).

“Not only is holiness in the life of a Christian possible, but it is also required. We simply cannot claim to be a child of God while living in sin. Christians do not walk in the shadows, half in and half out of the light.

"If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth" (I John 1:6).

“Jesus came and showed us how to live. He showed us the Father. If we would have fellowship with Him, we must live as He lived. Jesus instructed His apostles to go and make disciples, baptizing them and "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20). Our Lord clearly expected that people of all nations would be able to learn, understand, and obey. Through faith and the grace of God, the Christian life is one that anyone can choose to live.

“God gives us time to grow, and He expects us to do it. He supplies what we need; we have to bring the appetite. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6).” [Eric Reynolds]

Brotherly Kindness

Our improvement is also to be shown in how we treat others. We are to do good, especially for our fellow Christians (Ephesians 4:32; Galatians 6:10; Colossians 3:12; I Thessalonians 5:15; I Peter 3:8-9). Kindness is also a part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).

The Greek word chrestotes is a form of the word for usefulness. It means kindness, goodness, or honesty. It carries the idea that these are done with mildness or gentleness. Gentleness is how we treat our fellow man (Titus 3:2) and it eliminates the hardness and bitterness that is present in worldly lives. When we get out-of-sorts with our families, brethren, neighbors, or even possibly ourselves; remember that the Christian is kind, he is gentle in his dealings with others (Colossians 3:12-13). Kindness brings stability to relationships (Psalms 112:5-9).

Love

Paul noted that love is essential. “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (I Corinthians 13:2-3). Thus, Jesus requires love from his followers. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). It is love that brings about unity (Colossians 3:14).

There is no upper limit on the amount of love we can have. “Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (I Thessalonians 3:11-13; also I Thessalonians 4:9-10). Love must be sincere (I Peter 1:22) and thorough (I John 3:14-18).

Class Discussion:

1. Is there a relationship, sequence, or pattern between the things listed by Peter?

The Need to Grow - II Peter 1:8-11

As a Christian learns and lives by God's teaching, he takes on the characteristics of his teacher. To encourage that transformation, Peter listed out examples of things Christians ought to both have and grow in: faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. "For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Peter 1:8). We become partakers of the divine nature (II Peter 1:4). But this comes about through diligent effort. We must make it a habit to do what is right.

A lack of applying what a person learns to his life will not only interfere with growth, it will also cause decay. If we don’t grow, we’ll forget (II Peter 1:9-10). "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does" (James 1:22-25). This is why Paul warned about people who were always learning, but never applying things to their lives (II Timothy 3:6-7). It is possible to forget that we’ve been purged from our sins and, thus, become useless and unproductive.

It can cause blindness or short-sightedness. You cannot recognize what you do not have or understand (Titus 1:15-16). We can be blinded by our sins (I John 2:9-11).

It is possible for a Christian to fall away (II Peter 1:9). But Peter doesn't want it to come across that falling away is inevitable (II Peter 1:10-11). Because it is possible for you to lose what you have gained, it ought to spur you to greater action to make sure you hang on to what you have. How? "If you do these things you will never stumble." If you constantly grow and apply the things Peter discussed earlier (II Peter 1:5-8), then you won't stumble, you won't fall away. People who fall away stop following the Lord's commands. They stop growing as Christians. Therefore, keep working at it and you won't fall.