Like Precious Faith
2Peter 1:1-11

The theme of 2Peter is: 'Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'.  The theme of chapter 1 is: 'Have the true knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord'.  The theme of chapter 2 is: 'False prophets and false teachers and the consequences for those people who follow them'.  The theme of chapter 3 is: 'The Lord will judge'.  Those saved people who obey chapter 1 will be blessed at their judgment.  Those saved people who follow the False prophets and false teachers  of chapter 2 will be cursed at their judgment.  Peter's conclusion is: Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless' But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Students are starting a new semester.  They will be taught many things and caught up in learning all of the details needed to pass tests and classes.  This is good for many reasons.  Even after graduating from school life gets busy and everyone is pushed to concentrate on the details required to accomplish their goals.  However, Peter is telling all of us that with all of this don't forget the main thing which we need to do daily in our lives.  That is to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  This is the most important daily task that everyone needs to accomplish.

Peter warns us against false prophets and false teachers  because they lead God's people into doctrinal error which will bring the judgment of God upon them and their houses.  Jude delivers the same message.  1John and 2John deliver the same message but calls these people antichrists.  True Biblical antichrists  are not the single beast  of Revelation but are many and in the world today and are the Biblical evidence that we are living in the last days.  Therefore, we see all of these Bible authors warning us against these people because of the judgment that they bring upon God's people and God's church.  The fact is that everything which people hear about Americans turning away from God is because Americans ignored this warning and let these people run rampant and teach God's people that they didn't have to worry about God's judgment coming upon them.  They are praying and begging God to remove the consequence but God will not do so because they refuse to stop their sinning.  Instead of believing the law of sowing and reaping  they believe the message of false prophets and false teachers.  Filipinos will suffer the same fate if they do the same thing.

In 1Peter, 2Peter and Revelation we are told that there are three groups of people.  In Revelation 3:16 where they are called the hot,  the cold,  and the lukewarm.  In 1Peter 4:18 where they are called the righteous,  the ungodly,  and the sinners.  In 2 Peter we read about the godly  in 1:3, 1:6, 1:7; 2:9 and 3:11.  We read about the ungodly  in 2:5, 2:6, and 3:7.  And, we read about the unjust  in 2:9-22.

• The people who are lost and live a life like they are lost are called the cold  and the ungodly.
• The people who are saved and live a life like they are saved are called the hot  and the godly.
• The people who claim to be saved but live like the lost are called lukewarm,  unjust  and sinners.

These people receive the worst punishment from God.  We read in Revelation 3:16 that Jesus says I will spue thee out of my mouth.  We read in 2Peter 2:21: For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.  Peter goes on and says But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.  That is: most of these people returned to their sin because they were not really saved in the first place.

The truth is that a lot of people spend a lot of time trying to convince everyone that these people are truly saved because they said a prayer  even though they do not have the Biblical evidence of a God-changed life which is the true result of having God's life in us.  With that said, we are going to ignore these people and concentrate on what Peter says to the truly saved.  In 2Peter 1:10-11 Peter said Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Peter tells us to stop worrying about these people who claim to be saved but are probably lost.  He says Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.  That is: concentrate on serving God so that you have the greatest reward when you get to Heaven.  In addition, Peter goes on to say for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.  The these things  which Peter is referring to is what he said before this sentence in his epistle.  In addition, Peter also says For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  That is: if we concentrate on doing what the Bible tells us to do and ignore the arguments about the salvation of people who are following false prophets and false teachers,  then we will have the best possible eternal reward.  However, if we get caught up in the arguments about these other people we will be distracted from our true purpose and lose our own rewards.

Therefore, the main message is to ignore distractions, ignore the false prophets and false teachers,  and concentrate on doing what God gave you to do.  There will always be distractions but we need to learn to ignore those distractions.

With that said, we need to return to the start of this epistle and see what Peter tells us to do.

• Peter is writing to them that have obtained like precious faith with us.  This is the group that are identified as the hot  and the godly.  As already mentioned, Peter says to not waste your time arguing with the people who are called lukewarm,  unjust  and sinners.  When they get tired of the judgment of God then they will be willing to listen and change.  Until God gives them an attitude adjustment, leave them alone.
• We are to obtain like precious faith with  the apostles and the early church.  This is a faith  which convinced people to be martyrs even after seeing the suffering of others.
• Since it is obtained  it is something which must be worked for.  No lazy people do this.
• Since it is precious  it is something that has great value and a high cost.  Many people want this but few are willing to pay the price.
• Faith  is an action word in the Bible.  Until you act all you have is a belief  that is in your head or heart.  However, that gets no rewards from God.  God rewards our works  which are produced by true Biblical faith.
• through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ  means that we must personally have the righteousness  that belongs to God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.  The word of  means belongs to.
• This righteousness  belongs to God and our Saviour Jesus Christ  and not to some religion.  That means that this righteousness  matches what is in the Bible.  Remember that we read 2Peter 1:8.  We can not have the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ  outside of knowing what is really written in the Bible.  We can only have this true righteousness  if we know and understand what our Bible tells us about it.
• This righteousness  belongs to God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.  God and Jesus Christ  planned for Him to be our Saviour  by Him giving us this righteousness.  If we refuse to obtain  this righteousness  then our life says that God and Jesus Christ  wasted their efforts to save us.
• The results found in the first sentence are: Grace and peace, his divine power, all things that pertain unto life and godliness, glory and virtue, exceeding great and precious promises, partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption.  We get these results through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.  We take a tunnel through  a mountain.  We go through  the water to get to the other side of a river with no bridge.  Any time that we go through  something we enter it on one side and exit it on the other side and until we go through,  that thing is a barrier.  The righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ  is a barrio which keeps people away from the promises of this sentence until they enter this righteousness  and it becomes part of them.

• Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God.  These are not just given but are multiplied  and this multiplication is through the knowledge of God.  This means that the more knowledge of God  that we have, the greater amount of Grace and peace  we receive every time that we obey.
• Next we are told that this is also through the knowledge of Jesus our Lord.  The and  which starts our second phrase adds the knowledge of Jesus our Lord  to the knowledge of God.  Simply put, there are a lot of cults which want to preach about God the Father while they ignore God the Son.  1John tells us that we can not know God the Father except through knowledge of God the Son.
• Further, Peter says Jesus our Lord  Because Jesus  is the role of the Son of God which shows us how to live in this flesh using the power of the Holy Spirit.  As Lord  He will judge our obedience to the commands on how to act in the flesh.
• Next, we see the phrase According as his divine power.  There is not a question about how much power  He has but we limit how much divine power  He can use in our life.  The more we let Him work in and through our life, the more of these promises that we can get.
• Next we see the promise of hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life.  God tells us But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  In Matthew 6:33 and Luke 12:31.  Thus our sentence is telling us that the more we let His divine power  operate in our life, the more we will receive all things that pertain unto life.
• That said, our phrase adds and godliness.  The main problem that people have is that they want things that pertain unto life  but which are not part of godliness.  Remember that these promises are given to the godly  but not given to the lost nor to the unjust sinners.
• Next we have a repeat of the phrase through the knowledge of .  That means that this is a doctrinal precept.  Unless we increase our knowledge of God,  we will not obtain these multiplied blessings.
• The last part of our Equivalent Section says that hath called us to glory and virtue.  Unless our life truly gives God glory  and our life displays virtue,  there is no reason for God to give us these multiplied blessings.  God gives His people grace  so that they can make Him look good which results in more people turning to God.  That is called giving God glory.  However, all through the New Testament we see Jesus Christ and apostles telling devils to shut up when they tried to give God glory.  Their word tainted the glory given to God.  Therefore, our life must display virtue  in order for us to give God glory  that is not tainted.

• Our verse starts with the word whereby.  This means that we receive the future promises by  what was already mentioned.  We must have like precious faith,  the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,  the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,  and have his divine power  producing godliness, glory and virtue  in our life before we can claim these future promises.
• Next we see Peter say that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.  God wants to give us His divine nature.  If we are not willing to receive that then there is no reason for God to give us any of the rest that is promised here.
• The last phrase of our sentence is: having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.  If we are not willing to give up lust  then we will not escape the corruption that is in the world.  Notice that the phrase having escaped  is past-tense.  We can not receive the divine nature  until after God removes the corruption that is in the world  from our life.

These first 4 verses compose the first sentence of this epistle and introduce Peter's message to us.  Once we understand this introduction, Peter commands us to add  several things to our life.  While I could go through them, people will forget what they mean unless they study them out for themselves.  But, in 2Peter 1:8 and 2Peter 1:9 Peter tells us the results of people who obey these commands and the results of people who do not obey.  Then in 2Peter 1:11 Peter tells us the eternal results of each.  Notice that 2Peter 1:11 starts with For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom.  If we obey then we will get the results of 1:8 in eternity and they will be abundant.  If we do not obey, then we will get the results of 2Peter 1:9 in eternity and they will be abundant.  Therefore, Peter gives us his conclusion of his introduction in 2Peter 1:10-11.  He tells us give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.

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