R.C. Sproul said intimacy with God comes first through knowledge, which then penetrates the heart. The first eight verses of 2 Peter 1 mention the word knowledge five times. Peter points out that his intention is to be repetitive in the form of reminders, so that the knowledge of Christ will be “established in the truth” long after his death. The reading of God’s Word must be careful, often, and intentional in order to acquire the kind of knowledge that “confirms our calling and election,” and brings us to a consummate familiarity with Jesus Christ.
Second Peter was written as an encouragement to the Jewish Christians of the time. These new followers of Christ were persecuted, frightened, and isolated, having been cut off from the nation that provided their very identity. Peter reassured them that what he was teaching was not fantasy, but reality, foretold long ago by prophets and then witnessed first hand by him and the other apostles. His epistle offered confident reassurance of “equal standing” with the apostles (2 Peter 1:1), a calling to God’s glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3), a receiving of God’s promises, and a partaking of Christ’s “divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
This second letter from Peter to the early church admonishes Christ followers to build in themselves, through practice, qualities that will bear fruit for God’s Kingdom— faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. It cautions that lacking in these qualities causes spiritual blindness and forgetfulness (2 Peter 1:9). Practicing them with diligence assures believers in Christ that they will never fall, and will be “richly provided” with entrance into God’s eternal kingdom (2 Peter 1:10-11). We cannot fathom what that will look like!
Reflect
Second Peter 1:3 says that God “has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” Verse 4 tells us that he has also “granted us his precious and very great promises.”
Read the following scriptures. What are some of the “precious and very great promises” God grants us that “pertain to life and godliness?”
Pray
Dear Father, thank you for sending your prophets long ago to foretell what will be. Thank you for providing the testimony of eye witnesses to tell your story. Thank you that Jesus told his followers what would take place so that when it happened we would believe. And thank you for your word. Help us to know it by reading it carefully, often, and with intention. Amen.