D. Richard Ferguson's Blog

Life’s trials usually feel like setbacks, but through the lens of faith, they can transform into profound opportunities for joy. In “Finding Joy in Trials: Embracing Suffering for Christ’s Sake,” we explore the paradox of embracing suffering as an integral part of a joyful life. This article invites you to reconsider the trials you face—not as burdens but as catalysts for growth and deeper connection with Christ. As we delve into scripture, we’ll uncover the transformative power of adversity and the peace that comes from seeing them from a biblical perspective. Join us as we learn to find joy, strength, and solace, even amidst our most challenging moments. Embracing suffering is not merely about endurance; it’s about discovering the beauty and grace that can flourish when we lean into our faith.

Is Finding Joy in Trials a Denial of Reality?

The brother of Jesus begins his book by telling us to do something that sounds impossible.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2).

Does that mean we are supposed to enjoy suffering, like masochists? No, we are not required to enjoy suffering. If we did, it wouldn’t be suffering.

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful” Hebrews 12:11.

When the command to consider trials pure joy, James means to shock us. He expects you to do a, “Wait … what?” and give it careful thought.

What James says is not to enjoy trials, but to consider them joy.

But is that a denial of reality? If trials aren’t joyful, why should we consider them joyful? Does God want us to live in a fantasy world?

The word consider is a cognitive word. It refers to something you think and believe, as opposed to something you feel. You go through a process of reasoning and then come to a particular conclusion that you regard as true. But that is not to say your emotions are uninvolved.  It is a thinking word, but “joy” is most definitely a feeling word. The purpose of the thinking is to have an impact on your feeling.

Feeling Comes from Thinking

Don’t make the common mistake of thinking emotions are merely involuntary reflexes that simply happen to you. We are not just mechanistic robots controlled by random hormonal reactions. Emotions are connected with physical processes, but in most cases, those processes are the result of what the soul does, not the cause.

Emotion is the result of your heart’s interpretation of events. If you see a dog and your mind interprets what it sees as a threat, the result of that interpretation is an emotion: fear. A woman sees a bouquet of flowers on the counter, it’s her birthday, and she interprets what she sees as a thoughtful gesture of love from her husband. The result of that interpretation is a range of emotions, such as happiness, gratitude, and love.

But suppose her husband walks into the room and says, “Hey honey, can you please put those flowers in a nice vase for me? It’s Secretary’s Day, and I want to give her something nice.” Now her interpretation of the situation changes dramatically, resulting in very different emotions. Emotions are results of interpretations of circumstances.

In many cases, the thoughts and interpretations happen so quickly that it’s not clear where the emotion is coming from. But emotions do not just come out of the blue. They are related to our assessment of events and the resulting thought progressions.

Beliefs and Values

Interpretations are only half the equation, however. After you interpret the situation, you then weigh that interpretation against your beliefs and values. If you give a child a piece of candy, he might have emotions of exuberant happiness. Give a lollipop to an adult, and it may have no emotional effect at all. Both the kid and the adult interpret your gesture the same way, but the kid values candy far more than the adult. They have different emotional reactions because they value the situation differently.

The same goes for beliefs. Suppose two people get word that a particular candidate won the election. One guy believes this will result in more justice and better conditions, so he is full of hope. The other guy believes it will result in higher taxes and higher crime, so he is full of fear. So the same interpretation of the data results in opposite emotions because of opposite beliefs.

Can Feelings Be Wrong?

Can emotions be right or wrong? Yes. If your feelings are based on a wrong interpretation of the situation, or if they arise from wrong values or wrong beliefs, then they’re wrong.

This is one of the biggest differences between worldly counseling and biblical counseling. In worldly counseling, the main goal is to feel better. In Scripture, the main goal is to feel rightly.

Find Joy in Trials by Interpreting Your Trials Correctly

So back to our text. What is James doing here when he says Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials? He is not saying, “Pretend something is true that isn’t true.” What James is doing here is showing us how to adjust our beliefs about suffering and adjust how much we value the results of suffering, and adjust our interpretation of suffering so that it really will result in actual joy that we can feel. He uses a thinking word instead of a feeling word because to change feelings, you have to first change your ways of thinking.

So many of our problems come not from our suffering, but from wrong interpretation of suffering, wrong beliefs about suffering, and undervaluing the benefits that come from suffering. James teaches us the right way to interpret suffering (as a test of faith). And he corrects our beliefs about suffering by showing us that it is designed for our good.

Changing Your Interpretation (Trials = Tests)

When something hurts, think, “Regardless of the way things seem, the reality is that this suffering is a good thing.” If the medicine tastes terrible but the doctor says, “Trust me, it’s a good thing. Without it you’ll die,” then you will pay good money for that horrible tasting medicine because you think of it as valuable. So the beginning point, when it comes to suffering, is to listen to God when he says, “This suffering that I bring into your life; trust me – it’s a good thing.”

Which Trials?

What kinds of suffering does this include? Does this apply to suffering caused by sinful people around me? Does it apply to suffering caused by my own stupidity? Does it apply to suffering sent by God as chastisement for sin? Is it only for major suffering, or does it also apply to little things? Does this apply to stubbing my toe? Does it apply to losing a loved one? Is it just physical suffering, or also emotional suffering? Notice what James says:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds (James 1:2).

That word translated “of many kinds” points to the wideness of the variety. The idea is that it is not just the categories you would normally think of when you think of suffering. Think more broadly. Think wider variety. The principles applies to every kind of suffering—big small, your fault, someone else’s fault, physical, emotional—consider it all pure joy. It might be an evil thing that people are doing to you, it might be an evil thing that you did to yourself, but none of that changes the fact that what God is doing is a good thing.

Is It a Test?

James refers to our suffering two different ways. The first time it is called trials. The second time it is called testing. The first word, trial, is the Greek word peirasmos. That is a word that can either mean suffering or temptation, depending on the context. Here it is referring to suffering – anything that causes grief or sorrow or pain.

Then James refers to those events as the testing of your faith. That tells us something about how to correctly interpret the trials in your life. They are tests. Sometimes people will say, “I wonder if this is some sort of test from God?” You don’t have to wonder. All trials are tests. You get a mosquito bite; that’s a test. You get terminal cancer; that’s a test. Your boss yells at you at work; that’s a test. You get in an accident and become a quadriplegic; that’s a test. Kids disobey – test. Cancer – test.

Tests of what? Your faith. Verse 3 – the testing of your faith. Every event of hardship in your life, big or small, is designed to test your faith. And it is the sort of test that also refines – like putting gold in fire. It reveals whether the gold is real and how pure it is, and in the process of revealing that, it burns the impurities away and makes it better. Suffering does that to your heart—tests it and improves it.

You can tell if faith is real by whether suffering makes you run toward God or away from him. Some people get angry at God when they suffer. Others go through the exact same suffering and it makes them seek God all the more earnestly. How can the same suffering have those opposite effects? It is because the suffering is a test that reveals and exposes the fact that the first person’s faith wasn’t pure (or maybe wasn’t even real), and the second person’s was.

Changing Your Beliefs (Testing Produces Perseverance)

If all your suffering is a test, how do you pass the test? The answer is in verse 3.

“Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials … knowing that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (James 1:2-3).

How do you pass the test? By knowing something. This is where changing your beliefs comes into play.

James is not calling us to some silly, mindless optimism that is not grounded in anything. This is not the power of positive thinking (“I got hit by a car—at least it wasn’t a bus!”). That is not the sort of thing James is talking about here. He is saying, “Interpret suffering as a good, beneficial, valuable thing, because of something you know to be true—namely, that you’re going to get perseverance out of the deal.”

Changing Your Values (Perseverance Is Priceless)

Everything James is telling us to do here stands or falls based on how much we value perseverance. Imagine a trainer who says, “Consider it pure joy when you feel that burn, because you know that means you’re going to be in shape soon.” That motivates some people but not others. Why? Because some people value being in shape extremely highly, and others don’t care that much about it. If he said, “Consider it pure joy when you feel that burn because once you complete the workout I’ll give you a million dollars,” then more people would find it possible to consider it pure joy. So when James tells us to consider all our suffering pure joy because we know we get perseverance out of the deal, that gets us nowhere unless we highly value perseverance.

The Definition of Perseverance

Perseverance is the ability to outlast your trial. For the Christian, all suffering is temporary. Our trials come, stay for a while, then go away. And the goal is to still be standing firm when the trial finally goes away. Perseverance is not just an individual act of fortitude or strength. It is something that is deep in your character that manifests itself in all kinds of situations in life, so no matter what the trial/test, your steadfastness and resolve outlasts it.

Life without Perseverance

Perseverance is a priceless treasure because life without perseverance is a nightmare. Everything ends in failure. People who lack perseverance will hang in there for a while, but at some point they buckle, and revert to some sinful response.

And we all have different ways of caving in. For some people, it is escape. If a conversation gets too hard, they just walk out of the room. If a problem at church gets too hard, they just leave the church. If work gets too hard, they quit their job. School gets hard, they drop out. A relationship gets hard, they just cut it off. Marriage gets hard, get a separation. They can deal with problems up to a point, but once they reach that tipping point, they just run away. And if they can’t run physically, they run emotionally. They just retreat into a cocoon of self-pity.

For others, caving in means reverting to anger. Instead of continuing in patience, they just give in to the impulse to become angry. They can’t make it all the way through the trial without getting mad.

For others, caving in means doubting God—questioning his wisdom, his goodness, his power, or his love.

Another form of caving in is resorting to some earthly distraction for your comfort. “I’m suffering so much, I deserve this pleasure.”

Another way people give in is by just quitting. As soon as things get hard, you quit. Life is hard for people who lack perseverance, because you can’t finish anything. You have got half-finished projects all over your house. You make resolutions, but you can’t ever follow through. You decide to go on a diet, but it only lasts a couple weeks. You decide to get in shape, but after four or five trips to the gym, it goes by the wayside. All the books in your library have a bookmark somewhere around chapter 2. You have read Genesis ten times more than any other book in the Bible because of all the times you resolved to read the whole Bible cover to cover and you gave up not long after you started. A good portion of your life is spent just staring at hard jobs. “Wow, look at all that laundry. That’s a lot. I should be doing it. I’m going to do it right now. Wow, look at all that laundry.” – and you just can’t seem to get moving.

And so your life becomes one, giant truckload of guilt that you carry around all the time. You see your backpack – “Homework – all that homework. I really need to get busy on that. The big semester project is due in a week; I should really get started on it.”

“I should study for that test.”

“I should write that paper.”

“I should do those labs”.

“I … wonder what’s on my social media feed?”

When we lack perseverance and we quit rather than following through, the whole reason we do that is to make life easier. But instead it makes life harder. It makes life miserable. You always have this mountain of work you are supposed to be doing and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and instead of feeling refreshed and rested you feel more and more overwhelmed—even though you aren’t doing anything.

Not only that, but you have constant relationship problems. You don’t ever have any deep friendships, because you bail as soon as things get hard. Your marriage is always in the toilet because you can’t make it through any conflict without falling into sin.

Life is hard for people who lack perseverance—especially for Christians who lack perseverance because your worst enemy gets to control your life. The devil, who hates you and wants to destroy you and use your life to dishonor God, will be able to stop you in your tracks any time he wants just by attaching some hardship to what you are doing. So your worst enemy now has the ability to steer you wherever he wants you to go.

This is not a small matter. All success in the Christian life depends on perseverance.

“The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:15).

“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Hebrews 10:36).

Nothing less than your eternal destiny is at stake.

“He who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22).

“To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life” (Romans 2:7).

If you lack perseverance your life will end in disaster.

Maturity

On the other hand, if you have perseverance, look what James promises:

“Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4).

Maturity. Becoming what God designed you to be. Getting out of your caterpillar form and becoming an actual butterfly. Becoming an oak tree instead of just an acorn. Being a functioning, healthy adult instead of a helpless infant. Maturity is when you become what you are supposed to be.

So think, for a minute, about what spiritual maturity is. We know what social maturity is—when you respond in social situations like an adult instead of like a child. So what is spiritual maturity? Spiritual maturity is when the spiritual things about you are functioning the way God designed them to function. Like your emotions. How does it affect your emotions when you hear about someone in our church who repented of a sin, compared to how you feel when your team gets a big win or you get a raise at work?

How about your assumptions? Love always assumes the best possible motive. The flesh assumes what it wants to assume. How far along that line of maturity have you progressed so far?

How about attitudes? What are your attitudes about authority, or suffering, or the church, or the lost? How closely do your attitudes mirror God’s attitudes?

How about your desires? Do you desire the most valuable things the most, or are you still desiring unimportant, temporal, earthly things more than spiritual, eternal things? How does your desire for a new car or better house or an easier life compare to your desire for eternal reward on Judgment Day?

What about your values? Could someone tell by watching you live your life that eternal things are much more valuable to you than temporal things?

Emotions, assumptions, attitudes, desires, values—those are all things that determine your responses to things that happen in life. John MacArthur once said, “Spiritual maturity is when your involuntary reactions are godly.” That is a great statement. When you have spiritually mature attitudes, mature assessments of things, mature emotions, mature values and desires, you will find that your quick, instant, kneejerk, involuntary reactions to things reflect the heart of God. That is spiritual maturity. Do you want that? It comes one way—through perseverance.

The reason you need perseverance in order to reach spiritual maturity is because all other virtues depend on perseverance. Scripture speaks of perseverance in doing good (Ro.2:7), perseverance in hope (Ro.8:25), in ministry (2 Cor.12:12), in doing God’s will (Heb.10:36), in running the race (Heb.12:1), in hard work (Rev.2:2), in faith (Rev.14:12), and on and on. We need perseverance for every single Christian virtue.

And that is why, whenever a trial or hardship comes into your life, it is an occasion for rejoicing.

Conclusion

I am amazed at how many Christians don’t seem to like this passage. Preachers often feel they have to apologize for it. One commentator had a long section on how important it is that we don’t ever use this passage for grief counseling. It’s considered insensitive to quote James 1:2 to people who are suffering.

That’s heartbreaking. Are we forgetting that it was the Holy Spirit who inspired James to write this? And he didn’t write it to a bunch of people sitting on the beach sipping drinks at a resort. These are Jewish Christians scattered around the Gentile world suffering greatly. Many of them were in deep poverty, having wages withheld from them, being dragged into court unjustly. These people were suffering real hardships, and James not only says this to them, but he begins with it.

I love this passage. I don’t know how I would make it through life without this passage. Don’t be ashamed of this truth. I hope if you see me getting snowed under by trials that you will remind me of the truths from this passage as soon as possible.

Can this passage be used in an insensitive way or misapplied? Sure, but that does not mean we should hide these marvelous principles from those who need them at the moment they need them most. Just use it in a sensitive way and apply it correctly and explain how it is done. Then it will be a soothing, healing balm to the troubled soul. The problem is not with people quoting James 1:2 – Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. The problem is when they stop there and fail to quote verses 3 through 12. They tell people to rejoice, but don’t explain how. Change your interpretation of suffering, change your beliefs about what is happening, and change how much you value perseverance and the outcomes of perseverance. Then your considering trials joy will turn to actually feeling real joy in the midst of suffering.

Application Questions:Which current trial in your life are you finding it the hardest to consider pure joy?Do you think it is because of wrong interpretation, wrong values, or wrong beliefs?When you buckle under pressure of a trial, which kind of buckling are you most prone to? (giving up, getting angry, self-pity, rewarding yourself with some sin or distraction, questioning God’s goodness or love or power, etc.)Resources

For a full sermon on James 1:2-4 and sermons on the rest of the book of James, visit TreasuringGod.com.
If you struggle with anxiety in your suffering, be sure to get your copy of Anxiety and the Peace of God: Six Biblical Cures for Worry, Stress, and Inner Turmoil.

 

The post Finding Joy in Trials: How to Embrace Suffering for Christ’s Sake appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

God designed us to crave peace. Whether you’re seeking inner calm, harmony in relationships, or spiritual rest, or, most importantly, peace with God, these Bible verses about peace will nourish your soul. Below, we explore key verses that highlight God’s promise of peace, along with reflections to help you apply them in your life.

What Does the Bible Say About Peace?

The Bible describes peace as a gift from God, a state of wholeness that transcends circumstances. These verses can anchor your soul during turbulent times and remind you of God’s calming presence.

1. John 16:33 – Only through Christ

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (NIV)

The beginning point of understanding peace is that it is in Christ. It is only through deepening your relationship with him that you will gain true peace. But don’t think peace means no trouble. You will have trouble … and peace.

2. Philippians 4:6-7 – The Peace of God

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

The peace of God refers not merely to peace from God, but the very peace that God himself experiences. God’s peace can exist in you when you pray this way!

3. Philippians 4:9 – The God of Peace

“The God of peace will be with you.” (NIV)

Being a source of peace for us is so central to the nature of God, that he calls himself the God of peace. And not just once. five different places in the New Testament (Romans 15:33; 16:20; Philippians 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20). In 2 Thessalonians 3:16 he is the Lord of peace. And Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

4. John 14:27 – Not Like the World’s Peace

” Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (NIV)

The world offers all kinds of sources of peace–anxiety medications, alcohol, meditation, therapy, yoga, a cabin in the woods. But none of them come anywhere close to the kind of peace Jesus offers.

4. Psalm 23:1-3 – Rest in God’s Provision

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” (NIV)

Sheep won’t drink from running water. God will not only provide what you need, but in the form you can receive it.

5. Isaiah 26:3 – Perfect Peace

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” (NIV)

The more you trust him, the more perfect the peace.

6. Psalm 94:19 – Divine Comforts

“When anxieties within me are many, your comforts delight my soul.” 

When anxieties pile up, nothing in this world is enough to calm them. But God’s comforts are always enough.

7. Romans 15:13 – The God of Hope

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

Just like John 14:27 and Isaiah 26:3, the peace always comes through trust.

8. Psalm 119:165 – Peace through Law

“Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” 

The law reflects God’s heart. So loving it means loving God’s will. And that brings peace.

9. Psalm 4:8 – Sleeping Like a Baby

“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” 

If you’re right with God, you have nothing to fear. He is bigger than anything you fear.

10. Psalm 131:1-2 – I Have Stilled and Quieted My Soul

“My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

It is pride that makes us need to have all the answers about our problems. When we let go of that pride and entrust it to God, we can still and quiet our souls like a healthy baby in his mother’s arms.

11. Colossians 3:15 – Let the Peace of Christ Rule

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”

God provides peace for us and expects us to promote that peace in our relationships. Blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) because peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness (James 3:18).

12. Numbers 6:24-26 – The LORD Turn His Face Toward You and Give You Peace

“The LORD bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”

When God instructed the priests about how to bless the people, the closing words of the blessing that were left ringing in the people’s ears were, “May the LORD … give you peace.”

How to Apply These Scriptures in Your LifeMeditate Daily: Choose one of these verses each week and reflect on its meaning. Journal how it speaks to your current circumstances.Pray for Peace: Use Philippians 4:6-7 as a guide to bring your worries to God, asking for His peace to guard your heart.Share Peace: Inspired by Colossians 3:15, look for ways to promote peace in your relationships, whether at home, work, or church.Memorize Verses: Commit these scriptures to memory to recall them during moments of stress or uncertainty.

For detailed spiritual insights on how to find peace, see the book Anxiety and the Peace of God: Six Biblical Cures for Worry, Stress, and Inner Turmoil, available here. 

The post 12 Bible Verses about Peace: Finding Comfort in God’s Word appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

What Does 2 Peter 1:9 Mean?

2 Peter 1:9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

“Them” refers to the list of virtues in verses 5-7, which describe what verse 4 means by sharing in the divine nature. If you are not growing in godliness, it’s a vision problem and a memory problem. To restart your growth, open your spiritual eyes (think deeply) and remember your past cleansing.

 

Is there anything more frustrating than those stubborn character flaws that you can’t change? You’ve tried everything—prayer, accountability, discipline—but the changes never last. You wonder if you’re destined to struggle with the same issues forever.

In 2 Peter 1:9, God teaches us the two surprising culprits that keep you running in place—culprits you would never guess. Discover how a shift in those two areas can jumpstart your spiritual growth again, sharpen your spiritual vision, and unlock real, lasting change.

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 

Jumpstart Your Spiritual Growth

If you could change one thing about your character, what would it be? Whatever just came to mind, the next question is, why haven’t you changed it? Your answer is probably, “I’ve tried! And I’ve made temporary changes, but it never lasts.” I heard a talk show host say the other day, “One thing you need to learn in life—people don’t change.” And boy, that sure seems true sometimes, doesn’t it? A wife gets frustrated with her husband: “He’ll never change!” Then she falls off her diet or some other goal and thinks, “Ahh! I’ll never change.”

Real, significant, lasting change for the good is so hard and so rare, but that talk show guy isn’t quite right. You can’t say “never.” Sometimes people do change—in dramatic, wonderful ways. So what’s the secret? In an area where you can’t seem to make any progress no matter how hard you try, what’s the trick to finally making a real, lasting change?

Peter’s answer to that in 2 Peter is a little disappointing if you’re an impatient person.  It’s the word “growth.” That’s how he sums up his message in the very last verse of the book.

2 Peter 3:18 Grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord.

We like overnight, quick fixes, but God’s design for change is the slow, steady process of growing and maturing. Peter sums up his whole message at the end of the book with the words, “Grow in grace.” And he begins the book with a whole section on how that growth process works, and that’s what we’ve been studying in vv.1-8 so far. It starts with faith, and you use the virtues you have to build the virtues you don’t have. You use character to build character, and it all happens by trusting God’s promises. That’s how you grow. That takes us through v.7.

But now Peter deals with the question we all have at some point: “What if it’s not working? I’ve tried to grow and change. I’ve tried to improve in self-control and perseverance and love and all the rest, but I’m not getting anywhere.” Every one of us has those areas in our character where year after year we just can’t seem to get any traction toward progress. So how do you figure out what’s stunting your spiritual growth?”

That’s a really important question because we found out last time in v.7 that if you stop growing… , your life becomes unfruitful, unproductive, and pointless—you’ll waste your life. So it’s essential that we figure out what’s keeping us from growing.

If you went to your pastor or a Christian counselor and said, “I haven’t been growing spiritually. I’ve stalled out in my spiritual progress”—what do you think he would say? Most likely, he’d give you some combination of Scripture, prayer, and fellowship. More Bible, more prayer, more church, relationships, accountability, etc. If you’ve ever asked me that question, I probably told you the solution is more satisfying fellowship with God. How is that done?  Scripture, prayer, and fellowship. That’s the answer we always give.

But what’s Peter’s answer? Instead of just saying, “More Bible, more prayer, more fellowship,” Peter points us to two things I never would have thought of.

Imagine you’re in the delivery room, it’s your first child, the doctor hands you your baby and he looks perfect. Ten fingers, ten toes, nothing wrong. But after a few months, you’re starting to worry because he’s not growing.  He’s not maturing like a normal child.

So you take him in, the doctor examines him and says, “I found two causes. Fix those, and he’ll start growing again. But if you don’t fix these two things, he’ll die.

“What are the two problems?”

“Well, the first one is his eyesight.  He needs glasses.”

Would that answer surprise you? It should, because I don’t think there are any babies who aren’t growing because of a vision problem. That’s not really a thing when it comes to physical growth, however it is very much a thing with spiritual growth. Listen to how Dr. Peter diagnoses our spiritual growth problems.

2 Peter 1:9 But if anyone does not have them (the virtues in vv.5-8 that we’re supposed to be growing in, here’s why—), he is nearsighted and blind.

If you’re not growing, it’s because you have a vision problem. You might have other problems too (in fact, Peter will point us to one of them in the second half of the verse)… , but the first thing he wants us to know is that if there is some area in your Christian life where you just struggle and struggle and struggle… , you definitely have something wrong with your spiritual eyesight. Peter says you’re blind.

Growth Comes from Seeing God

And that really shouldn’t come as any surprise to us, because this isn’t the only place in the Bible that ties character transformation to spiritual vision. That’s how our final, total transformation will happen at the Second Coming.

1 John 3:2 … when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Transformation comes from seeing. And that same phenomenon is happening in a gradual, progressive way now in this life.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who … behold the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.

Life and growth come from seeing God’s glory. It’s because God is so marvelous and so full of life that just seeing his glory imparts life to you and transforms you. So the reason you’re not making progress in that area you’re struggling with is you’re blind to some aspect of God’s glory.

Remember back in verse 3 where Peter told us that God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him? And I told you, every time you struggle, just ask, “What is it about God that I’m not getting?” Now he’s telling us the same thing with a little different metaphor: What is it about God I’m not seeing?

What Are Spiritual Eyes?

But what does that mean—to see God? There are no actual organs called spiritual eyes, so it’s a metaphor. When we sing that song, “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” what is it that we’re asking him to do exactly?

Understanding, Perception and Awareness

The most basic meaning of “seeing” as a metaphor is understanding. We talk that way—“Oh, I see. I get what you’re saying.” It means to understand. Jesus connected spiritual blindness with lack of understanding in Mark 8.

Mark 8:17 … Do you still not see or understand? … 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see?

So it’s about understanding, and it happens mainly through the Bible. God reveals himself most clearly and most directly through his Word. So I would define seeing God this way—it’s understanding something in God’s Word in a way that enables you to have an encounter with God.

That’s why unbelievers can’t really understand the Bible. They can read, but they can’t see. They can make out the grammar and syntax and context and history and all that. They’re fully capable of reading comprehension. But it’s outside of natural human ability to understand the Bible in a way that enables them to have an encounter with God, which means they are blind.

The Bible is a window to God’s glory. If the only purpose of a window is to show you the sun, and you look out that window and can’t see the sun, you’re blind. And Peter is saying here that if you’re not growing in the virtues, you most definitely have a vision problem.

Nearsightedness: When You Can Only Focus on This World, Like Unbelievers

And it’s not a small vision problem. He says you’re blind. You say, “Blind? Isn’t that a little strong?  That’s how the Bible describes unbelievers.

2 Corinthians 4:3 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

Ephesians 4:17 … you must no longer live as the Gentiles do … 18 They are darkened in their understanding.

Is Peter saying that if you’re not growing it’s because you’re not really saved—not a true Christian? Christians often think that way.  You have some area that you’ve struggled with for so many years… , you haven’t made any progress, and you question whether you’re even saved.

Is Peter saying if you’re not growing, you’re a fake Christian? No. We know for sure he’s not saying that because in the second half of the verse he says these people have been cleansed of their past sins. And in the next verse he calls them brothers. And the solution he gives them is spiritual growth—that is not the solution to being a fake Christian. The solution to being a fake Christian is to be born again.

So no, he’s not saying if your spiritual growth has stalled out that you’re lost. He describes us with similar language used to describe unbelievers to make the point that we are masquerading as unbelievers. But it’s not the same kind of blindness as unbelievers have.

And you can see that if you read the whole phrase. Literally, what the Greek says is, “he is blind, being nearsighted.” The second phrase explains the first. He’s blinded by nearsightedness.  It’s not like the world’s spiritual blindness. Unbelievers are completely blind because they don’t have eyes—no capacity for spiritual understanding. But when we become blind, we still have spiritual eyes, but really poor eyesight.  The Christian who stops growing has eyes, but he has effectively blinded himself to spiritual things because of nearsightedness.

And that’s why you’re still struggling in that area you’ve struggled with for so many years. You’re not growing in that area because of some spiritual reality that you don’t understand… , you’ve lost sight of, or you haven’t given enough of your attention. That spiritual insight would give you a view of God’s glory that would change your character if you really saw it. But until you apprehend it, you’ll never grow in that area. Blindness is always a factor when your spiritual growth is stunted.

This concept of being blinded by nearsightedness is something Peter can teach us because he learned it the hard way directly from Jesus. In Mark 8:18, when the disciples missed a spiritual point he was making because they were so focused on lunch, Jesus said, “Do you have eyes but fail to see?” They weren’t like the Pharisees, who didn’t even have spiritual eyes. They had eyes, but couldn’t see because they were nearsighted—focused on physical bread instead of understanding what Jesus meant by spiritual yeast.

Mark 8:15 “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” 16 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.” 17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see?

Nearsightedness is when you can only focus on what’s right in front of you, you can’t see anything that’s far off. This physical world is right in front of your face. The spiritual realm is afar off. Your car, your job, your house, your health, people around you, the weather—you can’t miss all that stuff. It’s right there, screaming for your attention all the time. But spiritual realities aren’t so obvious. They’re out there beyond our natural field of vision.

Money—that’s right in front of you. You can easily see all the ways it can be a blessing to you. But what about the spiritual reality that it’s more blessed to give than to receive? That’s not so obvious. You have to squint a bit to see that truth because it’s way up there on a higher plane than we can naturally perceive.

And again, this is where seeing God comes in. You say, “Why is it that I know in my head that it’s more blessed to give than to receive—I understand that. But that principle doesn’t really govern my behavior or my emotions, my desires. My brain gets it, but the rest of me doesn’t seem to get it.”

Why does that happen? It happens when you grasp the principle, but you lose sight of the God who makes that principle a reality. If your eyes are on him, and you really know him to be ultra-generous to generous people, and you’ve experienced his constant faithfulness and his fatherly care and his rewarding heart and his effusive love and his follow through on all his amazing promises—when your eyes are wide open to his nature and you’re dialed in to what he’s like, that’s when you’ll not only know the principle but you’ll feel it—“Of course I’m going to be way better off being generous than being stingy or greedy.”

But that takes some clear spiritual vision, doesn’t it? Because it’s hard to override what you see all day every day with your physical eyes. The feelings of pleasure and satisfaction you can get from food and drink… , entertainment, sex… , recreation, or interesting, meaningful work… —that’s right in front of you, easy to see, super obvious. The reality that fellowship with God is more satisfying than any of that… —that truth is like something way off in the distance that you can barely make out. If you keep straining to see God, eventually your eyes will focus and that truth about him will become clear… , but you really have to exercise those eye muscles a lot to see clearly that far away. And if you don’t, you’ll quickly become so nearsighted, you’ll become effectively blind, spiritually.

Practical Examples of Spiritual Perception

We all have to spend time focusing on this physical world. You have to pay your bills, do the laundry, fill up your car with gas—all kinds of physical, earthly things. You can’t be obedient to Christ if you neglect all that. You have to do it, but too much time doing that without looking up often enough will damage your spiritual vision. You’ll lose your ability to understand and believe the realities that exist in the spiritual world.

What Is Nearsightedness?

All day long, you have to decide where to put your attention. There are spiritual truths that you do understand, but you become blind to them just because you don’t put your attention on them. They don’t govern your life like they should because they aren’t at the front of your thinking. If I’m walking in the woods and stumble over a log in the path… , it’s probably not because my eyes can’t see it. I could see the log if I looked that way, but I’m looking somewhere else so I’m just not aware of it.

There are facts about God that you understand just fine, you could ace a test about them… , but they just don’t come to mind in those moments you need them because you don’t think about them often enough. Or if they do come to mind, you don’t put them together with other truths in a way that gives you a clear picture. And that inevitably results in loss of your ability to understand spiritual truth.

Blindness Makes the Bible Boring

And that’s a big deal because lack of understanding will make the Bible boring. Nothing will train your soul to dislike the Bible more than reading something you don’t understand, then moving on to read something else you don’t understand. If you see the truths of God’s Word for what they really are, you could never be bored with them. The only way it can be boring is if you can’t see the meaning or significance for your life. Then the Bible becomes lifeless and boring, just like a print book is really boring to a blind person.

This is why I always say most people read the Bible way too fast. If you just keep reading without understanding, you’ll train your soul to dislike the Bible.

And that’s a pretty serious matter, when you think about it, because the Bible is our connection to grace from God. If you want your life to flourish, you want spiritual health and power, you want fellowship with God—it all comes through his Word. But if it’s boring, you’ll never read it enough, and even if you do manage to discipline yourself to read it… , your soul won’t absorb the spiritual nutrients it needs because you don’t have enough eagerness and appetite for your soul to properly digest the spiritual food. So when his Word becomes boring to you, that’s a really big problem.

Solution: Think Hard

So what’s the solution to nearsightedness? Thinking deeply. If you want to grow in those areas where you’ve stalled out, you have to cure your vision problem… —perception, understanding, and awareness of spiritual truths that address that area where you’re not growing. And the way to increase your perception, understanding, and awareness of spiritual truths is to go beneath the surface and think more deeply about them than you normally would.

Make Every Effort

This requires effort, which is the overall, governing theme of this entire section—make every effort. I say it’s the governing theme because Peter brackets this entire section with that command to make every effort. That’s how he started the list in v.5 (Make every effort to add to your faith …), then skip ahead to his conclusion in v.10 where he repeats it (Therefore, make every effort …).

We preachers say all the time that you can’t get anywhere in the Christian life just by using the “try harder” method because the power for change doesn’t come from you. That’s true—the power comes from God. But there is a lot of effort involved in utilizing that power. It’s not your efforts that make you grow. Only food from God’s Word has the power to make you grow. But there’s a whole lot of effort involved in finding the food and eating it and digesting it.

When Peter and the other Bible writers keep saying, “Make every effort,” they’re warning us—“Don’t expect to grow if you give it some half-baked, halfhearted, low energy effort.” When your growth stalls out, there is no jumpstarting it again without work.

Effort toward godliness is one of the clearest indications of God’s grace in your life.

1 Corinthians 15:10 … his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them.

Results are tied to effort and hard work. It’s the human condition to sit around and complain about all the results we didn’t get from all the work we didn’t do. We say, “That principle didn’t work for me,” when if we’re honest, the principle didn’t work for us because we didn’t work the principle.

Look Hard

So all that to say, when I tell you, “Think deeply and think harder,” I mean really push yourself.  When you read the Bible or hear a sermon or just process biblical truths you already know, don’t quit just because it feels like a dead end. I once saw a video of a mountain landscape, and the caption said to spot as many deer as you could. So I looked and looked until I finally saw a couple. Then there’s a gunshot and the one you can clearly see falls, but about a dozen others jump up and run away.

The point is, even with your physical eyes you can get to where you think you’ve seen all there is to see, but if you just look harder, there’s more. And that’s always the case with the Bible. We tend to quit way too soon. We see the same old things we’ve seen in that passage our whole lives, we think, “I got it,” and we move on.

When you do that, the Bible becomes boring, you stop learning, and you stop growing. You lose your appetite for the Word, so you go to the table less and less, you become malnourished, and stop making spiritual progress.

So Peter says, “Hey, if you’re not growing, it’s a vision problem.” If there is a virtue that’s stalled out in your life, find a passage that addresses that virtue, and look closely, think, think harder, keep digging, meditate, study, and keep looking. Keep looking beyond the point when you think you’ve seen everything in the text. Think of the significance of each word. For each one, ask, “Why is that there?” Think hard about the logic of the passage. Read commentaries or listen to sermons on it.

But don’t just do that to get an education. Remember the purpose: not mere information, but information that enables insight that leads to intimacy with God. That’s what will jumpstart your spiritual growth.

Solution #2: Soft Heart

That’s one solution to nearsightedness. Jesus pointed us to another one that may or may not apply for you at this time.

Mark 8:17 … Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see?

Sometimes our poor spiritual perception or lack of understanding can come from a heart that’s not soft enough to grow and change. It’s a stubborn attitude that isn’t really open to the idea that this thing I’ve believed all these years might not be quite right. Or maybe there’s some resistance because this new truth might require me to make some changes in my life I’m not ready to make. I don’t want to give up what I might have to give up, or I don’t want to do the hard work of reshaping a long-held perspective.

It’s always hard work to do that because you have to be careful. You don’t want to get so open minded that all of your theology is up for reevaluation anytime anyone ever brings up any kind of challenge.  That will also stunt your growth because you spend so much time rethinking the basic foundations that you can never move on to deeper things. So it can be a delicate balance between not being too quick to change a belief on the one hand but also avoiding having a hard heart that can’t ever be corrected or see new perspectives on the other hand. So it’s good to use other trusted people to help you think through new ideas and perspectives. But the bottom line is always the same—go to God’s Word with an honest, teachable heart, and don’t accept anything unless you can see it for yourself in Scripture. But once you see it, don’t cling to old beliefs that don’t line up with what you see in God’s Word. Be steadfast in the faith, but always remain teachable and changeable.

Three Questions for Bible Study

So give some thought to how you could improve your spiritual vision. And one thing that might help with that is to remember some basic questions. For every passage of Scripture you study, some questions that will help you look more deeply into the passage are these:

1)     Are there any commands to obey?

Daydream about what your life would look like if you were living out the commands in the passage in greater ways.

2)     Are there any attributes of God to admire (either stated directly or implied)?

An attribute is anything true about God. Most passages of Scripture, even if they don’t directly state, “God is like this …” will at least imply something true about God. Let’s try this. We’ll do a little workshop right now on this verse we’re looking at (2 Peter 1:9)? What attributes of God are stated or implied in this verse?

 

If nearsightedness stops your spiritual growth, that means God is so marvelous that if you just catch a glimpse of his glory, that will make you grow.And if seeing God makes you grow, that means God is the source of life, so that’s a second attribute.You’re supposed to remember your past cleansing—who did that cleansing? God.

What does that tell you about him?

It tells you he likes his people clean.It tells you he’s willing to do the cleaning—he’s the only source of spiritual cleansing.It tells you he’s on your side in this battle against sin.

That’s a half dozen attributes of God just from one sentence, and it’s a sentence that doesn’t even mention God.

So ask, “Are there any attributes to admire?” And not just to admire. Also to experience. What could I do today, over the next 24 hours, to have a greater experience of God’s life-giving properties? How could I have a greater experience today of his desire to cleanse his people? What would it look like for me to truly enjoy the fact that he’s on my side in the battle against sin today?

Okay, so—are there any commands to obey, are there any attributes to admire and experience, and then a third one:

3)     Are there any promises to trust (again, either stated directly or implied)?

Any promises in this verse? If lack of growth is caused by not looking hard enough at God, doesn’t that imply the promise that when you do get glimpses of God, that will cause growth? What would it look like for the next 24 hours for you to really trust that promise?

If God cleansed you in the past, doesn’t that imply a promise that he’ll keep exerting that kind of influence on you? That he’ll keep working in you to will and to act to make you cleaner and cleaner? That’s a nice promise to lean on.

And remember—whenever you’re looking for promises, keep in mind the greatest promise in the whole Bible—“I will be your God.” That means whatever it is to be God, God promises to be that for you, for your benefit. Which means every attribute of God you found in the previous step is also a promise—God promises to be that way for you.

Commands to obey, attributes to admire and experience, promises to trust. Look for those in every passage, and you’ll see God in ways that will make you grow.

Conclusion

If you’re not growing, do all you can to improve your spiritual vision because Peter says anyone who isn’t growing in the virtues, is nearsighted and blind. But the vision problem only half his diagnosis. The other half is a memory problem.

2 Peter 1:9 if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

How does remembering or forgetting your past cleansing affect the rate of your spiritual growth? Well, as you might imagine, remembering your past cleansing is not a simplistic solution. It is a profound solution—so profound that we’re going to have to devote a whole session to it.  So that’s where we’ll pick it up next time. But for now, give some thought to the areas of the Christian life where you struggle the most and ask God to show you—what is it about his glory that you’re not really seeing and need to look into more deeply?

Summary:

Ask most pastors or counselors how to start growing again and they will probably say some version of “More Bible, more prayer, more fellowship.” But Peter’s answer is “More vision and more remembering.” If you’re not growing, you’re blind—not blind like an unbeliever, but the kind that comes from nearsightedness (too much focus on this world so the glory of God gets out of focus). Spend more time focusing on the attributes of God that address the area of your slow growth and think hard.

Links:

For the previous message, click here.

Find audio, video, and notes for the whole series in 2 Peter here.

Subscribe to our Youtube channel here.

 

The post How to Jump Start Your Spiritual Growth – 2 Peter 1:9a appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

Book 2

After reading this post, please leave a comment on your preference for the book title and subtitle. Which would you be most likely to click on? The two options are:

TITLE:
1) Peace through Faith
2) Don’t Worry—God Is Awesome

SUBTITLE:
A) How to Trust God When You’re at the Breaking Point
B) Finding Peace through God’s Most Comforting Attributes

I recently taught a class on what the Bible teaches about anxiety. You can find the full class here. The first half of the class has been published in the book, Anxiety and the Peace of God, available here. The material for the second book, which is the topic of this post, is the second half of the class, beginning with session 19.

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Trust God! … To Do What?

The phone rings and you get some life-shattering news. It’s cancer. You’re fired. Your spouse wants a divorce. Big time anxiety.

Or suppose it’s little anxiety. Dinner is ruined. A coworker snapped at you. Your car is making a funny noise. Little anxieties or big ones—do you find it helpful when someone tells you, “Just trust God”?

Many Christians, if they are honest, would say it’s more annoying than helpful.

Why is that? Our entire religion is based on trusting God. We believe we are saved through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8) and that every hour of every day we live by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7). It brings a smile to God’s face when we trust him (Hebrews 11:6). Isn’t “trust God” the sweetest invitation we can receive?

Here’s why it feels like a platitude: because it is a platitude—unless you complete the sentence. Trust God … to do what? To make your troubles go away? To make life easy? To do your will?

These are important questions because trusting God to do something he hasn’t promised will bring disappointment and even worse anxiety. The only path to peace is trusting God to do what he has promised.

Trust God’s Promises

The biblical word for promise refers to any affirmation God makes about the future, regardless of whether he uses the word “promise.” God gave us his great and precious promises to tether us to future blessing. And it’s that guarantee of future grace that can replace your fear of future trouble with peace.

Trusting God’s promises is not only the key to overcoming anxiety; it is the key to overcoming every sin. According to 2 Peter 1:3-4, God’s promises rise out of his glory and goodness—his moral nature, and each time you trust one of them, you share in God’s moral nature by escaping the world’s corruption.

“By his own glory and goodness … he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

All spiritual growth, including overcoming anxiety, comes through trusting God’s great and precious promises. And there are specific promises for every kind of anxiety.

Think of one of your more troublesome anxieties. Which specific promise in Scripture are you striving to trust to calm that anxiety? Until you can answer that question, it’s not likely you will find peace.

Don’t Trust What God Didn’t Promise

Much of our unhealthy anxiety comes from unfulfilled expectations. You had an idea of how much sleep you’d get last night, you thought your vacation would go a certain way, you anticipated a nice, pleasant dinner, and when things didn’t go as planned, you got stressed. Perhaps you dreamed of having a wonderful marriage or a successful career. But now you can see that it’s never going to be what you imagined, and it seems the rest of your life will be a prison sentence of anxiety.

There are many expectations we don’t even realize we have until they go unmet. Consider a young couple who subconsciously expects their marital roles to be like that of their parents. The bride’s father always paid the bills, but the groom’s mother had that job. It isn’t until the first bills go unpaid that they realize each expected the other to do it.

The way to discover your subconscious expectations is through your disappointments. Every time you feel disillusioned, you’ve just uncovered an expectation.

Why doesn’t the word “expectation” appear in the Bible? Expectation is a universal experience. It’s a huge part of being human. So why wouldn’t the Bible mention it?

It’s because the English word “expectation” mashes two different concepts together that don’t belong together. The biblical term for expecting something God promised is “faith.” The biblical term for expecting something God didn’t promise is “greed.”

If all our expectations are set only on what God has promised, they will never be disappointed. If we feel God has let us down, it’s usually for one of three reasons:

We assumed something was promised that wasn’t.We assumed God would act on our timeline instead of his.We assumed God would supply what we define as needs rather than what he determines we need.

You may have been told your whole life that God has promised certain things, and you’re so confident in what you’ve been told, it has never even occurred to you to check the Scriptures to see if the promise is really there.

From Expectation to Requests

What’s the solution to disappointment anxiety? Discern what God has and hasn’t promised. And if it’s something he never promised, replace your expectations with requests. Philippians 4:6 does not say, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything present your expectations to God.” It says, “present your requests to God.”

You can ask God for whatever you want (John 15:7). But don’t put your hope in God granting your requests. Put all your hope in God fulfilling what he has promised.

But what has God promised, exactly? Scripture is loaded with promises, and in my upcoming book, I discuss the ones that, over the decades of counseling experience, I’ve found to be the most helpful to people struggling with anxiety.

Most of the book, however, is devoted to the greatest promise in the whole Bible.

The Greatest Promise in the Bible

Without hesitation, I would point to Ezekiel 36:28 as the greatest promise God ever made. See if you agree.

“I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:28).

Have you ever thought through what that means? What is the difference between God simply being God versus being your God?

Well, ask yourself this—what’s the difference between saying, “That man is a doctor” and “He’s my doctor” or “Mr. Jones is a brilliant lawyer” versus “He’s my lawyer”? It means his abilities will be put to use for your benefit.

The promise “I will be your God” guarantees that whatever it means to be God, he will be that for you. He won’t just be omnipotent; he’ll use his omnipotence for your benefit. He’ll be omnipresent and omniscient for you. His love, patience, wisdom, creativity, mercy, justice, perfection, holiness—every attribute will be put to work for your good.

So that one promise, “I will be your God,” explodes into as many different promises as there are attributes of God. The Almighty says, “Everything I am, I’ll put into motion for you.” What promise could be greater than that?

In the book, we will take a deep dive into ten of God’s attributes—attributes that are especially helpful for soothing anxiety. At the end of the book of Job, God gave Job what he needed to calm his anxiety. But it wasn’t what Job thought he needed. What Job wanted was answers to his “why” questions. What provided instead was the answer to the “who” question. God spoke about his own nature—for three long chapters!

What Job really needed was an extended, deep contemplation of what God is really like. We can’t trust God to be God for us unless we know what it means to call him “God.” And what it means for him to be all that for you!

*****

Don’t forget to leave a comment with your vote for the title and subtitle:

TITLE:
1) Peace through Faith
2) Don’t Worry—God Is Awesome

SUBTITLE:
A) How to Trust God When You’re at the Breaking Point
B) Finding Peace through God’s Most Comforting Attributes

 

 

See Romans 9:9.

The post What Is the Bible’s GREATEST Promise? appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

The post What Is the Bible’s GREATEST Promise? appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

What Does 2 Peter 1:8 Mean?

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being unproductive and unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“These qualities” refers to the list of virtues in verses 5-7, which describe what verse 4 means by sharing in the divine nature. To avoid an unproductive life, one must not only have these virtues but be growing in them. Your knowledge of (relationship with) Jesus should bear fruit (the fruit of personal holiness).

 

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Are You Truly Effective for Christ? How would you define an impactful, productive life? Peter gives a definition that wouldn’t even occur to most people. But it’s a definition that gives hope to everyone, regardless of your age, health, skills, or any other factor. A powerful, effective life is within your reach! Unlock a Fruitful Life with 2 Peter 1:8!

Introduction: When Life Is Empty

In today’s passage, Peter uses two piercing, terrifying words: unproductive and unfruitful.

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being unproductive and unfruitful

The word unproductive is translated “useless” in James 2:20.

James 2:20 … faith without deeds is useless.

It doesn’t accomplish anything. Peter is warning us against a useless, empty, unproductive life.

Then he explains how to avoid that fate and have a life full of meaning and purpose, which is a wonderful promise, because a meaningless life a horrible fate. I don’t know if that would qualify as a fate worse than death, but it’s a fate very similar to death.

God Designed Us to Crave Productivity

Being useless grates against the human soul. A cow standing around all day doesn’t mind being useless. Chickens don’t worry about meaning in life. Your dog doesn’t have a midlife crisis.  But you’re different.  God made mankind in his image and then immediately assigned us the task of tending and ruling over the creation. It’s our job to create culture and run this world, that’s deep in our bones, and we must do it or we’ll go insane. We must have purposeful, impactful lives.

When you’re young, you don’t worry too much about what you’ve accomplished in life, but that’s only because it seems like you’ve got plenty of time to make something of your life. You don’t really have your act together yet, but you’re sure that one of these days you’re going to knock it out of the park. The term “mid-life crisis” was coined to describe that point in life where you finally realize, “I’m never hitting anything out of any park. I’m already past my prime and I’ve never even hit a double. In fact, I’m not even sure if I’m playing the right sport.”

A mom sees her empty nest and thinks, “Do I even matter anymore? What’s the point of my life now?”

A man plateaus in his unimpressive career, his wife pretty much has everything in hand at home, no one cares about his opinions, no one comes to him for anything and he thinks, “I could disappear off the face of the earth and it wouldn’t really disrupt anything.”

Somewhere along the line your life became more about coping than calling. You’re showing up every day, taking care of all your stuff, but nothing in your life is important enough to make you run hard. And the reason that is so painful is that God created us for productivity, and every human feels it.

And if you doubt that, just go to a bookstore. How many books do you think were published in the last 5 years on that topic—how to be more productive? Between 30 and 50 thousand new books published on that topic just in the past 5 years. People spend decades trying to get to retirement, and then when they retire, if they don’t find something productive to do, they end up going back to work. No matter how lazy we get, something deep inside us craves productivity and fruitfulness and meaning in life.

Not all Work Is Fulfilling

Does that mean everyone with a job is fulfilled? No. You often hear that work gives meaning to life, but that’s not automatically true.  If you work really hard at something and it ends up being a total waste of time and accomplishes nothing, that drains life of meaning.

Think of how much it bothers you when you work hard at something and it ends up accomplishing nothing. If someone makes a mess on the floor before you sweep, you can live with that. But if they do it right after you sweep, so that all the work you just did gets immediately undone, it bugs you because it makes the work you just did meaningless.

Did you ever study the wrong chapter in school? Nothing is more aggravating to a student than learning something he didn’t have to learn. All that wasted effort.

Have you ever explained something or told a long story to someone on the phone only to find out they lost connection and didn’t get any of what you said? All that talking for nothing.

Those are little examples. But if the bigger things in your life are futile, that’s when life loses meaning. When you look back on your life and see wasted years, wasted decades, that can put you in depression. And Peter is warning us here that that can happen to Christians. Even as a Christian, your life can become pointless and ineffective and indolent—not because you don’t care, but because you’ve lost touch with something vital.

What Is Productivity?

But then just about the time when you’re about to raise your hand and say, “Yeah, that’s me—ineffective, unproductive, wasted life,” Peter drops a truth that revolutionizes our whole concept of what determines whether a life is wasted or unproductive, and it’s a truth that will breathe life back into a heart that feels sidelined, because no matter what you’ve done up to this point, a meaningful, productive life is still within your reach.

But here’s where Peter goes in a totally different direction than what we might expect. All those books on the subject of productivity are loaded with tips and methods and ideas for how to become more productive. Everyone claims to have the secret to a more productive life. Here’s how to be more efficient with your emails, here’s how you can do laundry quicker, only handle a piece of paper once, don’t procrastinate, etc. But Peter shows us the path here to productivity and I promise you, you’ll never see this in any book on productivity.

Most of the tips in the productivity books aren’t really about productivity; they’re about efficiency.  And efficiency is not the same thing as productivity. If what you’re doing is pointless, you can be super efficient and skilled at it, but what good is that? All that will do is help you waste your life faster.

The Path to Productivity: Spiritual Growth

So instead of giving tips on efficiency, Peter says this:  If you want productivity, if you want to put your head on the pillow at night and think, “Man, I got so much done today”—the secret to that is the virtues—love, perseverance, moral excellence, the whole list. Growing in personal holiness is the key to productivity.

Can you see that in the text?

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities (the virtues he just listed in vv.5-7) in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive

The key to productivity is spiritual growth.

You say, “Does that mean if I grow in these virtues I’ll get more loads of laundry done and finish my emails in half the time?”  No. It doesn’t say the virtues will keep you from being unproductive in housework or emails.  What does it say—productivity in what?

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Relational Productivity

It’s productivity in your knowledge of Christ. And knowledge of a person, in the biblical sense, refers to a relationship. Your relationship with the Lord is supposed to be productive. It’s supposed to produce a life of spiritual growth. So if you’re not growing, that means your relationship with Jesus is not working. The relationship still exists, but it’s not productive.

It’s a bit of a shock to hear Peter talk about the possibility of your knowledge of Christ becoming unproductive and unfruitful because back in vv.2-3 knowledge of God was the key to everything. It’s the key to getting abundant grace and peace from God, it’s the way to tap into divine power, and it’s the means of getting everything we need for life and godliness. It’s the key to everything, and yet, even that can become unproductive and dormant if you stop growing.

The second term Peter uses is “unfruitful”—unproductive and unfruitful. Your relationship with the Lord is supposed to be like a fruit tree bearing fruit. When God saved you, it wasn’t just to rescue you from hell. He saved you because he wanted to use you to produce good works.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The more productive your relationship with Christ is, the more you’ll do those good works.

So this is a paradigm shift when we think about the definition of productivity in life. If you ever feel like your life is a waste or a failure, or you feel useless, ask yourself, “What is my definition of useless?” Whatever it is, it’s wrong unless it matches God’s definition. And God’s definition is that you are useless or useful based on whether you fulfill your purpose for existence. And what is your purpose in life? Why are you here? Why were you created?

Ephesians 4:24 Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

You were created, not mainly to get stuff done, but to be like God. Or to use Peter’s words, to share in the divine nature.

Producing fruit means growing in personal holiness. And Scripture has strong words for people whose lives are unfruitful.

Matthew 3:10 … Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

When Jesus saw a fig tree that didn’t have any figs in Mark 11:13, he killed it. Failure to produce fruit in your life is a big deal. In Ephesians 5:11, fruitlessness is associated with spiritual darkness.

Ephesians 5:11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness

If you become unfruitful, you miss the mark on your whole reason for existing.

Relational Productivity Creates Material Productivity

So Peter is calling us to relational productivity, where your relationship with Jesus bears moral fruit. But if that’s what productivity is all about—relational growth and moral progress, what about physical productivity? Is Peter saying it doesn’t matter how many loads of laundry you get done or get the yard mowed? It doesn’t matter whether you find a way to accomplish amazing things in your career or just sit on the couch and watch Netflix? If it’s all about relational productivity with Christ producing moral fruit in your character, what is the place for the things people normally think of as productivity—physical productivity? Does that matter?

Yes, it does. Proverbs is loaded with counsel on how to be productive at work. Laziness is roundly condemned all through Scripture. In Matthew 25, Jesus told a parable about three servants who were entrusted with money, and the industrious ones who used it to make a profit were praised, and the lazy one who just buried it and didn’t produce any return for his master is harshly rebuked.

So yes, physical productivity is important. So why doesn’t Peter mention that? He doesn’t have to because if you have relational productivity with Christ resulting in moral productivity in your character, that will always result in physical productivity.

Peter doesn’t have to tell you to get up off the couch and go to work. All he has to do is tell you to grow in the virtues, and those virtues will drive you to go to work.

For example, take the virtue of love. If you love your family, that will drive you to work hard to provide for them. If you love people in need, that love will drive you to earn enough to share with them. If you love the saints, that will drive you to serve them with your spiritual gifts. And when you’re tempted to be lazy, self-control will enable you to overcome that laziness and work hard. When you’re tempted to give up, perseverance will keep you going. When you get off track and start doing things that don’t matter, spiritual knowledge will get you back on the path of doing important things. When your work gets out of balance so you’re focusing too much on temporal things and not enough on eternal things, godliness will give you the right perspective. When your relationship with Christ is productive, the moral fruit it produces will drive you to be effective and productive in earthly things.

But here’s the crucial point: if Peter would have just called for physical productivity, that, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily good. If you go to work because you love your family and others, that’s good. But if you go to work because you want to get rich or to elevate yourself above others, or if you go with a bad attitude, that’s not productivity. If I do the work of recording this study and posting it online because I love people and want them to have the grace of the truth of God’s Word, that’s productive work. But if I do the exact same thing because I want to get a lot of clicks on my Youtube channel so I can be famous or feel good about myself, that’s evil.

Physical productivity without the relational, moral fruit is evil. But where you have the relational, moral productivity, physical productivity will always happen.

Always within Reach

And here’s the encouraging part—that good kind of productivity and fruitfulness, growth in your knowledge of Christ is always within reach. If I had to make a certain amount of money in order for my life to have meaning, I’d be out of luck.  If I had to reach a certain level in my career, if it’s something I haven’t reached in the past, it’s definitely not going to happen now. Most of the metrics people use for gauging a successful life depend on factors that are not all within your control.

But no matter where you are in life, no matter what your age, what’s happened in your past, how skilled or educated or wealthy or strong or healthy you are, spiritual growth is within your reach, which means productivity and success in life are within your reach.

If you’re wondering if you matter, or if your life is successful, it’s not about your career, it’s not about your parenting, it’s not about your net worth or even about how many people’s lives you have influenced.  It’s about how much you share in the divine nature. How similar is your character to God’s? That’s the question that determines success and meaning in life.

The Standard: Growth

Now, maybe you don’t find that very encouraging because you feel like you fall short in the virtues. You think, “Man, if meaning in life comes from having those virtues, that’s terrible news for me because I’m nowhere near where I should be.” You look at someone like Ruth and her perseverance and think, “I go through something that’s not even a fraction of what she’s been through and it sends me into a spiral.” Or you see someone who’s really loving and always sees other people’s needs and has so much compassion. Or someone who has tremendous wisdom or knowledge or humility and you think, “I’m years from being where they are.” And so you wonder, “How much of these virtues do I have to have to please God?”

For example, take kindness.

Everyone has some kindness. Even a mass murderer is probably nice to his dog or his mom or someone at some times. But you wouldn’t call him a kind person. So how kind do you have to be to be a kind person?

Most of us answer that question by comparing ourselves to others. How do I compare to this person or that person? But that doesn’t get you anywhere because you can always find someone who is more loving than you or less loving, depending on whether you want to justify yourself or beat up on yourself. But either way, that doesn’t really tell you anything about whether your level of love is pleasing to God. Surely God’s standard isn’t that you have to be better than everyone else in every category.

So how much is enough? Peter’s answer is very simple (and this is so helpful)—your love, your kindness, your self-control—fill in the virtue—it’s enough if it is (wait for it) … growing.  Peter doesn’t say a word in this passage about how much of each virtue you have to have. Here’s what he says:

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive.

How much does it take to please God and to fulfill your purpose in life? Growth. You say, “But I’m a 1 out of 10.” Well, as long as you’re on your way to 1.5 or 2, you’re good. The issue is not how you compare to others or some arbitrary standard. The only issue is, are you growing?

So again, it’s always in reach. Maybe you are ten years away from being what you ought to be in some area. But no matter how far off your goals are, beginning the growth process can always happen right now.

Progressive Sanctification

Theologians call this the doctrine of progressive sanctification.  Sharing in the divine nature is a progressive, gradual, step-by-step process.

That’s not the way we like it, a lot of the time. People often think of spiritual growth in terms of large leaps forward. “I had a breakthrough!”  Or “I need to have a breakthrough.”  We love the idea of going on a retreat or hearing a great sermon or reading a book and all the lights come on, we have an epiphany, and our life is changed from that moment on. We’re like a kid who wants muscles so he spends one day lifting weights and then looks in the mirror every day to see if his muscles are any bigger. We want instant physical growth when we’re kids, and we want instant spiritual growth when we’re adults.

But Peter is very clear. You make progress bit by bit, using one virtue to build another one, then building on that, growing, building, progressing.

Better than Legalism

And the fact that that’s the standard—instead of God saying, “You have to be at this level,” he just says, “The only requirement is growth,”—that protects us from perfectionism, which is really just a form of legalism. Perfectionism sets an arbitrary external standard and says, “Anything short of that is not good enough. Once you reach that point, you’re good.” And it’s always an external standard.

Our legalistic minds always want to come up with some really measurable, external goal. And that makes you constantly frustrated and discouraged if you’re not meeting the standard. And you have a twisted concept of God being impossible to please.

And then once you do reach it, it leads to stagnation. “I’m doing what’s required, now I can coast.”

How much better is God’s way. He says, “All I require is that you take the next step, wherever you are.”

Conclusion

So if you’re ever feeling useless, don’t get discouraged. Just remind yourself of what God says about what defines an important, productive, fruitful life—deepening knowledge of Christ, remember that God wants you to have that, he can help you have it, and he’s on your side in this whole thing (he wants you to have a meaningful, successful life because that will glorify him), and let those truths motivate you to step up your efforts to grow in the virtues by trusting specific promises in God’s Word.

 

Summary

And unproductive life is a horrible fate because God designed us to need productivity. But productivity is more than efficiency. True productivity is growth in your knowledge of (relationship with) Christ which produces moral fruit. And that fruit will force you into material productivity. The standard for the fruit is simply growth, which defeats perfectionism, legalism, and coasting. A meaningful, successful, productive life is always available

A literal translation of v.8 is, “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will make you not ineffective and unproductive.” It seems like he’s going out of his way to use a double negative. It would be so much simpler to say, “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will make you effective and productive.” Evidently, Peter assuming our fear of being useless is stronger than our desire to be productive, so he appeals to the former

In Mt.20:3 it’s used of people who are out of work. In 1 Timothy 5:11 it’s used of younger widows who don’t have anything to occupy their time so they get in trouble.

In Titus 1:12 it’s translated “lazy.”

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For the previous message in 2 Peter, click here.

For the full series on 1 Peter, click here.

The post How to Have a PRODUCTIVE Relationship with Christ – 2 Peter 1:8 appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

The post How to Have a PRODUCTIVE Relationship with Christ – 2 Peter 1:8 appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

What Does 2 Peter 1:8 Mean?

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being unproductive and unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“These qualities” refers to the list of virtues in verses 5-7, which describe what verse 4 means by sharing in the divine nature. To avoid an unproductive life, one must not only have these virtues but be growing in them. Your knowledge of (relationship with) Jesus should bear fruit (the fruit of personal holiness).

 

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Are You Truly Effective for Christ? How would you define an impactful, productive life? Peter gives a definition that wouldn’t even occur to most people. But it’s a definition that gives hope to everyone, regardless of your age, health, skills, or any other factor. A powerful, effective life is within your reach! Unlock a Fruitful Life with 2 Peter 1:8!

Introduction: When Life Is Empty

In today’s passage, Peter uses two piercing, terrifying words: unproductive and unfruitful.

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being unproductive and unfruitful

The word unproductive is translated “useless” in James 2:20.

James 2:20 … faith without deeds is useless.

It doesn’t accomplish anything. Peter is warning us against a useless, empty, unproductive life.

Then he explains how to avoid that fate and have a life full of meaning and purpose, which is a wonderful promise, because a meaningless life a horrible fate. I don’t know if that would qualify as a fate worse than death, but it’s a fate very similar to death.

God Designed Us to Crave Productivity

Being useless grates against the human soul. A cow standing around all day doesn’t mind being useless. Chickens don’t worry about meaning in life. Your dog doesn’t have a midlife crisis.  But you’re different.  God made mankind in his image and then immediately assigned us the task of tending and ruling over the creation. It’s our job to create culture and run this world, that’s deep in our bones, and we must do it or we’ll go insane. We must have purposeful, impactful lives.

When you’re young, you don’t worry too much about what you’ve accomplished in life, but that’s only because it seems like you’ve got plenty of time to make something of your life. You don’t really have your act together yet, but you’re sure that one of these days you’re going to knock it out of the park. The term “mid-life crisis” was coined to describe that point in life where you finally realize, “I’m never hitting anything out of any park. I’m already past my prime and I’ve never even hit a double. In fact, I’m not even sure if I’m playing the right sport.”

A mom sees her empty nest and thinks, “Do I even matter anymore? What’s the point of my life now?”

A man plateaus in his unimpressive career, his wife pretty much has everything in hand at home, no one cares about his opinions, no one comes to him for anything and he thinks, “I could disappear off the face of the earth and it wouldn’t really disrupt anything.”

Somewhere along the line your life became more about coping than calling. You’re showing up every day, taking care of all your stuff, but nothing in your life is important enough to make you run hard. And the reason that is so painful is that God created us for productivity, and every human feels it.

And if you doubt that, just go to a bookstore. How many books do you think were published in the last 5 years on that topic—how to be more productive? Between 30 and 50 thousand new books published on that topic just in the past 5 years. People spend decades trying to get to retirement, and then when they retire, if they don’t find something productive to do, they end up going back to work. No matter how lazy we get, something deep inside us craves productivity and fruitfulness and meaning in life.

Not all Work Is Fulfilling

Does that mean everyone with a job is fulfilled? No. You often hear that work gives meaning to life, but that’s not automatically true.  If you work really hard at something and it ends up being a total waste of time and accomplishes nothing, that drains life of meaning.

Think of how much it bothers you when you work hard at something and it ends up accomplishing nothing. If someone makes a mess on the floor before you sweep, you can live with that. But if they do it right after you sweep, so that all the work you just did gets immediately undone, it bugs you because it makes the work you just did meaningless.

Did you ever study the wrong chapter in school? Nothing is more aggravating to a student than learning something he didn’t have to learn. All that wasted effort.

Have you ever explained something or told a long story to someone on the phone only to find out they lost connection and didn’t get any of what you said? All that talking for nothing.

Those are little examples. But if the bigger things in your life are futile, that’s when life loses meaning. When you look back on your life and see wasted years, wasted decades, that can put you in depression. And Peter is warning us here that that can happen to Christians. Even as a Christian, your life can become pointless and ineffective and indolent—not because you don’t care, but because you’ve lost touch with something vital.

What Is Productivity?

But then just about the time when you’re about to raise your hand and say, “Yeah, that’s me—ineffective, unproductive, wasted life,” Peter drops a truth that revolutionizes our whole concept of what determines whether a life is wasted or unproductive, and it’s a truth that will breathe life back into a heart that feels sidelined, because no matter what you’ve done up to this point, a meaningful, productive life is still within your reach.

But here’s where Peter goes in a totally different direction than what we might expect. All those books on the subject of productivity are loaded with tips and methods and ideas for how to become more productive. Everyone claims to have the secret to a more productive life. Here’s how to be more efficient with your emails, here’s how you can do laundry quicker, only handle a piece of paper once, don’t procrastinate, etc. But Peter shows us the path here to productivity and I promise you, you’ll never see this in any book on productivity.

Most of the tips in the productivity books aren’t really about productivity; they’re about efficiency.  And efficiency is not the same thing as productivity. If what you’re doing is pointless, you can be super efficient and skilled at it, but what good is that? All that will do is help you waste your life faster.

The Path to Productivity: Spiritual Growth

So instead of giving tips on efficiency, Peter says this:  If you want productivity, if you want to put your head on the pillow at night and think, “Man, I got so much done today”—the secret to that is the virtues—love, perseverance, moral excellence, the whole list. Growing in personal holiness is the key to productivity.

Can you see that in the text?

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities (the virtues he just listed in vv.5-7) in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive

The key to productivity is spiritual growth.

You say, “Does that mean if I grow in these virtues I’ll get more loads of laundry done and finish my emails in half the time?”  No. It doesn’t say the virtues will keep you from being unproductive in housework or emails.  What does it say—productivity in what?

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Relational Productivity

It’s productivity in your knowledge of Christ. And knowledge of a person, in the biblical sense, refers to a relationship. Your relationship with the Lord is supposed to be productive. It’s supposed to produce a life of spiritual growth. So if you’re not growing, that means your relationship with Jesus is not working. The relationship still exists, but it’s not productive.

It’s a bit of a shock to hear Peter talk about the possibility of your knowledge of Christ becoming unproductive and unfruitful because back in vv.2-3 knowledge of God was the key to everything. It’s the key to getting abundant grace and peace from God, it’s the way to tap into divine power, and it’s the means of getting everything we need for life and godliness. It’s the key to everything, and yet, even that can become unproductive and dormant if you stop growing.

The second term Peter uses is “unfruitful”—unproductive and unfruitful. Your relationship with the Lord is supposed to be like a fruit tree bearing fruit. When God saved you, it wasn’t just to rescue you from hell. He saved you because he wanted to use you to produce good works.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The more productive your relationship with Christ is, the more you’ll do those good works.

So this is a paradigm shift when we think about the definition of productivity in life. If you ever feel like your life is a waste or a failure, or you feel useless, ask yourself, “What is my definition of useless?” Whatever it is, it’s wrong unless it matches God’s definition. And God’s definition is that you are useless or useful based on whether you fulfill your purpose for existence. And what is your purpose in life? Why are you here? Why were you created?

Ephesians 4:24 Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

You were created, not mainly to get stuff done, but to be like God. Or to use Peter’s words, to share in the divine nature.

Producing fruit means growing in personal holiness. And Scripture has strong words for people whose lives are unfruitful.

Matthew 3:10 … Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

When Jesus saw a fig tree that didn’t have any figs in Mark 11:13, he killed it. Failure to produce fruit in your life is a big deal. In Ephesians 5:11, fruitlessness is associated with spiritual darkness.

Ephesians 5:11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness

If you become unfruitful, you miss the mark on your whole reason for existing.

Relational Productivity Creates Material Productivity

So Peter is calling us to relational productivity, where your relationship with Jesus bears moral fruit. But if that’s what productivity is all about—relational growth and moral progress, what about physical productivity? Is Peter saying it doesn’t matter how many loads of laundry you get done or get the yard mowed? It doesn’t matter whether you find a way to accomplish amazing things in your career or just sit on the couch and watch Netflix? If it’s all about relational productivity with Christ producing moral fruit in your character, what is the place for the things people normally think of as productivity—physical productivity? Does that matter?

Yes, it does. Proverbs is loaded with counsel on how to be productive at work. Laziness is roundly condemned all through Scripture. In Matthew 25, Jesus told a parable about three servants who were entrusted with money, and the industrious ones who used it to make a profit were praised, and the lazy one who just buried it and didn’t produce any return for his master is harshly rebuked.

So yes, physical productivity is important. So why doesn’t Peter mention that? He doesn’t have to because if you have relational productivity with Christ resulting in moral productivity in your character, that will always result in physical productivity.

Peter doesn’t have to tell you to get up off the couch and go to work. All he has to do is tell you to grow in the virtues, and those virtues will drive you to go to work.

For example, take the virtue of love. If you love your family, that will drive you to work hard to provide for them. If you love people in need, that love will drive you to earn enough to share with them. If you love the saints, that will drive you to serve them with your spiritual gifts. And when you’re tempted to be lazy, self-control will enable you to overcome that laziness and work hard. When you’re tempted to give up, perseverance will keep you going. When you get off track and start doing things that don’t matter, spiritual knowledge will get you back on the path of doing important things. When your work gets out of balance so you’re focusing too much on temporal things and not enough on eternal things, godliness will give you the right perspective. When your relationship with Christ is productive, the moral fruit it produces will drive you to be effective and productive in earthly things.

But here’s the crucial point: if Peter would have just called for physical productivity, that, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily good. If you go to work because you love your family and others, that’s good. But if you go to work because you want to get rich or to elevate yourself above others, or if you go with a bad attitude, that’s not productivity. If I do the work of recording this study and posting it online because I love people and want them to have the grace of the truth of God’s Word, that’s productive work. But if I do the exact same thing because I want to get a lot of clicks on my Youtube channel so I can be famous or feel good about myself, that’s evil.

Physical productivity without the relational, moral fruit is evil. But where you have the relational, moral productivity, physical productivity will always happen.

Always within Reach

And here’s the encouraging part—that good kind of productivity and fruitfulness, growth in your knowledge of Christ is always within reach. If I had to make a certain amount of money in order for my life to have meaning, I’d be out of luck.  If I had to reach a certain level in my career, if it’s something I haven’t reached in the past, it’s definitely not going to happen now. Most of the metrics people use for gauging a successful life depend on factors that are not all within your control.

But no matter where you are in life, no matter what your age, what’s happened in your past, how skilled or educated or wealthy or strong or healthy you are, spiritual growth is within your reach, which means productivity and success in life are within your reach.

If you’re wondering if you matter, or if your life is successful, it’s not about your career, it’s not about your parenting, it’s not about your net worth or even about how many people’s lives you have influenced.  It’s about how much you share in the divine nature. How similar is your character to God’s? That’s the question that determines success and meaning in life.

The Standard: Growth

Now, maybe you don’t find that very encouraging because you feel like you fall short in the virtues. You think, “Man, if meaning in life comes from having those virtues, that’s terrible news for me because I’m nowhere near where I should be.” You look at someone like Ruth and her perseverance and think, “I go through something that’s not even a fraction of what she’s been through and it sends me into a spiral.” Or you see someone who’s really loving and always sees other people’s needs and has so much compassion. Or someone who has tremendous wisdom or knowledge or humility and you think, “I’m years from being where they are.” And so you wonder, “How much of these virtues do I have to have to please God?”

For example, take kindness.

Everyone has some kindness. Even a mass murderer is probably nice to his dog or his mom or someone at some times. But you wouldn’t call him a kind person. So how kind do you have to be to be a kind person?

Most of us answer that question by comparing ourselves to others. How do I compare to this person or that person? But that doesn’t get you anywhere because you can always find someone who is more loving than you or less loving, depending on whether you want to justify yourself or beat up on yourself. But either way, that doesn’t really tell you anything about whether your level of love is pleasing to God. Surely God’s standard isn’t that you have to be better than everyone else in every category.

So how much is enough? Peter’s answer is very simple (and this is so helpful)—your love, your kindness, your self-control—fill in the virtue—it’s enough if it is (wait for it) … growing.  Peter doesn’t say a word in this passage about how much of each virtue you have to have. Here’s what he says:

2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive.

How much does it take to please God and to fulfill your purpose in life? Growth. You say, “But I’m a 1 out of 10.” Well, as long as you’re on your way to 1.5 or 2, you’re good. The issue is not how you compare to others or some arbitrary standard. The only issue is, are you growing?

So again, it’s always in reach. Maybe you are ten years away from being what you ought to be in some area. But no matter how far off your goals are, beginning the growth process can always happen right now.

Progressive Sanctification

Theologians call this the doctrine of progressive sanctification.  Sharing in the divine nature is a progressive, gradual, step-by-step process.

That’s not the way we like it, a lot of the time. People often think of spiritual growth in terms of large leaps forward. “I had a breakthrough!”  Or “I need to have a breakthrough.”  We love the idea of going on a retreat or hearing a great sermon or reading a book and all the lights come on, we have an epiphany, and our life is changed from that moment on. We’re like a kid who wants muscles so he spends one day lifting weights and then looks in the mirror every day to see if his muscles are any bigger. We want instant physical growth when we’re kids, and we want instant spiritual growth when we’re adults.

But Peter is very clear. You make progress bit by bit, using one virtue to build another one, then building on that, growing, building, progressing.

Better than Legalism

And the fact that that’s the standard—instead of God saying, “You have to be at this level,” he just says, “The only requirement is growth,”—that protects us from perfectionism, which is really just a form of legalism. Perfectionism sets an arbitrary external standard and says, “Anything short of that is not good enough. Once you reach that point, you’re good.” And it’s always an external standard.

Our legalistic minds always want to come up with some really measurable, external goal. And that makes you constantly frustrated and discouraged if you’re not meeting the standard. And you have a twisted concept of God being impossible to please.

And then once you do reach it, it leads to stagnation. “I’m doing what’s required, now I can coast.”

How much better is God’s way. He says, “All I require is that you take the next step, wherever you are.”

Conclusion

So if you’re ever feeling useless, don’t get discouraged. Just remind yourself of what God says about what defines an important, productive, fruitful life—deepening knowledge of Christ, remember that God wants you to have that, he can help you have it, and he’s on your side in this whole thing (he wants you to have a meaningful, successful life because that will glorify him), and let those truths motivate you to step up your efforts to grow in the virtues by trusting specific promises in God’s Word.

 

Summary

And unproductive life is a horrible fate because God designed us to need productivity. But productivity is more than efficiency. True productivity is growth in your knowledge of (relationship with) Christ which produces moral fruit. And that fruit will force you into material productivity. The standard for the fruit is simply growth, which defeats perfectionism, legalism, and coasting. A meaningful, successful, productive life is always available

A literal translation of v.8 is, “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will make you not ineffective and unproductive.” It seems like he’s going out of his way to use a double negative. It would be so much simpler to say, “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will make you effective and productive.” Evidently, Peter assuming our fear of being useless is stronger than our desire to be productive, so he appeals to the former

In Mt.20:3 it’s used of people who are out of work. In 1 Timothy 5:11 it’s used of younger widows who don’t have anything to occupy their time so they get in trouble.

In Titus 1:12 it’s translated “lazy.”

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For the previous message in 2 Peter, click here.

For the full series on 1 Peter, click here.

The post Two SCARY Words that Could Change Your Life Forever – 2 Peter 1:8 appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

You work hard to develop self-control or some other virtue, then one day, poof, it’s gone. Why does that happen? And what can be done about it?

Click here for the video of this message.

2 Peter 1:5 For this very reason, having made every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance.

Introduction

How robust or fragile is your personal holiness? The virtues in your life—your joy, your love, your self-control, your peace—what happens to those when they come under pressure? Are they steadfast and reliable, or are they fragile? How many times have you been in a good place spiritually, you have a good attitude, you’re thinking on things above, your mind is right, you have self-control, but then some pressure squeezes you, and poof, it’s all gone. “I worked so hard for that good attitude—where did it go?” “I was doing so well resisting temptation, and now all of a sudden I’m like Samson with his hair cut off.” What can be done about weak, on-again-off-again, unreliable virtue?

Review

We’re in 2 Peter 1:5-7 where Peter gives a list of seven virtues that we’re supposed to make every effort to build onto our faith—three, one in the middle, then another 3. So far, we’ve covered the first three—moral excellence, knowledge, and self-control.

Now, before we look at that middle one (#4 in the list), let’s remember the format of this list. Peter’s grammar indicates that each virtue comes by means of the previous one. So the way to get self-control is through knowledge. Athletes have self-control because they know what the prize is—it’s that gold medal, and they really, really want it. You can have self-control over sinful impulses if you understand what prizes are at stake, you really want that prize, you understand what’s so great about it, and you understand what jeopardizes it so you know which impulses you have to control.

The Centrality of PerseveranceKeeps Self-Control Going

That’s where we left off last time—use knowledge about the prize to increase your self-control. And at this point, it really seems like the list could end right there. By the time you have moral excellence, spiritual knowledge, and self-control—so what you love and desire aligns with God’s heart, you’re thinking like God, and you have the self-control to resist the impulses of the flesh, wouldn’t everything you do be pleasing to God?

The answer is yes. When you have moral excellence, knowledge, and enough self-control to keep the impulses of the flesh at bay, you won’t sin and you’ll never have to worry about sin again—that is, as long as your self-control holds up. The moment your self-control gives out, all bets are off.

You might hear that and think, “Well, what good is self-control? The answer is, it’s really not much good if it doesn’t last.

The question isn’t really, “Do you have self-control?” Everyone has self-control. The real question is, “How much pressure does it take for your self-control to collapse?”

And if we’re honest, we’ll have to say, “Some days, not much. There are times when all it takes is the slightest nudge and my self-control waves the white flag. What’s the trick to getting self-control that will hold up even when it’s under pressure?

If you want it to hold up, you’re going to need another virtue. You’re going to need the “stay strong and keep it going” virtue. The biblical name for that virtue is perseverance. Self-control is useless without perseverance to keep it going. So Peter says:

2 Peter 1:6 [Add to your] self-control, perseverance.

The Greek word is hupomene. Mene—to remain; hupo—under. hupomene is the ability to remain steadfast even under pressure. What kind of pressure?  Whatever pressure threatens to make you quit.  Perseverance is the stay strong and keep it going virtue. So when you have a little bit of self-control, perseverance makes it so you can keep controlling yourself even when it gets hard.

Keeps all Virtues Going

So you need perseverance for your self-control, but not just for your self-control. Remember I told you that this list has three virtues in the front and three in the back and one in the center? Very often, when you see a list of seven in the Bible, the reason it’s seven is to point you to that middle spot. Just like we saw with the structure of the Gospel of Mark so many times—that middle spot is especially important. Peter places perseverance dead center as the lynchpin of this whole list that reaches both directions to the first three and last three and holds them all together. It’s in the middle because without perseverance, every virtue in this whole list becomes useless. And not only this list, but every virtue in the Bible.

When you look at Peter’s description of what it looks like to share in God’s nature in this list, you might say, “Peter, aren’t you forgetting a few big ones?” Where is humility? Patience?  Joy, hope, fear of God, peace, meekness, wisdom—shouldn’t we make every effort to add those to our faith too?” I think Peter would say, “Yeah, that’s why I made it a list of 7.”

Groups of 7 don’t happen by accident in Scripture.  When you hear that 7 is the number of perfection or completion—that’s a real thing. I believe what Peter is doing here is giving us a representative list of 7 that stands for all the virtues—every aspect of what it means to share in the divine nature.

So you can apply the general principle to everything in the Christian life. Spiritual growth happens when you make every effort to use every virtue you already have to develop the virtues you don’t have.  No matter how many virtues you have, never start coasting, never stop striving—always be growing. So don’t be too worried if you can’t remember the exact sequence here in Peter’s list. Just in general, use the things you’re good at to grow the godly traits you’re weak in.

And by putting perseverance in the center, it highlights how essential it is for every godly trait in the whole Bible. You’re a loving, kind person. That’s great. But will you keep loving when it gets hard? Only if you have perseverance. What good is joy if it dies as soon as you feel some pain? What good is seeking God if you give up before you find him? What good is selflessness or humility or any other virtue if it collapses as soon as there is some resistance? Everything in your Christian life depends on perseverance. Any virtue that can’t handle pressure is doomed to fail because life is full of pressures—people pressuring you to do the wrong thing, the culture shoving you in wrong directions, the pressure of suffering, pressure from Satan, pressure from your own flesh—any virtue that can’t handle all that is useless.

No matter how holy and righteous and pleasing to God you are in a given moment, the only thing keeping you from veering off the road and crashing into the ditch of sin the next moment is perseverance. You can’t overstate the importance of it.

Priceless

This is why suffering is so precious to the Christian, because every hardship is an opportunity to build perseverance.

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

I’ve heard Bible-believing Christians laugh at that passage as if it were totally unrealistic.  Many times I’ve heard Christians—even pastors say, “Don’t ever quote that passage to someone who is suffering—that would be so insensitive.” A passage in God’s Word telling us how to respond to suffering and we’re not supposed to read it to people who are suffering? Why? People have that attitude because they have no idea how priceless perseverance is. It’s so valuable that, if you had any idea how valuable it is, you really would be full of joy when you suffer because of how much you want more perseverance.

James 1:3 is a beautiful passage to read to people who are suffering because it’s a promise. Remember Peter taught us back in v.3 that all spiritual growth comes through trusting God’s promises? This is a promise—respond the right way to suffering and it will increase your perseverance. And the next verse is an even bigger promise.

James 1:4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Perseverance is priceless.

Jesus said:

Matthew 10:22 He who perseveres to the end will be saved.

How’s that for high stakes?

How to Get It

So how do you increase your perseverance? Remember, you grow each virtue by means of the previous one in the list. What comes before perseverance? Self-control. Use self-control to increase your perseverance.

Self-Control Workouts

You say, “How can I use my self-control to build perseverance if the whole reason I need perseverance is my lack of self-control keeps giving out?” The answer is this—you strengthen weak self-control the same way you strengthen a weak muscle.  Exercise it. And with each workout, you push a little farther and you get a little stronger.

However weak or fragile or transitory your self-control is, use whatever little bit of it you have as often as you can and it will grow.

The problem is, we don’t exercise our self-control on small things because they’re, well, small. They aren’t a big deal. Nothing much is at stake, there’s no real consequence if we bail on our self-control.

But those are the times we must exercise that self-control muscle so we can build it up. Right in that moment when there’s that impulse to eat something you really shouldn’t eat—hold out just a little longer than you normally would. And the next time, a little longer than that. Each time, hold out a little longer, building that muscle.

Maybe when people hurt you, you typically go a day and a half dwelling on what they did wrong and allowing your anger to smolder before you finally get a grip and have a godly response. If it usually takes a day and a half before you have the strength to let go of that anger and stop giving that person the cold shoulder, next time, shoot for sundown the same day to start showing warmth and love.

You know you should turn off the TV and get up and do something that needs doing or go to bed or whatever, click that TV off a little sooner than you normally would. And the next time a little sooner.

You’re working on something and it gets a little boring or difficult and your flesh says, “Just set this aside and do something else.” Push just a little longer. And again, this is hard when it’s not something that’s very important or you don’t have any hard deadline anytime soon. You think, “It’s not going to hurt anything if I just take a little break.” You’re right—it won’t hurt anything … except your perseverance.  It will keep your perseverance muscle weak and fragile so it won’t be strong when you really need it.

Not only that, but quitting too soon will train your soul to always obey your flesh, and that’s a really hard thing to unlearn. It may be something really small. Cleaning out your car or paying bills or doing some exercise—if you procrastinate on getting started or you quit as soon as it gets boring or hard, that may seem small, but what you’re doing is setting your life on a trajectory of enslavement to your feelings. And if you draw out that trajectory on the graph of your future, you’ll find that path takes you to a very different life than that line that keeps at that hard task just a little longer each time or that gets started on an unpleasant task just a little quicker. A whole different future.

Just be a little quicker to start each time. Postpone your quitting threshold 2 or 3 minutes longer each time. Build that muscle. That’s how you build perseverance.

Suffering Workouts

Earlier I mentioned James 1—about how suffering can teach you perseverance if you respond the right way. If you have a hard time responding the right way to hardship, use tiny, little hardships to build that muscle. Never let small, manageable suffering go to waste. You stub your toe or hit three red lights in a row, or something that bugs you a little bit but you’re still in control—that’s the perfect time to do a little perseverance workout. Preach to yourself. “I just hit three red lights—what does it look like to regulate my emotions in a situation like this? What does it look like to respond according to principle rather than living by feelings?” Keep doing that with bigger and bigger trials.

Self-control is the ability to not be bullied by your feelings. You feel an impulse of desire or a wave of sadness or despair or anger or discouragement, and you say, “That’s just a feeling. It can’t hurt me. I’m not afraid of it. I won’t be bullied by it. I know the right thing to do and I’ll keep doing it.” Every time you do that—every time you choose not to live by feelings, you strengthen your perseverance. You make decisions based on how you feel less and less often, and you establish a habit of making your decisions based on principle. And doing that over and over strengthens those perseverance muscles.

Jesus’s Example

Maybe the most helpful passage of all on learning perseverance is the one that teaches from Jesus’ example.

Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who persevered (hypomeno—same word) under such opposition … so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Considering how Jesus persevered will enable you to persevere.  So what was Jesus’ secret? How did he pull it off? Verse 2 tells us, but before we look at how he persevered, let’s do what it says and take a minute to consider him who persevered. Let’s just recall what Jesus endured. He lived his whole life and never gave in to a single temptation.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.

And don’t think that was easier for him than it is for you. It was not easy. It was agonizing. We’re told about the Spirit thrusting Jesus out into the desolation for 40 days with no food or shelter being assaulted full blast by Satan. Do you think God told us about that so we would think it was easy for him?

Hebrews 5:7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him 8 … he learned obedience from what he suffered.

How often do you have loud cries and tears when you pray? That doesn’t sound to me like he was finding it easy. And yet even after 40 days without food, Jesus stood strong against the temptation to so much as have a bite of bread apart from the Father’s will. That’s perseverance.

All through his sham trials, he didn’t open his mouth , even though he could have easily turned all those prosecutors into knots and humiliated them. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. The whole time they were spitting in his face, punching him, slapping him, mocking him, humiliating him, all he did, according to Hebrews 5:8 was learn obedience through what he suffered.

The night before the cross, he’s sweating blood, begging God, “Don’t make me drink this cup.” And yet when the answer to that prayer was no, he stayed the course.

Have you ever been in such excruciating pain that you felt like you couldn’t endure it another second? And you feel like you would do anything in that moment if you could just make it stop. I have. A few times I’ve been so sick, I didn’t think I could handle the suffering even another moment, much less another hour. Every time I’ve felt like that, I know for a fact I couldn’t have been in as much pain as Jesus was in while they were scourging him. And if he had those moments where you say, “I feel like I can’t stand this another second—make it stop!” all it would have taken was a single thought and he could have summoned twelve legions of angels to come bring him relief. But instead, he persevered. Talk about self-control in your thought life!

And he persevered in that obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross. That’s Jesus’ example of perseverance that we fix our eyes on.

Now back to Hebrews 12:2—how did Jesus do it? Jesus was human, with the same human weaknesses we have. How did he manage such amazing perseverance?

Hebrews 12:1 … let us run with perseverance … 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus … who (here’s his secret) for the joy set before him endured the cross (persevered through the crucifixion), scorning its shame.

“Scorning” means he thought little of it. He gave those feelings of shame and humiliation only a tiny space in his thinking. How is that possible? It says he did it “by the joy set before him.”

What’s the key to self-control again?  Understanding the prize. Jesus understood the prize—that joy set before him. He valued the joy he would get from that prize probably more than a guy like me can even imagine. Jesus wanted that joy so badly, he would crawl over broken glass to get it. In fact, he’d do a lot more than crawl over glass. He’d do anything to get it. Nothing could distract him from it. His desire for it gave him unbelievable self-control and perseverance.

One of the most remarkable examples of how this works in your emotions is Jacob working 14 years to get Rachel. 14 years—that’s perseverance, and yet it was easy for him. In Genesis 29:20, it says that decade and a half of working seemed like only a few days to Jacob because of how much he loved Rachel—his prize. His desire for that prize gave him unlimited perseverance and unlimited self-control and made it feel easy the whole time. He wanted that prize and he was going to do whatever it took.

So back to Jesus. What was his prize? What was the joy set before him? What did Jesus stand to gain that he didn’t already have before he ever became human in the first place?

He already had glory and honor in heaven throughout eternity past. He had perfect fellowship with the Father. He had eternal blessedness and happiness. What didn’t he have that would require coming to earth persevering through the crucifixion to get? What was his Rachel?

You. And me. His Bride.

Titus 2:13 Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 … gave himself … to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

That was the joy set before him. You are his Rachel. His affection for you is what gave him the self-control and perseverance to tell those legions of angels, “No, stand down. I will endure this.”

That’s not to say his prize was only the Church. There was also special honor from the Father that he would receive. But even that is tied in with a worshipping, adoring Church full of people who are eager to do what is good.

Jesus kept his focus on that prize. He believed from the bottom of his heart that if he didn’t go through with the cross, he would forfeit that joy. It wasn’t maybe; it wasn’t probably. In his mind, it was a clear, black and white choice.  Get the joy or forfeit the joy—no in between. And that gave him persevering self-control that to you and me seems impossible.

Your Rachel: The Promises

That was Jesus’ Rachel—what’s your Rachel? What could be such a precious prize that it would give you that kind of self-control and perseverance? Everything God promised.  It always goes right back to trusting God’s great and precious promises.

All of God’s conditional promises will help you with perseverance, and some of the promises are expressly given for the specific purpose of helping you persevere.  For example:

Romans 2:7 To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

The promises at the end of each of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3.  “To him who overcomes, I will give …” Those are all promises designed to enable us to overcome and persevere through the tribulation. Those are all promises designed to help you not lose your faith.

And then there are promises designed to help you in times when you’re tempted to give up or lose heart. Here are some of my favorites.

Hebrews 10:35 Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

If your boss says you’ll be richly rewarded for something, that might mean a bonus, a promotion—something like that. What if Elon Musk says he will richly reward you? For him, millions of dollars are like pennies. What do you think it means to have Almighty God say, “You will be richly rewarded?”

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

When you’re tempted to quit because you’re not seeing any benefit from doing what God called you to do, remember this promise.

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Whether it’s something small, like quitting too soon on a mundane task, all the way up to giving up on life itself—don’t grow weary in doing good, the harvest will come—set your sights on the prize, persevere, and don’t give up.

Summary

Self-control (and all other virtues) are worthless if they don’t last. So we must add perseverance to all of them, indicated by the central position in the list of 7. Get it by exercising your self-control muscle in small things, like weight training. And by following Jesus’ example of setting your sights on the joy set before you—like Jacob persevering 14 years for Rachel. What was Jesus’ Rachel? You!

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And this isn’t the only place in the Bible where these two virtues go together. Proverbs 16:32 Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. The two virtues go together because really all perseverance is is ongoing self-control.

The post Fragile Faith: Why Can’t I Stay Strong? – 2 Peter 1:6  appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

Volume one of my two-part series on what the Bible says about overcoming anxiety (Peace through Faith) was released in February. The second volume, which focuses on trusting God, is due out later this year. I’d love your help on choosing a title. Of the two options below, which would you be most likely to order?

Let me know in the comments!

The post Which Title Would You Pick? appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

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In Mark 15:34 Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Did God actually forsake Jesus? If so, what’s the answer to Jesus’ question? Why? And if you think the answer is obvious, then why does Jesus ask the question? He knew he had to drink this cup, he agonized about it in Gethsemane. So why is he asking this question?

Mark 15:33 At the sixth hour darkness came upon the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?“–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Introduction: Did God Forsake Jesus?

In Mark 15:34 Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Did God actually forsake Jesus? And if so, what’s the answer to Jesus’ question? Why? And if you think the answer is obvious, then why does Jesus ask the question? He knew he had to drink this cup, he agonized about it in Gethsemane. So why is he asking this question? Did Jesus really believed that the Father had forsaken him? And if so, what does “forsaking” mean, exactly? Was there some kind of rift in the Trinity?  And how long did the forsaking last?

I made an argument in the Q&A last time that God never forsook Jesus on the cross.  Now, what you make of that will depend in part on your definition of the word “forsake.”  If your definition of forsaking is that God turned his face away from Jesus, withdrew his tenderness, cut off access to fellowship with him, withheld all comfort and strengthening, and punished Jesus as if he were furiously angry with him—if that’s what you mean by forsaking, then yes, God did forsake Jesus. Because he did all of that.

But there are some other things God did not do. God did not abandon Jesus to the grave. Acts 2:30 David was a prophet and knew that God had promised …that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 …he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not forsaken (same word Jesus used when he said “why have you forsaken me) to the grave.

Secondly, the Father didn’t abandon Jesus in the sense of rejecting him. God accepted the sacrifice Jesus was offering and was pleased by it.

Third, God was not angry with Jesus. He did treat Jesus as if he were angry with him. God was angry with mankind, and he poured out the consequences of that wrath on Jesus. But nowhere does the Bible say God was emotionally angry with his Son. It does say he was pleased with his Son. And, you could argue, never more pleased than when Jesus gave his life to reconcile the world to God.

Fourth, God never became indifferent to Jesus’ cries. There was never a moment when God heard Jesus crying out and said, “I don’t care. That means nothing to me.” God cared—deeply. He didn’t let Jesus feel the sensation of being cared for, he didn’t offer any expression of that care while Jesus was on the cross, but the Father did care.

So if you agree with those two lists of what God didn’t do and what God did do, then you and I are on the same page. You might refer to all of that as God temporarily forsaking Jesus, and I might describe the exact same thing by saying God never abandoned him at all, but made Jesus feel abandoned.  But regardless of the wording we would use to describe it, we would be in agreement on what actually happened.

However, I do believe there is a bit of a danger in describing it the first way. Here’s why: to say God temporarily forsook Jesus might give the impression that whenever times are hard, God has abandoned you and when things are smooth, God came back.

That’s how many commentators interpret Psalm 22. Verse 1 says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And verse 23 says, “You who fear the Lord, praise him! …24 for he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. They see that and say, “Well, obviously, by v.23 his problems had gone away. In v.1 he was having a hard time so God had abandoned him.  But then God rescued him and answered his prayers so he started praising God for un-abandoning him.”

I don’t agree with that interpretation.  First of all, there’s nothing in the psalm to indicate that David’s circumstances changed between section 1 and section 2. Secondly, the argument fails because you can tell just from v.1 that the speaker doesn’t really believe God forsook him because he calls him, “My God.” He wouldn’t be able to refer to God that way if God had truly forsaken him.

Hardship Does not Mean You’re Forsaken

And beyond that, that whole way of looking at it contradicts what the rest of the Bible says about how to interpret hardship. That was the philosophy of Job’s friends. “Oh, things aren’t going well for you Job? Obviously God is mad at you.” Then when he gets his health and money back, “Oh, now God is back on your side.” They were rebuked by God for that philosophy.

In 2 Corinthians 4 Paul speaks to this directly.

2 Corinthians 4:8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken (same word as Jesus used on the cross); struck down, but not destroyed.

Paul was hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. But even while all that was going on, still, he wasn’t forsaken or abandoned by God. It wasn’t that he was temporarily forsaken and then unforsaken later. The whole point is that he was never forsaken.

In Philippians 4, did Paul say, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, pray for relief, and after God brings it, then offer thanksgiving?” No. He said, “In everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” You don’t wait until after God responds. You’re already thankful to God for whatever he’s planning on doing before he does anything. And you’re thankful for whatever he’s accomplishing through the hardship. If you wait until after you get what you want from God to start praising him, you’re living by faith, not sight. You’re using God rather than trusting God. So it’s wrong to assume you’re abandoned by God just because it feels like you’ve been abandoned.

Different for Jesus?

So in Psalm 22 when he shifts from “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” to “Praise God because he has not forsaken me,” what changed wasn’t his circumstances. What changed was his perspective. He went from focusing on how he felt to what he knew. He felt forsaken, but in his mind he knew that wasn’t the case.

Now, there are some who would come back and say, “Well, maybe that was true for David. But the situation for Jesus on the cross was different. God didn’t forsake David is Psalm 22, but he did forsake Jesus on the cross.

But if that’s the case, then it would be incredibly misleading for Jesus to quote Psalm 22? If he meant something totally different from what David meant, why mislead people by quoting David?

Some of the commentators argue that Jesus only quoted v.1, therefore he didn’t have the rest of the psalm in mind. They say the only part of the psalm that applied to Jesus was v.1, about God abandoning him, not the rest of the psalm. They say, “If we do that, we diminish the intensity of Jesus’ suffering because sections 2 and 3 of the psalm are upbeat and triumphant.”

I strongly disagree with that argument.  Our job is not to interpret everything in the way that would mean the maximum possible suffering for Jesus. Our job is to be honest with whatever the text says and let God worry about whether Jesus suffered enough. And if we interpret this passage the same way we interpret all the other times Jesus quotes the Old Testament, we would most definitely consider the whole psalm. Every other time in the book of Mark when Jesus or Mark have quoted the Old Testament, every one has pointed to the whole context surrounding the quoted passage. So if Jesus quoted a verse out of context here it would be extremely out of character for both him and Mark.

Jesus suffered plenty. It’s not a problem for us to think he drew some comfort from God’s promises. The reason sections 2 and 3 of Psalm 22 are triumphant and joyful is because the focus shifts from how things seem to what the Bible says is true about God. For Jesus to shift his attention to the Father’s love for him, the Father’s promises of resurrection, future glory, that doesn’t diminish the sacrifice Jesus made any more than the writer of Hebrews diminishes it when he says “Jesus endured the cross ‘for the joy set before him.’” If Jesus couldn’t draw comfort from counting on God’s promises and looking forward to his deliverance, why would he call us to do that?

And beyond that, we need to remember that Jesus’ quotation of v.1 isn’t the only reference to Psalm 22 in the crucifixion account. There are multiple allusions.

Mark 15:24 Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

Psalm 22:18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

Mark 15:29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads.

Psalm 22:7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

Matthew 27:43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him.

Psalm 22:8 He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.

And the descriptions of his physical condition in Psalm 22 seems to describe Jesus on the cross a lot more accurately than anything David ever went through. There’s even a reference in Psalm 22:16 about his hands and feet being pierced (although there’s some debate about whether that word should be translated “pierced” or “pinned”). The book of Hebrews connects section 2 of Psalm 22 with Jesus. And section 2 is the part of the psalm that says God didn’t forsake him. God is making it crystal clear that he wants us to interpret the events of the crucifixion through the lens of Psalm 22—the whole psalm.

And one of those references is all about the question of whether God had abandoned him. That’s what the mockers were saying—that God had indeed forsaken Jesus.

Psalm 22:8 He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.

And that’s exactly what the mockers said about Jesus on the cross.

Matthew 27:43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him.

They’re saying, “Jesus, the reason God isn’t rescuing you and taking you down from the cross, the reason you feel like God has abandoned you is because he has abandoned you.” Are we going to say those mockers were right? No. In Acts 2, Peter uses the fact of the resurrection to prove those mockers were wrong. God did not forsake Jesus, and Peter uses the same word for forsake as Jesus used when he quoted Psalm 22. Their accusation was not true. God had not rejected Jesus. We find out whom God really rejected when God raises Jesus from the dead and exalts him to his right hand, and those mockers are slaughtered under the wrath of God in 70 AD.

So not only is it a mistake to try to say only v.1 of Psalm 22 applied to the crucifixion and the rest was only about David, but you could actually argue the reverse. If the psalm only applied to one party, we’d have to say it applied to Jesus and not David. Honestly, I’m really not sure any of this psalm applied to David. It seems to me it’s a pure messianic prophecy and not a description of something that happened to David. When the mockers said, “Let God rescue him if he delights in him,” are we to think that the mockers at the cross just happened to use the exact wording of people who mocked David? That’s possible, but it doesn’t seem likely to me.

But beyond that, think about sections 2 and 3 of the psalm. The point of section 2 is that God will deliver this one righteous sufferer in a way that will stimulate praise from all of God’s people.

The congregation …you who fear the Lord …all you descendants of Israel …the great assembly …those who fear you …they who seek the Lord.

Then, section 3 expands out even further, beyond Israel to the whole wide world.

Psalm 22:27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him.

This is way beyond David. And this is why it’s so important that we don’t just think Jesus was referring to v.1 of Psalm 22. It’s why the Holy Spirit inspired the gospel writers to allude to various parts of Psalm 22 over and over when they described the crucifixion. It’s why the Spirit, in his foreknowledge, even included some of the exact language of the mockers at the cross way back in Psalm 22. And it’s why, just in case we missed all the hints, Jesus just came right out and quoted Psalm 22.

When Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he was telling us how he felt. But he was also telling us, “I’m the fulfillment of Psalm 22. I’m the one who will cry out to God, and God will rescue me in a way that will cause all my brothers to shout praises, and people all over the world, for centuries to come, will turn to God and serve him. It may look like I’m being forsaken by God. It definitely feels that way. But the truth is I’m not being forsaken. God will rescue me in a way that will bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”

And that’s exactly what happened. That was the point of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost when he preached to the very people who murdered Jesus.

Acts 2:30 David was a prophet and knew that God had promised …that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 …he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not forsaken …32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God …36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

There’s the promise of the ends of the earth turning to God already starting to be fulfilled. Peter doesn’t mention Psalm 22, but what he said was a perfect description of the fulfillment of Psalm 22. On the cross, it looked (and felt) like Jesus was forsaken by God, but God heard Jesus’ cry, rescued him from the grave, and did so in a way that brought salvation to the whole world for generations to come.

Summary

God turned his face away from Jesus, offered him no comfort or strengthening, and treated him as if he were furiously angry with him. But he wasn’t emotionally angry with Jesus, loved him, did not abandon him to the grave, and cared about his suffering (though he didn’t let Jesus feel that care). This shouldn’t be described as even a temporary forsaking of Jesus because that would imply whenever God is distant it means he has forsaken you, which isn’t true. Jesus felt forsaken, but pointed us to Psalm 22 to teach us that he knew he wasn’t forsaken. All of Psalm 22 applies to Jesus. And it’s questionable whether any of it applied to David.

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On a related point, there’s another idea that you frequently hear about the cross that the Bible doesn’t say. It’s the idea that Jesus suffered the equivalent of all the suffering of all sinners in hell for eternity. That sounds logical, but really that’s what it is—human logical reasoning. The Bible never actually says that. The most we can say is this—Jesus suffered enough so that God accepted his sacrifice in place of our eternal suffering.

That’s so clearly messianic that the only way I can see it applying to David would be in the sense that he is a prototype of the Messiah, so in one sense, there will be people all over the world turning to God as a result of God delivering David, but not until 1500 years later when Jesus came around.

Click here for part 1 of this message, “Jesus in the Dark”

Click here for part 3 of this message: “When God is Distant”

For more messages, click here for the resource page.

 

The post Why Have You Forsaken Me? Did the Father Turn His Back on Jesus? – Mark 15:34  appeared first on D. Richard Ferguson.

2 Peter 1:1-2   10/12/2024

2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those equal to us in the faith they have received because of the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

IntroductionWishing the Best

When you’re about to leave and you want to say something nice, what do you usually say? Probably the most common parting wish is, “Have a nice day.” That’s a friendly thing to say, right? Not very specific, but generally you want their day to be … nice.

Another one is, “Take care.” Or, I love this one – “Take it easy.” Just make sure you take the easiest possible path – don’t put forth any effort, don’t break a sweat, don’t do any work. You’re just giving them a free pass to take the path of least resistance.

Most of our greetings are along that line. Although, if it’s someone you really love and you may never see them again, you might go for something a little better than, “Have a nice day.” Or how about a toast at a wedding? Now you’re really racking your brain to come up with the best wish you could give them—at least the best thing related to marriage.

If you can’t think of anything, you could just punt and say, “I wish you all the best.” But what is that—what is the best thing that could happen to them? Good health? Prosperity?  What do you wish for the people you love the most?

This is actually an important question, because it affects more than just what you say in a greeting. Whatever you regard as the most valuable thing—that thing you wish the most for those you love, that’s what you’ll pray for. And that’s what you will work to bring that about in their lives. And it’s the thing you’ll work hardest to get for yourself. And when you really want to be generous, or you really want to express love to someone, or you really want to help someone who is in trouble, you will give them the thing you regard as most valuable. So this is really a huge question in your life. The way you answer this question will show the direction your life is going to take. We pursue that which we truly believe is most valuable—that’s what steers the direction of your whole life.

So what’s the best thing you can wish on someone? The best way to answer that question is to ask this: What is the main thing God wants for you? We’ll find out in a minute, but first, let’s take a look at verse 1 of 2 Peter.

Three Truths from Greetings

The NT Bible writers started their letters with the same basic format that letters generally had in that culture, but instead of the meaningless boilerplate greetings—the “have a nice day”-type greetings that most people used, the NT writers would put substantive teaching in the greeting. We don’t want to skim over the greetings in the epistles because they teach important truths that we need to hear. Mostly, they teach us three things. The first is the credentials of the writer.

Peter’s Credentials

2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ

Those are two very high credentials. Preachers usually say the first one is a humble title and the second one is a high, authoritative role. Actually, they are both high, authoritative roles.

Slave

He calls himself a servant (or slave) of God. Slaves of a king were members of that king’s cabinet, part of the royal court. And if you follow that title “servant of God” through the OT, you’ll see that it’s applied to people like Moses, Samuel, David, and the Patriarchs.  A servant of God is a leader God has chosen to have a special place in his household. Peter is claiming that role for himself, which is remarkable.  He’s establishing his authority.

Now, we can also say that even though it’s a lofty position in the kingdom of God, there is still an element of lowliness to it because this is the normal word for slave. When you’re a slave, someone else owns you. You’re not the captain of your own ship, you’re not the boss of your own life. You live in a posture of submissiveness and your whole life is lived for the will of someone else, not your own will. That’s not a popular idea in our culture no matter how important your master is. You don’t often hear Christian celebrities use the term “slave of Jesus” as their main credential. Some people claim the title “apostle,” but usually not “slave.”

Apostle

Peter claimed both credentials—slave and Apostle of Jesus Christ. There are two kinds of apostles in the New Testament: Apostles of Christ and apostles of the church. And apostle of the church is a missionary—someone sent out by the church and commissioned by the church for a spiritual mission. An Apostle of Christ is an official spokesman for Christ. And that is the highest office any human outside of Christ himself has ever held. Their words carried the very authority of the Lord himself, which is why their letters are Scripture.  Disobey an Apostle and you’re defying Jesus Christ.

So Peter wants us to understand right up front that this is not a casual letter among friends. This is an authoritative pronouncement from the Lord himself.

It’s very, very important to understand that the Apostles spoke for Jesus. You can really put the entire NT in red letters. Jesus told them, “What I whisper in your ear, I want you to shout from the housetops” (Mt.10:27). That’s what they’re doing in the epistles.

If anyone ever disagrees with anything in the whole NT, you can tell that person, “You’re fight is against Jesus. Are you sure you want to disagree with Jesus Christ?”

Most people don’t want to disagree with Jesus. I’ve found that when I’m talking to unbelievers, that will very often give them pause when I tell them, “Your fight isn’t with me—it’s with Jesus Christ.” A lot of times that will catch their attention.

So I’ll say that anytime anyone disagrees with anything in the whole NT, or int the OT for that matter, because Jesus regarded the OT as the Word of God.

Your Identity

So that’s the first thing we learn in these greetings—the credentials of the author. You can have full confidence that everything you read in the Bible is the very word of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second category is super-encouraging and absolutely critical if you want to be successful in living the Christian life. It’s something most of us don’t give nearly enough attention to (I know I don’t), even though it’s strongly emphasized in Scripture. And if we did give more attention to it, walking closely with God would be much easier.

It’s the portion of the greeting that identifies the recipients.  Have you ever wondered why the Apostles devoted so many words to the part of the greeting that says who the letter is written to? When you address a letter, all you’re trying to do is make sure the mailman gets it to the right person. Name … address—that’s all you put. But the Bible writers will often put a big, long description. 1 Peter is a good example.

1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, … 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.

Why so much description? Is it for the mailman? Is he walking all around Asia Minor looking for elect strangers in the world chosen by foreknowledge and sanctified for obedience so he can get the letter into the right hands? No. It’s not for the mailman—it’s for the recipients.

The second purpose of the greetings in the epistles is to teach you the truth about you. Why do I need to be taught about me? I need to be taught about me, and you need to be instructed about who and what you are because if you are confused about who you are and what you are supposed to be, you won’t know how to make decisions in life and your whole life will go the wrong direction.

Think about children who are confused about their gender. Or even worse—confused about whether they are even human. One of the fads within transgenderism is kids who identify as animals.

Think about that for a minute. If you are a human and you think you’re a wolf, how successful is your life going to be?

For one thing, it seems like you’d be incredibly discouraged all the time. I know I would be. If I thought I was a wolf, one thing I would know for sure—I’m a terrible wolf. Easily the worst wolf in the world. I’d be the world’s slowest wolf. I’d have the dullest teeth of any wolf and I’d starve because I can’t hunt with just my mouth. But before I starved, I would freeze to death my very first night out in the woods in the winter because I’m the most under-insulated of all wolves. I’m not even sure I could howl very well.

Pick any animal, and if I were that animal, I’d be the worst one. I’d be the skinniest cow, the weakest horse, the most flightless of all birds. If you think you’re one thing but God designed you to be something else, life will be constant frustration.

We chuckle at the animal illustration, but it’s just as true about things that aren’t so obvious. Just look at the way God describes us in all the greetings in the Epistles, and then look at what most unbelievers think life is all about, and you can see—it’s a night and day difference.

And all those things the greetings teach us—that you’re predestined, strangers in the world, holy to the Lord, servants of Christ—none of that is knowable through observation. If it’s not revealed and if you don’t learn it from those greetings, you won’t know. You won’t know who you are or what you are—what God created you to be, and so you’ll be frustrated in life.

And not only will you be frustrated, but you also won’t make good decisions in life because you won’t even know what direction you’re supposed to be going. If God made me to be a surgeon, but I don’t know that, I might waste half my life getting a degree in architecture or accounting or trying to be a pro football player. Knowing what you were made to be is what enables you to make good decisions in life that move you in the direction toward your sweet spot. All other decisions only move you away from that sweet spot toward frustration. So it’s crucially important that when the Bible teaches you about you, you listen carefully.

So what does Peter want you to know about you in his second Epistle? Look how he describes us.

1 … To those equal to us in the faith they have received because of the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Equal

The way Peter wrote it, the emphasis is on the word equal. Lit: “… to the equal-to-us having received faith ones.” Peter says that to everyone reading the book, which means it applies even to the lowliest Christian there’s ever been. Peter is saying that even the worst Christian out there has a faith as precious as the Apostles’ faith.

Don’t some people have more faith than others? Of course. Jesus spoke of great faith, little faith, strong faith, weak faith—we’re all at different stages of development, but the point here is we all start with the same raw material. An acorn and an oak tree are at different stages of maturity, but they both have the same, fundamental stuff.

Your faith has the same preciousness as Peter’s. The word translated “precious” means honorable, valuable, or privileged.  There are no underprivileged Christians. No one in the household of God is at a disadvantage because they started their Christian life with a substandard kind of faith. The lowest of the low start out with faith that is just as precious as the biggest of the bigshots in the kingdom of God.

Why is it important for you to know that? To boost your self-image? “I’m so special—I have faith like Peter’s! I feel so good about myself now.” We need to be careful about importing modern psychological fads into the Bible.

Are you just as amazing as an Apostle of Christ? No.  Are you just as powerful? No. Do you have just as much authority? Not even close. The Apostles spoke for Christ, they wrote Scripture, they were the highest authorities in the world-wide Church, they healed people at will, cast out demons, raised the dead. I can’t do any of that.

This verse is not saying that my calling and my giftedness and my authority and my role in the Church is just as high as the Apostles’. It’s saying that ordinary salvation is a far greater thing than Apostleship. And that’s true even for the Apostles.

Peter learned that from Jesus. Remember when Jesus sent out the 72 and when they came back they were all excited about the miraculous power Jesus had given them?

Luke 10:17 Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.

Jesus’ answer is interesting.

Luke 10:20 Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Having the power to work miracles is really, really cool, but it’s nothing compared to salvation. My role, my power, my authority will never be anywhere near as high as Peter’s was.  But Peter would say, “Yeah, all that Apostleship stuff is amazing, but knowing God through faith so that my name is written in the book of life is far, far greater.” And that’s just as true of me as it was of Peter.

Faith is something the lowest Christian and the Apostles have in common because it’s the one thing all Christians have in common because it’s what makes you a Christian. You have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re a Christian, no matter what else is true about you. You don’t have faith, you’re not a Christian no matter what else is true about you.

This is essential information. You need to know beyond any doubt that you did not come from underprivileged beginnings. You don’t have a defective foundation. The resource that you started your Christian life with and that powers everything to the end is the same for every Christian. That same rocket fuel that enabled Peter and John and James and Paul and all the greatest saints throughout history to do all that they did—God has filled your tank with that exact same brand of rocket fuel.

That’s important because your identity is tied to that faith. Your destiny is tied to that faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ takes you down a road that leads exactly where God created you to be. That faith is what leads you right into your sweet spot. Your identity, your destiny, what defines you, what powers your life—it’s all wrapped up in that gift of faith you have received.

If you don’t realize that, you’ll be like a kid who thinks he’s a parakeet. Nothing in your life will line up the way it should or go the direction it should without that understanding of your identity.  What are you? What defines you? Faith.

Received Faith

And notice where this faith came from.

1 … To those equal to us in the faith they have received because of the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

The word translated “received” has a very specific meaning. It’s always used of something you end up with because of an outside action that you don’t control. Sometimes it’s used of getting something as a result of casting lots (someone rolls the dice and it falls to you), or of inheriting something after someone dies and wills that thing to you. But one way or another, apart from anything you did, something falls into your lap. Peter describes your faith—your ability to trust God—as something that fell into your lap.

How did it fall into your lap?

1 … the faith they have received because of the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Your faith was given to you by God.  This is one of those passages in the NT where Jesus is directly called God.

So Jesus, who is our Savior and who is almighty God, gave you your faith. Just dropped it in your lap.

That’s an unusual way of speaking because the vast majority of the time in Scripture, faith is our responsibility. We are commanded to trust God. And if we fail to believe, that’s on us. The primary way God wants us to think about faith is as something we chose to do or not do. And if we don’t believe, that’s our fault.

However, there are a handful of passages, like this one, that remind us that once we decide to believe, if we turn around and look carefully at what happened, we’ll see that it was God. Peter said this once before in one of his sermons.

Acts 3:16 … It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing ….

The ability to have faith in Jesus comes to us through Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

All of it, including the faith, is a gift from God.

Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ … to believe on him ….

When I placed my trust in Christ, ultimately, that was God’s doing. Faith is a gift.

There are people who object to that because it’s too Calvinistic for their tastes. But regardless of what you think about Calvinism, wouldn’t all sides would agree that anytime we obey God, it happens because it is God who works in us to will and to act?

Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

So if you think of faith as an act of your own free will—great. Faith is most definitely an act of your will. But anytime you exercise your own free will, you still have to acknowledge that it was God who worked in you to will the way you did.

If our faith is not from God, none of our virtues are. All virtues come through faith, so if faith isn’t from God, nothing in the Christian life is from God. But if faith is from God, then all of it is from God.

And I think most Christians understand that intuitively. You look back on your conversion, and you ask, “Why didn’t it happen sooner? What was it in that moment that made the difference?” Most of us can sense, God did something in that moment.

Through Righteousness

So, the ability to trust Christ that dropped into your lap—that ability came from Christ as a gift, and it’s equal in value and honor and privilege even to the Apostles’ faith, why? Because of a specific attribute of God.

1 … To those equal to us in the faith they have received because of the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

We could take that one of two ways. It could be saying that Jesus is righteous, he wants us to also be righteous, so he gave us the one tool that can make us righteous—faith. And since God wants all of his people to be righteous, he wouldn’t give any of us defective, sub-standard faith. He gave us all a premium faith that is capable of getting us to righteousness. So in that sense, we received this faith through his righteousness.

The other possibility is that righteousness is used here in the narrower, more literal sense of fairness or justice. So then the idea is we all received the same precious faith because of the fairness of God. God is just, he shows no favoritism, and so we all get the same precious faith.

Both of those ideas are true. I’m not 100% sure which one Peter has in mind here, but I lean toward the first. Either way, you have faith as precious as the Apostles’ faith because it was dropped in your lap because of the righteousness of God.

Keep that in mind. Whenever you have a hard decision to make, whenever you’re picking a direction in life, anytime you face a temptation, remind yourself, you are a person who was given precious faith through the righteousness of God. That’s who you are, it’s what you are, and it points you in the direction of where you belong.

The Best of God’s Gifts

Okay, so the greetings teach us three things:

The credentials of the author (you can trust the Scriptures).The identity of the recipients (don’t be like a kid who thinks he’s a ware wolf—learn from God who and what you are).

Now the third. This is the author’s wish for you. And by “author” I mean both Peter and the Holy Spirit. I mainly mean the Holy Spirit because no matter who the human author is, the wish part of the greeting is almost always the same.

2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Peace

Peace refers to harmony, rest, peace with God, peace with people, peace within yourself. It comes from the Hebrew concept of shalom—good health, overall wellbeing and blessing from God.

Grace

The greater emphasis is on the word grace. That’s the term he repeats at the end of the book.

2 Peter 3:18 Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord.

If you want the answer of the question we started with—what’s the absolute best thing you could ever wish someone you love, here it is. Grace. I counted thirty-four times in the NT where the Holy Spirit inspired the writer to say to his readers, “Grace to you.” Can you think of anything else that’s repeated 34 times in the NT? Paul says it, Peter says it, John, the writer of Hebrews, it is in the book of Revelation.  It is not just one writer’s style – you see it in seventeen different New Testament books.  God is making a point. There’s nothing more valuable, nothing more profitable or more healthy, nothing you need more in your life than grace.

Definition

I think most Christians have a bit of a reductionistic concept of grace. They think it just means cutting someone some slack or being patient with someone. Or giving an undeserved gift. Those are at the fringe of what grace means—there’s so much more to it.

Grace is a massive concept in Scripture, but here’s the most basic summary I can give:  Grace is the favor shown from a superior to an inferior. The grace of God is what happens to you when God smiles on your life.

What is that?  Scripture points to a lot of amazing things that happen when God smiles on your life.  Sometimes it’s things like salvation, election, or forgiveness of sins. Those are all results of grace. But by far the most common result of grace is empowerment for ministry. Empowerment, or the assignment to do the ministry. I counted 31 different passages where that was the result of grace. Grace is power.

1 Corinthians 15:10 … his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them….

When you receive the smile of God on your life, it results in a lot of hard work because grace is power. We’ll see that as we work through this chapter. Growing in grace is the theme of the book, Peter starts and ends with that. And right after he introduces it verse 2, he immediately begins speaking about divine power.

2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance … 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

Grace is spiritual power, and the results of that power in your life are incredible.

Benefits

If you’re into health food, you might read about the benefits of antioxidants, or the benefits of a high fiber diet, or the benefits of exercise. What are the benefits of grace?  Here are a few I found in the NT. In addition to eternal salvation (Tit.2:11), when you get grace, people will love you more (2 Cor.9:14). You will have so much joy that will well up in generosity (2 Cor.8:1-9). According to Titus 2:12, grace will increase your self-control. It will give you encouragement and hope (2 Thess.2:16) It will give you satisfaction in life – even when you suffer (2 Cor.12:9). You will be built up spiritually (Acts 20:32). You will be strengthened (1 Cor.15:10, Heb.13:9). You will be made more holy (2 Cor.1:12). You’ll be full of gratitude (2 Cor.4:15). You will abound in every good work (2 Cor.9:8). You will have great success in ministry (1 Tim.1:14, 2 Tim.2:1). When we need something from God, Hebrews 4:16 tells us to approach the throne of grace.

We pray for our loved ones to have safe travels, good health, to get the job they want, a spouse—why don’t we pray more often for them to get more grace? The only possible explanation is that we don’t understand the incredible value of grace. If we did, we would beg God for more of it constantly—for ourselves and those we love.

And again, this is so important because whatever you believe is most valuable is the thing that will steer the direction of your life. Most people probably don’t even realize what their hearts value most highly. They might think it’s family, but deep down, what they crave the most and what steers their life is approval. For someone else, it really is family. For others, money, success, fame, physical pleasure, productivity.

You can tell what you truly believe is most important by the direction of your life. What are you running after, working for, wishing for, praying for—what’s that thing you’re devastated when you don’t get it or elated when you do? If we had any connection to reality, the answer would be grace.

The Pathway to Grace

One last question. If grace is that valuable, and Peter’s main purpose is for us to get more of it, how does that happen? What is the pathway to getting more grace than what you have right now? The long answer is spelled out in the whole rest of the book. The short answer is spelled out in the rest of this verse.

2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

You get more grace by deepening your knowledge of God. We’re out of time now, but we’ll get into this in a lot of detail next time because Peter brings up knowing God again in the very next verse.

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us.

You get more grace through knowledge of God, you tap in to divine power through knowledge of God, and that shows again the connection between grace and power from God. And you can turn on the spigot of grace in your life through knowledge.

Conclusion

This passage hasn’t commanded us to do anything. God didn’t give us this text so you would hear it and then run out and put it into practice. There are no imperatives, no commands. The purpose of the passage is not action, but attitude—to shift your values. God gave us this text because he wants us to have three things:

Confidence in his Word.

The writers of Scripture were commissioned and empowered by Jesus. When you read something in the Bible it is always exactly what your Creator wants to say to you.

He wants you to understand some things about yourself.

Precious faith has dropped into your lap. You’ve been given the same jet fuel as the best of the best because of Christ’s righteousness.

Let that fact shape your decisions and direction in life.

He wants your heart to wrap around the value of his grace.

He wants you to want it. He wants you to want it for yourself and for those you love.

In all the weeks to come, when Peter gives us a whole lot of teaching about how to get more grace from God, it won’t hit you the way it should unless you have a ravenous appetite for grace first.

So let’s spend this month letting the truth sink in more deeply about the faith we’ve been given, and let’s preach constantly to our souls about the staggering value of grace, so that when we get together again next time, we’ll be on the edge of our seats ready for Peter to show us how to use our knowledge of God to get more grace.

Click here for the full series on 2 Peter

 

 

 

Appendix: The Gifts of Grace

This is the breakdown of the various gifts that come from his grace.

God’s Favor 1

2 Thessalonians 2:16  May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,

Faith 1

Acts 18:27  When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed.

Future Blessing 1

1 Peter 1:13  Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Redemption 2

Ephesians 1:7  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

Hebrews 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Sanctification 2

Acts 20:32  “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Romans 6:1  What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

Election/Calling to Salvation 3

Romans 11:5  So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

2 Timothy 1:9  who has saved us and called us to a holy life– not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

Titus 3:7  so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Justification/Forgiveness 4

Romans 3:24  and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:2  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Romans 11:6  And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

Jude 1:4  For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Salvation 4

Acts 15:11  No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

Ephesians 2:5  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions– it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:8  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–

Titus 2:11  For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

The Whole Gospel 17

Acts 20:24  However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me– the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

Romans 4:16  Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring– not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

Romans 5:15  But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

Romans 5:17  For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:20  The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

Romans 5:21  so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:14  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Romans 6:15  What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

2 Corinthians 4:15  All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 8:9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Galatians 1:6  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–

Galatians 2:21  I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Galatians 3:18  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

Galatians 5:4  You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

Ephesians 2:7  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1:6  that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

1 Peter 1:10  Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,

Calling to or Empowerment for Ministry 31

Acts 4:33  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

Acts 6:8  Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

Acts 11:23  When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.

Acts 14:3  So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.

Acts 14:26  From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

Acts 15:40  but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

Romans 1:5  Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

Romans 12:3  For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

Romans 12:6  We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.

Romans 15:15  I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me

1 Corinthians 1:4  I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way– in all your speaking and in all your knowledge

1 Corinthians 3:10  By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.

1 Corinthians 15:10  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them– yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

2 Corinthians 1:12  Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.

2 Corinthians 6:1  As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

2 Corinthians 8:1  And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.

2 Corinthians 8:6  So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.

2 Corinthians 8:7  But just as you excel in everything– in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us– see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

2 Corinthians 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:14  And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.

2 Corinthians 12:9  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Galatians 1:15  But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased

Galatians 2:9  James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.

Ephesians 3:2  Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you,

Ephesians 3:7  I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.

Ephesians 3:8  Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

Ephesians 4:7  But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

Philippians 1:7  It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.

1 Timothy 1:14  The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:1  You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 4:10  Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

 

Peter’s original name, Simon was the most common Jewish name from 100 BC to 200 AD.  Some good MSS have “Simeon” in verse 1 rather than “Simon.” They are the Aramaic and Greek forms of the same name. It wouldn’t be surprising for Peter to use a spelling of his name that corresponded to what he grew up with. It would be harder to explain why a pseudepigraphal writer would use that form. Especially since, to be consistent, someone going out of his way to sound Aramaic would have used the Aramaic “Cephas” rather than the Greek “Peter.”

Of all the books in the NT, 2 Peter is the one with the most question marks about its authenticity. I’m never impressed when modern scholars think they know better than the people who were there at the time whether a book was authentic. But the doubts about 2 Peter go all the way back to ancient times. Church fathers in the third Century doubted whether Peter wrote it. The primary argument against it is the style. It is much more polished Greek with very different vocabulary compared to 1 Peter. It is also argued that for Peter to refer to “all” of Paul’s letters (2 Pe.3:16) would require that he be writing much later than Paul.

The third criticism is the weakest. It wouldn’t be unusual for someone today to say, “John Piper writes the same way in all his books” even though Piper is still writing. The second argument is also weak. We know that 1 Peter was penned by Silas (1 Peter 5:12) and may reflect his style. Peter’s personal style may

used Mark to pen his gospel account.

Regarding vocabulary, the terminology that scholars find so surprising are words commonly used by the Greek philosophers of the time. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if the heresies of the false teachers Peter describes in chapter 2 rose from those worldly philosophies and Peter is using their own lingo to communicate biblical ideas—taking their wrong ideas captive and forcing them into obedience to Christ.

The reluctance of the ancients to accept 2 Peter is the most concerning to me. Nevertheless, slow as the Church may have been to accept the book as authentic, accept it she did. If the doubts of some ancients is meaningful, then the acceptance of the majority in the ancient Church is even more meaningful. When the canon was formalized in the third Century, the arguments in favor of including 2 Peter were based on the fact that the Church had embraced the book and had been using it as Scripture.

Jesus said his sheep hear his voice (John 10:27). The Church has been able to detect the voice of God in 2 Peter through the ages. God’s Word is different from all human writings, and God’s children can detect that difference. Personally, I don’t know of any writings outside of the Bible that sound to me anything like what is in the Bible. I firmly believe 2 Peter is God’s Word.

Commentators debate about whether this refers to faith in the sense of your ability to believe, or faith in the sense of the body of doctrine that you have received (the Christian faith, as in Jude 1:3). I believe it is the former. If it were a reference to the body of Christian doctrine, it wouldn’t make sense to talk about “yours” being equal to “ours.”

Many take “us” to refer to Jews rather than the Apostles. But it seems very unlikely to me that a Gentile would read this verse and say, “Wow. My faith is just as good as a Jewish Christian’s faith?” Also, Peter seems to be making a strong statement, and to equate the value of their faith with the Apostles says a lot more than to equate it with Jewish Christians because the Apostles were also Jewish. So if your faith is off equal value to the Apostles, it’s also of equal value to the Jews. If it’s only equal to the Jews and not the Apostles, that still leaves room for second-class Christians.

According to the Granville Sharp rule, in the construction the-noun-and-noun, when two nouns are singular, personal, and common, they always refer to the same person.

I looked up all the passages where a specific result of grace is enumerated. For a list of the passages in each category, see the Appendix.

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