SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/2/2017
10:51 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to 2
Peter 1:1-11
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Peter
1:1-11
Message of the
verses: “1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of
Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by
the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be
multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that
His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,
through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and
excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises,
so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world by lust.
“5 Now for this very reason also, applying
all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral
excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your
self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your
godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if
these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless
nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks
these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification
from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make
certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these
things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the
eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied
to you.”
I have mentioned that I cannot find the Spiritual Diaries
that go along with the last part of 1 Peter chapter five, and the same is true
with 2 Peter 1-7, and so I will do Spiritual Diaries on these first seven
verses of 2 Peter chapter one and then hopefully the rest of the verses will
all be where I can find them.
Dr. Warren Wiersbe entitles his first chapter in 2 Peter “Knowing
and Growing,” and so we will try and keep that title in mind as we begin to
look at the introduction to this section.
In the first paragraph of his introduction to 2 Peter
1:1-11 Dr. Wiersbe brings us some of the faults that Peter had, things like
Peter “rushed ahead when he should have waited; he slept when he should have
prayed; he talked when he should have listened.
He was a courageous, but careless Christian.” I suppose that it would be fair to say that I
have some of those bad habits in my life too.
The good news is that Peter learned his lesson, and Peter
wants us to learn it too. Dr. Wiersbe
tells his readers that in the first letter that Peter wrote he emphasized the
grace of God, however in the second letter Peter emphasizes the true knowledge
of God, and that is something we all need to understand. Dr. Wiersbe points out that the word “know”
or “knowledge” is found thirteen times in 2 Peter. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The word does not mean a
mere intellectual understanding of some truth, though that is included. It means a living participation in the truth
in the sense that our Lord used in John 17:3—‘This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent.’
“Peter opens his letter with a description of the
Christian life. Before he described the counterfeit,
he described the true believers. The
best way to detect falsehood is to understand the characteristics of the
truth. Peter made three important
affirmations about the true Christian life.”
8/2/2017 11:10 PM
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