“But grow in the grace and knowledge…”

 ¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. ¹⁵ And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶ as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. ¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.      — 2Peter 3:14-18

What am I to do?

This question strikes a chord in the heart of every Christ follower at some point in their walk with the Lord. We come to personally know Jesus Christ and it seems as though a fire is lit within us. As we are robed with this new life and transformed into a joyful new creation we feel quite invincible, overwhelmed by love, and inspired to a new life that might please our Father in heaven. It truly is a wonderful feeling to not only know of God’s grace, but to experience it. It causes us to feel as the brave Peter walking on the water towards our savior. We inherit a heavy burden for those that remain a stranger to Christ and his freeing love, wanting to share with the world of the salvation from the imprisonment of sin and death in our lives. However, as time persists we tend to fail at keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. We become distracted by the rising waves of this world, being fearful of drowning in it. We soon notice that we have strayed from our mission of sharing Love with others, sometimes even feeling defeated. We arrive at the aforementioned question, “What am I to do?”.
At the 2018 Passion conference, Levi Lusko offered these words; “The more you look forward to the next world, the less you will need from this one” (Link posted below). What I believe  he meant by this is that the more focused that we are on Christ and his kingdom, the less distracted we will be by the desires of our flesh to indulge in worldly things. Things that might cause us to stray from our calling. I don’t think that Lusko’s statement could be more accurate, and we find a similar theme in the third chapter of 2 Peter.

In light of the new world

“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”

The “therefore” in this verse is pointing directly to the rest of the chapter leading up to this point (I recommend that you go back and take a look at it). In this earlier passage the writer urges believers to faithfully cling to God’s promise of bringing all of creation to complete restoration through the second coming of Jesus. For It is after Jesus’ coming again that the new heavens and new earth will be brought about (Rev. 21). He exhorts them to look forward to this day and I believe rightfully so! If you haven’t read Revelation 21 yet, you need to! John paints a truly amazing and beautiful picture of what this new world will be like. Peter brings this to attention and I believe it is then that he answers our question of “what am I to do?”. “since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”. Simply put, we are to live righteously and as the people of God. Echoing back to verse 11, we should strive as Christians to live in holiness and godliness. But why?

“And count the patience of the Lord as salvation…”

Because we are the living picture of salvation to others. Again to understand this verse we must look back to the previous passage. Verse 9 says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”. It is our outcry as Christians that Jesus would return soon and bring all of creation to perfection with God, delivering us from this far from perfect world in which we live. However, we must recognize the gift that God is giving. Patience. Patience for those that have not yet had an encounter with the Love of Christ. This is something to truly be thankful for, especially for those of us who have loved ones that have not yet experienced salvation. As christians we should be living and loving as the people of God.

“our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, pas they do the other Scriptures.”

In verse 16 he notes that Paul writes of this salvation as well in his own letters but offers a warning. He acknowledges that some of the teachings following these matters by Paul can be difficult to understand (isn’t that the truth!), and warns believers not to twist the scripture because of our lack of understanding. “take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.” We must realize that the spirit of God that inspired the written scripture dwells within us, and thus we must rely on him to be our interpreter. And to this end Peter offers us verse 18.

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

We must remember that it is a growing process! Studying and understanding scripture can be quite a draining and challenging task. I find that after I have really engaged with God’s word and have listened to hear him speak into my heart, I sometimes come away exhausted. However, this is what grows us spiritually and helps us to become that picture of salvation to those around us. Notice that the scripture says, “the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”. The only way that we will become more like Christ and closer to Him is by being with him. Not only will we need to be with him but also about him. Everything that we do should testify to our new life in Christ. Yes, I know this is easier said than done, but I don’t want us to be intimidated by this. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” . Did you catch that? We have been created for what we have been called to do!

What are we to do?

When we have found ourselves burnt out again and void of the Hunger for Christ that we remember once having, when we find that the sin that is supposed to be defeated begins to rise up  in our lives again and tries to destroy our faith, when we feel useless without a purpose again and sink into depression… what are we to do?
We are to look to the glorious and magnificent new Jerusalem that God has hand crafted for us! We are to look to the great sacrifice of Love made by Jesus that allows us to enter into it for eternity. We are to look to the endless embrace of our father in heaven that will erase all fear, pain, and death from our being. We strive to become clearer, living pictures of salvation to those that are lost. And how do we do this? We continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity! Amen.

Love well.

-JG

Next post: How to Grow. Pt 1

Photo by Jake lyle. Go follow him on Instagram @1_jake_from_statefarm_1 . He does some pretty awesome work!

 

Links:
Passion 2018 – Levi Lusko