God gives to those who believe precious gifts including grace and peace. Verses 2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Knowing that Jesus IS the key to all things that pertain to life and godliness, it is hard to imagine why we would allow ourselves to be polluted by the world and driven by lusts, as though we can find fulfillment in them. We should rather be partakers of His divine nature and no longer need to be led away by various sin.
Romans 6:7-14, “For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Once we have received the payment Jesus made for us, we do not just sit back and do nothing. Verses 5-9, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.” We know from these verses that those who say they have faith, but do not add virtue, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love to their faith are blinded and don't acknowledge that they are even a new creation. This type of faith is not genuine and is useless. James 2:24, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”
False teachers disciple false brethren, who will teach you that you can have freedom while living in corruption. Their words, however, are meaningless because it is simply untrue. II Peter 2:18-21, “For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
Knowing that dead religion is not only a possibility, but a reality for many, we need to work even harder to prevent it from happening to us. Verses 10-11, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Due to Peter's love for them, he will continue to warn them of this danger as any good shepherd will do for the flock. Verse 12, “For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.” Just because we are doing good today, doesn't mean we are secure. Constant reminding of Biblical truth is what we need if we are going to continue in the faith. The word is our anchor that keeps us from drifting off track.
Verses 16, 20, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty....Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” There was nothing difficult to understand about the message Peter preached and was based on first hand eye witness accounts. We also need to preach the truth and testify of what God has done in our lives. If someone tries to come up with a special interpretation that only a certain super spiritual few can understand, you'll know it's not of the Lord, but rather cleverly designed stories that are aimed at deceiving you all the way to Hell. God gave us His word so we would know Him and sent His Son as evidence of His love, the word becoming flesh. He doesn't play hide and seek games with us. Luke 11:9-10, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” If you don't know God, it's because you aren't seeking, not that God doesn't want to be known.
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