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Why We Make Every Effort (2 Peter 1:8-11)

Scott Kercheville
01/08/23 - Sun AM

No real, health advice here, so ignore the specifics, but let’s say that for some crazy reason you decide to never eat chocolate or dairy again. Then one day someone invites you to their home and after dinner they hand you a slice of the richest, densest, most delicious-looking chocolate cake you have ever seen, and they set a full glass of chilled full fat milk next to it. But, like a pro, you thank your host, but decline: “Thank you so much, but I don’t eat chocolate and dairy because I have found them to negatively impact my health.” But they look at you with innocent surprise and say, “We have been eating this recipe our whole lives, you’ll be fine! You know chocolate is rich in antioxidants, right? And this milk comes fresh from our pasture raised family cow.” Now, unless we are ready for this and fortified with solid reasons to stick to our commitment, we are full of doubt and elbow-deep in cake before we know it.

Peter has said that by our knowledge of Jesus, God has granted us every thing we need to lead godly lives. He promises that we can be exalted from our lowly state of corruption to share in the divine nature. So we make every effort to grow in Christian qualities — starting with faith, and by means of our faith pursuing virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and perfecting it all by love. And I hope that we have all identified a specific way we’re seeking to grow this year. In verses 8-11, Peter gives us four reasons why we need to be diligent and make every effort to abound in these qualities. There will be times when our resolve will be tested — as with the chocolate and dairy — so we can use these four reminders to strengthen us on the days when we are tired, weak, discouraged, and tempted.

So, why do we make every effort to grow in these qualities?

#1 Verse 8: This keeps us from being unfruitful the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. When Isaiah prophesied against Judah, he relayed to them God’s love song for his vineyard in Isaiah 5. God planted a vineyard on a fertile hill, cleared away the stones, planted it with choice vines, and prepared a wine vat so he could make and store wine from all the grapes he’d get from this vineyard. Then he waited. And waited. But, instead of producing nice sweet grapes, his vineyard produced wild, sour grapes. So, God destroyed it. In the song, Judah is the vineyard. God looked for justice and righteousness from them, but an outcry of bloodshed and injustice resulted. The vineyard yielded nothing of value.

But later in Isaiah 27, God gives Isaiah a new song about a day when Satan that ancient dragon will be slayed and when God will finally have a pleasant vineyard. Is. 27:6 ESV, “In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.”

There is great joy that comes from knowing the Lord Jesus, the by whom we and all things were made — the one who has saved us. He is tender enough for us to empty our hearts out to him. And he is powerful enough to blow our minds with all he has accomplished in his coming. But as we abide in him, Jesus desires that our knowing him changes our lives. He desires not that we remain ineffective or unfruitful, but that we be effective and fruitful. As Jesus says in Matthew 21:43, the kingdom of God is being taken was taken from Israel in order to be given to people who produce will its fruit.

Let’s have and abound in these qualities so we’re not ineffective or unfruitful in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus. If we abound in these qualities, we’ll do our part in contributing to God’s project to fill the earth with godly fruit.

#2 Verse 9: Whoever doesn’t is nearsighted, blind, and has forgotten they were cleansed from their former sins. When we first came to Christ, we came because we saw there was filth on our hands and in our hearts and that we had made a mess of ourselves and of the world. We were afraid, ashamed, and guilty. But, by faith in the Lord Jesus, we were baptized and cleansed from all our former sins. And how clean we felt then! We were forgiven, loved, and accepted.

If we stop striving to have and abound in these qualities and virtues, the vices and sins we were cleansed from will grow back into our life, stain us, and chain us up all over again. “Libertine” describes someone with loosened moral standards, especially with respect to sexuality. And Peter’s implied question here to those with a libertine attitude is essentially this: if sin isn’t a big deal, then why did Jesus die? why were you baptized? what were you cleansed of?

If we have lost our earlier energy and focus to flee sin and to grow in these qualities, let’s seriously ask ourselves these questions. Why were we so thankful with tears of joy after we were baptized? Have we forgotten that it was because we ourselves cared deeply about sin and righteousness? Are we so nearsighted that we cannot see back to that time and remember?

If we lack and abandon pursuit of these qualities, we are blind. We have forgotten that Jesus came to cleanse us from the very sins we’re dabbling in, and to create in us the righteous fruit that we are shrugging our shoulders about.

#3 Verse 10: We’ll confirm our calling and election and never fall away. Before Israel ever did anything good or bad, God chose Israel through Abraham to be his treasured possession — they would be his special people and priests to the nations. By no goodness of their own, he delivered them from Egypt, set his presence among them, and prepared to use them to fill the earth with his ways. But in the wilderness and even in the promised land, Israel never rose to their calling or to what God chose them for. God chose them before they were ever born, but they rejected their calling and lost the inheritance God promised them.

From time to time we see or hear about a brother or sister that we love or held in high esteem that similarly falls away as Israel did. Maybe they left the Lord altogether, or maybe they caved to the pressures of remaking God in their own image. Whatever the case, this useful, chosen vessel is no more. They are not useful for what the Lord chose them to be. I have compassion on those who have fallen away. I know from experience how we can come to this place where — in a bout of madness — we walk away from the Lord. Each of us ought to have a healthy fear that this could become us. Peter was most vulnerable when he was certain he’d never fall away. If we have any humility we all wonder from time to time if we are chosen by God and we all fear on occasion that maybe one day we’ll be the ones falling away.

How can we concretely ensure that we remain God’s chosen people, that we will never fall?  Peter says in verse 10, Be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. There may be a lot that goes into falling away, but if we fall away, there’s one thing we can know for certain: at some point we stopped being diligent — actively practicing these qualities. Chosen, elect, called people can fall away. But  God doesn’t want that at all. And Peter’s saying here that if that’s important to us too — let’s be diligent and make every effort to practice these qualities.

#4 Verse 11: In this way, entrance will be richly provided for you into Jesus’ eternal kingdom. To wrap our minds around what Peter is saying here, I’m going to break down what he says starting from the end and working back to the beginning.

(a) Peter references “the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” As opposed to filling the earth with God’s fame, rule, law, and ways, the Bible’s perspective is that people have filled the earth with their own corrupt kingdoms and ways for their own honor and power. But God gave the prophets visions of a day when God would send a king who would crush the enemies and rule with God’s Spirit, justice, and wisdom. He would banish death and establish a kingdom where God’s law, peace, and fame would fill the land. Solomon composed Psalm 72 to pray for the coming of this kingdom: “may the whole earth be filled with his glory!” And in Revelation 11 when the 7th angel blows his trumpet, loud voices in heaven declare that end has come: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” We just have no security in the kingdoms of this earth. They all pass away one by one. But we all and all history look forward to the day when the last enemy is defeated and the world has been overtaken by the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Okay, so why is Peter referencing Jesus’ eternal kingdom?

(b) Peter speaks of how “there will be richly provided for you an entrance into” this kingdom. So, while in a sense God’s kingdom has already begun to come in less obvious ways, Peter’s talking about the end of history when we will be provided entrance into this kingdom. But notice, Peter does not say that we carve out a place for ourselves in this kingdom, or that we can deserve a spot in the kingdom, or even make this kingdom on our own. He says that there will be richly provided for us an entrance into the eternal kingdom of Jesus. That sounds like the language of a gift, of grace. It is provided and given to us. But how will entrance be provided - granted, given — to us?

(c) Peter says that it is “in this way” that entrance will be provided into the eternal kingdom. In what way? Peter is speaking about diligently practicing these qualities. It is making every effort to have, practice, and abound in faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love — it is by practice of these qualities that entrance is provided into the eternal kingdom. A rich welcome into Jesus’ eternal kingdom is far more than we could ever deserve, and yet it is a gift and provision that we prepare for. We cannot earn or create a place in God’s kingdom by our works or these qualities, but a rich welcome is given to those who have and abound in these qualities.

And that’s why we are so thankful to know Jesus. On my own, I am a dead, lifeless branch fit to be burned up. We create problems, bear bad fruit, and get nowhere fast. But when the lovingkindness of God appeared, he saved us, not because works done by us in righteousness, but by his own mercy, by washing us in baptism and regenerating us with his Spirit. We were dead and fruitless, but it is this very gift of God that makes us alive and trains us to renounce ungodliness, but instead to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus’ appearing and kingdom.

If you fear like me that you can’t enter the kingdom “in this way” — by diligently practicing these qualities — stick close to Jesus because there is no other way. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4–5 ESV) He’s not asking that any of us raise ourselves from the dead or pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps but that we abide in him and he in us. If we live and walk close to Jesus, we’ll bear much fruit and have nothing to fear. Take heart, “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.” (Heb. 6:10 ESV) Let us make every effort to practice these qualities — starting with faith and aiming for love.