2 Pet 1.5-15
diagnostic tools
(2 Peter 1.5-15)
Jason Procopio
It was pure providence that we baptized our brother and sisters yesterday—we did not plan it according to what text we’d be seeing today, but it couldn’t be more perfect.
Last week, in 2 Peter 1.1-4, we talked about what happened in us before our baptisms—God gave us faith and the knowledge of him; he gave us his precious promises; he set us free from sin; and thus he gave us everything we need to live for him—all things that pertain to life and godliness.
And now, starting in v. 5, Peter turns to what begins after our baptisms. He’s going to say: “Since all this is true—since you have everything you need to live for Christ, today, you need to start doing it.” And he’s going to describe what that is going to look like on the outside if we do. Basically, in this passage, Peter describes the process of the Christian life. “You have everything you need to live for him…so here’s what you need to work on in order to do it.”
I find it helpful to think of it in comparison with physical exercise. Last year during the first confinement, my wife started working out. I felt bad, watching her get into shape and have more energy while I just stayed on the couch like a bum, so I started working out too.
When you start working out, you begin working on one thing. Say, you want to build your endurance. So you start doing cardio. Then you start realizing that if you want your endurance to grow, you need to strengthen other things—you need to start working specific muscle groups in different ways, start doing other types of movement.
And then you realize that if you want to strengthen those areas, you need to grow disciplined in other areas of your life—the discipline it takes to get the rest you need, to eat well, to actually get up and go work out day after day...
It’s not enough to work on just one thing; it’s when you put all those things together that you get the result you’re looking for.
Now, I hate working out. I hate it. It’s boring, and it does not feel good. But even if I’m not actually muscular—I’m going for tone, not bulk, haha—I can definitely feel a difference in my body now compared to how I felt a year ago. Now I don’t feel like I’m breaking every time I pick up my daughter. I don’t feel like I just ran a marathon every time I walk up the stairs.
And that feeling—actually being able to do stuff—is sweet. It makes all the effort completely worth it.
This is what Peter is calling us to—he’s calling us to train our character in ways which will help us live for Christ the way he told us to last week.
We have everything we need to do it—now we’ve got to do it.
And here he tells us how to do it.
Spiritual Health (v. 5-7)
Growing up I learned this idea (probably more through osmosis than anything else) of what a “good Christian” looks like—someone who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t say dirty words…basically, who doesn’t do things our mothers wouldn’t approve of. It’s natural that we would think like this, because they’re all things we can see—they’re all behaviors that can be easily spotted (and which, by the same token, can be easily hidden).
But in describing what the life of faith looks like, Peter doesn’t do that. He doesn’t give us a list of things not to do; rather, he gives us a list of qualities to develop.
So let’s start in v. 5; we’re going to take this list really slowly, one quality at a time.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith—
Stop there. We need to see this quickly because it’s our starting point. This is what we saw last week—through the finished work of Jesus Christ (who lived the life we should have lived, who suffered the death we deserve, and who was raised to give us his perfect life), we have obtained a faith of equal standing with that of the apostles.
As you know, we baptized six people yesterday. During their baptism they publicly professed their faith in Christ, stated in the presence of the church the faith that God gave them. This is a glorious part of the life of the church.
But Peter exhorts us to only profess our faith in Christ; we have to live it. Our faith is not simply an intellectual construct—it’s not just a conviction or a belief that happens inside. If God has given us faith in Christ, that faith will necessarily take concrete forms in our life. We’ll see it on the outside; things will change.
And for that to happen, our faith has to be fed; we have to give it vitamins; we have to supplement it. The question is, with what?
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue...
This word “virtue” means simply excellence of character. I say it that way because Peter used this same word in Greek in a similar way in his first letter. It’s the word he used twice (in 1 Peter 2.9 and 3.2) to describe God’s own “excellence”.
The “excellence” of God is his outstanding purity of character—there is nothing corrupt, nothing false, nothing unhealthy in his character. He does nothing with ill intentions. He does nothing motivated by malice.
Now we could have our own ideas of what is virtuous, but those ideas may be more informed by our modern culture in the West than by God himself. So we need to be clear that “virtue” is whatever God says it is—because his definition of virtue springs from the excellencies of his own character. If he says it is good, it is good; if he says it’s not good, it’s not good.
A “virtuous” person is a person who accepts what God says about right and wrong, and who lives according to what God says.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge...
Now “knowledge” is not a difficult word to understand. We know what that means. But we need to know what it is we’re supposed to know.
And we saw that last week, in this same passage. Peter said (v. 3) we have received everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of God. We know God, Peter told us—now, he calls us to grow in our knowledge of him. And how does that happen?
Our instinct is to say, by reading the Bible—by studying theology, by reading books. And all those things are definitely important. The Bible is how God speaks to us; it is how we learn what we need to know about him.
But reading the Bible isn’t enough—like we said last week, many people know the Bible practically by heart and still have hearts which are far from him.
How do we get to know someone better? By living with them. By spending time with them. By working with them. We get to know someone not through study, but through experience.
That’s the kind of knowledge Peter is getting at here—this is the same word he used in 1 Peter 3.7, when he said that husbands should live with their wives in an understanding way—literally, according to knowledge—according to what you know about her based on your years of experience with her.
When we live with God—when we listen to what he says in the Word and actually do what he tells us to do; when we turn to him in times of fear or trouble and trust in his promises, we grow to know him through experience, we learn to discern who he is and how he does things. The more we actually live what we read in the Bible, the better we’ll understand God through our experiences of his faithfulness and goodness.
…and knowledge with self-control...
Guys, this one’s a no-brainer. How many of you have gone on YouTube to find one specific thing, and ended up spending more than an hour looking at random stuff you had no interest in before you clicked on that link? Today we think of self-control in terms of things that are essentially luxuries: we think of it in terms of entertainment (TV, social media, video games, etc.); we think of it in terms of food (eating too much just because it’s good).
This shows just how far we’ve fallen, because obviously Peter is aiming way deeper than that—he’s writing to Christians who aren’t completely sure the Roman Empire won’t soon be knocking on their door to drag them to the Coliseum to be eaten by lions.
He’s talking about self-control over the deeper matters of godly character he’s been talking about here. Being able to control your anger when someone offends you. Being able to control your fear when your kid gets sick. Being able to control your impulse to lust over someone who’s not your spouse. Being able to curb your selfishness and be generous to the needy, or be kind to someone unlovable, or forgive someone who has wounded you.
This is the kind of self-control we should be training ourselves in.
…and self-control with steadfastness...
“Steadfastness” is another word for endurance. Perseverance in obedience to God’s commands. This is of course another form of self-control—learning to control your instinct to give up when it gets difficult.
And like we said a minute ago, the steadfastness he’s referring to is not the kind of perseverance I need to keep working out when I don’t enjoy it. The Christians to whom Peter is writing are suffering. They are living under persecution for their faith. And so it would be tempting for them to accept anything that would bring them a little bit of comfort, that would ease their suffering, even if it meant walking in disobedience.
So Peter is talking about perseverance in that kind of context. Not just perseverance in obedience when obedience is inconvenient, but perseverance when obedience is potentially deadly. This is why in v. 3 Peter talked about the precious and very great promises we have received. It is the promise of greater reward if we persevere, rather than settling for a tiny reward today.
…and steadfastness with godliness...
Now “godliness” is slightly different than “virtue”. Virtue would be the state of being like God; “godliness”, in the Bible, is what happens when your desires and your motivations and your decisions are for God.
The godly Christian desires to hear God speak to him…so he reads God’s Word, to hear his voice.
The godly Christian desires to respond to what God says through his Word…so he prays.
The godly Christian desires to grow in his dependence on God…so he fasts.
The godly Christian desires to enjoy God more completely…so he worships.
Do you see the difference? Virtue is the thoughts and attitudes and habits we adopt to become more like God; godliness is the thoughts and attitudes and habits we adopt because we want to ENJOY God.
…and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
Now we’re going to look at these last two together, because they definitely overlap.
This first term “brotherly affection” is the ESV’s translation of the Greek word philadelphia (yes, like the city). Literally it means, “love for the brothers”—it’s often translated as “brotherly love”. This is an affection that suggests a tight familial bond. I’m close to my parents and my brothers, and I love them in a particular way. It’s not necessarily better or worse than the love I would have for anyone else, it’s just unique, because our relationship is unique.
Every time the Bible talks about brotherly love, it’s talking about the particular love we are called to have towards the members of the household of God—which should be stronger than the love we have toward others. I know that’s going to rub a lot of you the wrong way, but the Bible’s not ambiguous about it—Paul tells the Galatians: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and ESPECIALLY to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6.10).
The second term, translated here simply as “love,” is the Greek word agape—which is just, love. It is an affection we have towards others that stirs us up to good works done for them. This is the kind of love that makes you want to go out and work to help provide shelter and food for homeless people in the winter, or do what you can to help your neighbor if he has a problem.
These two necessarily overlap; there is no Christian love without brotherly love (since there is no Christian faith outside of the church, the family God has brought us into); and there is no true brotherly love if our love stays inside and exists only for us—because we know we have received God’s love for us, we will be driven to love for everyone, because all human beings are made in God’s image and exist for his glory.
It’s important that Peter ends the list here. These qualities aren’t listed in sequence. He’s not saying that once you have faith, you start working on virtue, and once you’ve got that down, you move on to knowledge, etc. He’s using a rhetorical figure that builds a series of descriptions to a climax. But the beginning and the ends are important, because they frame the other qualities in the list around what Christ has done for us.
Peter begins with faith, because that is what Christ’s work produced in us—we have obtained faith by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. And he ends with brotherly affection and love, because that is what Christ feels for us, and that’s what Christ has established between us.
Now I know that’s a lot of information to pack into just three verses. Why does Peter take the time to mention all of these things? Why can’t he just keep it general, and say, “Don’t sin,” or “Do good”? Why focus on what it looks like to not just do the right things, but rather focus on what it looks like to be the kind of people God wants us to be?
Because if these qualities are in us, they will make us efficient in our life for Christ. They will make us fruitful in our knowledge of Christ.
Spiritual Effectiveness (v. 8-9)
Christ has given us faith through the knowledge of himself; he has given us all we need for life and godliness. And Peter has given us a picture of what that life should look like—this list of qualities we should be nurturing and feeding and growing in.
Now he tells us why.
8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
Imagine a theologian whose intelligence is absolutely off the charts. This person can think through complex theological principles; he can look at the Bible from a wide-angle perspective and see the machinery of how it all works. Not only that, he can take those crazy, complex truths, and explain them to other people in a way that is clear and simple and easy to understand. You would think that this person would be one of the most effective people God could put to use for his kingdom.
But imagine this person (and unfortunately people like this do exist) who has these incredible gifts which are genuinely put to good use…but who is on autopilot. He thinks he knows how to do this well. So he doesn’t put in the effort of supplementing his faith with virtue, and knowledge, and self-control. And as a result, he finds himself falling into the same sins he nurtured before he ever came to faith.
Now think of someone who doesn’t have all that incredible knowledge; doesn’t have all those gifts of explanation and persuasion. But in this person, the qualities Peter described in v. 5-7 are evident—she’s not perfect, but anyone who knows her can see that she is diligently and faithfully making every effort to supplement her faith with virtue, and knowledge, and self-control, and steadfastness, and godliness, and brotherly affection, and love. This is the kind of person who will never be interviewed, never appear on YouTube, never speak on a podcast or write a book or host a seminar…but will very simply, day after day, live for Christ, and grow in him.
So the first guy is kind of a creep, but what he does helps a lot of people; whereas the second person may be faithful, but no one ever sees her.
According to Peter, this first person, whose talent and ability and learning are extraordinary, but who has stopped pursuing growth in these Christlike qualities—this person is the person Peter describes in v. 9. Now the scary thing is that he is indeed describing a Christian—he has been cleansed from his former sins. But because he doesn’t develop these qualities in himself, he doesn’t grow in his knowledge of God. And because he doesn’t grow in his knowledge of God, he forgets that he has been set free from those sins…and so he keeps returning to them, and he doesn’t even realize it—all he can see is what’s right in front of him, his immediate return on investment.
As crazy as it may seem to us, this first guy is hyper-talented, well-loved and seems to be very helpful to a lot of people; but all the same, he is unfruitful and ineffective. It is the second person—the one who doesn’t seem to do much, but who is growing in these qualities—who is truly effective.
And there is one very important reason why that is the case. Peter tells us what we will be effective for if we feed these qualities in ourselves—what we should be effective for.
And it is not ministry.
He says (v. 8 again):
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Far too often we forget that we are not the ones who build God’s church on earth—God builds his church. He uses us to do it, sure—but he uses us the way a carpenter uses different tools to build a table. No one tool is inherently better than another; to build a good table you use the appropriate tool at the appropriate time. We don’t build God’s church; God builds his church.
So when we think about what it means to be effective for God, it is not about being effective in ministry. We’re not effective in ministry, because we’re all works in progress, the same as everyone else. All ministry is God, ministering to us. The thing God wants us to grow in and be effective for is knowing him.
We saw this last week—it is by knowing him that we have everything we need to live for him. And the goal of living for him is to know him more. I’m going to skip ahead a bit, but look down at v. 11.
For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So the goal of all of this is that we might enter into the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ. And what will be our main occupation there? It won’t be giving God decorating tips to help spruce up the New Jerusalem. Our main occupation in heaven will be enjoying him, by growing in our knowledge of him, for all eternity.
Knowing God is how all of this starts, and knowing God is where all of it ends (or rather, begins again).
The truly effective Christian, according to Peter, is the one who knows God, and who grows in these qualities that are Christlike, and who therefore comes to know God even more.
If we persist in these qualities and grow in them, we will be fruitful; we will be effective in the knowledge of Christ. And not only that, Peter says, if we grow in these qualities we will have visible proof of our salvation.
Spiritual assurance (v. 10-11)
10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In his first letter, Peter called the people to whom he is writing “elect exiles”—that is, these people belong to God because he chose them to be members of his family.
This is one of the most reassuring truths in the Bible: we didn’t choose God, God chose us. And as Paul says in Ephesians 1.4, he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. If you’ve been coming to Connexion for a while, you know that we make no apologies for believing this truth, and preaching it, and loving it.
But there are two problems that crop up fairly regularly when we talk about this. The first is doubt—a very frequent question people ask me is, “How do I know God chose me? How do I know that I’m ‘elect’?” We want some kind of proof that what’s happened in us is actually genuine.
The second problem is laziness, or arrogance, or something in between. We can imagine that since God has chosen us, and since he has promised to keep those whom he has chosen to save, there’s not a whole lot left for us to do. He’s going to do it all, so our obedience or disobedience won’t make much of a difference.
Peter gives us answers to both of these problems here. Our “calling” is the call to follow Christ, and our “election” is God’s choice to save us. And Peter is really clear: God’s work is to choose us and save us, and he has done that.
But he has given us a job to do as well—we are to confirm our calling, confirm our election.
Let me say it another way, as clearly as I can: “You say you have faith in Christ? That’s wonderful. Prove it. If you have faith in Christ, I want to see it. Show me.”
True faith in Christ never remains on the inside. It is never a question of mere intellectual assent to some doctrine. True faith in Christ changes who we are—it produces these qualities in us—and those qualities will change the way we live. Faith in Christ will always be visible, in our faithfulness to grow in these qualities, to become the kind of people who model the grace and mercy of God to others.
Go back to the example we saw before—the hyper talented minister who has stopped pursuing growth in these qualities. If his faith is real, then at some point or another, by the grace of God, he will realize what he has been doing. He will realize the trap he has fallen into. And what will he do at that point? He’ll pray for God’s forgiveness, he’ll repent of his sin, and he’ll finally—after all these years—begin to put his faith into practice.
If these qualities are in us and are growing—not if these things are perfect, but if we’re growing in them because we want to know Christ and glorify him—then there’s our proof. There’s the proof that our faith is real, and that God is using us and will use us for his glory. There’s the proof that it’s not all in our imaginations, but that everything we read about in the Bible is actually happening in us.
If we are growing in these things, there’s our assurance that there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now to close, Peter simply implores his readers: Don’t forget these things.
Spiritual help (v. 12-15)
12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
REMEMBER THESE THINGS.
They are so fundamental to what the Christian life is that Peter apparently keeps coming back to them, over and over, even though he knows these Christians have already heard them. They are so fundamental that Peter feels the need to explain why he won’t shut up about them. Because he won’t be around much longer (he says in v. 14), and he wants to make sure that when people think of him after he’s gone, they’ll remember him saying this.
He is writing these things to STIR US UP by way of reminder.
Why? Why does he feel such a need to keep coming back to these things? Why does he need to take the time to go back over them in detail—it seems fairly basic, after all.
He feels the need to keep coming back to them because he knows how easy it is to fall asleep. To suffer the kind of spiritual sleepiness we talked about in 1 Peter 5.
He knows how easy it is to get distracted, and allow ourselves to be motivated by the wrong thing. To see the knowledge of God as something other than actually knowing and living for God. To see effectiveness in the Christian life in terms of impressive abilities or results rather than faithfulness (and that’s going to be important later on in the letter, because he’s going to be arguing against false teachers who impress and entice through attractive lies).
He stirs us up by reminding us how to measure our progress in the Christian life. How to diagnose our own spiritual health.
You can’t measure it by results. You can’t measure it by talent, or how many people like the Scripture-pictures we post on Instagram, or how many people come to church because we invited them—or even, how many people tell us how much we’ve helped them understand the Bible better.
All of these things are good things; they are not the gauge of our progress. You can have all these things while remaining totally sterile and ineffective in the knowledge of God.
We measure our progress by whether or not we are being shaped into the image of Jesus Christ, who is the perfect picture of virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, and love. If we are growing in these areas, we will grow in our knowledge and love of him, and we will know that everything happening in us is real.
THAT is effectiveness as God sees it. That is fruitfulness.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (v. 3)… So let’s get to work.
