It seems that these days people often start their walk with Jesus by treating it as though they have crossed the finish line of a race. Since the race is over and they are now "good" and have earned their way into Heaven, they can just keep living how they live. Surely they will meet God someday face to face, he will pat them on the head and fuss over them a bit, and they will pass into eternity having met the standard. Perhaps then they can just live in eternity as they live now. They'll be with friends and family again and, oh yeah, they'll see God sometimes and that will be great too. Surely Heaven must be like the best all-inclusive resort that we've ever been to, mostly to bring pleasure to us and sometimes to interact with God. The trouble with this kind of thinking is that it just isn't true and is not supported by scripture.
When I first decided to walk with Jesus in college, I battled some of these mindsets. To me the way to grow as a Christian was by doing the things I saw other Christians doing and speaking the things I heard them speaking. They read their Bible a lot so I did as well, and I learned a lot during that time. I heard some of them talk of Jesus often while they were walking around the Texas Tech campus, so I tried to copy their speech. I just didn't know any better, and I look back at those times and shake my head because my thinking on what it means to be a Christian was so superficial. But I was new to it and I didn't know better!
And yet there were moments during that time where Jesus really did a work in me. I distinctly remember a time with him in Guadalupe River State Park. It was dawn and I woke up early, and as the brilliant sunrise started I could do nothing but crouch with my face to the ground and worship him. It still is one of the most real moments I have had with him. I knew he was there with me in that moment.
Some of you may be like me, wondering how you can become more godly and how you can know Jesus better. How, really, do Christians grow? The truth is we already have everything we need to live a godly life. In my first and second post about 2 Peter chapter 1, we looked at how you and I can possibly live a godly life and grow in it.
Today we will continue looking at Peter's words from 2 Peter 1.
5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
Peter starts with the phrase "make every effort" to respond to God's promises. We can easily gloss this over and turn it into nothing but pure effort on our part, but that is not at all what Peter was saying. The first part of the sentence "in view of all of this" points to what he previously had written, which was that we already have everything we need to be able to live a godly life. That's because we have God's Spirit in us if we follow Jesus.
Peter wants us to remember that while putting in effort toward some things that he lists in later sentences. The actual word used for "make every effort" means "applying or bringing alongside." It seems we have to keep our mind on the Christ we have with us in order to work toward the things Peter talks about.
After Hurricane Ike we had a tree on our property that fell over. Since I had nothing else to do, I cut it up into firewood with my chainsaw. The trouble was that the stump was still in the ground. It had roots that went everywhere and were pretty deep. Try as I might I couldn't pull it up, even after digging around it and getting several people to pull on it. It just would not move. So instead I went to get my truck and a chain. I wrapped the chain around the stump and around the frame of my truck, put it in gear, and the stump pulled out really easily. Incidentally, as a man, we love doing things like this!
The point is that I could not pull the stump on my own. I needed some serious help. The truck certainly could pull the stump out, but I needed to work with the truck to make it come out of the ground. This is in a way like the Lord works in our lives. He can do anything, literally anything. But if we are really going to let him rebuild us and do a work in us, we have to let him do that work and focus in the direction he wants us to focus. Otherwise, nothing in us will change.
According to Peter in verse 5, the starting point for a Christian is faith. That's the moment we believe in Jesus, that he died for us to pay the penalty for our sins, and that he rose from the grave. That's our first step with the Lord. We know who Jesus is and want to follow him because we love him. And this is the moment when we shake hands, as it were, and introduce ourselves. We have crossed the starting line, and the marathon has begun.
Peter continues the thought by saying we need to add "moral excellence" and "knowledge" to our faith. And based upon his previous language, we must work hard and focus on doing those things! Yet we have to remember that our efforts must be made as we look to Jesus for the strength to do it. In the Bible, the Pharisees worked very hard at moral excellence on their own, yet they didn't know God at all. They are an example of what happens when a "religious" person (not a Christian) tries really hard to clean up their life. They may succeed in some areas but their focus produces a dry, stale, unappealing look to anyone around them. I think many who regularly attend church these days would fall into this category. They try to do less of some of the bad things they used to do, but are perplexed that they just are always fighting these impulses. I think they often give Christians a bad name because they exhibit all of the strictness with none of the love. And that's not how it is supposed to work when you know Jesus.
That leaves the question about what moral excellence and knowledge really are. I think Jesus did a great job of outlining those things. In Matthew 5 Jesus lays out the need for humility, meekness, pursuit of justice, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and enduring persecution. He teaches about controlling anger, lust, divorce, promises to others, seeking revenge, and loving enemies. In chapter 6 he talks about giving to the poor, prayer, fasting, use of money, and worry. He just goes on and on. If you want to know how to work on living a morally excellent life, just look to what Jesus said and actually go obey them today.
If you are like me, you don't always want to do that. Sure, its easy to agree with yourself that taking revenge is bad when you read Matthew 5 and for some time you may actually be able to pull that off. But then someone stabs you in the back at work and you become angry. Or a family member says an unkind word about you behind your back and you hurt from it. Or you open your phone and begin reading the hateful and spiteful comments many of the people you know are making on social media. It is even more difficult after watching your favorite TV or reality TV show or YouTuber, where revenge is promoted and even celebrated. Refusing to take revenge is easy until your emotions get involved. We can't do that on our own.
Instead in the moment we must remember what Jesus said about taking revenge. And I think we need to take it to the Lord right then and there. I'm not saying to drop to your knees in the middle of your cubicle, although you can do that. You just need to find a quiet place to go to your master and ask for the strength to not take revenge. If you sincerely go to him in those moments, you will find the strength to not take revenge. And stay in that place with the Lord as long as it takes. That's what Christianity is all about. It is knowing the right things to do which comes from regularly reading your Bible, and then getting the strength from the Lord to actually do those things.
Following Jesus is not about you being the Lone Ranger. In fact, it isn't about you at all. It is about a fully surrendered life to the one who is able to make you morally excellent as he is. It is a relationship. The Bible is not a book about a bunch of amazing people. It is about a God who worked in the lives of ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Many of them were only morally excellent, and only in moments, because in those moments they relied upon the Lord. You can do the same thing. But first you must recognize that you can't be morally excellent all on your own.
I encourage you this week to study, really study Matthew 5. Then take your learning to the Lord and be bold enough to ask him to put you to the test on these things this week. He's quite responsive on those kinds of prayers! It will be challenging, but the benefit you get is that you will get so much closer to Jesus as he gives you the strength to endure those things. And you'll later look up and realize that he is shining through you more than ever. At that moment, you are truly different, and that's what our world needs to see.
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