Rachel Workman: 1
This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. A
slave. Doesn't sound very appealing does it? I suppose I can tell you what it
means to me. There were times when I've tried to turn from God. The pain I was
going through I just didn't understand at the time, or I lost site, I'm not
sure. But I couldn't. I couldn't because I am a slave to Christ. I have been
bought and paid for by His blood. I am not my own. If I were my own then I
could do as I pleased but I am owned by a God who is bigger than my pain and
suffering. He allowed my grief while somehow reminding me that I belonged to
Him now. And that’s reassuring; The Master always cares for what is His. I'm
glad He loved me enough to make me His slave or now I'd be lost and without
hope.
I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. Our faith rests on what Christ has done for us.
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. I need grace, lots of it. I need it at work, at home, in the car, at the grocery store, you get the picture.
3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. The further I get in this journey and with age I find I want this more and more. The corruption of this world is wearing me out. I can only imagine how it wears on God.
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. I love these verses. One day I will be like Christ, but it probably won't be in this life but the next. In the meantime these verses are God's will for each one of us.
I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. Our faith rests on what Christ has done for us.
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. I need grace, lots of it. I need it at work, at home, in the car, at the grocery store, you get the picture.
3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. The further I get in this journey and with age I find I want this more and more. The corruption of this world is wearing me out. I can only imagine how it wears on God.
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. I love these verses. One day I will be like Christ, but it probably won't be in this life but the next. In the meantime these verses are God's will for each one of us.
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John Burnett: 1 [a]Simon Peter, a bond-servant
and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To
those who have received a faith of the same [b]kind as ours, This
faith is exclusive because it belongs to only to those who have been given
Christ’s righteousness [c]by the righteousness of our
God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing
that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and
godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us [d]by His own glory and [e]excellence. 4 [f]For by these He has granted
to us His precious and magnificent promises Oh what wonderful promises,
so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5 Now for
this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral [g]excellence, and in your
moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge,
self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your
perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness,
brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. Here,
Peter is describing the process of sanctification and the characteristics we
take on as we become more like Christ. 8 For if these qualities
are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in
the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you are growing in
knowledge, you can’t help but be fruitful.
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I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness[b] of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
- we need to ask ourselves daily if we are growing in His
knowledge
3 By his divine power, God has
given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of
this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his
marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and
excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises
that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption
caused by human desires.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.
- whenever I teach these verses, I always point out that love is at the end b/c it's the glue that holds everything else together!
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