Like Precious Faith
by Rev. James Jester
Sept 8, 2024
SCRIPTURE READING: II Peter 1:1-8
“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
INTRODUCTION
Peter’s second letter emphasizes again holy living, just as in his first letter. But in this second letter he warns of the false prophets, who were barely mentioned in the first letter (ref. I Pet. 4:5). So, in this second letter he stresses in greater detail, the kind of people who are trying to teach false doctrine to the churches of Asia Minor.
Certain people were teaching that salvation freed Christians from the necessity of living a holy life. They twisted Paul’s doctrine of salvation by grace to support their position. Since they believed it was all right to sin, they naturally mocked at the idea of Christ’s return in judgment. For their own personal gain they lured people by promising them that they could be Christians and still live immoral lives. Peter writes to counter these false teachings and their influence on the lives of Christians. He is concerned that there be a check against false teaching even after he is gone.
“Therefore I intend always to remind you of these things, 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 arouse you by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. 15 And I will see to it that after my departure[decease] you may be able at any time to recall these things.” (II Pet. 1:12-15, RSV)
“Like precious faith” (v. 1) or the same kind of faith. The RSV says it this way, “a faith of equal standing with ours.”
In verse 3, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” Wow, “divine power?” Now that is something to think about. It refers to the energy or efficiency which God has displayed in the work of our salvation. By this glorious Divine efficiency we are called into the kingdom of God.
By His glorious power, or the powerful effusion of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to attain this glory and virtue; “are given unto us great and precious promises”(v. 4) —namely, the promises of the gospel, which he calls great and precious — promises of the pardon of sin, of acceptance with God, of his peculiar favor, adoption into his family, and being treated as his sons and daughters, favored with access to him, and with direction in difficulties, protection in dangers, help in temptations, comfort in troubles, a supply of all our wants, and an assurance that all things shall work for our good. Thus we are happy to renounce the world and sin with every corrupt inclination, and “be made partakers of the divine nature”(v. 4) — of a new and heavenly nature derived from God through the influence of his Spirit. We are renewed in his image, and commune or dwell in God, and God in us; “having escaped the corruption that is in the world”(v. 4) — the corrupt customs and habits that are found in worldly people.
Then Peter tells us how to live as a partaker of the divine nature: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” (II Pet. 1:5-7) Growth in the Christian life doesn’t just happen by itself, we must put forth some effort in our walk with God. We begin our life with God with faith, but faith progresses into virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, and love — love being the capstone of all God ’s work in us.
The scope of the list demonstrates that God wants us to have a well-rounded Christian life, complete in every fashion. These beautiful qualities are not things that the Lord simply pours into us as we passively receive. Instead, we are called to give “all diligence” to these things, working in partnership with God to “add” them.
A FOUNDATION FOR FAITH (II Pet. 1:16-19)
“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (II Pet. 1:16-19, RSV)
The apostle Peter suggests much that was common to himself and the other apostles who were in the daily fellowship of Jesus Christ; but he refers precisely to the one experience which he was privileged to share exclusively with James and John. The Transfiguration may be treated as Peter ’s special personal experience and testimony, since he was the spokesman of the occasion. The precise interest of the Transfiguration lies in its being the most sublime revelation of the innermost mystery of Christ ’s person and mission, especially of the Redeemer ’s sacrificial death. Peter did not repeat something heard; nor even something conveyed to his mind in a dream; nor even something studied from a book. He claims accurate knowledge through personal experience, and in gaining that experience the full activity of all his natural powers and faculties. Compare the declaration of John: “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life” (I Jn. 1:1).
St. Peter had been speaking of the proofs which he and his brethren apostles had received of our Savior ’s power and greatness. After a reference to the Transfiguration, he comes to the proof of prophecy. He says, a prophecy is like a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn. As men burn a candle during the night to give light, so was God pleased to set up the lamp of prophecy, to prevent mankind from being left in total darkness during the ages before the coming of Christ. The prophecies were designed to preserve a sense of God ’s goodness and a recollection of His promises, to keep hope alive in the world, and to awaken Adamkind to the expectation of some great deliverance that God was preparing and would bring to light in due time.
Quoting from A.W. Hare:
“When Christ came, the prophecies acquired a new use; they became, perhaps, the strongest of the outward proofs, the most striking of the external testimonies to the truth of our Savior ’s mission. Their testimony is so sure, because not of private interpretation; that is, the prophecies did not refer merely to the events of the time and place when they were spoken; but pointed far onward into the future, and had a grander reference to the Son of God. The prophet himself did not always fully understand his prophecies. He spake as he was moved by the Spirit of God; he spoke of the threats and promises which God put into his mouth. But how those threats and promises were to be fulfilled, neither he nor his hearers knew. So that the prophecies were like a door with a curious lock on it. Till the secret of the lock is discovered, till the right key is given, we may puzzle ourselves, but we shall never open the door. If you saw half a dozen doors with as many locks to them, so new and strange that not a smith in the country could make a key to fit any one of them, and if a man then came with a key which fitted all these different locks, and opened all the six doors, could you doubt that his was the right key? This is just the kind of proof which the prophecies afford of the truth and Divinity of Jesus.
“The weight of this proof rests on two simple facts: one is, that the prophecies were written many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The other is, that Jesus died the death revealed in the New Testament. Compare, then, such writings as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, with the account of our Savior ’s trial and crucifixion in the gospels, and any unprejudiced man must admit that the early writers were taught of God.
“Illustrations may be fully taken from the chapter in Isaiah. Four assertions are made: 1. Messiah was to be made answerable for a sum that was required. 2. He was to be taken off by an oppressive or unjust sentence. 3. He was to be dumb and patient before his Judges 4. He was to be brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and to be cut off for the sins of God ’s people. These are extraordinary assertions, yet they are all fulfilled in Jesus; so accurately, and in so many points, that the agreement cannot be accidental. Therefore, in Jesus we have the true key for the prophetic lock; and Isaiah, who foretold all these things so many hundred years before, must assuredly have spoken, as St. Peter says, not of his own will, but as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. (End quote from A. W. Hare, A.M.)
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If this revealing of Jesus Christ were just a cunningly devised fable, then you could not explain its power to change men ’s lives so dramatically. And we see witnesses of the power of the Gospel all around us in lives that have been transformed. A cunningly devised fable couldn’t do that.
“For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the Excellent Glory declaring, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.”(II Pet. 1:17-18)
Now Peter was taken with James and John up into a high mountain by Jesus. And there He was transfigured before them and they saw Him in His glory with Moses and Elijah appearing and talking to Him. And then when the disciples looked up again, Moses and Elijah had disappeared and Jesus only was standing there. “And then there came that voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, hear ye him.” (Matt. 17:5) You see, they had heard the law, they had heard the prophets; now God is saying, listen to my Son. “God who at sundry times spoke to our fathers in divers ways by the prophets hath in these last days spoken by his own dear Son…” (Heb. 1:1-2) The law came by Moses; grace and truth by Jesus Christ. And so Peter said, “We heard the voice, we saw, we were eyewitnesses.”
“…As unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn” (v. 19). Now this prophecy, the word of God, is like a light that is shining in a dark place until the day dawns. During the nighttime you have a light to guide you. Through the darkness of history there is a light to guide us until the day that is prophesied does dawn, and the day star comes and arises, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
FALSE TEACHERS (II Pet. 2:1-3)
“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep.” (II Pet. 2:1-3, RSV)
The subject treated in this chapter is the mischievous influence of corrupted doctrine. In the New Testament, false doctrine is treated in view of the immoral associations which always attended it, as with the idolatries of older days. True doctrine works for righteousness; false doctrine works for license. True prophets had been referred to in the previous chapter (II Pet. 1:21), and they suggest warnings against false prophets, and false teachers.
In the times of the true prophets there were always false ones. The good and the evil go together. False teachers, such as the Judaizers, who dogged the steps of the apostle Paul, or such as the Gnostic teachers, who roused the intense opposition of St. John. Apart from these there may have been others who were ready to deceive the people, if they could secure their own gains, such as Simon the sorcerer.
Some of the early false teachers denied our Lord ’s humanity, and others His Divinity; but probably St. Peter had chiefly in mind those men entangled in old Jewish customs, when they had already been lifted to spiritual liberty from such things.
False prophets have always been around. Now they don ’t wear signs, “I ’m a false prophet.” They come in sheep ’s clothing. They look like sheep. They come sometimes dripping with love and phrases of love (like Mega-churches). And often times you listen to them and say, “Boy, they ’re good. They really speak a lot of truth.” And that ’s why they are able to deceive. If a false prophet only said false things, no one would be deceived by them. But usually what they say is ninety-five percent true. And thus they entice people and deceive them because most of what they say is true, but then they begin to interject the area of falsehood.
False teachers will even deny the Lord. There are those who claim to be ministers who fill the pulpits of America who deny the deity of Jesus Christ, “even denying the Lord who bought them” (v. 1). Willing to put Jesus in the category of a master teacher or of a great prophet or whatever.
False teachers promote immorality:
“But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the same destruction with them, 13 suffering wrong[punishment] for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation, carousing with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!” (II Pet. 2:12-14, RSV)
These people strongly resemble irrational animals which are made to be taken and destroyed. They are like fierce and savage beasts that exercise no control over their appetites, and do not allow their reason or conscience to exert any constraint.If a man sinks himself to the level of brutes, he must expect to be treated like brutes; as wild and savage animals — lions, and wolves, and bears — are regarded as dangerous, so the same destiny must come upon men who make themselves like them. The views of these false teachers will be the means of their ruin, and they render themselves fit for it, just as much as the fierce passions of wild animals do.
Be ready to give account:
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! 13 But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” (II Pet. 3:10-14, RSV)
So this whole system is going to be dissolved. But we are looking for the new heaven, the new earth, the eternal kingdom of God.
“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (II Pet. 3:17-18, RSV)
CONCLUSION
Peter says in verse one of our Scripture reading, “to them that have obtained like precious faith,” or the same kind of faith which is precious and common to all of the elect, the saints of God (Israel only). He goes on to explain that Christians should be diligent to add one Christian grace upon another that they may bring glory to God by bringing in much fruit, and that their own calling and election may be thoroughly tested and tried. They should even more seek to obey God ’s Word because it is inspired by God, it is proven truth, and therefore is of vast concern and repercussions. Back in chapter one we read, “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (II Pet. 1:20-21, RSV)
