THE LORD gave me HOPE, and a WAY, and so, I give to HIM, my rapt intent to understand, to stive for daily improvement, in unshakable BELIEF, FAITH in HIS POWER to provide for me in all matters, LOVE, and increasingly deliberate allegiance! I give HIM PRAISE, WORSHIP, HONOUR, THANKS, and JOYOUS REJOICING, as I EXALT HIM, and DO my best FOR HIS GLORY, and the good of all!!!
Let me then, end the HOLY season, and begin the New Year in understanding of HIS HOLY PRESCRIPTIONS, which work intricately, in support of HIS WILL, and exist for our own safety, well-being, and guidance, because the enemy will NOT relent in pursuing our very souls, and because we LOVE THE LORD OVER all of this world...
1 PETER 4: 17-19...
17/ For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, how will it end for those who fail to obey the gospel of God?
18/ "And if the righteous one is barely saved, where will the godless and the sinner appear?"
19/ As a result, those who suffer in accord with God's will hand their souls over to a faithful creator as they do good.
It is true that the righteous are scarcely saved; even those who endeavour to walk uprightly in the ways of God. This does not mean that the purpose and performance of God are uncertain, but only the great difficulties and hard encounters in the way; that they go through so many temptations and tribulations, so many fightings without and fears within. Yet all outward difficulties would be as nothing, were it not for lusts and corruptions within. These are the worst clogs and troubles.
And if the way of the righteous be so hard, then how hard shall be the end of the ungodly sinner, who walks in sin with delight, and thinks the righteous is a fool for all his pains! The only way to keep the soul well, is, to commit it to God by prayer, and patient perseverance in well-doing. He will overrule all to the final advantage of the believer.
TITUS 2: 12-14...
11/ For the grace of God has appeared, saving all
12/ and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age,
13/ as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ,
14/ who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.
Underlying the admonitions for moral improvement as the moving force is the constant appeal to God's revelation of salvation in Christ, with its demand for transformation of life.
HEBREWS 6: 7-8...
7/ Ground that has absorbed the rain falling upon it repeatedly and brings forth crops useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God.
8/ But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is rejected; it will soon be cursed and finally burned.
1 PETER 1: 13-19...
13/ Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14/ Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance
15/ but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct,
16/ for it is written, "Be holy because I (am) holy."
17/ Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one's works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,
18/ realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold
19/ but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.
The ignorance here referred to (1 Peter 1:14) was their former lack of knowledge of God, leading inevitably to godless conduct. Holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16), on the contrary, is the result of their call to the knowledge and love of God.
1 PETER 2: 3-10...
3/ for you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4/ Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God,
5/ and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6/ For it says in scripture: "Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame."
7/ Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,"
8/ and "A stone that will make people stumble, and a rock that will make them fall." They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.
9/ But you are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises" of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
10/ Once you were "no people" but now you are God's people; you "had not received mercy" but now you have received mercy.
A new life needs suitable food. Infants desire milk, and make the best endeavours for it which they are able to do; such must be a Christian's desires after the word of God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is very merciful to us miserable sinners; and he has a fulness of grace. But even the best of God's servants, in this life, have only a taste of the consolations of God. Christ is called a Stone, to teach his servants that he is their protection and security, the foundation on which they are built. He is precious in the excellence of his nature, the dignity of his office, and the glory of his services.
To be built on Christ means, to believe in him; but in this many deceive themselves, they consider not what it is, nor the necessity of it, to partake of the salvation he has wrought. Though the frame of the world were falling to pieces, that man who is built on this foundation may hear it without fear. He shall not be confounded. The believing soul makes haste to Christ, but it never finds cause to hasten from him.
All true Christians are a chosen generation; they make one family, a people distinct from the world: of another spirit, principle, and practice; which they could never be, if they were not chosen in Christ to be such, and sanctified by his Spirit. Their first state is a state of gross darkness, but they are called out of darkness into a state of joy, pleasure, and prosperity; that they should show forth the praises of the Lord by their profession of his truth, and their good conduct.
How vast their obligations to Him who has made them his people, and has shown mercy to them! To be without this mercy is a woeful state, though a man have all worldly enjoyments. And there is nothing that so kindly works repentance, as right thoughts of the mercy and love of God. Let us not dare to abuse and affront the free grace of God, if we mean to be saved by it; but let all who would be found among those who obtain mercy, walk as his people.
1 PETER 4: 1-8...
1/ Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same attitude (for whoever suffers in the flesh has broken with sin),
2/ so as not to spend what remains of one's life in the flesh on human desires, but on the will of God.
3/ For the time that has passed is sufficient for doing what the Gentiles like to do: living in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and wanton idolatry.
4/ They are surprised that you do not plunge into the same swamp of profligacy, and they vilify you;
5/ but they will give an account to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.
6/ For this is why the gospel was preached even to the dead that, though condemned in the flesh in human estimation, they might live in the spirit in the estimation of God.
7/ The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers.
8/ Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins.
Willingness to suffer with Christ equips the Christian with the power to conquer sin.
2 PETER 1: 3-11...
3/ His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power.
4/ Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
5/ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge,
6/ knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,
7/ devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.
8/ If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9/ Anyone who lacks them is blind and shortsighted, forgetful of the cleansing of his past sins.
10/ Therefore, brothers, be all the more eager to make your call and election firm, for, in doing so, you will never stumble.
11/ For, in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Christian life in its fullness is a gift of divine power effecting a knowledge of Christ and the bestowal of divine promises (2 Peter 3:4, 9). To share in the divine nature, escaping from a corrupt world, is a thought found elsewhere in the Bible but expressed only here in such Hellenistic terms, since it is said to be accomplished through knowledge (2 Peter 1:3); cf 2 Peter 1:2; 2:20; but see also John 15:4; 17:22-23; Romans 8:14-17; Hebrews 3:14; 1 John 1:3; 3:2.
Note the climactic gradation of qualities (2 Peter 1:5-7), beginning with faith and leading to the fullness of Christian life, which is love; cf Romans 5:3-4; Gal 5:6, 22 for a similar series of "virtues," though the program and sense here are different than in Paul. The fruit of these is knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 1:8) referred to in 2 Peter 1:3; their absence is spiritual blindness (2 Peter 1:9).
Perseverance in the Christian vocation is the best preventative against losing it and the safest provision for attaining its goal, the kingdom.
2 PETER 2: 4-11...
4/ For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus and handed them over to be kept for judgment;
5/ and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, together with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the godless world;
6/ and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (to destruction), reducing them to ashes, making them an example for the godless (people) of what is coming;
7/ and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man oppressed by the licentious conduct of unprincipled people
8/ (for day after day that righteous man living among them was tormented in his righteous soul at the lawless deeds that he saw and heard),
9/ then the Lord knows how to rescue the devout from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
10/ and especially those who follow the flesh with its depraved desire and show contempt for lordship. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to revile glorious beings,
11/ whereas angels, despite their superior strength and power, do not bring a reviling judgment against them from the Lord.
2 PETER 3: 8-18...
8/ But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.
9/ The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard "delay," but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
10/ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.
11/ Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought (you) to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,
12/ waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire.
13/ But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
14/ Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.
15/ And consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you,
16/ speaking of these things as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.
17/ Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability.
18/ But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. (Amen.)
The scoffers' objection (2 Peter 3:4) is refuted also by showing that delay of the Lord's second coming is not a failure to fulfill his word but rather a sign of his patience: God is giving time for repentance before the final judgment (cf Wisdom 11:23-26; Ezekiel 18:23; 33:11).
The second coming of Christ and the judgment of the world are the doctrinal bases for the moral exhortation to readiness through vigilance and a virtuous life; cf Matthew 24:42, 50-51; Luke 12:40; 1 Thes 5:1-11; Jude 1:20-21.
To avoid the dangers of error and loss of stability, Christians are forewarned to be on guard and to grow in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 1:2) of Christ.
REV. LWINSOR © 2014
BIBLICAL, and/or other references marked BOLDLY IN COLOURS
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