2Pe 1:12-13 | KingComments | STEP | . In the previous verses you saw the seven steps of spiritual growth of your faith. You have seen that your faith grows when you add in the right order the following aspects: excellence or virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, Godliness, brotherly kindness and love. One follows the other. You cannot omit or displace one of them, for if you do, the growth will stop right there. If all these aspects in the growth of your faith have the right place, the result will be that you will get to know the Lord Jesus better and better. The more you know of the Lord the more you will love and serve Him. The presence and efficacy of these ‘growth agents’ are the necessary conditions to grow. If they are there and are working, they prove their efficacy in the fruit that they produce. That fruit is a life in which the characteristics of the Lord Jesus become visible and in that way the Father is glorified. . When these things are lacking, there will be no spiritual activity and no fruit. It proves that you are “blind” and “short-sighted”. I do not think that this applies to you, but still it is important for you to see the danger of it. To be blind means to be without the insight in God’s thoughts about the Lord Jesus. He who is blind has not grown to maturity. He who is shortsighted can only see things that are very close. To be shortsighted means that only the present time is considered, here and now, and not the future, the kingdom to come. There is no distant view. A person who is blind and shortsighted is therefore blind for the heavenly things and is shortsighted as far as it concerns the earthly things. He does not look any further than here and now. The cause of that is that he has “forgotten [his] purification from his former sins”. Indeed he is converted, for otherwise there could be no mention of purification. A person who is not converted has never been purified from his sin. However, he is not to be distinguished from the people of the world, for although he is converted he lives as someone of the world. Did not Peter himself have such an experience? Was he not blind for his own weakness in the night that the Lord Jesus was delivered? Was he not shortsighted when he thought of having to defend the Lord? Was he not in the company of the world when he was standing with the foes of his Lord to warm his hands at the same fire? Had he not forgotten his former sins when he betrayed his Lord? What happened to Peter can also happen to you and me. Fortunately, as far as Peter is concerned, it all turned out well and he has been restored. Therefore there is also hope for everyone who has forgotten the purification of his former sins. . In order to be kept from such a situation, Peter appeals again to be diligent. Brothers and sisters have a collective origin. They are called and chosen by God. This awareness is a positive exhortation to be diligent. If you know for sure that you are called and chosen, it will stir you up to be diligent in making certain about God’s “calling and choosing you”. The point is that you for yourself unshakably hold on to what has been unshakably fixed with God. God has called you in the time. There is no doubt that God has called you. That He would call you was already fixed in eternity, for He has chosen you before the time. God’s call and God’s choice are unshakably fixed. From God’s side everything is fixed, but you must show your position in practice. As far as your responsibility goes, you must realize your position, hold on to it and live up to it. God wants to see people who acknowledge His rights in their lives. Here on earth, where the Lord was rejected, God longs to see people who remind Him of the Lord Jesus. Such a life also prevents you from stumbling. You do not have to be afraid of false teachers who could draw you away from the path of faith, the path that leads to the eternal kingdom. . If you make spiritual progress, it does not only give security, but it goes together with a promise. That promise is “the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”. Each believer will enter that kingdom, but not each believer will do that in the same way. Peter speaks about an entrance that “will be abundantly supplied to” those who make their call and being chosen certain. The “eternal kingdom” is the kingdom of God in its eternal form. The Lord Jesus will reign a thousand years over the kingdom of God, but also thereafter that kingdom will not cease to be God’s kingdom. As a matter of fact, it will change in form when eternity begins, whereby there will be a new heaven and a new earth ( ). The reign of the Lord Jesus is an everlasting reign (cf. ). Terrestrial kingdoms come and go. That is not the case with the kingdom of “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”. The moment it begins it remains forever (cf. ; ). When He has established His kingdom He will reign over it with all His own who have accepted Him in the time of His rejection. He will give each of His own a task in His kingdom, according to the faithfulness with which they have served Him in the time of His rejection. He will abundantly supply entrance to all who have made efforts to get to know Him better ( ) and who have diligently made their call and being chosen certain ( ). In that way He will especially honor those people in contrast to those who have lived after their own insights, though they were saved, yet as through fire ( ). I hope that you will make your best efforts to gain that abundant entrance. . Peter’s point is not to proclaim new things. God did not include his letter in His Word to reveal to you something you did not already know. The importance of this letter and of other subjects that are dealt with more than once in God’s Word, is that you do not forget them. Repetition is often also meant as a confirmation, to be a safeguard ( ). To assume something to be familiar, is not a reason not to talk about it. It is important to keep the truth in remembrance ( ; ; ). The value of repetition is often underestimated. There are, I believe, not many people who, by reading or hearing something once, never forget it. Of course there are some particular things you read or hear, that are unforgettably engraved in your memory, but those are exceptions. You need repetition to remember and work out everything that God’s Word is telling you. Therefore you have to read it continually. People who say that they have read through the whole Bible once and therefore know what it says, have no relationship with God and no self-knowledge. By faith in the Lord Jesus you know “the truth which is present with [you]” (cf. ). ‘The truth … present’ means ‘the truth that is spoken of’. You have been confirmed in the truth that Peter is speaking about here, by the teachings that you have already received on that from him. . Peter doesn’t think that his work is finished yet. He has concluded that it is necessary to go on to remind about that as long as he lives. With “this [earthly] dwelling” or “tent” he means his body, with which he serves the Lord on earth. At the same time ‘tent’ indicates that it is a temporary dwelling place (cf. ). He faithfully has achieved the task the Lord has given him, until the end of his life. ‘Retirement’ and taking it easy are out of the question with him. He wants to continuously exhort his brothers and sisters, the lambs and sheep that were entrusted to him by the Lord, for living a life in which God is glorified. . He knows that he has not got much time to live anymore. He knows this because “our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear” to him. By that Peter refers to what the Lord said in John 21 ( ). It is not that certain whether he has been given another special revelation about his end of life besides that. In any case, the Lord told him that he would be imprisoned and die a painful, violent death. . Instead of worrying about that, he is making his best efforts to leave a permanent remembrance with his beloved brothers and sisters, regarding everything that he had shared with them. That’s the reason why he writes this letter. He knows that the truth will survive the death of the servant. Therefore, in view of his death, he reminds them of the truth of the coming glory of Christ and the faith life of the Christian who is looking forward to that. He does that diligently, in spite of his already advanced age. His efforts to share these things with them and to permanently draw their attention for it, is a proof that there is no apostolic succession. Everything that God had thought of to be significant for all His own through the ages, He has written down in His Word. There these things are written down in indelible script. This is why you can still read, so many ages after Peter’s death, his encouraging words. Do your profit with it! Now read 2 Peter 1:8-15 again. Reflection: Why is Peter so anxious to remind you of what you know?

‏ 2 Peter 1:12-13

An Abundant Entrance

2Pet 1:8. In the previous verses you saw the seven steps of spiritual growth of your faith. You have seen that your faith grows when you add in the right order the following aspects: excellence or virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, Godliness, brotherly kindness and love. One follows the other. You cannot omit or displace one of them, for if you do, the growth will stop right there. If all these aspects in the growth of your faith have the right place, the result will be that you will get to know the Lord Jesus better and better. The more you know of the Lord the more you will love and serve Him.

The presence and efficacy of these ‘growth agents’ are the necessary conditions to grow. If they are there and are working, they prove their efficacy in the fruit that they produce. That fruit is a life in which the characteristics of the Lord Jesus become visible and in that way the Father is glorified.

2Pet 1:9. When these things are lacking, there will be no spiritual activity and no fruit. It proves that you are “blind” and “short-sighted”. I do not think that this applies to you, but still it is important for you to see the danger of it. To be blind means to be without the insight in God’s thoughts about the Lord Jesus. He who is blind has not grown to maturity. He who is shortsighted can only see things that are very close. To be shortsighted means that only the present time is considered, here and now, and not the future, the kingdom to come. There is no distant view. A person who is blind and shortsighted is therefore blind for the heavenly things and is shortsighted as far as it concerns the earthly things. He does not look any further than here and now.

The cause of that is that he has “forgotten [his] purification from his former sins”. Indeed he is converted, for otherwise there could be no mention of purification. A person who is not converted has never been purified from his sin. However, he is not to be distinguished from the people of the world, for although he is converted he lives as someone of the world. Did not Peter himself have such an experience? Was he not blind for his own weakness in the night that the Lord Jesus was delivered? Was he not shortsighted when he thought of having to defend the Lord? Was he not in the company of the world when he was standing with the foes of his Lord to warm his hands at the same fire? Had he not forgotten his former sins when he betrayed his Lord?

What happened to Peter can also happen to you and me. Fortunately, as far as Peter is concerned, it all turned out well and he has been restored. Therefore there is also hope for everyone who has forgotten the purification of his former sins.

2Pet 1:10. In order to be kept from such a situation, Peter appeals again to be diligent. Brothers and sisters have a collective origin. They are called and chosen by God. This awareness is a positive exhortation to be diligent. If you know for sure that you are called and chosen, it will stir you up to be diligent in making certain about God’s “calling and choosing you”. The point is that you for yourself unshakably hold on to what has been unshakably fixed with God. God has called you in the time. There is no doubt that God has called you. That He would call you was already fixed in eternity, for He has chosen you before the time. God’s call and God’s choice are unshakably fixed.

From God’s side everything is fixed, but you must show your position in practice. As far as your responsibility goes, you must realize your position, hold on to it and live up to it. God wants to see people who acknowledge His rights in their lives. Here on earth, where the Lord was rejected, God longs to see people who remind Him of the Lord Jesus. Such a life also prevents you from stumbling. You do not have to be afraid of false teachers who could draw you away from the path of faith, the path that leads to the eternal kingdom.

2Pet 1:11. If you make spiritual progress, it does not only give security, but it goes together with a promise. That promise is “the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”. Each believer will enter that kingdom, but not each believer will do that in the same way. Peter speaks about an entrance that “will be abundantly supplied to” those who make their call and being chosen certain. The “eternal kingdom” is the kingdom of God in its eternal form. The Lord Jesus will reign a thousand years over the kingdom of God, but also thereafter that kingdom will not cease to be God’s kingdom. As a matter of fact, it will change in form when eternity begins, whereby there will be a new heaven and a new earth (2Pet 3:13).

The reign of the Lord Jesus is an everlasting reign (cf. Rev 22:5). Terrestrial kingdoms come and go. That is not the case with the kingdom of “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”. The moment it begins it remains forever (cf. Dan 2:44 ; Dan 7:14; Lk 1:32-33). When He has established His kingdom He will reign over it with all His own who have accepted Him in the time of His rejection. He will give each of His own a task in His kingdom, according to the faithfulness with which they have served Him in the time of His rejection.

He will abundantly supply entrance to all who have made efforts to get to know Him better (2Pet 1:5-8) and who have diligently made their call and being chosen certain (2Pet 1:10). In that way He will especially honor those people in contrast to those who have lived after their own insights, though they were saved, yet as through fire (1Cor 3:14-15). I hope that you will make your best efforts to gain that abundant entrance.

2Pet 1:12. Peter’s point is not to proclaim new things. God did not include his letter in His Word to reveal to you something you did not already know. The importance of this letter and of other subjects that are dealt with more than once in God’s Word, is that you do not forget them. Repetition is often also meant as a confirmation, to be a safeguard (Phil 3:1). To assume something to be familiar, is not a reason not to talk about it. It is important to keep the truth in remembrance (2Tim 2:14; Tit 3:1; Jude 1:17).

The value of repetition is often underestimated. There are, I believe, not many people who, by reading or hearing something once, never forget it. Of course there are some particular things you read or hear, that are unforgettably engraved in your memory, but those are exceptions. You need repetition to remember and work out everything that God’s Word is telling you. Therefore you have to read it continually. People who say that they have read through the whole Bible once and therefore know what it says, have no relationship with God and no self-knowledge.

By faith in the Lord Jesus you know “the truth which is present with [you]” (cf. 1Jn 2:20-21). ‘The truth … present’ means ‘the truth that is spoken of’. You have been confirmed in the truth that Peter is speaking about here, by the teachings that you have already received on that from him.

2Pet 1:13. Peter doesn’t think that his work is finished yet. He has concluded that it is necessary to go on to remind about that as long as he lives. With “this [earthly] dwelling” or “tent” he means his body, with which he serves the Lord on earth. At the same time ‘tent’ indicates that it is a temporary dwelling place (cf. 2Cor 5:1-8). He faithfully has achieved the task the Lord has given him, until the end of his life. ‘Retirement’ and taking it easy are out of the question with him. He wants to continuously exhort his brothers and sisters, the lambs and sheep that were entrusted to him by the Lord, for living a life in which God is glorified.

2Pet 1:14. He knows that he has not got much time to live anymore. He knows this because “our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear” to him. By that Peter refers to what the Lord said in John 21 (Jn 21:18-19). It is not that certain whether he has been given another special revelation about his end of life besides that. In any case, the Lord told him that he would be imprisoned and die a painful, violent death.

2Pet 1:15. Instead of worrying about that, he is making his best efforts to leave a permanent remembrance with his beloved brothers and sisters, regarding everything that he had shared with them. That’s the reason why he writes this letter. He knows that the truth will survive the death of the servant. Therefore, in view of his death, he reminds them of the truth of the coming glory of Christ and the faith life of the Christian who is looking forward to that. He does that diligently, in spite of his already advanced age.

His efforts to share these things with them and to permanently draw their attention for it, is a proof that there is no apostolic succession. Everything that God had thought of to be significant for all His own through the ages, He has written down in His Word. There these things are written down in indelible script. This is why you can still read, so many ages after Peter’s death, his encouraging words. Do your profit with it!

Now read 2 Peter 1:8-15 again.

Reflection: Why is Peter so anxious to remind you of what you know?