… to add to your faith goodness …
Summary: Faith is that precious gift of knowing Jesus Christ personally. Goodness is what we do with it.
Continue reading “2 Peter 1:5c — The Bridge”2 Peter 1:5c — The Bridge
2 Peter 1:5a — Open and Closed
For this very reason …
Summary: This conjunctive phrase connects the reasons for living a godly life to the need to live a godly life.
Continue reading “2 Peter 1:5a — Open and Closed”2 Peter 1:4c — One With God
… so that through them you may participate in the divine nature …
Summary: How is it possible that we can participate in God’s divine nature? How is it possible that a hundred choral voices can join into one? There is a parallel here that might help us understand this passage.
Continue reading “2 Peter 1:4c — One With God”2 Peter 1:3c — The Day Everything Changed
… through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Summary: Peter reminds us that the reason for Jesus to be born as a human here on earth was to establish a new covenant that replaced the old.
Continue reading “2 Peter 1:3c — The Day Everything Changed”2 Peter 1:3b — A Godly Life
… has given us everything we need for a godly life …
Summary: What is a godly life? It is a question we should spend some time thinking about. Jesus is God, so we know that we should be like him, but are we to be like him in every way?
Continue reading “2 Peter 1:3b — A Godly Life”2 Peter 1:3a — A Different Kind of Power
His divine power …
Summary: Divine power is different than physical power. In the physical realm, physical power is mostly what we see, but the Bible is full of stories about a different kind of power.
Continue reading “2 Peter 1:3a — A Different Kind of Power”1 Peter 4:1 (b) — Done with Sin
… because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.
Summary: Peter tells us that it is possible to be ”done with sin.” The price is to stay focused on Christ and adopt Christ’s attitude toward suffering. Today we explore what this means.
Continue reading “1 Peter 4:1 (b) — Done with Sin”1 Peter 2:25 — We are the Sheep
For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
I have to confess that I do not have any direct personal experience with sheep (outside of seeing one in a petting zoo once or twice). I do know a couple of people who have had experience working with sheep and neither one much cared for it. Sheep are dirty, stubborn, stinky, and troublesome. It is interesting that Jesus would choose to use sheep as a metaphor for people as often as he did.
What I do have experience with is going astray. I have LOTS of experience there. I don’t know how much trouble a lost sheep can get into, but people seem to have an unlimited range of options when it comes to going astray. I am pretty sure that everyone reading this has their own experience in this department, so there isn’t any need for more description here.
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:25 — We are the Sheep”1 Peter 2:13 (b) — For His Sake
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake…
Peter is asking us to do something none of us want to do. Now he tells us why we should want to: Because of Jesus.
How does that work?
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:13 (b) — For His Sake”1 Peter 2:3 — Yum!
… now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
I don’t know why this should be, but there are some verses in the Bible that seem to jump off of the page. Then they grab me by the lapel and shout, “ISN’T THIS THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER?!” For me, this is one of those verses.
Peter has been talking about nourishing our spirit using the food we feed our bodies with. Specifically, he uses the example of a newborn baby craving milk. His example is ripe with all kinds of inferences that color our understanding of what he means. Then he goes on to say, “now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
Continue reading “1 Peter 2:3 — Yum!”