Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 2 Peter 1-2 and Psalm 46

Peter’s second letter was probably written from prison in Rome (see 2 Peter 2:12-15) not too long before his death by execution, around A.D. 64–67. His aim was that, by God’s grace, his readers would live in a way that was pleasing to God. To this end he also had to confront a particular form of false teaching which was promoting a sexual permissive lifestyle as a legitimate option for Christians.

In 2 Peter 1:3-11, Peter points to a beautiful partnership between the Lord and His people. From the Lord’s side, he explains that He has “given us everything we need for a godly life” (v.3). The Lord not only inspires us to live differently to the world around us, He empowers us to do so too. But He does not live our lives for us! From our side, He calls us to “make every effort” to live a Christ-honouring and God-pleasing life. So, we make the moment-by-moment decisions and put in the effort to please Him; and He adds the power. What a partnership!

Peter is also very specific about the God-pleasing qualities we are to aim for with the Lord’s empowering. He teaches that if we will focus our grace-empowered efforts on growing in faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love (v.5-7) – we will become effective and fruitful in our walk with the Lord (v.8), and we will please the Lord and “receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” I don’t know about you, but that is certainly a great motivation for me.

Life application: How about writing out that list of qualities and sticking it up somewhere, so that it will catch your eye throughout the day today. Then pick one quality to focus your efforts on, and take one or two practical steps to develop that quality during the day today.