2 Peter 1:5-8

COMMENTS

I love what Peter does in this section of scripture.  In my early years as a believer, I was given a lot of truth and information about who I should be and how I should act; but I wasn’t told how to accomplish those things.  Here, Peter moves into the “how-to”.  Let’s see what he says….

NOTES

Two phrases jumped out at me as I read this passage:

“For if you possess these qualities IN INCREASING MEASURE, they will keep you from being INEFFECTIVE AND UNPRODUCTIVE in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:8)

Some people love knowledge for knowledge’s sake—they just love to know things.  Sometimes, I can be like that.  I love to watch the TV show “Jeopardy” because I love learning new things.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  But our knowledge of our God must not be like that!  He desires that knowledge to accomplish something.  With that knowledge, we must be effective and productive, not “ineffective and unproductive” (v. 8).

So, how do I become effective and productive?  By developing godly qualities “in increasing measure” (v. 8).  I cannot stay stagnant.  None of us ever reach perfection, so we never “arrive”, as we used to say.  Life, including our Christian walk, is a journey.  My goal is to look more like Jesus when I go to bed tonight than I did when I got up this morning, to be more successful at “escaping the corruption in the world” (v.4) today than I was yesterday.

So, Peter tells me how I can do that.  He knows that, as a believer, I have faith.  However, I must “make every effort” (v. 5) to add goodness to my faith.  Then, to the goodness, I add knowledge.  To knowledge, I add self-control.  To self-control, I add perseverance.  To perseverance, I add godliness.  To godliness, I add brotherly kindness.  To brotherly kindness, I must add love.

 

Look at that list!  Will I ever have all of those qualities all the time?  Not in this life!  But as I know Him better and love Him more—as I “make every effort” in the power of the Spirit—I’ll have more of them more often.

Philippians: A Review

COMMENTS

Well, at least for now, our study of Philippians is done.  No doubt, there are other lessons to be learned when the Lord chooses to reveal them.  At this point, though, I feel compelled to go back through this book.  My heart tells me there’s an over-arching theme that He wants me to see before He takes me somewhere else.  Reveal it to me, Lord, I pray….

 

NOTES

As I go back through the four chapters of Philippians, it becomes quite clear to me that seven elements are repeated in each chapter—seven familiar elements:   Christ-likeness, love, joy, gentleness, lack of anxiety, prayer, and thankfulness.  I thought about listing examples from every chapter, but that would make this missive extremely long.  I challenge you to take that list and search the chapters.  Most of the time, the elements are quite obvious.  Occasionally, you have to observe the tone or read the undercurrents; but they’re there.

So, what is God through Paul trying to say?  There’s a lot of “meat” in this book.  There are many examples of and instructions about how we should conduct our lives.  However, these are not rules for us to follow blindly.  They are there to lead us to our ultimate goal.

If I love,

If I rejoice,
If I am gentle,
If I am not anxious
If I pray, and
If I am thankful

THEN,

I will be Christ-like.

Not easy to accomplish, but what a glorious goal!

Philippians 1:1-11

COMMENTS

I awoke this morning with a strong desire to get back in God’s Word.  After trying unsuccessfully to find a Bible study workbook on holiness that I have, I did Day 1 of one on revival.  After completing that, I still felt a hunger in my soul; so I decided that I needed to go straight to the Bible with no intermediary.  I thought I would start in Ephesians, but my Bible opened to Philippians; and it seemed like the Lord was saying “Here, read this.”  So I did.

NOTES

I am struck by the great love Paul has for the believers in Philippi.  His affection for them is great, and he has great admiration for their faithfulness to Christ.  The passage that particularly spoke to me was verses 9 – 11.  I’ve always thought that Paul’s prayer for the Philippians was a beautiful prayer, one that I’ve prayed at times for others.  But what struck me at this reading was the outcome desired when Paul prayed that their “love….abound….in knowledge and depth of insight”.  What did he desire?  That they be able to discern what is best!  (Among other things, of course; but this is the one the Spirit put on my heart.)  Interesting that love can bring forth the ability to determine what is best.  And as I go through the list—ability to discern what’s best, purity and blamelessness, being filled with the fruit of righteousness (how can one determine what’s best if he’s not righteous?)—I see that all of this comes through our Lord Jesus Christ.  But for what purpose?  To bring glory and praise to God!  Hallelujah!