Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;
Sometimes I think we give animals too much credit. Man's best friend? Really? Granted, when I get home from work, my dog is so excited to see me, she pees on the floor. Then she jumps on me non-stop and has a deafening screeching excited bark. And then she sits and looks at her tennis ball in hopes that I will go outside and throw it to her. So my ongoing question is, why is she excited to see me? Is it because of me or because I'll throw the ball to her? Why does she follow me around? Is it because of me or in hopes I'll drop some food on the floor? The Jetsons cartoon used to start off with the dog Astro bringing George his shoes. That seems like a very caring and serving gesture to his master, right? Next scene we see is Astro pulling him to go for a walk on the treadmill. Astro's act of goodness was nothing more than a self-centered action. I really think my dog is no different. At least cats you don't have to wonder.
So where am I going? Yesterday we discussed that God's desire for us is goodness or moral purity. Why? Because that is His essence and the more we get to know how amazing He is, the more we should want to be like Him. It left us with a problem though. Our flesh is so self-centered that all our good deeds, like bringing shoes to our master, have self-centered motives. All our good deeds are as filthy rags, fuel for the fire the Bible says. When the rich young ruler called Jesus good, Jesus replied, "Only God is good"
2 Peter 1 states that we have been given something - we have received something that enables us to topple this obstacle to goodness. What is that? We have received a new nature on salvation. We have been born again indwelt and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We are a new creation which actually can be good and do good. In fact, goodness is a fruit of the spirit which means He enables us to be good only for the glory of the master. He enables me to pray just to spend time with Him, not just for him to give me something. He enables me to serve the poor without getting praise or recognition. He enables me to support a ministry without getting a tax advantage. He enables me to give to a building fund without getting a personalized brick on the wall. He enables me to unpack the dish washer without my wife noticing I did it!
Notice I say enables me. It doesn't mean I will be unselfish in my "goodness" but at least now it's possible whereas in the past it wasn't. The more the Holy Spirit is running the show versus our flesh calling the shots, the more we will bear real fruit rather than the fake fruit you see on display in unlived in homes.
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