... 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; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 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. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2Peter 1:4b-11
As my wife and I were watching a series on TV, we commented that there would be no storyline or plot if there was no sin, or as Peter would say, "corruption in the world caused by evil desires." There are multiple sexual encounters causing children that show up to claim inheritances and affairs trying to be kept secret but being disclosed or blackmail leading to murder or violence, and we said to ourselves, if people lived "goodness" defined as moral excellence there would be no plot. So we watched a Hallmark movie and decided the common plot line is failure to communicate - every story has a lovelorn couple estranged until the end when all the confusion due to them not communicating is cleared up which ends in a kiss. Living a morally excellent life leads to little drama. Although that leads to bad TV, it leads to an awesome real life.
Peter says, now that we have escaped the Soap Opera of the life we used to live, how do we keep from getting sucked back in? First of all he tells us we can't stand still, we have to keep making progress moving forward in the Christian life and growing. It's like being in a boat in a river; if you don't paddle or make effort, you will be pulled backwards by the current. How do we grow - it starts with gaining knowledge (gnosis). We have to read, study, memorize, ingest the Bible. This takes self-control, getting up before work, journaling, flash cards to memorize, meeting at houses midweek for Bible studies, on-line messages, life groups, etc. instead of laziness. It takes perseverance to continue even in the times when you may not be hearing from the Lord or going through times of stress, doubt, difficulty to continue on and forge ahead and not give up. People will begin to see your Godliness or piety and describe you as a religious person but as you grow in your love for them, as it progresses from phileo to agape, you will begin making a difference for the kingdom - you will be effective and productive.
He gives the warning that if you aren't growing, not only will be ineffective as a Christian, unproductive and unfruitful as the world sees you joining in with their corruption or dissipation, but you are in danger of losing your salvation or as I interpret it, the salvation that you thought you had.
Lest we go "whole hog" on fruit inspecting, he doesn't say that if you don't see any of these qualities in a person then they aren't a believer. (that's a lot of negatives) In other words, I'm tempted to say, "That person isn't a Christian because I don't see any fruit." While that may be the case 90% of the time, only God knows the heart and Peter says, "Maybe they just are near sighted and all they are seeing is the World and they are forgetting the spiritual reality of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, the gospel and they just need to get their vision corrected. To double down on this, he will use Lot in Chapter 2 as an example of a believer to mess with us judgmental people.
So keep paddling that boat and don't get pulled back into the world. Keep your eyes fixed on Heaven, Jesus, the triumphant return and live effective Christian lives so you can hear Him say, "Well done my good and faithful servant."
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