2 Peter 5-11 Mutual Affection, Love!

2 Peter 5-11  For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  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.  But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.  Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election.  For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God has given us power to live righteous lives, lives that glorify him in every circumstance.  He has made us new creatures, so our actions will express his divinity.  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.  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.  (2 Peter 3-4)  We have escaped the corruption of the world by faith in his works and his holiness.  The world no longer has a hold on us.  As new creatures in Christ, we are not obligated to live as mere carnal beings.  Although we live in fleshly bodies subject to the vicissitudes and the experiences of being finite, the Bible says in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  (Romans 8:28)  The promises of victory over the world and the devil rest in the works of Jesus Christ our Lord, the perfect man who fulfilled God’s desire for holiness.  God commands all people to be holy as He is holy, for He will not overlook sin.  A righteous and just God will excise sin by the penalty of death.  Jesus experienced that death for us, thereby paying the price that God required for violating his perfect eternal existence.  Since Jesus paid our debt, we walk unencumbered through the Gate to eternal life, exercising our faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  We follow the Great Shepherd of the sheep to the Father God.  In this world without Christ, we are as sheep with our wool marked with the stain of sin, designating us for eternal judgment.  As sheep on this earth’s sphere, caught in this retaining pen of sin, we are without escape from God’s justice, his excising of sin.  But the Gate swung open when the Perfect Man paid the complete price for our sins.  We follow the First Fruit (Jesus Christ) from the captivity of the biological flesh to the presence of God.  That is our salvation, that is the Good News, but then how do we live now, so the world will know that the message of salvation is real, absolutely true.  Peter tells us that these precious promises of knowing God, being right with God, having God within us, living with him eternally, places an obligation on our lifestyle and actions.  He wants us to confirm our representation of our Savior on Earth, just as Jesus represented God as He walked on Earth and resisted his enemies.  Paul wrote, Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  (Ephesians 6:11)  Jesus was the exact replication of his father, God.  When the world saw Jesus, they saw God.  We should also in every way and in every circumstance allow Jesus to shine through us as we attempt to live up to these wonderful promises of a new life.
 
Of course, as Christians we understand the beauty of having God present with us; we know his holiness rests within us.  But our lives must be attentive and especially sensitive to the demands God has on us: how we live, how we interact with others, how we obey God’s will.  We are not our own; we have been bought by the precious blood of the Lamb of God.  He has purchased our freedom from sin and death, but that means our lives should reflect the meaning of servanthood.  Jesus said, Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all.  (Mark 9:35)  To be a servant of God, we must be a servant to people.  Serving God is not something done in a vacuum: we interact with humanity as He desires to interact with them.  We are his instruments, his lights.  Therefore, to fulfill his purposes for us, we must intentionally focus our daily lives on his desire of loving people.  If we lose God’s direction for our lives, we will construct our lives on the wrong foundation: hay, stubble, wood, materials that will not stand the test of God’s judgment of fire.  Of course, to have our life’s work burn up would create great sorrow in us at the judgment seat of God.  What is Peter saying to us in the above focus about living for God?  He wants us to know that the great promises that we hold in our hearts should surface in the reality of our lives: make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  These attributes of God will affect positively the people who live around us.  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.  With the power of the Spirit, you will build with material that will stand the test of time and God’s evaluation.  These qualities reveal the light that is put on a lamp stand, so all in the world can see clearly.  You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:14-16)  We who are alive in the world should reflect God and his purposes.  We should be his instruments of kindness, goodness, and love.  God will judge correctly and divinely.  He knows everyone’s life.  He knows the road everyone has traveled in this journey of living.  We must let him be the evaluator of lives.  For us, we have the responsibility to show God to the world by revealing the nature of God.  As servants, we do not have the right to be the master of the house.  We are to show the Master and his qualities to the whole world, for we are his servants, serving him and his intentions, not ours.

If we fail to let God inculcate his characteristics into our lives, if we allow the self-serving, Adamic nature to govern us, we will produce little fruit for God.  Persuasion alone will not convince people that they need Christ.  They need to see the power of God elevating believers to a better place in their interactions with others.  God destroyed the world during Noah’s time because of mankind’s riotous and violent nature.  In reality, we are wayward sheep, judging the world, interacting with the world on our terms alone.  None of this human behavior leads to peace, cohesion, enduring love.  Our destructive actions lead to wars and conflicts as revealed in the history of mankind.  Peter clearly states, those who do not display the qualities of God are nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.  Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election.  For if you do these (positive) things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  As Christians, we are God’s light on Earth—we are to reflect him, not ourselves.  The Spirit of God abides within us; his presence brings God’s nature to us.  Therefore, we should put aside our own worldly knowledge and wisdom of how to live and replace them with the Holy Spirit’s knowledge and wisdom.  If we follow the Holy Spirit’s leading, we will serve people in such a way that we will not even realize that we are building our lives on material that will endure the test of divine fire.  Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”  Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”  The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  (Matthew 25:34-38)  How many of us around the breakfast table need to know that God desires to serve humanity through us?  Yes, it is great to minister the salvation message, to cast out demons, to deliver the slaves from the devil’s hands.  That we should do.  But our lives have an equally important obligation along with sharing the salvation message, and that requirement is to show God’s love to the world.  God is devoted to humanity; that is why He is so patient with violent, self-serving humans, the dangerous cancer on eternity.  He desires to bring whosoever will into his intimate family as sons and daughters.  He wants us who are alive IN CHRIST to reveal and to express his nature to the world.  He gave his Son to a hopeless creation, a creation of wayward people, living their lives away from his everlasting goodness and holiness.  Peter instructs Christians to add to their faith mutual affection; love.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  (John 3:16-17)