2 Peter l:12-13 Remember These Things!

2 Peter l:12-13  So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.  I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.  And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

In this letter, Peter reminds the church that they must reflect God.  When he says I will always remind you of these things, he refers to the attributes of the Holy Spirit.  People might have faith in Jesus as Lord, even claiming his promises of eternal life and spiritual blessings, but if they forget to display the living God in their daily lives, they are nothing but sounding gongs.  They are clouds without water to refresh the land, bringing new life.  As we read last week, 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.  (2 Peter 1:6-8) The seeds of our actions will multiply in abundance, when we commit to following the Holy Spirit’s leading in our souls.  If we cling to our old self-centered lives and our agenda, we will be as seeds on dry land, unproductive, unable to touch people’s hearts.  Sometimes believers use the redemptive work of Christ as a way to salve their own consciences, to bring peace, to give them a reason to live.  As such, they use the salvation experience as a miser would horde precious metals and money.  They partake of all the blessings of God just to improve their lives.  Was this the only purpose for our release from the dungeon of the devil’s domain?  Surely, we have escaped Egypt.  But now, in our wilderness walk, God appoints us as his ministers: to speak his words, not our own; to serve others; to live in his presence.  This was Peter’s life.  When the Sanhedrin forbid Peter and the apostles to speak and live in the name of Jesus, he boldly proclaimed that he would not obey their orders, for he was under a higher authority.  Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!  The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.  God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.  We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”  (Acts 5:39-32)  We now live under orders to that same authority and not our flesh or the dictates of others.  When Peter and the apostles resisted the appeal of the Sanhedrin, they received a flogging from them.  They were treated roughly in an attempt to humiliate these men of God.  Before meeting Jesus, they probably never confronted the Jewish authorities or faced punishment as lawbreakers.  As former men of good standing, they now became outcasts for doing good in Jesus’ name, causing jealousy to rise in the hearts of the Jewish leaders.  But God blessed them: More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.  As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.  Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. (Acts 5:14-16)  They were punished for serving God, for helping people, for delivering people from the devil’s domain.  Now in today’s verses, we see Peter encouraging people to follow their example: standing out from the crowd by doing the works of God.

If our lives fall to the anger of the crowd and we die in the good soil, we will come out of seemingly dead seed to new lives.  Of course that seed possesses all of the DNA that is in God, for we were made in his image.  We have the ability within us to display the attributes of God because of the power of the Holy Spirit in us.  But the seed must crack open, the shell of the old life must be discarded.  We must allow the new life to spring forth.  No one, without prior experience with a certain type of seed, can really predict what will come forth from a seed.  A person would be unable to draw a picture of the new life in that seed if he or she had no prior experience with that plant.  The new creature, the new plant, evolving from that little seed would amaze anyone who has never seen the fruition of that seed.  We are that seed.  The world cannot appreciate what we are and what we will become.  They want us to stay in their design: the inert seed.  They do not want us to flourish, for maturity IN CHRIST will bring a separation from them, a contrast.  Peter wanted to encourage the Christians to display the separation: the goodness of God, the love of God, the mercy of God, the peace of God.  Those are the things he wanted them to concentrate on in their lives.  If the plant displays beauty, a contrast to the world’s way of looking, maybe some will want that too; desiring a new creature to spring forth, desiring salvation for the soul.  Good soil allows seeds to sprout deep roots.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.  (Matthew 13:8-9)  Peter tells the Christians to take care of the soil in which they were planted.  To have deep roots, they must love others, do good to not only their friends, but to those who despise them.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  (Romans 12:14)  When the world flogs you for displaying the goodness of God, praise God for He is with you.  You are suffering what He suffers with a broken heart.  For God made everything that is, especially human beings, and they have rejected his authority and his influence on their lives.  Rather than serve him, they serve themselves, causing violence and discord everywhere, even in their own families.  We are to express God to the world.  We are the seed broken down for the purposes of God: the new plant, the new creature, flourishing and displaying the works and nature of God.  

Without the salvation experience of believing by faith in Christ and his works, the seeds (humans) will never reveal the holy nature of God.  But God’s plan is to display his unique creation for his glory.   All people have God’s beauty within them.  Salvation has to come to them through Christ’s sacrifice for them to please God.  Jesus the Creator creates all things for God’s glory.  We who are IN CHRIST are acceptable and precious to God.  Our maturity as Christians will produce abundant fruit for him.  The plan of God is not only for us to flourish in this world but to be with him forever in his household.  We who are IN CHRIST are destined to live by the side of God, for all things eventually will be under the authority of Christ.  Sin, disobedience, and sorrow will cease.  We who sit with Christ will reign with him forever.  Salvation, new life, originates IN CHRIST and is only viable with CHRIST.  Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:4-10)  We are to do good works, for Jesus has given us the strength and ability to do so.  Peter reminds Christians that the works of God should be cultivated in their lives.  Peter knows he will not live much longer.  Some believe he was crucified upside down; regardless, his life was coming to an end.  He wanted his beloved Christians to understand that their lives should be examples of new creatures, not lives dedicated to carnal living, but to God.  Let the seed flourish, let the new life be revealed, for it is God’s work.  No other life is worth living.  Everything will cease, pass away, except for the new life, for it will exist when heaven and earth passes away.  Therefore, Peter says, So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.  I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.  And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.  Be as God is: display his goodness, his love, his mercy and grace.  You will not be ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ if you reveal his handiwork in you, for you were created to do good works.  Thank you Peter for your reminder!