2 Peter 1:1-11
1 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.
Confirming One’s Calling and Election
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; 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.
St. Peter tells us he is a servant and an apostle of Jesus...He was one of the Master's disciples...St. Peter knows that Jesus is the truth...Simon Peter wants us to grow in knowledge of this Truth...He uses the word knowledge five times in the opening of his second epistle...The more knowledge we have of Jesus, the more knowledge we will have of the Truth...He was an eyewitness to Jesus and His teachings and the Truth...St. Peter was getting up in years and heeds his readers of this letter to remain faithful to Jesus and continue our discipleship in Him...Faith is a precious thing in our lives...Grace and peace will be abundant in our lives with the more knowledge of God and His Son Jesus, our LORD...
Jesus divinity gives us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him, who calls believers by His own glory and goodness...Jesus give us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him...Through Jesus' glory and goodness He gives us the greatest and most precious of promises...This great promise allows us to participate in the divine nature, because He has escaped this world without sinning and has resurrected...There is corruption in us, because we all have evil desires...It is in our nature, our human nature...It is who we are...Our Father allows us to make our own choices through the free will He gives us, and sometimes we choose a desire for whatever reason that is evil...We struggle with sin everyday...It is hard to be like Jesus and in all our choices be godly...
To get through our daily struggles we should make every effort to add to our faith goodness, we should try to add to our goodness more knowledge...We must try to add to our knowledge self-control; and to our self-control perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love...For if we attain and possess these qualities in increasing measures in our lives they will make us more knowledgeable and productive and we will have a better understanding of our LORD Jesus Christ...We will be more godly and we will be a better person...Whoever, does not do these things or try to do these things are nearsighted and blind, because Jesus is the one who has know cleansed us of our past sins...If we make these attributes a part of our lives, we will never stumble, and receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of heaven with our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ...Even if we cannot everyday do each and everyone of these things we must continue to try, to be more like Jesus and His saints...
Through God's greatness He gives us great promises...Every time we make any of our daily free choices, we are either choosing to be in harmony with God or choosing to having disharmony in our lives...In each of the choices that we make daily, we are either making one to satisfy an evil, and selfish desire or are choosing to do something that is right...In our daily decisions, we are choosing to make ourselves a better human and Christian, or one that is worse-off than the one we were before that evil desire decision was made...Knowing and loving Jesus does not give us the right or rights to free us from our moral responsibilities or making positive moral choices...The more we know about Jesus, and this knowledge of Christ that St. Peter talks about, should affect the way we live...