Sharing in God's Divine Nature 2 Peter 1

[Hannah]

Hi

I've been reading through 2 Peter these past few days and I thought I might share a simple thing that popped out at me when I read the first chapter earlier this week.

2PE 1:2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

2PE 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness 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 and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

2PE 1:5 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, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, 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 if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

2PE 1:10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Verses 3 & 4 tell us that we get to participate in God's Divine nature. Now it's not the ability to know the future or to heal the sick or other powers like that but it is talking about HOLINESS because in verse 4 it says that having this Divine Nature helps us to escape the corruption and wickedness of this world.

Well what I love are "TO DO" lists because I have a very practicle nature. I love it when the Bible gives you some steps to follow.

So if we want to " escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" we can concentrate on doing the following.

Add to your Faith, goodness etc..

OK so you need to ADD to your FAITH the following.

Goodness
Knowledge
Self-Control
Perseverance
Godliness
Brotherly kindness
Love

If you are not sure what these things are, the Bible has much scripture that explains them. So you can easily do a study on each one to fully grasp what they are or what changes you need to make to yourself to be doing these.

After the list we are encouraged to get these charateristics in INCREASING measure and it will be beneficial for us to do so. Why? So you are effective & productive for the Lord and it helps to sure up your election or salvation so you do not Fall (verse 10).

As I said I love it when the Bible is so practical and easy to understand.

By this you will also ensure you gain the Divine Nature God desires for us to have - Holiness. It takes effort on our part to become Holy. God will help us gain Holiness but we have to be willing to do our bit. So have a good look at that list. Is there any one of those characteristics listed you can work on? Remember it says we should be aiming on gaining these in Increasing Measure so "the sky is the limit" so to speak in how much we can improve in these characteristics.

Hope this encourages you to have a "To Do" List for Chrisitan Living.

[Meg]

To be honest, I'm probably working on most of the items on that list at any given time... But the Lord has been so kind in encouraging me all along the way. Love this thread!