Keep growing
2 Peter 3:14-18
Main Idea: God’s people overcome laziness and resist liars in order to keep growing up in Christ.
I. Why God’s People Pursue Personal Christian Maturity (3:10-14)
2 Peter 3:10-14: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
The simple answer is that Christians are waiting for something better than this body and this age can offer. The orientation of their life has shifted from combustible things to indestructible things, from dissolvable assets to enduring rewards. They no longer follow their sensuality, but rather lean into the precious and very great promise that they have been made partners in the divine nature. They have a Day marked on the calendar of their hearts, like a bride with her wedding day A Day that rushes forward into every day of their lives as they anticipate the great Day of their Lord.
II. How God’s People Pursue Personal Christian Maturity (3:14-18a)
2 Peter 3:14-18: Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Peter uses three different couplets to describe what he is getting at in our text.
In v. 11 he describes personal Christian maturity as “lives of godliness and holiness.”
In v. 14 he describes it as “being found by him without spot or blemish and at peace.”
In v. 18 he describes it as growing “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
For Peter and the other apostles, Christian maturity is a lifetime pursuit more than a daily checklist. It focuses on the end objective more than on the means of getting there.
For the Christian, living to grow up into Jesus is what life is all about.
1. God’s people pursue personal Christian maturity DILIGENTLY.
This is the fourth time in this letter that Peter has hit this concept. (2 Pet 1:5, 10, 15; 3:14) . Diligence is a big deal to both Peter and Paul.
Diligence means persistence.
Diligence implies effort.
Diligence requires focus.
2. God’s people pursue personal Christian maturity OBEDIENTLY
We do not have the prerogative to make the Scriptures say what we want them to say. Our responsibility is to understand what the holy prophets and the apostles of the Lord Jesus said and to orient our lives in obedience to “the Lord’s” predictions and commands.
3. God’s people pursue personal Christian maturity VIGILANTLY.
Because there are hard things to be worked through in the Scriptures and because there are “lawless people” who are being carried away in their own errors, those pursuing personal Christian maturity must “take care” to not be carried away in those twisted errors and thus “lose your own stability.”
III. Who God’s People Pursue Personal Maturity For (3:18b)
2 Peter 3:18: But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
God’s people pursue personal Christian maturity to magnify the name of Jesus.
