Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: II Peter 1-3
II Peter 1:3
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
A phone is no longer a phone. For those old enough to remember, when the cell phones first made an appearance, that is what they were. A phone. Now, that which may be called a phone is also a map, calendar, wallet, compass, newspaper, weather station, and a thousand other things; one can even read the text of the Bible on this “phone.” Today a phone is so much more than a phone. Once upon a time business people would carry day planners and other small notebooks with all their appointments, notes, and important information in them. Some even called these their “brain.”
But no more. Those hardcopy, handwritten calendars, planners, and notebooks are pretty much obsolete. Some still carry them, I do. For me it is much more efficient to use a notebook to write things in than to input them into a phone with a keyboard so small that one finger hits three different letters at the same time. While I carry a phone, it is largely just used as a phone. It is very much underutilized.
The same could be said about all that God has given to His children through Jesus Christ. He, and by extension His promises, are very much underutilized by many. Our Lord, in His divine power has given to His children all things that pertain to life and godliness. All through knowledge of Him. Therein is the issue. Just as one may decline to utilize all that a phone has to offer in its manifold usages, so too can the “exceeding great and precious promises” of our Lord be declined through either lack of persistence or plain, old fashioned, ignorance.
Peter in this second letter brings each believer in Jesus Christ face to face with their personal responsibility to add diligently to their faith. Faith is a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), faith is given in a measure (Romans 12:3), faith is like the foundation upon which our house (temporal life) is built. Even Paul warned Christians in I Corinthians 3:10 to …take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
In verses 5-7 of the opening chapter Peter lists seven things to add to one’s faith. They are virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. These are available to all believers in Christ but they must be added. These are not forced on anyone, nor automatically activated upon salvation, these must be added, one upon another. Many in churches encounter other members of that church that do not practice brotherly kindness, or charity. Has it ever occurred, even once, that for a brother or sister in Christ to not act in a “brotherly kindness” kind of way is because that person has not added the necessary elements to their faith to have brotherly kindness abiding in them.
Every Christian is in a different place in their growth as a Christian. Some grow fast, some slow, some never do; but all should. Herein is the promise. If any child of God adds these seven things to their faith, they will make that person fruitful in Christ (1:8). If any child of God fails to diligently add these seven things to their faith, they will be blinded even to the point of forgetting that their sins have been purged. They will be unfruitful in Christ (1:9).
Who cares about a phone and all the trinkets it offers? And then, who cares about being fruitful in Christ? Too many are diligent about the first to the exclusion of the second. But think for a moment, the first will pass with the passing of things, the second, well, those things are eternally rewarding. Choose well.
Dr. William T. Howe
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