The Lord’s Prayer: Your will be done – the key to seeing God.Thursday December 22, 2022
2Pe 1:1-4 The reason for obedience to divine virtue.
2Pe 1:1-5 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence …
Received a faith of the same kind (same precious [isotime] faith). By the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ
Grace and peace Multiplied to you In the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord
Everything pertaining to life and godliness By His divine power Through the true knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and excellence.
“By these” Faith. Grace and peace in the full knowledge of God the Father and Son. Everything for life and godliness (full devotion).
These are all gifts from the grace of God, given to every believer. None are excluded who have believed in Christ as their Savior. Faith is a gift to the human race made in God’s image. Salvation by grace through faith is a gift (Eph 2:8-9). Grace is all of God’s unmerited favor towards you. Peace is the fact that Christ has made peace between us and the Father through the blood of His cross and with growth this results in the residency of peace in the soul. The full knowledge of God is the combination of the gifts of the Scripture, the Holy Spirit, the pastor-teacher, faith, time, and perseverance in the Scripture. Added to that are the needs for life and godliness (our daily physical and spiritual bread), which are a daily gift.
Pause and consider: Put these together in your soul and anchor them. Faith, grace, peace, and the full knowledge of the Father and Son are given by God. The necessities for life (the whole life, spiritual and physical) and godliness (pure and complete devotion to God) are given by God.
Peter’s style of writing is sort of like a stream of consciousness, as in an oral conversation. His subject and main verb might be miles apart with other clauses and modifiers and phrases placed in between. You see this far more in his Greek than in the English translation, in which we move the words to make a better flow. So, it is our task to unpack it.
Vs.4 says “by these,” and what are these? They are what we have just seen. Faith, grace, peace, and the full knowledge of the Father and the Son; but then with these Peter interjects their source. Where does faith come from? What is the source of grace, peace, and full knowledge (knowledge understood)?
“These” come by: Righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ (cross) Divine power Calling of God God’s glory and virtue
What do we come to see? From the attributes of God flow the gifts of God. And since that is true, how could the gifts be any different from God’s eternal and wonderful attributes? When we receive a gift from God, we are receiving a piece of Him, or His very nature. It is now your possession forever. And then God will entreat us to open up the gift and look into it and discover it, and as we discover it, we are discovering Him.
Again: When you behold the gifts from God, which is only done by using them, you behold God Himself.
Peter is going to show us how to unpack and discover the whole nature of these gifts.
But not just yet; before we move on to the use of the gifts, we need reassurance: “for by these (gifts from God at salvation) He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises so that …
What promises go with “these” (our faith, grace, peace with God in the knowledge of God the Father and Son, all needs for life and godliness)? Too extensive for one class, but the number of promises that go along with God’s gifts are literally in the hundreds and exist in the realm of God’s good pleasure.
A sample: Partners with the divine nature Glorify the Lord Fruit bearing life Heavenly life beyond dreams Impact on others for good Fulfillment of joy Abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom
The natural result is that you escape the corruption in the world that exists by lust. Your Father does not want you beset by corruption and lust, of which all of life’s misery comes. Since it is the flesh that lusts, this salvation and subsequent multitude of gifts of a spiritual nature from God leaves no life for the flesh, but we have to apply the gifts, putting them in to action, as Peter reveals. In other words, God has not eradicated the flesh’s existence just yet. He has let it remain but at the same time He has given us a blessed life that will, if we see it, so absorb our desire and our time that we will ignore the consistent longing of the flesh for our attention and loyalty, and the corruption of the world will likewise not hold our gaze.
To glorify the name of our Father in heaven, while corruption and desires lay siege to our souls, is much more magnificent and bright than it would be without them.
The gifts and the promises: the promise is the guarantee from the voice of God (the very voice that made the worlds), that if we do His will with the gifts He has given, then we will experience a life filled with God’s fruit and God’s works. If you were wishing for silver and gold, it’s not here.
Christians who are fooled into wanting other things more than the knowledge of God do not understand what is the best thing in life. As Jesus said in Joh 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You.”
The desire for other things is the corruption of the world.
Pro 8:10-11 Take my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choicest gold. For wisdom is better than jewels; And all desirable things can not compare with her.
Escape the corruption of the world (Pro 8).
2Pe 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
“partakers” – koinonos = have in common, partner, partake, share with.
The word was used in the Greek world for many types of relationships including friendship and marriage, and so the word came to mean fellowship shared. It is used in Heb 2:14 for Christ sharing in flesh and blood as we do. And in that passage, He did so, so that He could vanquish death. Therefore, by means of His sharing (He who was rich became poor), so we share in His divine nature (so that we who were poor could become rich). It is also used for fellowship with Christ (1Co 1:9), and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2Co 13:14). Amongst believers, koinonos is about accepting one another, sharing in material, suffering, and work.
So then, now we can put the first part together. The gifts from God to us (faith, grace, peace, full knowledge of the Father and Son), which have come from the attributes of God, by them the multitude of promises exist for us to go forth with these gifts and experience the divine nature. As we use our gifts for the purpose for which they were designed, encouraged and emboldened by God’ promises, we share in and partake of the divine nature.
This is important to our passage in the Lord’s prayer, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” because that is the way in which use the gifts of God.
God’s commandments are all in reference to His gifts. Ex: live righteously because you are made righteous.
And it is then that Peter gives the traits of obedience to God’s will. The gifts of God lead to obedience to His will. That doesn’t mean it is automatic, but it does mean that that is the sole reason for obedience. In it there are many forms or types of motivation, some stronger than others, but all of them based on the truth of God’s salvation through the cross of Christ.
Then comes Peter’s list of honorable traits that are becoming of the saved and blessed of God. This second part of his opening paragraph doesn’t take as much work to unpack as the first part.
2Pe 1:5 Now for this very reason also, …
What reason? The gifts to us from God’s attributes and encouragement from His promises concerning His gifts.
2Pe 1:5-11 Now for this very reason also, applying [adding on your part] all diligence [every effort], in your faith supply [commandment] moral excellence [virtue], and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance [ability to remain under pressure with trust and contentment], and in your perseverance, godliness [full devotion to God], 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness [brotherly love], and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
To forget our purification from our former sins is to forget the gifts given in the first part of the paragraph. Christ’s death has wrought for us these gifts so that we could really live abundantly under God’s will.
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