2 Peter 1:2-7 Amplified
with comments
Priscilla Van Sutphin
2 May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Think about this for a minute...God's grace and peace means....perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, freedom from fears, etc...how ? Through KNOWLEDGE of GOD and of JESUS ! This is just what Mike Bickle has been preaching in his book..."The pleasures of loving God ". When we KNOW Him...the real truth about His love...and when we know His peace through keeping our minds STAYED on HIM...all else of the kingdom is ours. Seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
3 For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).
It's like he repeats it...in other words....all that is needed for us to live as we should, is by His POWER, through knowledge of HIM.
4 By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.
So through His precious PROMISES in the Word, we escape from moral decay,
and become partakers in HIS nature. So through the washing of the Word...by speaking it over us, and our loved ones...and digesting it...not just reading it, not just speaking it...but understanding it, believing it...digesting it and then LIVING it. We are transformed through the renewing of our minds by His Word / His promises washing us, cleansing us from wrong ideas about Him. We know there are many people who know the Word...but are not changed by just reading it or knowing it.
Now read this.....
Jer 15:19-21 Amp Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God's faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you--not you to [the people].
20 And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord.
21 And I will deliver you out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the palms of the terrible and ruthless tyrants.
When trust is violated in our lives through great rejection or abuse, or neglect, we find it hard to trust God's faithfulness. So how do we overcome our mistrust ? HE does it through
showing His faithfulness, and loving on us through His presence when we worship Him...but also we help through really studying the Word for WHO He is...learning the Truth about Who He is and His nature heals us. Speaking the truth of His Word getting it inside of us, not just our mind, but our hearts. Then we can really hold on to His promises and use them to war with, use them to pray over our situations and the lives of our family and friends... etc... doing it with BELIEF and confidence, because we KNOW Him. We know Him from BEHOLDING HIM. We behold Him when we see, feel, His presence, when we hear from Him. But we also behold Him through the reflection of the scriptures...even if we never see Him here on this earth. Jesus said, blessed are those who believe, even though they have not seen.
5 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),
How do we develop knowledge? By asking HIM, by asking the Holy Spirit to teach us about the Word, by studying what others have gleaned from the Holy Spirit.
6 And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety),
Notice how one thing leads to another thing...this all means PROCESS.
None of us gets there immediately through salvation, but the LORD emphasizes that it is a process of growth...He talks about going from faith to faith and from glory to glory...
It is a PROCESS of sanctification...not magic. Some people are satisfied with just salvation. They think that it alone makes them perfect. But the LORD'S ways are not our ways. The Lord uses process to humble us, to heal us, to transform us...glory to glory, to glory. And that keeps us DEPENDENT on HIM for His grace to change us. And that way we can't take any credit either. It's not a works thing...though it requires us to cooperate and obey His Spirit.
7 And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love
Notice the exercising this...and developing that...if I EXERCISE brotherly affection...show love to my brother...not just say it..but exercise that affection...love develops.
Through exercising godliness...brotherly affection is developed.
Through exercising self-control...I develop PATIENCE.
That's why when you ask for patience, you go through frustrating circumstances to give you an OPPORTUNITY to EXERCISE self-control...that patience will GROW. So it is NOT wrong to ask....just understand when you do, that it will mean HIS ways of developing that virtue in you.
