Focal Passage: II Peter 1:3-8, 16-21
When you are sending your child away on a trip, you may ask, “Do you have everything you need?” What if the question was broadened to address your life as a whole? Typically, we would answer the question with several items from our wish list, which may include some critically important things.
Yet when we consider the true definition of “need,” we realize that most if not all the items on our list technically qualify as wants. Even many of the things that are perceived as needs are actually created needs, like your cell phone. All but the last forty years of humanity survived without one!
Consider Peter’s bold statement: “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (II Peter 1:3). Far from a mindset of earthly comfort or spiritual ease, Peter shared these opening words in an epistle where he gave multiple warnings against false teachers and the judgment that God would pour out on them.
Peter made it quite clear (as he did in I Peter 4) that it was/is not God’s will always to deliver His children from hardship. Contrary to the lies of the prosperity gospel, God uses hardship to show us where the power lies. The things people idolize in this life, like material possessions, positions of authority, and influential people, will all pass away sooner or later. Our greatest needs are not met by resources that can vanish before our eyes, but by a Lord who never changes.
In the midst of first-century Christian persecution, Peter knew that God would never cease to meet believers’ needs. While food to eat and clothes to wear were certainly part of this divine provision, Peter had much weightier things in mind.
He continued to exhort his readers by noting that these provisions delivered “very great and precious promises” through which we share in the divine nature and avoid the corruption that evil desire brings upon the world (II Peter 1:4). Consider all the things God has promised us: forgiveness of sins, the Spirit’s indwelling, spiritual gifting, empowerment for holy living, eternal security, eternity with Christ, and much more! And we’re wondering if God will provide shoes and bread?
When we understand all that God has given to empower us for both life and godliness, we are motivated to serve with excellence and not to eek out the bare minimum. I recently watched a silly video of man who equipped an old Ford Ranger truck with a lawn mower engine. Believe it or not, it worked … to a top speed of approximately thirty-five miles an hour on level ground. Some Christians produce similar spiritual output driven by an “it works” mindset. The Savior who equipped us “by His own glory and goodness” is worthy of so much more than a D minus “I passed” attitude.
Peter declared that our faith should be coupled with goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love “in increasing measure” so that we will not be “useless or unfruitful” (II Peter 1:5-8). God has given us the tools for service; let us use them with excellence! B&R — Rust is associational mission strategist for Holston Baptist Association.