“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Peter 1:3-7).

We started this series on Godliness last week. The opening passage assures us that God’s “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” God has made promises to us that we can escape the corruption of the world caused by evil desires, so that we can participate in the divine nature. There is a truth in these words that is borne out by other Scriptures—God’s divine nature is incompatible with evil desires. Frankly, that scares me, because I confess that I have evil desires. You may not see me often acting on them, but they are there. I’m human.

But God has promised us an escape from these evil desires. Picture that language of escape—running for our very lives! We must realize the danger and flee!! It is said that if we do not sense the corruption of the world around us, we have already been swallowed up in it. Again, that is such a scary thought. I am thankful every day that God has rescued me through His mercy and by the grace of Jesus.

We will dive into this topic of godliness, beginning with the doctrine of faith. Faith is the foundation of our ongoing sanctification. Jesus Christ once and for all provided the atonement (payment) for all our sins. By believing in him, we receive this gift of salvation and are immediately set right with God. From this point forward, we know our souls are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven for all eternity. We will never experience the second death. Can we just stop for a moment and shout praises of gratitude for our loving God!?! “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

We started this explanation of faith by talking about believing. Note that our salvation is predicated first on the work of Jesus on the cross, and secondly, on our belief that He did this for us. Jesus himself tells us through his word to his disciples: “Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’” (John 6:28-29).

Jesus himself proclaimed “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

An English idiom states: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Cambridge Dictionary interprets the meaning of this idiom as “to advise someone not to refuse something good that is being offered.” This is wise advice. Jesus has offered himself as the Resurrection and the Life. When the jailer asked Paul and Silas, what must he do to be saved, “They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

Faith is simple, but it is not easy. In the letter to the Hebrews, faith is described as “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Believing is the first step to faith, to seeing. “Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). We have God’s Word, which contains many fulfillments of prophecies, which bear witness to the truth. Jesus himself says, “I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me” (John 8:18). We have the testimonies of the disciples, ordinary men who walked and talked with Jesus and saw him crucified, buried, resurrected, felt his wounds, and saw him ascend to heaven in the clouds. We have the testimonies of all the saints who have gone before us, many of whom died for their faith. They put their beliefs into action.

Faith takes belief to the next level. You can believe that your chair will hold you up. But until you sit down on it, you are not putting your belief into action; you are not demonstrating faith. Paul lists faithfulness as one of the fruits of the spirit. In his letter to the Romans, he writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). And he reiterates in his letter to the Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Faith is simple, but it is not easy. The father witnessed Jesus performing a miracle of exorcising an unclean spirit from his son, and still he prayed “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). If you have doubts, pray to God. He will answer your prayers. And pray that He will guide you to put your beliefs into action according to His will.

“Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16).

In Christ,

Judy

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and goodness.Through these He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Peter 1:3-7).

I love lists. I am a list-maker. Lists help me to organize my thoughts, my agenda, my daily and life-time goals. I like to think I am organized, and I need to believe that I am productive and progressing. My husband just calls me obsessive.

Anyway, for that reason, I have always been attracted to this passage in 2 Peter, because it is so logical and progressive. One way to read it would be: Do not just have faith but demonstrate the fruit of your faith by doing good things. Do not just do good things but gain knowledge. Do not have knowledge just to have knowledge but use it wisely and be self-controlled. In being self-controlled, be persistent and constant; and in doing so, be godly. In being godly, have good relationships with others; and last but certainly not least, do all in love.

It is assumed that we start with faith, which is the gift of God for those who believe. In the first part of this passage, Peter tells us that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have everything we need for a godly life. By knowing God and Jesus Christ our Lord, we can participate in all His promises and overcome the corruption of the world. Who would not want that? Our part is to make every effort to pursue a godly life; in other words, follow Jesus as His disciple, obedient to His will.

All this sounds basic, fundamental, and therefore, perhaps a “no-brainer.” However, when we ponder God and His great love for us, along with and his Holy, Holy, Holiness, we might begin to see some contradictions in ourselves. Especially if we are honest with ourselves and really seek to be convicted of anything that would be displeasing to God. That is because God, who loves each of us with an unfailing love, absolutely hates—cannot tolerate—sin. And we are all sinners.

My husband, our sons, and several of our grandchildren like to bow hunt, and in doing so they practice with targets. In shooting an arrow into a target, the goal would be to hit the bullseye, the very center of the target. Anything off center is missing the target, the mark. That is a particularly good definition of sin. The target is perfection, holiness, and sinlessness. Anything off center is missing the mark; it is sin. It can be sin of commission—doing something you should not do, or it can be a sin of omission—failing to do something that you should have done. God is three-fold holy, perfection. He says to us: Be holy, as I am holy.

Speaking to believers now: if we love God, and if we desire to pursue holiness, we must, therefore, hate sin just like He does. We must, as Paul explains, make every effort to put off our sin. But it is important to distinguish between the sin and the sinner. As believers in and followers of Christ, we are sinners saved by grace. We are covered by the blood of Jesus. When the great day of the Lord comes, as described in Matthew 25, we will be counted among the sheep, destined for heaven, only because of the grace and love of our God and Lord and Savior. And when we come before Jesus at the Great White Throne of Judgment, we will not be at risk of eternal damnation, but we will be accountable for what we have done and we will be eligible for rewards, crowns, again because of His love and mercy.

To circle back around, all this is not a pass. We cannot freely sin, make up our own rules, rationalize our behavior, or condone sin in any way, just because we have received Christ as our Savior. Paul writes in Romans 6:15 “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!”  So, in our pursuit of holiness, obedience, and desire to please God, I am beginning a series on the topic of godliness. And my prayer is that everything that I write will be truth, that it will be written with love for God and love for each reader, and that it will be received in love, for that is my intention.

In Christ,

Judy

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).

Two weeks ago, the Chaplain’s Corner devotional was on the topic of waiting: “Wait for It!” Waiting assumes a space in time between two events. I have finished my grocery shopping and now I am waiting in line to check out. I have had medical tests and now I am waiting for a diagnosis. Sometimes waiting is just that: some space in time. Today is Wednesday, and on Friday you will get paid. The difficulty here may be that you have bills to pay in the interim and you do not know how you will manage. The really challenging kind of waiting assumes some unknown factor. I know that some of you reading this have been told that you or a family member will be receiving medical test results in a few days, but you do not know what the diagnosis or follow-up treatment will be. That’s a particularly demanding situation requiring waiting.

The question is: what will we do while we wait? In the devotional two weeks ago we talked about prayer, the first and foremost way to ensure we are living God’s plan for our lives, even during the waiting.

In the interim, we struggle to know what, when, and how to speak and act. When is it best to listen, and when should we speak up? When is it best to act, and when should we wait patiently? When should we accept the situation, and when should we fight? All questions, and no ready answers. So, when we pray, we pray for discernment. When we have these choices to make, we should ask ourselves:  Would our words or actions align with biblical teaching. For example,

1. Praying that God be glorified in our words and actions is never wrong.
2. Showing compassion and kindness is never wrong.
3. Sitting with and listening is never wrong.

In many cases, it is in the waiting that real leadership surfaces. When everyone else is just sitting around complaining and being anxious, the real leader assesses the situation and takes charge.

In Acts, we see Peter begin to demonstrate his “take charge” approach that will lead him into a leadership role in the early church. “During these days, Peter stood up among the ‘brothers” – the number of people who were together was about 120 – and said: ‘Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David spoke in advance about Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. (Acts 1:15-16). Taking his direction from the Book of Psalms “Let his dwelling become desolate; let no one live in it; and let someone else take his position” (Psalms 69:25, Acts 1:20), Based on the Scriptures, Peter proposed that they choose someone to take Judas’ place to round out their number once again to twelve.

Finally, it is all about perspective. Actually, when are we NOT waiting? Isn’t life all about waiting, in a sense? Parents learn that they are pregnant. Waiting. It is an expectant time, full of preparation for the new life to be born. We look at a gravestone with a date of birth and a date of death. The dash in the middle—waiting. Sometimes waiting with expectancy, sometimes with dread, sometimes with impatience, sometimes with resignation. We are always waiting.

Let us resolve not to waste a minute on unproductive waiting. God has made us fruit-bearers. So, whether we have just been planted, the flowers are blooming, the buds are setting, or the fruit is maturing, let us be productive. Praying, praising God, teaching, modeling, showing love and compassion.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23).

In Christ,

Judy