1 Simeon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received the same kind of faith as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the full 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 full 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. 2 Peter 1:1-4 (LSB)
When I was relatively young in my faith, I discovered 2 Peter Chapter 1. I was going through a period of learning about what it meant to be a disciple of my Lord Jesus Christ. I desperately wanted to avoid being simply a religious Christian. When I studied this passage, it looked like some very great promises to believers if they would apply what Peter was talking about….
I went to one of our Pastors with my Bible open to this passage and asked him to explain it. His answer was not very helpful. He told me that as I matured in my faith that the Lord would see to it that I would be able to do these things. In a sense, I believe he was right, but back then, being a computer geek and software developer and network engineer, I wanted a more direct nuts and bolts answer. Of course, several years later I did indeed find the right path to this, which required me to become immersed in prayer and Bible study that resulted in a great deal of confession and repentance on my part that enabled me to see what it meant to abide in Christ (John 15) and to become a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) who was being transformed through the renewal of my mind on a daily basis (Romans 12:2). It was from that personal revival that I began writing and commenting on websites and blogs such as Slice of Laodicea. From that I began blogging on my own, which led to being invited to join the discernment team at Christian Research Network. Now, with that up front, let’s look at 2 Peter 1:1-17.