Be Useful -- Don't Have a Worthless Faith (2 Peter 1:3-11)

“Being useful” isn’t something that happens to you. You have to do it.

Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for 2 Peter 1:3-11

Though faith is a gift of God, what we do with it is up to us. Peter tells us that God has given us everything we need for a beautiful and fulfilling spiritual life, but we have to add our commitment and desire. “Head knowledge” Christianity is meaningless. True Christianity is a hard journey—but it’s absolutely worth it.

make every effort to confirm your calling and election (1:10)

Getting Started: Things to Think About

The Perfect Christian Life. 

I would guess that everybody has some kind of image of the perfect Christian life. It might be a story like Kurt Warner’s—work hard, win the Superbowl, have a beautiful family, be well respected, fame and money. Or something like that. Sounds good to me. Ask what people would consider to be the perfect Christian life. That of Billy Graham? Truett Cathy? Tim Tebow? Ronald Reagan? I don’t know what you should expect. I would want you to gently and lovingly point out those suggestions that are ultimately selfish (i.e. the perfect Christian life can absolutely not be fishing all day by yourself), and I would really want you to make it clear that our perfect Christian life is God’s plan for our life. We might need to reign in some of our more worldly aspirations, but there is no question that God has a bigger goal and dream for us than we ever could. In our passage today, Peter tells us to partake in the divine nature. There’s nothing small about that! Perhaps we simply need to stop comparing our “perfect” Christian life with anyone else’s and instead live our own life to the absolute fullest God would have for us.

The Football Huddle.

I heard this at the Association meeting this past week; takes a nice twist on a familiar illustration. People pay a lot of money to go to a football game, and we all understand that during the game we have to watch the offense huddle (or the coach call a time-out). Those huddles are critical to make sure the team plays as well as possible. We get that. But let’s say you cough up the money to go to a big game, and you have to pay for parking and concessions and you finally get to your seat. And all they do is huddle. The. Whole. Game. Would you be upset by that? I hope so! You didn’t come to watch them huddle—you came to watch them play! And wouldn’t you feel pretty silly as one of the players if all you did was huddle about the plays you might run, but never actually run any plays? Or think of the person who buys all the fishing gear and watches all the best training videos and researches all the best fishing spots, but never actually goes fishing. That would be ridiculous! I’m sure your group can come up with other similarly silly examples of when it’s time to stop talking about doing and start doing. I think Peter would look at a lot of our churches and Sunday School classes in America today as doing a whole bunch of huddling and not a lot of actual doing. And that just doesn’t compute with him—if you’re a Christian, there will be evidence of it. Jesus saved you in order to be effective and productive. I supposed it’s possible to be saved and not exhibit any Christian characteristics, but Peter doesn’t understand how. Such a person would have to be blind and ignorant.

This Week's Big Idea: 1 Peter vs. 2 Peter

Truth be told, 2 Peter was the most disputed book in the New Testament; there were more arguments about its authorship than any other (even Hebrews!). There are still many people today who say that Peter did not write the letter. No one cites this letter until the third century, and it is very different from 1 Peter. There are some plausible answers for this. (1) The letter was sent to persecuted churches. It is quite possible that those churches were remote enough that the growing persecution hindered its distribution, and the letter was mainly preserved in those more remote locations. (2) We mentioned that Silas potentially helped Peter as a scribe for 1 Peter. No one is mentioned in 2 Peter. At the very least, this implies that Silas was not involved. If he had helped Peter with the writing in any way, that would immediately explain major differences. There are many letters from the early church that claim to have been written by Peter (The Apocalypse of Peter, The Gospel of Peter, The Acts of Peter, etc.) and none of them were admitted to the New Testament. The power behind this letter eventually won over even its most cautious naysayers.

What do we know about the letter? It was written after most of Paul’s, and almost certainly written after 1 Peter. That puts it somewhere between AD 65-68. We don’t know where Peter was when he wrote it (could be Rome, but he travelled a lot). If 3:1 refers to 1 Peter, then he wrote it to the same churches in Asia Minor. But Peter likely wrote many short letters that were not preserved, so that reference is not absolute. Finally, there are enough similarities between 2 Peter and Jude that many people conclude a common source, or that one copied the other. That very well could be true, and it would not affect the truth of either letter.

Bonus Big Idea: Early Heresies

Paul talks a lot about his run-ins with Judaisers, those who would make Christians become Jews in order to be truly saved. That is a heresy in that if people believed it, they could not share a true gospel and that would affect someone’s salvation. Peter doesn’t mention anything about Jews, but his letters imply a lot of contact with Gentiles (enjoy that irony—Peter was the apostle to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles). 2 Peter in particular mentions “knowledge” multiple times. Many scholars guess that Peter had run into early Gnosticism in his travels, and it frightened him. By definition, Gnosticism is the heresy that one had to have special, secret knowledge in order to be saved. There was the basic truth of what Jesus said, but then there was the deeper truth of what Jesus really meant. Those who had that deeper knowledge were “true” Christians, and they had to guard such knowledge carefully. Gnostics would eventually write their own books and form their own churches and sects. One early church leader (Irenaeus) taught that John wrote his gospel in part to refute the teachings of an early Gnostic (Cerinthus).

Well, Gnosticism came from somewhere, and that somewhere was Greek philosophy. Plato and Aristotle in particular established philosophy as key to Greek life; Plato for one taught that philosophers were the highest level of society, and they should be the ones in charge of government and law. 

Their followers maintained that tradition (in their very different ways; Plato and Aristotle could not have had a more different approach to knowledge). And every time a new thinker came along, they worked to overwhelm or integrate his thoughts into their systems. They treated Jesus no differently. Add to that the fact that early Christians (like Justin Martyr) tried to put Jesus’ teachings in terms Greek thinkers could understand and appreciate, and the conditions were ripe for Gnosticism to appear. Where Paul tried to explain that the mystery of God was now revealed for all people in Jesus Christ, these Gnostics said that there were still secrets that you had to know to be right with God. Some of their teachings led to very strange behaviors (extreme asceticism, etc.), but most importantly it obscured the free grace of God in Jesus Christ. Peter understood that that was no gospel at all, and that people would be led astray for eternity. Consequently, he emphasized the true, open, basic knowledge of Jesus as the only thing necessary for salvation. No secrets, no tricks.

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Where We Are in 2 Peter

My Serendipity Bible offers a really nice summary of 2 Peter. The fact that Jesus had not returned yet was being used as evidence that the apostles could not be trusted, that guys like Peter were wielding the Second Coming like a club to keep Christians in line, and that Christianity was really about freedom to do as one pleased. Peter responds with strong words that Christians were saved for godliness, that the apostles were entrusted with truth, and that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead. How do you want to stand before Him?

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Part 1: God’s Complete Provision (2 Peter 1:3-4)

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. By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.

What is “everything” we need for life and godliness? That’s a pretty big claim. First, realize that there are 3 Greek words for “life”: bios, psyche, and zoe. Pysche refers to mental life, bios to physical life, but this verse uses zoe, and zoe seems to be reserved for something deeper. "The tree of life," “I have come that they might have life,” and “In Him was life” - all of those use zoe. Life, then, as the term was used with respect to Jesus’ ministry, has to do with life as intended by God. True life. Abundant life. And God gives us everything we need for that. And yes, God’s vision for life is better than the vision given us by the world. Second, realize that “godliness” had a pretty clear meaning in the Greco-Roman world. It commonly referred to piety, loyalty, and reverence, particularly of one’s ancestors but also of one’s gods. It was a foundational virtue for the Roman Empire. The Jews and Christians also used this term but shifted it (of course) to the One True God, and it was manifest through devotion to the law/covenant. In other words, godliness is being true to God’s calling and purpose for us. How do we get life and godliness? His power, His knowledge, His glory, His goodness, and His promises. That’s an impressive list. Your leader guide gives a pretty good rundown of their meaning. I might elaborate more on “glory” - which is an attribute of God for God’s own sake and not for anything else. It’s not narcissism if it’s true.

In other words, our calling to godliness is for God’s own sake. You could go so far as to say that when we fail to pursue godliness, we take away glory from God.

You could spend an entire morning just talking about the promises of God. In this case, Peter probably has in mind the promises of Christ’s return and the new reality for Christians when He brings His kingdom on earth. You could also consider promises that God will complete His good work in us on that great and final day of judgment. But God didn’t make these promises simply to make us feel better, but rather to let us know that He is doing something miraculous in our lives. Through His power and glory, He is making us something new, something more alive. Specifically, God is letting us share in His nature. By that, Peter doesn’t mean sharing in God’s divinity (see the sidebar) but in His communicable nature (see the back page). The main result/distinction is escaping corruption. Illustrate this by bringing in a loaf of bread near the expiration date. How long after the expiration date would you be willing to eat the bread? Eventually, it becomes inedible. Why? Because the moment bread stops baking, it starts corrupting. Likewise, if we ever “stop baking” (see the next verses) we will start corrupting. That is inevitable in our fallen world. But God has given us the power to overcome the way of the world.

Aside: “The Divine Nature”??

With all that said about not having secret knowledge, does anyone else find “partaking in the divine nature” to sound rather gnostic? There are many who have used 2 Peter 1:4 in defense of all sorts of religious systems in which people become gods. In fact, one of the greatest leaders of the early church (Athanasius) said, “God became man so that men might become gods” and he used this verse. What are we to do with it?? There is actually a formal doctrine called theosis (some say divinization or deification). It’s a really big deal in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Here’s what it means to them: God has called us into union with Himself (to be “in us” as we are “in Him”). We do not become God, but (1) we become like God because (2) we have a growing union with God.

This is very important to understand: Greeks were not pantheists. They did not believe that their souls were absorbed into some cosmic cloud. When they heard “divine nature” they would have understood “immortality” and “incorruption”, as in their souls would live forever and not be tainted by evil and sin. If anything, the scandal of what Peter says is that we don’t seem to have to wait until we die to enjoy this incalculable gift. We can “escape corruption” even now in this life.

Let’s start with what’s good about this teaching. It takes the New Testament very seriously. When Jesus says things like “be holy” and “be perfect” He means it. This doctrine explains how that works: through sanctification (the process of “getting more” of the Holy Spirit in our lives) and mortification (the process of dying to our old selves). According to theosis, Christians truly become more like God by spending time with Him in prayer, devotion, the spiritual disciplines, and committed discipleship. Frankly, that’s biblical. Paul talks about the fullness of God and of Christ (Eph 3:19, 4:13) and being conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). Other verses to consider are Rom 12:1-2, 1 Cor 3:16, Gal 2:20, Col 3:3, 1 Thess 5:23, John 17:22. So if I’m really being honest, I think we should err on the side of believing that God really does want us to share in His Divine Nature. In other words, He has more for us in this life than we could possibly imagine. He has stamped us with His image, and now He wants to live like His children. And that’s not a drawback, that’s a gift! To be trapped in the rat race, chasing our own vanities, or to live the triumphant life of one who has overcome the world. Sign me up!

But Watch Out!

You can probably guess that this verse has been used to support a number of vicious heresies. The one that first jumps to mind is the Quakers, who believe that Christians have a divine spark inside each of us, and we just have to be quiet enough to let it out. In religions like Kabbalah, this divine spark is trapped in our bodies, and when we die it will be released to reunite with the god-whatever. It was taken to an extreme end by the Mormons, who eventually taught that all true believers literally become gods. That’s the danger with all provocative statements taken out of context in the Bible. Peter had a very clear meaning that his audience would have understood; we should not twist it to mean anything else.

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Part 2: Cultivate Your Character (2 Peter 1:5-9)

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

This is such a tremendous passage. And thank the Lord your leader guide explains these terms well because I’m running out of space! This is a very, very important concept to touch on because, unlike bread, Christians participate in their baking process. We are to make every effort (and that does mean what you think it means) to build on our faith. In other words, though faith is a gift of God, what we do with it is our responsibility. Eventually, our spiritual growth has to cost us something; it has to be something we desire for ourselves. Think of this list like a degree program; though some schools may just pass students along whether they pass or not, God’s school doesn’t work like that. You might say, “But wait, how can I work at spiritual things?” Simple. Do you know what self-control is? Then do it. No excuses. Just do it. And that takes work. It takes prayer, Bible study, Christian accountability, and a whole lot of personal restraint and priority checking. But if you would put any amount of work into making your man-cave just the way you want it, then you had better put so much more effort into your eternal soul! You are the model of Christ for your family, your children. Your church needs you if it is to be the healthy, growing body God has called it (us) to be. Peter literally says, “For these things in you, existing and abounding, will keep you . . .” These qualities are ever increasing. You are always cooking, to use my illustration. And that’s how you will keep from being useless and unfruitful. Do you want to try to explain to God why you wasted your life? No! And you don’t have to! Work on those characteristics and you will never be useless. Why? Because those characteristics are active.

Christianity was never supposed to be something we just learn about (something we just huddle about). Knowledge about Christ always leads to service of Christ. We serve Him by fulfilling the Great Commission. If our knowledge fails to lead to action, then we are blind to reality. The word for “shortsighted” often means “squint”, which could easily mean that such a person is willfully closing his eyes at what’s going on around him. He has forgotten that he has been cleansed of his sin (saved from his old life). I take that to mean a backslidden Christian, someone who has faith but has failed to build on it. So, yes, backsliding is possible, but it is utterly unconscionable.

Aside: The Greek Theater / Chorus

The word Peter uses for “supplement” is a fun/rare one that had a specific meaning in secular culture. Most major Greek (and then Roman) cities had an amphitheater, and there were a number of aspiring playwrights around. But if they wanted to bring their play to the theater, someone would have to fund it. Costumes, sets, props, actors, training, all of those cost something. And if the play was ambitious enough to include a chorus (a large group of people who would interact with the actors and entertain the audience during costume changes), those people had to be fed, trained, costumed, and paid. The word for “supplement” was used of the generous benefactor who generously donated everything needed for that chorus and that play. The connotations included generous, voluntary, and abundant. Later, the word would be expanded to those who equipped the army. The point Peter makes is the idea of “spare no expense” when it comes to your spiritual life.

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Part 3: Live with Assurance (2 Peter 1:10-11)

Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.

This is where I think Peter raises the stakes. By participating in their spiritual growth, Christians validate God’s saving them. Obviously, God doesn’t make mistakes, but we don’t know who is saved or not. By building our spiritual life, we prove that we are saved and we also vindicate God for choosing to save us. Think about that. If we were a worthless Christian, wouldn’t people say that God had erred in saving us? Well, let’s never give people a reason for even thinking that about God! Let’s keep on climbing our narrow path to salvation/the eternal kingdom. Use a book like Pilgrim’s Progress as an illustration (if you don’t know it, you should), which describes how hard this journey can be, and how great an effort it takes in order not to stumble. Realize that the word for stumble often has a connotation of “and not get back up again”. Peter is not saying that Christians who are actively trying to grow in their faith will never screw up and sin; he is saying that they will never fall in a ditch and be left behind. They will never have that catastrophic collapse that they can’t recover from. The “carrot” is heaven. All of this work is completely worth it. Go back to the man-cave illustration. People will put gobs of effort into that, and for what? To have a few nice years of occasional creature comfort on nights and weekends. Seriously. Is not an eternal kingdom worth far more effort? It is worthy of every effort.

Ask your group to do a self-evaluation. Ask them to look at that “pyramid” of characteristics and put themselves on it. How are they doing? What evidence of growth do they have? How well do they remember the “relief” of salvation? When we forget the joy of salvation, when we forget the promise of heaven, we won’t have the motivation for continuing on the hard path of spiritual growth. And when that day comes, Peter says to roll up your sleeves and get back to it! Work at being a Christian. Work at spiritual growth—just like any other kind of growth.

Closing Thoughts: The Attributes of God

To help us understand the nature of God, some theologians divide God’s characteristics into two categories: communicable (meaning they can be shared with us) and incommunicable (meaning we will never be like God in that way). There are some attributes of God that we can share in (though never as perfectly as God has them):

(1) being spirit,

(2) having knowledge,

(3) having wisdom,

(4) being faithful,

(5) being good,

(6) having love,

(7) being merciful,

(8) being holy,

(9) being righteous,

(10) being just,

(11) being jealous,

(12) being willful,

(13) having freedom,

(14) having power,

(15) being fulfilled,

(16) having beauty,

(17) having glory.

If you have any questions about what those mean, please let me know! Those are the things that Peter is talking about that we can share.

There are characteristics of God that we can never share, however—those things that truly make God God and set Him apart from us:

(1) Independence. We will always depend on God for our existence, even in eternity.

(2) Unchangeability (sometimes called immutability). God will never change; that already means that we cannot be like God in this way.

(3) Eternity. Even though we will live forever with God, we are not eternal like He is—having no beginning.

(4) Omnipresence. We are and always will be located somewhere, usually in our physical body.

(5) Unity (or Simplicity). God doesn’t have “parts.” Part of God is not light, and another part love, and another part holy. God just is. And those things are because He is. We will never be that. We will always have “parts” and most importantly those parts will always be defined according to God’s perfect standard.

So there you go. There are things about God that we can share, and there are things that we will never share. Peter is not confusing those two.