In his second letter, Peter warns Christians about false teachers who have “forsaken the right way and gone astray”, who “speak with great swelling words of emptiness, and allure…the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error”, and described them as untaught and unstable people that when “…some things are hard to understand, twist to their own destruction…”. Consider Peter’s advice to us regarding these false teachers.
2 Peter 3:17-18 “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
To not be one of those who have gone astray and been allured back into the world, Peter tells us to grow in grace and knowledge! How do we do that? Of course, there are many ways to answer that question, but Peter provided a checklist for us to go by so that we can know if we are growing or not.
2 Peter 1:5-11 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Where are you? Do you have faith, but lack virtue? Start there! Are you knowledgeable in the scripture but you have a serious lack of self-control when it comes to certain sins, then start there! Grow yourself in one and then add the next. Since Peter, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote these words, then it is a safe bet that it is God’s will for you to grow in all these areas. I am confident in saying that wherever we lack, if we ask God for help, we will see growth.
-Caleb Westbrook
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