Recently, I was engaged in a conversation with several students over the issue of election and free will. Basically, for them it boiled down to “does God choose me or do I choose God?” Now I understand there is curiosity to satisfy when it comes to some of the deeper and more profound aspects of what we believe, and admittedly, I fall in particular towards one side of that spectrum. But what I tried to challenge the students with was, regardless of which side of that debate they supported, how does the knowledge of God’s sovereignty or the freedom of choice affect the way we live? Does coming down on one side of the fence affect the way we follow Jesus? I believe very often we engage deep theological truths without understanding that they’re empty and hollow when we don’t allow them to transform our hearts.
Read 2 Peter 1:3-11
Now, despite my personal beliefs, I’m not trying to make a case for election. What I want to point out is that from this particular passage, it seems that Peter’s understanding of how God works is that He does indeed call us (1:3 and 1:10). But what I found so much more interesting is that even though Peter’s understanding is that God calls us, perhaps we could say “predestines us,” his exhortation to the church is concerning how they should live in light of that calling. Yes, God chose us, and we have life by grace through faith. But what does Peter say in verse 5? Because we have escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire, make every effort to live out your faith. Peter challenges them to supplement faith with virtue, or right living. Virtue with knowledge of God’s word, or else how do we know our right living is what God desires?. Knowledge is to be tempered with self-control, not flaunted to inflate our egos. Self-control with steadfastness, it must be ongoing perseverance. Steadfastness with godliness; perseverance for the sake of Christ. Godliness with brotherly affection; part of true righteousness is holiness within the context of community. And finally, brotherly affection with love. Care and concern and holiness lived within the context of community has to have for its foundation a love for each other that can only come from the Holy Spirit.
After all that, Peter says, “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is warning the believers not to be caught up in theological discussions that lack application to holy living.
So then the question for us is, what does our faith look like? I mean, what does it REALLY look like? Have we supplemented our faith with virtue? And our virtue with knowledge? And our knowledge with self-control? And our self-control with steadfastness? And our steadfastness with godliness? And our godliness with brotherly affection? And our brotherly affection with love?
Take some time to reflect on each one of these things. Write down which of these seem to be lacking in your own life and ask God to help you live out your faith in Him.
Sunday: Pray for the Global community
Pray for God to open our eyes to injustice that is happening in our world so we can care for His people.
Monday: Pray for your relationship with God
Pray that your will would be aligned with Gods throughout this week
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