This is a typical American concept: when a person accepts responsibility, he or she has the right to expect payment for services rendered. Or, acceptance of responsibility rightfully results in payment for services rendered. In American thinking, people find it extremely difficult to disassociate the concept of accepting responsibility from the concept of earnings. God through scripture introduces Christians to this different concept: incredible benefits given to us by God as a gift are received with appreciation through responsible behavior and attitudes.
If this gift provides benefits far beyond any person's earning ability, the only response available to the gift's receiver is responsible use of the gift. Salvation's benefits are far beyond any person's earning power or deservedness. No one ever could do anything that could earn or deserve redemption, justification, propitiation, atonement, reconciliation, or sanctification. The only way God can provide these blessings to anyone is to give them as a gift. The only appropriate response to receiving this gift is gratefully to accept all responsibilities that come through and with the gift. The primary way to express thanks to God for His gift is to use His gift responsibly. The motivation and objective of responsible behavior and attitudes is to express gratitude. Irresponsible attitudes and behavior insult the gift's giver [God]. Responsible attitudes and behavior express appreciation.
2 Peter 1:1-12 endorses the concept of responsible behavior. Christians do not receive salvation to continue to live an evil lifestyle. NEVER are Christians to understand God's gift of grace in terms of indifference or irresponsible behavior. Notice these things in this text.
(1) God's divine power provides Christians everything necessary to have and sustain life and to have and sustain godliness. Everything necessary for our salvation is provided to us through Christ. Through Jesus Christ each Christian can know and understand everything necessary for him or her to know and understand.
(2) Christians do not "know" merely to "have knowledge." God grants Christians "true knowledge" of Jesus Christ to enable us to become, not merely to enable us to have information. The objective of knowing Jesus Christ is to become a specific type of person. Knowledge is not an end within itself.
(3) God did more than make "true knowledge" possible in Jesus Christ. God also extended to us "precious" and "magnificent" promises. These incredible promises have a specific purpose in us. By these promises we can be partakers of or share in God's own nature. We can share in God's own nature because these promises enable us to escape the corruption [rottenness] produced by the evil desires that oppose God.
(4) The foundation on which our opportunity to participate in God's nature is built is our confidence [faith] in what God did and does in Jesus Christ. The "true knowledge" is based on God's achievements in Jesus Christ. God makes His incredible promises to us because of His achievements in Jesus Christ.
(5) We as Christians increasingly are to become a people of moral excellence, knowledge [about Jesus Christ], self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Whom are we imitating when we diligently devote ourselves to moral excellency, or knowledge of Jesus Christ, or self-control, or perseverance, or godliness, or tender kindness, or love? We are emulating God! The more we increase in these qualities, the more we reflect the God who saves us! Growing in these attributes allows us to participate in God's nature!
(6) If Christians diligently devote themselves to allowing these qualities increasingly to characterize their minds and behavior, specific things happen. Their knowledge of Jesus Christ will not be (a) useless or (b) unfruitful. Their knowledge of Jesus Christ will express itself in the person he or she becomes in Christ. [Please notice the fact that a Christian's knowledge of Jesus Christ can be useless and unproductive in his or her life. Remember: it is not enough to know. Remember: Christians know in order to become.]
(7) Failure to devote oneself diligently to growth in these qualities makes a Christian man or woman either blind or nearsighted. The blindness or nearsightedness is the result of this Christian forgetting his or her purification from former sins.
(8) Diligently devoting oneself to growth in these qualities verifies God's call and God's choice. God calls to salvation and chooses for salvation. Each Christian verifies he or she hears God's call and accepts God's selection by growth in these qualities. "Practicing" these qualities assures the Christian he or she will never stumble. The failure to devote oneself to these qualities produces either the blindness or nearsightedness that guarantees stumbling.
(9) Diligently devoting oneself to growth in these qualities also assures the Christian entrance into Jesus Christ's eternal kingdom. A Christian who pursues God's nature by growing in these qualities does much more than "barely squeezing through the entrance of the eternal kingdom." Entrance will be "abundantly supplied" to him or her.
Notice a simple emphasis. The Christian is a spiritually responsible person. He or she wants to escape the decaying evil desires of physical existence and participate in God's nature. He or she can do so by the knowledge of Jesus Christ and God's incredible promises, not by his or her earning power. He or she diligently devotes himself or herself to growth in the qualities Peter stressed to avoid the blindness or nearsightedness produced by forgetting purification. That blindness or nearsightedness guarantees stumbling. The "sight" produced by growing in these qualities provides easy access and entrance into Jesus Christ's eternal kingdom.
Notice accepting responsibility expresses appreciation for the gift's opportunity. There is no conflict between accepting God's gift of salvation and being responsible in mind, heart, and body. No Christian earns salvation. Every Christian must express appreciation for God's gift by increasingly participating in God's nature.
Discuss:
Link to Teacher's Guide
Lesson 9