(Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the New King James Version (NKJV).)

2 Peter 1:1 "Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:"

Before we consider the main themes of this book, it seems worthwhile to consider this first verse, and how it adds legitimacy to the letter itself. Peter introduces himself as Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter was well-known to early Christians, as he is to Christians today. Because of his intimate acquaintance with Jesus during his earthly ministry, because he gave the first sermon in church history in Acts 3, he was the spokesman for the church in Jerusalem, and even Paul felt obliged to visit him to confirm his own ministry, invoking his name should sound to us like "sit up and listen", "pay close attention", or perhaps "ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States".

Also, we should not miss the terms bondservant and apostle. Only a few Christians are called to be apostles, but we are all called to be bondservants, so I want to pay particular attention to what that means. A bondservant is a slave, not one who works for wages, one who has entirely given up and subjected his own will to the will of his master, in this case Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, a bondservant in the Old Testament, according to Deuteronomy 15:12, was a Hebrew who had been sold to another Hebrew as a slave, but the master had to free his bondservants every seven years. This corresponds to the eventual sabbath rest for the people of God spoken of in Hebrews 4:9. Those who enter God's sabbath rest will be those who have faithfully served as bondservants until the sabbath. Jews served one another as slaves for six years and were freed in the seventh year, and there are six introductions of the epistles of the New Testament in the NKJV where the writers refer to themselves as bondservants, Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1, Titus 1:1, James 1:1, here in 2 Peter 1:1 and in Jude 1:1. We should keep the concept of being a bondservant in mind later when we discuss what duties our Master has assigned to us in verses 5-11.

A bondservant of Jesus Christ is essentially a living sacrifice, which Paul speaks of in Romans 12:1-2 and Peter refers to in 1 Peter 2:1-5.

Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

1 Peter 2:1 "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,

2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

2:4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,

2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

Also consider the following verses:

Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Romans 6:1 "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

6:2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

It's beyond my purpose here to discuss the above passages in detail, but the basic concept is that we have both the power and the responsibility as Christians to be bondservants of Jesus Christ, because our sins and our inclination to sin have been nailed to the cross with him and we have been raised with him to walk in newness of life, not our life, but his.

If I have been both crucified and raised with Christ, I should expect God to be pleased with me, just as he was pleased with Jesus when he was on earth. This is a difficult concept for me, because I am not generally pleased with myself, and it is therefore hard for me sometimes to believe God is pleased with me, when I'm not. Yet this is precisely the faith we as Christians are called to, a faith which believes we are completely forgiven because of Christ's atonement and completely capable to overcome sin because we have been raised with him, exchanging our nature and our life for his. This is a more radical faith than most Christians have, but it is this faith which we need to develop and then supplement with the virtues Peter describes in verses 5-11. No wonder Peter calls this faith precious, and he says we have obtained it through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have all obtained some material blessings at our own expense, but our faith has been purchased by Christ on Calvary and given to us as a free gift.

2 Peter 1:2 "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Whenever possible, I want to be at peace with other people, as long as it is true peace, not merely the illusionary appearance of peace which may result from going along with the world in order to get along with it. Having favor with others is even better, especially when it takes little or no effort on our part. Being at peace and receiving grace from men is often difficult. In fact, I was just looking at a seminary curriculum yesterday which included a course in conflict management.

For his part, God is willing to multiply grace and peace in our lives as we increase in our knowledge of Christ. Verse 3 says he has given us all things which pertain to life and godliness, but it doesn't tell us what all things are. It seems apparent then that it is our responsibility to find out what they are and to enjoy them as we discover and have need for them.

Verse 4 also does not enumerate what all of God's exceedingly great and precious promises are. We are to search the scriptures and discover them for ourselves, and we will partake of the divine nature as we discover them and believe they are for us personally. For example, suppose I meditate on the following passage:

John 6:39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

6:40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

As I ponder this passage, I partake of the divine nature by knowing I believe in Jesus, and I realize he is promising me that he will not lose track of me, but he will physically raise me from the dead on the last day (assuming, of course, that I have died). This reminds me that Jesus wants to give me eternal life in a spiritual body in which I may live with him forever. This was certainly no idea of mine, nor do I have the power to bring it to pass. It is the product of God's goodness and his power.

1 John 3:2 "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

3:3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

In the next section, Peter tells us what kinds of fruit our faith should produce:

1 Peter 1:5 "But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,

1:6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,

1:7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

1:8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1:9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

1:11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

In Matthew 7:16 Jesus says: "You shall know them by their fruits." In many ways, much of the letter we call 2 Peter is an amplification of that saying. Peter speaks in this passage about the works which should result from sincere faith, and in the next chapter he contrasts this with the works of the ungodly. Most of chapter 3 is with regard to the certainty of Christ's return and God's judgment of mankind, even if it seems to have been delayed from a human perspective.

Verses 5-7 list seven things which we should make every effort to supplement our faith with: virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. Since verse 10 indicates there is some diligence required on our part in this regard, I would think we should ask God to help us cultivate all seven of these things simultaneously. However, the Amplified Bible translates verses 5-7 as if these things need to be added sequentially, as if we were to climb a staircase, with love being the highest virtue at the top of the staircase. The translation below suggests that faith produces virtue, virtue produces knowledge, knowledge produces self-control, self-control produces perseverance, perseverance produces godliness, godliness produces brotherly affection and brotherly affection produces love, which is God's ultimate desire for our character.

1 Peter 1:5 (Amplified Bible): "For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),

1:6 And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety),

1:7And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love."

Besides the apparently sequential nature of these qualities, another interesting point to ponder is how much of the responsibility for developing them is ours, and how much of it is God's. Consider the apparent contrast between the following two passages:

Philippians 2:12 "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;"

Working out our own salvation with fear and trembling certainly implies consistent effort on our part, as does 2 Peter 1:10's exhortation to produce the fruits which confirm our calling and election. Yet both Philippians 1:6 and Philippians 2:13 tell us that God has begun a good work in us, that he is working in us, and he will complete his work in us. Perhaps the best explanation here is to say that God is working behind the scenes to put in our hearts the desire for the character and the works which please him. From our perspective, we need to be exhorted to add virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection and love to our conduct, but God is working behind the scene, shaping the hearts of men for his own purposes.

2 Peter 1:12 "For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.

1:13 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,

1:14 knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

1:15 Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease."

This section is fairly self-explanatory and I don't have any comment about it, except to say that Peter always planned to have this preserved for us after his death. I believe this disproves the claims of some scholars that Peter was not the real author of this book, and that it was written by someone else long after most of the New Testament had been written. If Peter did not write this book, even though the author claims to be Peter, the entire letter becomes a work of deception, and the canon of scripture is invalid. Unfortunately, many liberal seminarians continue to dispute the authorship and argue about the dates when many books of the Bible were written. My observation is that they often base their claims on questionable assumptions, such as the notion that the letters we call First and Second Peter could not have been written by the same author, because there are differences in language style and word usage. I don't necessarily say the same things from day to day which I said last year, so why should any author's legitimacy be confined to the same words, phrases, grammar and sentence structure?

2 Peter 1:16 "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

1:17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

1:18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

1:19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

1:20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

1:21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

Between appealing to the people of God to supplement their faith by doing works which confirm their call and election and later speaking of God's judgment of the ungodly, Peter pauses to tell us why his word is so authoritative and why we must pay attention to it. The most obvious is the fulfillment in Christ of the Old Testament prophecies about him. He makes no attempt to enumerate them, but many are quoted throughout the New Testament, and others should become apparent to readers of the Old Testament.

To the prophetic word, Peter adds both his eyewitness and earwitness testimony, reminding us of the transfiguration of Christ, which is described in Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-10 and Luke 9:28-36. Peter witnessed many of Christ's miracles, and Christ's miraculous power was at work in him after the resurrection, but the transfiguration is appropriate here because God's voice from heaven was heard, Jesus was transfigured before their eyes and his divine glory was revealed to Peter, James and John, and he appeared with Moses and Elijah, indicating he was about to fulfill both the law and the prophets.

Peter tells us to pay attention to these things until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts. Jesus is referred to as the morning star in both Revelation 2:28 and Revelation 22:16. So Peter is apparently telling us to consider and meditate about these things when we have questions or doubts.

(Unless otherwise indicated, the scriptures quoted here are from the English Standard Version (ESV).

This chapter of Second Peter seems quite similar to the letter of Jude in its intent, though there are many differences in the details mentioned by the two authors. In 2 Peter 1, Peter says that no prophecy has ever been originated by man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. In this chapter, Peter contrasts this with false prophets and false teachers who speak falsehoods from their own hearts, claiming their words are from God. Jude never mentions false teachers, but only says some men have crept into the church stealthily, but they continue to live immoral lives, turning God's grace into a license for sin.

2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6 both indicate God has punished angels who sinned, and Peter mentions Noah and Lot, as men God rescued from their immoral generations. Jude does not mention either Noah or Lot. Jude tells about the archangel Michael disputing with Satan over the body of Moses and Enoch prophesying about the ungodly, stories which may have appeared in Jewish apocryphal writings, but are not found in the Old Testament, both stories which Peter omits.

Although Peter makes many of the same points in this chapter which Jude makes in his letter, Peter's letter has a somewhat broader purpose, in that he is not just reminding us of God's judgment of the unrighteous, he is contrasting this with Christians who patiently cultivate virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection and love, and he will go on to teach about the certainty of the return of Christ, though it seems to have been delayed from a human perspective.

Nevertheless, this chapter and the letter of Jude are probably the most similar chapters in the entire Bible, with the exception of Psalms 14 and 53, which are virtually identical. Recall from Genesis that Joseph told Pharaoh that the doubling of his dreams meant God would surely bring them to pass, so the doubling of the warnings in these chapters ought to get our attention. We cannot afford to ignore, nor should we fail to teach others, about God's repeated warnings about the eventual consequences of sin.

There is a lot of controversy among Bible commentators about whether Peter borrowed much of this material from Jude or Jude borrowed most of his letter from Peter. Because Peter speaks in the passage below in future tense that there will be false teachers and Jude speaks about people who have crept into Christian assemblies, it is possible that Jude borrowed this message from Peter at a later date. However, that would mean that the book of Jude was almost completely adapted from this chapter, and the reliance on some apocryphal texts by Jude may indicate that Jude was written first. In either case, it's more important that we are given these warnings twice by the Holy Spirit than which human author originated them.

2 Peter 2:1 "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

2:2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."

These opening verses deserve some comment, because we live in an era in which apostate churches are arising, disregarding the clear teachings of scripture in favor of personal opinions and preferences. I believe the leaders of these congregations and their followers have three primary motivations:

1. A desire to please men rather than God. They want to be popular with other men, they want to control others for their own personal advantage, and they do not want the burden of Christian suffering, persecution and carrying their own cross.

2. Like the Pharisees, they are lovers of money. For them, full churches and full collection baskets are better than empty ones. Therefore, they tell people what they want to hear.

3. They have rejected scripture's call for purity and personal holiness, preferring instead to indulge in sexual sins and animosity.

Whenever a church teaches and permits something which is contrary to the written word of God, one or more of these things is almost always the reason.

So what should we do as Christians if we know in our hearts that we ourselves are tempted to take a broad and easy path which leads to destruction instead of walking the straight and narrow path which leads to salvation? One obvious answer is to stay in the word, which constantly reminds us of both God's promises to those who do what pleases him, and his judgment of those who don't. Secondly, we have to be honest with God about the temptations we struggle with in our own prayer time, confess them and ask God to cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Christ. Finally, if we know someone we can trust, we should confess our faults to them and ask them to pray for us.

2 Peter 2:4 "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

2:5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

2:6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;

2:7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked

2:8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);

2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

2:10A and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority."

There are three interesting points in this section. Both Noah and Lot were surrounded by immorality, but they did not indulge in it themselves. The "everybody's doing it" excuse can never justify sin. God expects more from us than an immitation of the behavior around us.

Secondly, God separated Noah and Lot from the evil men of their generations at a time of his own choosing, and if we will separate ourselves in an appropriate way from the world around us, we can expect him to rescue us at the right time.

Finally, the punishment of the unrighteous has already begun, even prior to their final judgment. Note the emphasis on punishing those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. We often think of lust concerning sex, but think for a moment about the explosion of drug abuse in our society during the last 40 or 50 years. Also, note how often we hear from those who despise not only God, but all human authority, elected officials, the police, their supervisors at work and even their own parents. Of course, all humans in positions of authority are imperfect, but Paul wrote Romans 13, telling us to be subject to government and human authority, during the height of the Roman empire, when Rome was ruled by some of the most ruthless and evil men on earth.

2 PETER 2:10B "Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,

2:11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord."

Since we don't use the word blasphemy often in daily conversation, the definition from the American Heritage Dictionary below may be helpful:

1.
A. A contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity.
B. The act of claiming for oneself the attributes and rights of God.
2. An irreverent or impious act, attitude, or utterance in regard to something considered inviolable or sacrosanct.

When I was a senior in high school, I had a Greek history teacher, and there were also two girls from Greece who were foreign exchange students in the class. The teacher had been in the United States most of his life, but the foreign students had only bee in the U.S. during that school year. Near the end of the year, our Greek teacher asked these Greek students what they were the most surprised by about the United States. They both gave the same answer. "Everyone in the United States says exactly what they think to everyone, regardless of the position of the person they're speaking to." Certainly, there are some positive aspects about the American notion that all men are created equal. I'm glad we don't have a royal family. As a taxpayer, I don't want to pay for one. However, what these Greek girls were saying is that we Americans generally lack the natural respect which is due to people in positions of authority.

When we're stopped by the police, too many of us have an attitude such as, "You're not so hot. I could have made it through the police academy." Too many of us go to work and think, "I could be the boss here. I should be the boss. He just got here first." One of the reasons we have a high divorce rate is probably because we eventually look at our spouses and say, "You're not so hot."

Simple disrespect is probably at the root of many divorces, and disrespect, rooted in pride, is the underlying reason why many of us do not regard anyone as better than ourselves, why our culture is so irreverent and why we fail to acknowledge anything as holy.

Though he was a prophet, note how Isaiah's attitude was straightened out in Isaiah 6:1-5:

Isaiah 6:1 "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

6:2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

6:3 And one called to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"

6:4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

6:5 And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

When confronted with both God's power and his holiness, Isaiah came face to face with the sins in his own life and the sins of the culture around him, and he was never the same afterwords. Whether we see visions or not, we should all have some Isaiah moments from time to time, so we can humbly respect both God and the men he has placed in positions of authority.

Unfortunately, some people would not even be affected by a vision like Isaiah's. During his ministry, as he was performing miracles and speaking the word of God, Christ's opponents asked him this:

John 8:48: "The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?"

8:49 Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me."

Note that Christ's answer is actually much more gentle than their accusation. They clearly had no regard for who they were speaking to. From the perspective of my Greek classmates, their attitude was very American. If Jesus was persecuted and accused in this way in spite of what he was doing, we should not expect to be treated well by the world, and we should make an effort to respond gently with the truth as he did.

2:12 "But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,

2:13suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.

2:14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

2:15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,

2:16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness."

The above verses continue to speak about those who reject authority and are motivated by lust and greed. , things we as Christians should ask the Lord to cleanse from our lives. Unfortunately, these verses also indicate that some of the people in our churches are not motivated by either love for the Lord or for us, but only by love for themselves.

2 Peter 2:17 "These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.

2:18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.

2:19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

2:20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

2:21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

2:22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."

I have lived much of my life in the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona. Storms which bring a lot of wind and very little rain are quite common in the desert, and the storms which do bring rain typically don't last long. Though the desert has its own natural beauty, it can't produce the quantity and variety of crops and vegetation which are common elsewhere. Hoping for a good soaking rain in the desert is often as disappointing as the parable of the barren fig tree:

Luke 13:6 "And he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.

13:7 And he said to the vinedresser, "Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?"

13:8 And he answered him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.

13:9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

In other words, Jesus does not want us to be like waterless springs or desert storms. Instead, we should supplement our faith with virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection and love, as Peter exhorts us to do in the previous chapter. This is not a difficult request, particularly if the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Being mindful of God's will is the first step toward doing it.

Many leaders of liberal churches today are urging their congregations to cast off the moral restraints of scripture. The world defines freedom as freedom to sin, but Christ defines freedom as freedom from sin. I would hate to be a landlord these days, because I would not want to rent property to homosexuals or unmarried heterosexual couples, and I would probably be sued into poverty. But I would rather be sued into poverty than to pretend that righteousness doesn't matter.

Much of this chapter sounds as if it were written exclusively about non-Christians, and in a way, it is. But the last three verses make it clear that some will depart from the faith. Though they have an accurate knowledge of Christian doctrine, they reject it in favor of personal immorality, the desire to control and use others, and the desire for money, possessions and physical pleasure. But God's purpose here cannot be to cause us to doubt our own salvation, but rather to cause us to be more determined than ever to abide in Christ and to do what we know is right. This chapter is a warning about the fate of some, but it is better to be warned about the consequences of sin than to have to live eternally with the consequences.

"Scripture quotes taken from the NASB".

2 Peter 3:1 "This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,

3:2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

3:3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,

3:4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."

3:5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,

3:6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

3:7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men."

It is my task to communicate to the reader what a great chapter this is. Those of us who have been Christians for a while have probably heard speculation about precisely how soon Christ is likely to return to the earth. I spoke to someone in 1970 who told me he believed Jesus would probably return within the next ten years, but 1980 came and went without the return of Christ. Some of us may also remember the so-called "88 reasons Jesus will return in 1988" or speculation about the new millennium around the year 2000, yet Christ did not return. Though the Bible explicitly tells us in various places, such as Matthew 24-36 and Acts 1:7, that no one on earth knows the precise date and time of Christ's return, some Christians simply can't resist the urge to guess. They nearly always acknowledge, as my friend in 1970 did, that they're just guessing, but guessing for some seems irrisistible. But guessers are not prophets, and all of the prophetic passages of the New Testament which speak about this tell us we don't know the day and time of Christ's return, but we can be quite certain about its eventuality.

That eventuality is the underlying message of this chapter, perhaps even the underlying message of this epistle. What's interesting about verse 3 above is that it says the scoffers in the last days do not doubt Christ's return because of generation after generation of hope and disappointment. Instead, this verse tells us that those who do not believe in the return of Christ are not motivated by his delay, but rather by their desire that he not return, since his return would put an end to their lust, greed and selfish pursuits. Conversely, those who eagerly await the return of Christ do so because we are willing to have him be the Lord of our lives until he returns, and we look forward to eternal fellowship with him. We can either live in such a way that we echo the sentiment at the end of Revelation, "Come Lord Jesus", or we can place our hope in other things which will be destroyed when he returns. But in either case, our problem is not God's slowness, and eternity is a very, very long period of time., and the consequences of our choices are eternal.

Peter asserts that the scoffers of our age cannot rely upon a continuation of the years of God's delay in judgment. Noah's generation was warned about the flood, but they perished because they did not heed the warning. Peter is probably well aware that those who deny the possibility of Christ's return also deny the flood of Noah's day. So the example here is really for believers who acknowledge both.

2 Peter 3:8 "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

3:11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

3:12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

3:13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells."

Verse 8 is very well-known among Christians, but it is probably not well-known that this idea is borrowed from Psalm 90:

Psalm 90:4 "For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night.

90:5 You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

90:6 In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away."

In other words, God does not have the same perception of time we do., and our perception is limited by the brevity of our days on earth. So the apparent delay in the return of Christ is only from our limited perspective, not from God's.

More importantly, verse 9 explains that God's motivation for the delay is kindness and patience, because he wishes for all men to have an ample opportunity to come to repentance. This is an important concept, not just because it indicates why Christ has not returned as quickly as many Christians may have expected, but because it answers the question which is often phrased as, "Why does God allow suffering?" or "Why do bad things happen to good people?"

There are essentially two things wrong on earth. One is our own sin, wickedness, rebellion and misbehavior, and the other is that ever since sin entered into the world, the creation itself no longer serves us well, since we are subject to accidents, natural disasters, wild beasts, famine, etc. Of course, we can and should pray about our circumstances, but God cannot rightly reorder everything in the the universe without dealing with our sin. Judging mankind and putting an end to sin would essentially bring an end to the gospel age, since God's call for repentance and faith would seem relatively meaningless to men who are prevented from sin, and who have also not suffered due to the sins of others against them.

So, from a Christian perspective, every day that evil continues to flourish on earth is a day when Christians are asked to fulfill the great commission of making disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe Christ's commands and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20).

Christians ought to be preparing themselves during this age to collectively become the bride of Christ, and it is reasonable to suppose that God has not yet ended this age because some of those he loves and plans to spend eternity with have not yet come to the knowledge of Christ. While we await the return of Christ, God is waiting for us to finish the work of witness, proclamation and evangelism which he has given us.

None of the above changes the fact that the horrors sin has brought into the world are a very heavy burden for us. Men normally respond to suffering by claiming either that God does not exist or that he is unconcerned about our pain and sorrow. But the Bible teaches that God cares a great deal about us, enough to send his Son into the world to die for our sins, enough to make us joint heirs with Christ, provided we are willing to acknowledge him and make him Lord of our lives.

1 John 1:5 "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all."

In spite of whatever physical or emotional pain we may feel, the Bible always challenges our assumption that God does not care about us. In fact, when Jesus teaches in Matthew 10:30 and Luke 12:7 that the hairs of our heads are all numbered, what he is really saying is that he knows our human condition better than we do and he cares about it even more than we do. At the proper time, God will bring both 2 Peter 3:10 and 2 Peter 3:13 to pass.

Jesus himself is impatient, if God can be called impatient, for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Consider the following passage:

Luke 12:49 "I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!

12:50 "But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!"

Jesus clearly indicates here that he is not unconcerned about what is wrong on earth, and he is more than eager to intervene in human affairs. In fact, the question this chapter raises is whether we are eager to have him involved.

Christianity would seem almost useless to us at the present time if we had to wait to make our petitions to God at the close of the age.

Luke 18:1 "Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart,

18:2 saying, "In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.

18:3 "There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.'

18:4 "For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, 'Even though I do not fear God nor respect man,

18:5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'"

18:6 And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said;

18:7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?

18:8 "I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?""

In the above passage, Jesus expects us to understand that he is not like the unrighteous judge, who did not want to hear from the widow and did not want to act. God wants to hear and wants to act on our behalf, but he will not create a new heaven and a new earth until the appropriate time.

By the way, prophecy about a new heaven and a new earth is not unique to the New Testament. It is actually an echo of Old Testament passages, such as:

Isaiah 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind."

In the passage below, Peter tells us how the certainty of Christ's return and the temporal nature of everything which surrounds us should affect our motives and our choices.

2 Peter 3:14 "Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,

3:15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,

3:16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,

3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

Because my parents divorced when I was nine and my mother had to work to support us, without any help from my father, my brothers, my sister and I were often left at home alone after school in the afternoon until my mother returned home from work. We had never heard the term latchkey children, but that's what we were. Of course, we had a pretty good idea when my mother would get home, but the main task of latchkey children is to stay close to home, not to fight and not to make a mess which mom will be displeased with when she arrives. We didn't always do a very good job. In fact, my recollection is that we called her at work almost every afternoon to ask her to resolve some fight among ourselves. But my point is that we are in a sense God's latchkey children, and our job is to conduct ourselves in such a way that Christ will be pleased with us when he arrives.

In this passage, Peter endorses the writings of Paul, though it isn't clear how many of Paul's letters he was familiar with. By implication, he also endorses Paul's ministry, which was primarily a ministry to the Gentiles. Peter probably would have had a difficult time doing so, if it were not for the vision he saw, which Luke wrote about in Acts10:9-16 and Acts 11:5-18. I won't quote those passages here, but the point is that Peter affirmed Paul's apostleship and he agreed with Paul that the gospel is meant both for Jews and for all mankind. The same God who revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ later revealed to him that Christ came to redeem men from all social classes and all ethnic backgrounds.

(The scriptures quoted below are from the NASB, unless otherwise indicated.)

The first chapter of First John may seem like Christianity 101 to some. What it teaches is very basic theology, from a Christian perspective, the language and concepts are easily understandable, and it makes no attempt to appeal to our intellect. Campus Crusade for Christ used to distribute a pamphlet on college campuses called "Jesus and the Intellectual". I never read it, but somehow I doubt if it quoted this chapter. Unlike the book of Revelation, there seems to be few doctrinal debates among Christians about what this chapter means.

However, if we are willing to step back for a moment into a world which is largely unfamiliar with Christ, we may find some hidden treasure here which is valuable to the most mature and committed Christians.

1 John 1:1 "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life--

1:2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us--

1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

1:4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete."

The first five words "What was from the beginning" or "That which was from the beginning" in other translations, are an echo of both John 1:1-4 and Genesis 1:1.

John 1:1 (NIV) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

1:2 He was with God in the beginning.

1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men."

Genesis 1:1 (NIV) "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

What was from the beginning, before time as we know it, was the pre-existent Christ.

Hebrews 1:2 (NIV) "but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe."

Hebrews 1:5 (NIV) "For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father"? Or again, I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"?"

Although the verse above uses the term "today", that "today" is outside of time as we know it. Even though we refer to Jesus as the Son of God, we cannot regard him as a created being. Rather, we must regard him as pre-existent and eternal. I don't believe there ever was a moment when Christ did not yet exist. When we think of someone being a son, we think of a created being. My sons are certainly created beings who were conceived and born at distinct moments in time, yet the Bible speaks of Jesus as the everlasting God, who always was, is and always will be.

Isaiah 9:6: (NIV) "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

I don't want to belabor this point, because it's not what the letter, or even this chapter of it is about, but it's worth noting before we go on that there are things about the deity of Christ, or the godhead in general, which are difficult for us to grasp. Rather than causing us to doubt what we can't fully understand, we ought to be grateful that God is greater than we are. Only idolators want to serve a god who is their size or smaller.

John then goes on to say that "we" have heard him, seen him and touched him with our hands. In other parts of the letter, he uses the word "I", so he is not just using the plural first person form because he prefers it. Some might argue that this letter was actually written by someone associated with the apostle John who also knew Jesus, who they refer to as John the elder. But I believe that he wrote this late in the first century, at a point in time when everyone else who knew the incarnate Jesus was already dead. I believe that by saying "we", he is referring both to his own testimony and to the testimony of the other apostles, who were no longer living. He is speaking for them, because he knows they also heard, saw and touched Jesus.

Two things need to be said about John's experience with the incarnate Jesus, and why he is writing about them at this point. Some people had apparently departed from the belief in the incarnation of Christ, claiming that Jesus only had a spiritual existence. Though they may have pretended to honor Jesus by referring to him as an only spiritual being, if Jesus had no physical body, the virgin birth, the crucifixion, the resurrection, fasting in the wilderness, and many other things he did would have no meaning, wouldn't have to be taught or defended, and they could even be regarded as ridiculous. So those who taught this really had no more faith in the Jesus John saw, heard and touched than the Pharisees did, and John's concern about this is certainly part of what motivated him to write all three of his epistles.

More importantly for us, we tend to take for granted how extraordinary this story is. John is telling us he heard, saw and touched God in the flesh. Students of the Old Testament will recall the passage in Exodus 33:18-23, in which not even Moses was allowed to see God's face. John not only talks about seeing Jesus face to face, but Matthew 17:1-9 and Mark 9:2-10 speak about Peter, James and John seeing Christ transfigured before their eyes. Moses and Elijah appeared with him, but they never saw God in this form during their earthly lives. Because we have heard about this most of our lives, we Christians tend to forget what an incredible thing John is saying. Only when we begin to compare John's experience and his witness with our own does it occur to us how remarkable this is. I have not heard, see or touched God in the way John was allowed to do, and that provides me with real incentive to pay close attention to John as he continues to speak about Christ.

John says he is writing this so we may have fellowship with the apostles, and their fellowship is with both the Father and the Son. His joy will be complete when our relationships with God and with each other are completely restored and unhindered by our sins. Until the return of Christ, we may not see him physically, but John wants us to know and experience the glorified Christ.

But we cannot have fellowship with God until we understand and acknowledge some things about God's nature and our own human nature, which are covered in the rest of this chapter:

1 John 1:5 "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

1:7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us."

When John says that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all, it may remind us of the following passage from Genesis:

Genesis 1:3 (NIV): "And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

1:4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.

1:5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Creating light was God's first act on the first day of creation. However, it is not the light we see which John is talking about here. He is telling us here that God prefers life over death, laughter over tears, love over hatred, joy over sorrow and kindness over cruelty. This is in contrast to the nature of the gods pagans believed in, gods who were capable of cruelty and needed to be appeased.

Though many of us have never been pagans, we live in a world in which sin, disease, accidents and natural disasters cause us to have experiences which are beyond our control. It would be easy for us to conclude, therefore, that if God exists at all, he is arbitrary and capricious, and he cannot possibly care about us. Yet John says the problems we face on earth have nothing to do with God's nature. Some of them may be the consequences of our own behavior, some may be because of the sins of others, and some may be because Romans 8:19-23 says creation itself is in bondage to decay because of the sin in the world. But John states that God is good, completely good, unimaginably good and incorruptibly good. In order to be in a right relationship with God, we must be willing to acknowledge and appreciate God's mercy, grace and kindness toward us, regardless of our past experiences, our current circumstances, or our apprehensions about the future.

If we want to have continuous and unbroken fellowship with the Father and the Son, we have to say and do things which are according to God's nature, not our own. We cannot truthfully claim to know God, while continuing to hate others, to steal from others, to gossip about or flatter others in an effort to gain an unfair advantage for ourselves. We cannot behave in ways which are contrary to God's nature.

We must walk in the light, as he is in the light. Yet that is an impossible assignment for us, because our human nature is opposed to God's nature, and we're going to fail sometimes in spite of our best efforts. As we all know, things can be concealed in darkness, but light makes things visible. One of the interesting things about the Bible is that it doesn't conceal anyone's sinfulness. For example, Peter denied that he knew Christ three times, and all four gospel writers recorded it for millions of people to read for thousands of years. Perhaps no one has been so openly and frequently called out for their sins as Peter, yet Jesus responded by getting Peter to tell him that he loved him three times, and he allowed Peter to become the spokesman for the early church in Jerusalem.

Peter's problem is common to all of us, because we all sin from time to time. When we sin, we need to restore our fellowship with God by confessing our sins. Because of his nature, Christ's atonement for us on the cross, and the new covenant in his blood, he is faithful to forgive our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness.

Yet no amount of walking in the light and confessing our sins, which hopefully become fewer and fewer over time, will cause us to become the light. It is possible for us to stop sinning, only to the extent that God's life is in us and lived through us. Through years of faithfulness, we may become more and more like God, but we will never be God. In fact, we are in the very humble position of needing to rely on God completely for the righteousness which we could never achieve on our own.

(Except when otherwise stated, the quotes here are from the New English Translation, which is also referred to as the NET Bible.)

This is one of those places in scripture where I believe the chapters were not divided well. If it were up to me, verses 1 and 2 would be at the end of the previous chapter, since I believe they finish the thoughts which John began in 1 John 1:8.

1 John 1:8: "If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1:9 But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

2:1 (My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One,

2:2 and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world."

I would have expected verse 2 to say that Jesus made the atoning sacrifice for our sins, or that he was the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Instead, it says he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Obviously, that does not mean that he is still hanging on a cross. It means that in addition to his redemptive work on the cross, he is our advocate with the Father, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. Jesus was crucified on a hill long ago and far away, and to this day, he continues to be our atoning sacrifice, interceeding for us, working to draw us to himself, to cleanse us from sin and to bring us into a vital and eternal relationship with himself and to present us without sin to the Father. He is still engaged in the same constant and continuous act of love for us which led him to Calvary.

In a similar way, our service and obedience to Christ must be ongoing and continuous, as described in verses 3-11.

1 John 2:3 "Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.

2:4 The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.

2:5 But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.

2:6 The one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked.

2:7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have already heard.

2:8 On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

2:9 The one who says he is in the light but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness.

2:10 The one who loves his fellow Christian resides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.

2:11 But the one who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

1 John 1:8-1 John 2:2 serves as an explanatory preface to this section. If John had not already said that we all have a problem with sin and that Jesus is our atoning sacrifice for sin, we might read verses 3-6 and conclude that we must go on a radical self-improvement mission in order that we may keep God's commandments and come to know God. Indeed, this can be a very discouraging passage for Christians, who rightly conclude that walking as Jesus walked is humanly impossible, and it may cause some, who are painfully aware of their continuing imperfections, to wonder if they are really in God's family at all. Fortunately, John has already addressed our concerns by telling us Jesus is faithful and just to forgive our sins if we confess them. Clearly some effort is involved on our part to keep Christ's commandments. We can't do it accidentally. But the effort we need to make is not to fulfill legalistic requirements. Instead, we should continue to make our relationship with Christ our top priority, confessing our shortcomings to him, relying on his atonement and his Spirit to lead us and to help us fulfill his calling on our lives. We must seek a deeper knowledge of God, relying on his efforts, not our own.

Though God is far greater than man, perhaps a human analogy is helpful here. Suppose a friend asks you to pick up her daughter from school one day, because she can't. Your friend will not be pleased if you say you will pick up her daughter, but you don't do it. On the other hand, faithfully picking her up will help you maintain your relationship with your friend. Acts of faithfulness, over an extended period of time, wil give you and your friend greater confidence in each other. It would be unnatural for you to go to your friend, promising to try harder, and asking your friend to love you more. That would cause discomfort to both of you. As with any good friendship, faithfulness deepens the relationship. Christ's friendship with us has been initiated by him, not by us, as the gospel of John shows in the following passage:

John 15:13 "No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life for his friends.

15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

15:15 I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father.

15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.

15:17 This I command you – to love one another."

John does not attempt to answer all of our questions about what he means by saying we should walk in the way Jesus walked. He doesn't tell us whether or not we should eat meat, drink beer, play cards, dance, etc, which the Pharisees did. He tells us we can prove we love Christ by keeping his commandments, making Jesus our motivation and the compass by which we must judge our own actions. Of course, the Lord's judgment, and even the judgment of the local church, may be different from ours. But John is essentially reiterating the point Jesus made in Luke 13:24:

Luke 13:24 “Exert every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to."

As is often the case in his epistles, John is elaborating in verses 3-11 on what Jesus said during the last supper:

John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments."

John 14:21 "The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

14:22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

14:23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him.

14:24 The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me."

When he says obedience is the test which proves or disproves the genuineness of one's love for God, John does not tell us whether we should apply the obedience test to ourselves or others, but Matthew 7:3-5 says we should always apply judgment first to ourselves, and then secondarily to others, if necessary.

Matthew 7:3 "Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own?

7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own?

7:5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Immediately after Judas left the last supper, Jesus gave his disciples the commandment below:

John 13:34 “I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

13:35 Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.”

The reason I chose to use the NET Bible when discussing this chapter is that most translations say we are to love our brother, but they don't specify whether that applies to all mankind or specifically to those who are Christians. Though there is no scriptural basis for applying the golden rule selectively to some and not to others, I believe the passage above from John 13 and verses 7-11 of 1 John 2 mean primarily that there ought to be a special bond of love between Christians which the world sees nowhere else. If we would focus on fulfilling John 13:34-35, it would fill our churches with new converts to Christ. Apologetics, doctrinal discussions and evangelism have their place, but they are far less powerful than the mutual love Jesus is commanding us to give to other Christians. Most churches in the United States seem focused on new or larger facilities, more programs and ministries, more contemporary music and better sermons, none of which Jesus asked for. It is to our own peril that we ignore or don't focus primarily on the first thing he commanded us to do when he was alone with his disciples for the last time before he died for us.

1 John 2:12 (NKJV) "I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.

2:13 I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father.

2:14 I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one."

I confess I am somewhat puzzled by the way this passage is written--to children, to fathers, to young men, and then again to children, to fathers and to young men. It would seem more natural to us if John had written to children, to young men and to fathers, since boys go usually go from childhood to manhood to fatherhood. Just to help me, I'm going to rearrange this passage that way and then explain what I believe it means.

"I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father."

"I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one."

"I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning."

When my second son was born, he introduced himself to the world by crying loudly. He was then handed to me, and I spoke to him. He continued crying, but somewhat more softly, because he seemed to recognize my voice. Then I handed him to his mother, she spoke to him, and he stopped crying. At the moment of birth, babies know their parents, and they feel comforted and reassured by their presence. My son knew us, but he did not know about our faith, our lifestyle, our political beliefs, and he hadn't even met his brother yet.

Similarly, when we are reborn into God's kingdom, our sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, and we know God, just as certainly as my son knew his parents. But we do not immediately know God well. We know the Shepperd's voice and our acceptance into his family is complete, but we do not know our Shepperd well until after a long period of discipleship and obedience.

As we begin to mature in our walk with the Lord, we become strong, the word of God remains in us, and we have overcome the wicked one, not only from an eternal perspective, but in our daily lives.

John says twice that fathers know him who is from the beginning, which reminds me of the doubling of Pharaoh's dream in Genesis 41:32. Through a long period of obedience, Christ's disciples finally gain a mature knowledge of God. They have learned to walk as Jesus walked, they have adopted his convictions and his lifestyle, and their love for Christ is deeper than when they were first saved, because they know him better.

Of course, in the spiritual world, maturity can't necessarily be measured by the passage of time. It is possible to be a Christian for many years without coming to spiritual maturity. Conversely, spiritual maturity might come relatively quickly to some, but never without consistently obeying God's commandments, particularly the commandment to love one another.

1 John 2:15 (NKJV) "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

2:16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

2:17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."

The obvious question arises as to why we ought not to love the world, since the familiar verse, John 3:16, tells us that God loved the world enough to allow his Son to be crucified for its sins.

John 3:16 (ESV): "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

God wants to redeem people from the world, from the human failings produced by a culture which is consumed by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Jesus did not come into the world in order to participate in such things, and we ought to refrain from participating in them.

The phrase "Do not love the world or the things in the world" reminds me of the John Denver song "Rocky Mountain High". "Rocky Mountain High" is a pleasant record to listen to, except that it seems that John Denver fell in love with nature and loved the creation without loving the Creator. It is perfectly OK for Christians to love the Rocky Mountains as much as John Denver did, as long as they see the creation as the reflection of a greater Creator. We do well if natural beauty reminds us of the goodness of God, but it's wrong for us to become earth lovers, rather than lovers of God, as I believe John Denver was.

As for the lust of the eyes, one of the troublesome things this passage reminds me of is the way consumer products are merchandized to our children. It is increasingly difficult to find cereal, shirts, or even underwear, which are not inscribed with the likeness of a cartoon character. Nearly every fast food restaurant gives out toys to children, which are designed to promote the latest movie for kids. Unfortunately, the characters our children are supposed to be fond of are usually completely lacking in virtue. Even worse, our children are being told from infancy that they ought to have everything they see. While a fifty cent toy from McDonalds may seem harmless enough, we have created a culture in which people are trained from infancy to covet everything they see, and to believe it should be their possession.

I'm concerned that four-year-old boys who want to go to McDonalds because they have the newest toy will become twenty-year-old men who will see women, find them attractive, and take them to bed, particularly if they're dressed provocatively, as if they too are consumer products to use and discard in favor of newer products. American culture is just seething with the notion that if I've seen it, it ought to be mine, until I'm bored with it and I don't want it anymore. This is totally contrary to God's love, which we ought to emulate.

The expression "the pride of life" deserves some thought, because it is uncommon. I take it to mean anything which causes us to rely on ourselves instead of God. Self-reliance seems to be a good thing in many contexts. Self-reliance seems preferable to dependence on others or on the government for our economic welfare. However, if we become like the man in Luke 12"16-21 who tore down his barns so he could build bigger barns and take it easy for many years, believing he would live forever and that he was the source of his wealth, we are guilty of the pride of life. We ought to do the work each day requires of us, relying on God to sustain us and giving him thanks for what we have and whatever we achieve. If football were only being played by faithful Christians, end zone dances would be a thing of the past.

1 John 2:18 (NIV): "Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

2:19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

2:21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.

2:22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.

2:23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also."

Verse 18 brings up two questions which I will mention in passing, but don't want to focus on. What does John mean by saying it is the last hour? The expression doesn't appear elsewhere in the New Testament. If John were really convinced Jesus would return before sunset, he would not seem to need to ask Christians to abide in Christ, since they would just need to get through the afternoon. He doesn't seem to know how much time is involved, since Acts 1:7 says:

Acts 1:7 He told them, “You are not permitted to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority."

After looking up all of the passages which refer to the last days, which is the closest thing I can find to the last hour, it seems to me that the term "the last days" refers generally to the entire time between Christ's ascension and his return. This doesn't nullify the signs of the end Jesus gave in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, or Daniel 9, 2 Thessalonians 2, 1 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy 3 & 4, which speak about increasingly stressful times as the end of the age approaches. Probably all that John means by saying it is the last hour is that now that Christ has come, judgment has begun, because Jesus has been believed in by some men and rejected by others.

John 3:18 "The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God."

The other question we might ask about 1 John 2:18 is what John means by the term antichrist. He is clearly not speaking about a single individual, because he says many antichrists have come, and antichrists are said to be those who deny that Jesus is the Christ, which unfortunately, is hardly unique among mankind. Nowhere does John refer to the antichrist as one person, though he will refer to the spirit of antichrist in chapter 4.

However, Paul speaks about the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, and there are references to the "false prophet" in Revelation 16, 19 and 20, but many of us who have studied Revelation don't believe he is the antichrist.

The point of this passage appears to be that some have both left the church and departed from the faith, probably only a faith they pretended to have in the first place, rather than falling away from a real and honest, but temporary profession of faith. The secessionists who deny Christ have neither the Father nor the Son, whereas those who acknowledge Christ have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit's anointing to lead them into all truth.

It goes beyond the scope of this chapter to have a long discussion about the role of the Holy Spirit, but it's worth noting that John's beliefs about the Holy Spirit are the result of what Jesus taught during the last supper, in chapters 14, 15 and 16 of John's gospel. Perhaps the pivotal experience of Paul's life happened to him on the road to Damascus, because he continually brings us back to that moment in his letters, as does Luke in the book of Acts. John, however, does not speak continually about the moment he met Jesus or when he first believed, but John continues to stress throughout his life what Jesus taught him on the night before his passion and death.

1 John 2:24 (NIV): "See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

2:25 And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.

2:26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.

2:27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

2:28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him."

In this passage, John encourages his readers to continue to believe in Jesus as the Christ, to honor and trust the Spirit's internal witness in their hearts, to acknowledge Christ boldly before men, to continue in fellowship with other Christians and to continue to do what is right, both because it gives them assurance they are born of God and because it will give them confidence when Jesus appears to judge the living and the dead. Verse 29 is similar to John 3:21 and Psalm 11:7 below::

John 3:20 "For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

3:21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God."

Psalm 11:7 "Certainly the Lord is just; he rewards godly deeds; the upright will experience his favor."