2 Peter Chapt. 1 - Growth

Let's do a side by side of NLT and NKJV:
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
As your knowledge grows, grace and peace should be fruits of that knowledge. Having the opposite sometimes gives insight to the meaning of ideas. What is the opposite of grace and peace? Strife and conflict are opposites for peace. But for grace? Grace is one of those words that is hard to define. A thesaurus has antonyms of:
Any thoughts?
3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
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,

Through His power He gives us great gifts to live as a holy people.
4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
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.

What are some of these promises? The Holy Spirit is one. Gaining Life by giving up our own ways is two. With these and more, we are able to withstand worldly corruption. So hang onto those promises. Name more please.

5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,

We now begin a list of gains and growth from the seed of faith. We start with our faith and attach virtue/moral excellence to it. Is virtue the first thing we can know, or is it the proper mix to start with? Next, we add knowledge to the virtue. Knowledge without the virtue is a coarse thing that can cause you to become prideful. Thoughts?
6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,

Knowledge gets sandwiched between virtue and self-control, for good reason. Unbridled knowledge can lead you to separate yourself from others, keeping you from giving love to others and starving yourself of the same. But without knowledge, you will stagnate. Next we must maintain that self-control and never give up. Add to that tenacity godliness. What is godliness? Goodness?
7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

Now we add brotherly kindness/affection. Not just get along, but be like the close brother who will go out of their way to protect their siblings, help them and take up their cause. And of course, we finish with the pièce de résistance, love. The last three seem to be ever increasing levels of love. And we are to strive to add all these to our faith. Is it important to connect all these in the order listed? Why or why not?

8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the ingredient list for the "miracle grow" for our faith.
9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

Look for this growth. Go after them. If you don't you will begin to doubt and wonder why you don't "hear from the Lord" or know what God's will is for you.

10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away.

10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
This may be one of the most important lessons for a Christian. Making sure you are saved by sticking to this plan. This builds confidence in our salvation when we have this promise.
11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What a great feeling to enter the kingdom without shame for what you regret you should have done. There is a lot here to chew on, so what are your thoughts?
 
IMHO each question should be its own thread because it could really grow... but let's take a stab at it.

Grace means not only we don't have to do anything to get it, but we can’t do anything to get it. It’s all 100% faith. When the governor pardon's a prisoner, does the prisoner have to do anything more than ask? I take verse 2 to show that the more you understand your position in Christ, your identity in Him, the more grace and peace you get. Look at it like this. If you BELIVE that the spigot only provides drops of water (grace), that’s all you’re going to get. Another comes and BELIEVES the spigot is a fire hose; he’s going to get more water than you. Still another comes and BELIEVES the spigot is Niagara Falls; he’s going to get still more grace than all the others. And yet one more comes and has no limiting spigot – he can do all that Jesus did and more. But another comes and doesn’t believe in the spigot (God); he’s not going to get anything. The more we learn about God from the Holy Spirit the more grace and peace we get. It’s not a giving issue, but a receiving issue. Belief.
 
IMHO each question should be its own thread because it could really grow... but let's take a stab at it.

Grace means not only we don't have to do anything to get it, but we can’t do anything to get it. It’s all 100% faith. When the governor pardon's a prisoner, does the prisoner have to do anything more than ask? I take verse 2 to show that the more you understand your position in Christ, your identity in Him, the more grace and peace you get. Look at it like this. If you BELIVE that the spigot only provides drops of water (grace), that’s all you’re going to get. Another comes and BELIEVES the spigot is a fire hose; he’s going to get more water than you. Still another comes and BELIEVES the spigot is Niagara Falls; he’s going to get still more grace than all the others. And yet one more comes and has no limiting spigot – he can do all that Jesus did and more. But another comes and doesn’t believe in the spigot (God); he’s not going to get anything. The more we learn about God from the Holy Spirit the more grace and peace we get. It’s not a giving issue, but a receiving issue. Belief.

I like you analogy of the spigot. However, there's a missing element that's crucial to salvation. Whatever degree of "spigot flow" a person by faith believes of that spigot, belief alone is entirely meaningless for "the devils believe and tremble." One must reach out and open the spigot! It's done, not by works, but by the choice to surrender our will, as Jesus did in Gethsemene (..not My will but Thy will...). That's why works can't save us, but the absence of them will surely condemn us because freewill obedience or stubborn rebellion evidences which king is enthroned in our heart - myself or my Savior. It's the whole "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me" choice thing. Choose life!:)
 
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Rest of Chapter:
12 Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught. 13 And it is only right that I should keep on reminding you as long as I live. 14 For our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that I must soon leave this earthly life, 15 so I will work hard to make sure you always remember these things after I am gone.

Even though we know the things of God, we still need reminded. Our minds wander into the things of the flesh.


16 For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes 17 when he received honor and glory from God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” 18 We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

This adds to the validity of the Bible. Peter and the other scribes of the Bible had nothing to gain by teaching and testifying of the things they witnessed. Who is willing to die for something they couldn't prove?

19 Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, 21 or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.

We can be sure of the message. The prophets had many messages. Here "the message" is the overall purpose of those prophets, getting people ready for the Messiah. Accept Jesus and your new day dawns and Christ shines through you. Then Peter tells us that the Holy Spirit reveals to him that the prophet's message is Holy Spirit inspired and cannot be from their own understanding. If it were, the message would be flawed.
 
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