This is the second blog in the 2 Peter 1 series. In the first blog we walked through the six gifts every saved person already has before he ever takes a step.
Now Peter does something every preacher has to do at some point. He lays out the two ways this can go. There are only two outcomes for a Christian after salvation. Either he climbs the ladder of growth that God put in front of him, or he sits down at the bottom of it. There is no third option presented.
The Chain Before the Outcomes
Before Peter gives the outcomes, he lays out the chain of growth. Every blog in this series comes back to this verse, and it is worth reading again and again.
2 Peter 1:5-7
“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”
The Christian already has faith because the first blog showed us faith was given to him by God. Now he takes faith and he stacks or “adds” virtue on top of it. Then knowledge on top of virtue. And so on, all the way up to charity.
Outcome One If We Diligently Grow
Peter gives the first outcome in two parts. Read them together.
2 Peter 1:8
“For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 1:10-11
“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Four things happen to the Christian who keeps adding.
- He will not be barren. Barren means empty. It is the word the Bible uses for a woman who could not have children. It is the word used for the ground that grows nothing. A barren Christian is a Christian with no life coming out of him. No fruit, witness and certainly, no harvest. Peter says the man who keeps adding will not end up that way.
- He will not be unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Notice the fruit grows in the knowledge of Christ. The Christian who keeps learning his Lord keeps bearing fruit. The two are tied together. A Christian who is growing in the knowledge of Christ is a Christian whose life is producing something.
- He shall never fall. That is one of the strongest promises in the whole New Testament. Peter does says he shall never fall. The Christian who keeps stacking the eight on top of his faith has a guarantee from God that he will not be the one who falls from following Christ.
- An entrance shall be ministered unto him abundantly. When the Christian finally walks into heaven, he will be welcomed in. The word “ministered” means furnished, supplied, paid for in full. The word “abundantly” means richly, fully, overflowing. Peter is saying the saint who kept climbing the ladder is going to have his entrance into heaven richly supplied by God Himself. The Christian who climbed the ladder is going to walk in with a welcome. I do not know everything that entrance is going to look like, but whatever it is, I want it, and you should want it too.
Outcome Two If We Do Not Grow
2 Peter 1:9
“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”
Three things happen to the Christian who does not climb and each of them is sad.
- He is blind. Usually, blindness refers to the state of a lost man’s soul. But Peter is talking to saved people in this whole passage. He is not saying the man who does not grow is unsaved. He is saying the man who does not grow goes blind to the things of God. He still sits in the pew, but he cannot see what God is doing anymore. The fire in his eyes is gone, and the Word does not move him the way it used to. The preaching washes over him, while hymns do not stir him. He is in the building, but he is blind in the building.
- He cannot see afar off. The man who quits growing loses his long view. He starts living for the weekend instead of for eternity. Someone who’s spiritually discerned can see the blessings of doing right and also the curse of disobeying God. But the person who doesn’t keep growing loses that spiritual vision. Something that was clearly wrong to them before is no longer an issue. And a conviction that they held dear and promised God they would never compromise on goes by the wayside.
- He has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. This may be the saddest line in the whole chapter. A man who got saved out of a horrible past, who saw his old chains fall off, who knew on that day exactly what God had pulled him out of, can stop growing and then forget the whole thing. Forget what God saved him from. He starts living like he was never that bad. He gets dull on the very thing that should keep him on fire. The man who quits growing forgets what salvation cost.
Take a look inward and ask yourself which outcome you are walking toward. Are you adding, or are you sitting? Are you growing in the knowledge of Christ, or are you living off the testimony you gave fifteen years ago?.
You do not need a perfect day to start climbing. You just need a next step.
If you have been skipping the Bible, open it tomorrow morning. If you have been skipping church, be in the pew this Sunday. If you have been skipping prayer, talk to God right away.
The next blog will start the climb. We will look at the first word in the chain. Diligence is where everyone has to begin.
