12/07/2024 – Prologue – This is a day that will live in infamy. On this day, a Sunday, 83 years ago I was 10 years old. It was almost dark my parents and I had spent the afternoon winterizing our out-buildings for the next four months of hard winter. We had just come inside when the phone rang. My mother answered, it was her best friend, I heard her gasp. Margret had said. ”Turn on the radio, the Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor.” My Father swore as he walked toward the radio. He left two weeks later to serve in the US Army Engineers. Much of his time was spent in Persia (Iran) as the engineer in charge of transferring war supplies from the seaports along Persian Gulf, via Astara, Azerbaijan, to the Soviet Union. Over the next four years I can remember seeing him for no more than ten 10 days.
Thus in 1941, The US joined a world war that had begun in 1931 when Japan invaded China (Manchuria) over a false flag incident. This was followed by a Japanese invasion of China in 1937. Thus, WWII has many dates of origination: 1931, 1937, 1939, and 1941, which makes the wars in Ukraine and Gaza so terrifying. Wars once begun, are difficult to end. By the time August 1945, arrived 70 – 85 million lives were lost, 3% of the world’s population. The number of deaths included 21 – 25 million combatants. Please pray daily for peace.
[2 Peter 1:1-11] – Confirm Your Call - Two comments before we start: we will be in [2 Peter] for 3 or 4 sessions. We should consider this letter as a word for our times. If it is our desire to bring God’s glory to the world in 2024 then we must study this letter carefully, pray for it, take it to heart and put it into practice. Unfortunately, scholars debate Peter’s physical authorship of all of this letter. However, as we have discussed this is true of much of his life, his work, and his memory. In [2 Peter] we will see light and love. Therefore, let us not wallow in questions, but firmly grasp the big picture. That picture is what God wants for His people. Too frequently people think of religion, even Christians, as what God wants from us – good behavior, renunciation of things we enjoy, and jaw tightening, moral determination to behave unnaturally. That is total misdirection – look carefully at the truths enumerated in [v. 3-11]. God has given us all we need for this moment and all we need to become [v. 3]. There is a great deal of conversation about the moral effort we are to make, but Peter is clear this all comes from God. Our God wants nothing less than that we should share His nature [v. 4]. Some folks are uneasy about this, thinking that the humility we are urged to acquire prevents us from even considering that we could share even an iota of God’s nature. Others, the Eastern traditions, see this as essential to what it means to be a Christian. So, think for a moment: we say the Holy Spirit is fully divine; we say that the Holy Spirit comes to live within us and transforms us from within; thus, we must conclude the divine nature is already dwelling within us. We must agree the Holy Spirit is leading us to become filled with God’s presence and power. Yes – it is true. But most of us, most of the time, do not feel like that. Yes – it is true. But maybe, maybe that is because we are not at ease at recognizing what happens when God takes up residency in our lives. That is why we have [2 Peter].
God has called and chosen those who find themselves following Jesus. [v. 10] Peter urges us to ‘confirm’ this call and choice. Remember we are not seeking to make God more certain, but that we are more certain in that choice. With that thought, recognize that God has set up His ‘kingdom’, His sovereign rule over earth and heaven. [v. 11] When ‘the age to come’ has finally arrived those in the present time who follow Jesus will find them-selves welcomed into that heaven and earth ultimate reality. Now, that is merely the outer frame; whatever we do in the realm of obedience and allegiance to God and the gospel, all takes place by the grace of God. Though the promise of God, through the power of God, and leading to the kingdom of God. What a glorious and powerful place to begin. Do not be one who has arrived at this point – stops. Here is what remains – By God’s grace and through the power of God in our lives we are to learn the discipline of Christian moral development! This has a potential misstep: By making myself acceptable to God will lead to pride and arrogance. (WOW, What a great Christian I have become!) That is the attitude to avoid and two positive steps need to be taken.
First, we must run, gallop, away from the corruption of lust in order to partake of God’s own nature. We are told to resist the devil [1 Peter 5:9] Then here [v. 4] and in [2 Tim 2:22] we are told to run away from lust which drags us down to a sub-human level. Some interpret ‘to run away’ to mean ‘shun’, but that lacks full strength. Neither Peter or Paul are satisfied merely pushing away temptation; they want us ‘to run away’. This is not a negative response. Some may accuse us of not being hip or of being prudish or making libertarian assertions about victimless crimes or of being consensual. Take the advice of Peter and Paul – run, do not walk! Lust is like a narcotic. It demands higher and higher doses and returns less and less relief. It visibly reduces the humanity of those who indulge.
Peter urges us to go in the opposite direction – become more fully human. Beginning to build one aspect of Christian character upon another: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, piety, family affection and love. They all take thought and they all take effort – they are not acquired accidentally. You have to want them! You have to choose to do them! But … then … When you do and when you pray for God’s grace, and God’s promises, and God’s power to help you – you will come to know Jesus the Messiah. Knowing that, you will recognize that you are not simply a Christian for its own sake (your personal sake). You will become fruitful in God’s service. [v. 8] AMEN
Love, hank
Hank Hohenstein, OFS
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