Every day, we make a big choice: which master we will follow. This is not about what we say because, with our mouths, most believers would readily say that Christ is our Master.
Each day, we point to our Master through our choices, our time investments, and our motivations for handling money: those actions speak louder than our words. Those choices clearly frame who really is the master of our lives.
As we turn again to 2 Peter 3, we see what Peter had heard with the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount: that we can only serve one master at a time. Right there, at the start of His ministry, Jesus gets right to the point.
Choosing Which Master We’ll Follow
We have a choice of Master, and only one can be served. Peter held onto that truth all his days.
As we look at 2 Peter 3, note the repeated tone of Peter’s challenge. It is gentle, loving, and urgent. Peter repeats the word “beloved” five times. That should jump off the page for us, setting Peter’s tone in our hearts in this exhortation.
2 Peter 3:1-18
Beware: Is Our Challenge
Peter loved his brothers and sisters so much that he warned them: Beware. The word translated as “beware” means “be constantly guarding yourself.” Just like Paul had already said, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands to take heed lest he falls” (1 Cor. 10:12, NKJV).
True believers can’t fall away from being saved, just from being solidly living out what they say they believe. Steadfastness is when what we say and what we do, lines up with God’s Word.
Beware of what? Beware of falling away from steadfastness. What was this steadfastness? Peter has already defined this word using the verb earlier in 2 Peter 1:12 (NKJV):
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.
Our stability or “steadfastness” as believers rests upon our trust in God’s Word and experiencing daily, how to apply that Word in those practical decisions of life. The only way to keep from being “led away” as v. 17 says, is to grow spiritually. But, Peter said it isn’t a sprint or a spurt, it is continuous growth that God desires.
Be Constantly Growing: Is Our Charge
“But be constantly growing” is the literal translation of the opening phrase of v. 18. That is what the form of the verb communicates. Today we need to beware (constantly guarding against anything) that hinders our growth. Peter raises our awareness of the constant dangers of exposure to the materialism-infected world we live in.
(MOI-06; 130303AM)
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