Author: Jim Cantelon

Key Verse: 1 John 3: 19, 20 “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in HIs presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.”

Before commenting on this key verse, allow me to make a few observations about two verses which can cause more than a measure of concern to the eager-to-please reader — consider verses 6 and 9. You read these verses and exclaim, “I’m in trouble here! Because I’m sinning every day.” Let me help you.

In both verses, sin is described in the context of habitual and continual sin — that is, sin which is wilfully embraced day by day. John refers to those who “continue to sin” while professing victory over sin ( for sure, he’s thinking of the Gnostics here). He’s not thinking of human failure, but rather he’s addressing committed hypocrisy. If you “live in” Christ (6a) and have “God’s seed” (9b) living in you, then you’ll find yourself combatting rather than embracing sinful behaviour. For those who “continue to sin”, there is no struggle or fight; it’s part of their lifestyle. For those who have “been born of God”, sin is a real issue that needs to be fought and conquered in Christ every day. The former accept sin, the latter fight sin. But everyone does sin.

And, when your heart condemns you (as it surely will from time to time), remember this: God is greater than your heart. While you may be condemning yourself, God may be lovingly reaching out to remind you of the ongoing work of Christ’s blood in your life (1:7). He knows the dark realities of your past and the struggles of your present. He can be trusted to deal graciously with all who put their trust in Him.

Key Verse: 1 John 2:17 “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

As stated in the introduction, John was concerned about the effect of heretical teaching on his “dear children” (v.1). These heretics (known as “Gnostics”) were spiritual “elitists” who saw the Gospel as being too simple, and they longed for the “depth’ of the mysteries of God. Some of them saw the biblical account of creation as inadequate; they believed in a king of spiritual evolution whereby the world arose through generation or emanation from God over and through a long, series of “aeons”. They saw the material world as radically separated from the immaterial world. And they saw Jesus, not as God made flesh, but as someone who only seemed to be God. A common view was that Christ’s diving nature was only a temporary condition that came at His baptism and went before His crucifixion. Irenaeus, one of the Church “fathers” wrote of the Gnostics as “these blasphemous systems which divide the Lord…saying that he was formed of two different substances (Against Heresies III, 16:5).

One of the consequences of Gnosticism was a moral gap between what you preached and how you lived. They saw all matter (including your body) as evil, so only evil behaviour was expected. But, you could soar to the heavenliness with your spirit — so live like the devil, but worship like an angel.

This is why you see so much in this chapter about obeying the word, loving your neighbour, walking as Jesus. did, living in the light, confessing that Jesus is who He says He is, and doing the will of God. We are to “continue in Him” until He comes (v.28. His truth is not ephemeral but historical.

Key Verse: 1 John 1:3 “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father with His Son, Jesus Christ.”

In the poet Browning’s “A death in the Desert”, the apostle John lies dying in the presence of some of his followers. When my ashes scatter, says John,
“there is left on earth
No one alive who knew (consider this!)
–Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands
That which was from the first the Word of Life.
How will it be when none more saith, ‘I saw’?

John was the last living eye-witness of “the Word of life”. He had “heard” Jesus speak. He had “seen” Jesus. He had “touched” Jesus. And Jesus wasn’t merely another teacher, He was “the life” (2a). “We have seen it and testify to it”, says John. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.”

One day my wife and I were driving when we heard a loud crash a few hundred meters ahead of us. I say “heard” because that was the extent of our knowledge of the accident. We didn’t see it happen We did see the aftermath. And, as we assisted the victims until the arrival of the police and ambulance, we heard their (differing) accounts of the event. When the police arrived they quickly passed us by as witnesses — we hadn’t seen it happen.

An eye-witness is of incalculable worth in a court of law. Theories, biases, and lies all yield to the power of a first-person account.

One of the great strengths of Christianity is that it is rooted in history. We have the first-person accounts of eye-witnesses. Whether we like it or not, whether we accept it or not, history tells us the story of Jesus.

Key Verse: 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

The subject of this concluding chapter is the return of Christ. Already in Peter’s day there were impatient believers and outright unbelieving scoffers who were saying, “Where is this ‘coming’ He promised (v.4). Only a few decades had passed since Jesus ‘ ascension, but already there were doubters about this much acclaimed “parousia” (second coming). These questioners were disappointed and in some cases disillusioned — Jesus had let them down — or, at least He was pretty slow in fulfilling His promise to return.

So Peter puts things in perspective. First of all he reminds his readers that God doesn’t work within our space-time limitations. In His eternal kingdom, one day has no more quantitative reality than a thousand years (v.8); for God, everything is “now”.

That’s why He’s not “slow in keeping His promise” (v.9a NIV). To us He seems slow just like a newborn infant thinks its mother slow when she switches him from one breast to the other. He bleats impatiently and angrily at the interruption to his feeding and the length of time until its resumption. To the mother, however, it’s no time at all.

If God is waiting even in the least sense, it is because He is “not willing that any should perish”. He wants as many as possible to enjoy “a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (v.13). But let’s not lose our sense of perspective — from God’s point of view, Jesus is at the door. So, let’s “lift up our heads, for our redemption is near!”

Key Verse: 2 Peter 2:19b “…a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”

Chapter 2 is rather gloomy reading. It describes false teachers in very explicit terms. Peter refers to them as shameful (v.2), greedy (v.3), corrupt (v.10a), arrogant (v.10b), blasphemous and ignorant (v.12a), beasts (v.12b), blots and blemishes (v.13), springs without water and mists driven by a storm (v.17a). They “mouth empty, boastful words” (v.18) but are, in fact, “dogs returned to their vomit” and “sows wallowing in the mud” (v.22). They are truly a destructive lot.

The men Peter refers to here were probably some of the earliest heretics known as “Gnostics”. There were various kinds of Gnosticism (from the Greek word “gnosis” — “knowledge”), but the heresy itself essentially was an outworking of spiritual pride. the Gnostics were mystics who were tired of if not “beyond”, the simplicity of the Gospel. They wanted the “deeper” things.

One of the tragic realities of Gnosticism was the dehumanizing of Jesus. Because they saw all material things (including flesh and blood ) as evil. They declared it a contradiction in terms that God should become flesh and dwell among us. Jesus, in their eyes, wasn’t really human, but some kind of angelic illusion. This, of course, totally destroyed the meaning of atonement — for only if Jesus was truly man, and truly sinless, and shed real blood on a real cross, was He a once for all sacrifice for sin. If He wasn’t human, he could never have become “the Lamb of God”.

Their view of Jesus was wrong, and, as you might expect, their morality was also wrong. They were characterized by spiritual mysticism on one hand and carnal sensualism on the other. They had “eyes full of adultery” and “never stopped sinning” (v.14a). They preyed son the gullible and seduced them to their compelling combination of sex and religion (v.14b).

That’s why the chapter is so forbidding. Peter was angry; and rightly so.

Key Verse: 2 Peter 1:8 “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIV).

Would you listen and take note if some trusted pastor gave you a list of things to do with the promise that, if you did them, you would “never fall” spiritually? Well, that’s exactly what Peter does in this chapter.

Look at verses 5-8. In these two sentences Peter challenges us to do seven things. Or, more correctly, to add seven things to our faith. We are to add goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, to our faith. And we’re to do so “in increasing measure”.

Let us briefly consider all seven. It seems that in almost every choice we make, we face a fork in the road — one path is the good, the other is the bad. Usually we don’t have to spend much time determining which is which — our conscience kicks in automatically. Peter says, choose goodness.

Knowledge comes through study and thought, self-control through goal-setting, and perseverance through singleness of purpose — all three mean work.

Godliness can only be attained through a high view of Scripture and committee obedience to its directives. Brotherly kindness depends absolutely on a high view of your neighbour. Both of these virtues could be expressed in other terms: righteousness and justice.

As for love, there is a final distillation of its meaning in the writings of many theologians: to love means to seek the highest good of neighbour and of God. To truly love means to be truly selfless — it’s as far from sin as you can get in this limited universe. You have a taste of eternity when you love.

“Do all these things” and “you will never fall” (v.10).

Key Verse: 1 Peter 5:6,7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

Peter concludes this letter with some words for the church leaders (the elders). He encourages them to focus on pastoring and to serve not as hirelings but as obedient servants (v.2). He wants them to avoid arrogance and pompousness and be “examples to the flock of what it means to be a follower of Christ (v.3). He reminds them that any self-seeking, in terms of temporal reward for their labours, pales in the light of the true reward awaiting the faithful under-shepherd “when the chief shepherd appears” (v.4). Then he shifts to the young men and encourages them to emulate the elders and be submissive to them. He says they should “‘humble” themselves, and when the time is right they too will be elevated to responsible leadership (v.6).

Then Peter says, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (v.7 NIV). Here is the critical point. Any lust for money (v.2), lordly arrogance (v.3), or galloping ambition is rooted in insecurity. We fear poverty, or rejection, or insignificance, and we strive to be ahead of the next guy. We use people.

But we’re to serve people. And to do so means ongoing self-denial. That doesn’t mean, however, that God is blind to our labours. He knows our heart and our needs. And, if we’ll let Him do it, He’ll care for us. We can be sure He’ll care for us completely. Trust Him.

Key Verse: 1 Peter 4:7, 8 “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (NIV).

The New Testament writers were all conscious of the “end of all things”. They expected the culmination of human history to be at hand. And, in the light of the soon return of Christ, there was an urgency about the early believers’ choices and values. They lived as though Jesus were at the door.

This is the context of the key verse — “The end of all things is near.” With that in mind, Peter encourages his readers to do three things: 1. Be clear minded, 2. Be self-controlled, and 3. Love each other deeply. Keep your brain in gear. Keep your morality pure. Keep your relationships strong. Practical, good advice.

Clear-mindedness means good thinking, focused thinking, and godly thinking. We all know how easy it is to let our minds be filled with all kinds of unhealthy stuff. Covetousness, adultery, dishonesty, and most other sinful behaviour starts with what you think about. You are what you think. And if you’re not yet, you will soon be. Solomon said, “As he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7).

Self-control has a lot to do with keeping a clear head. A man who fathers a child extra-maritally had the capability (I assume) to think through the possible consequences of it all back when he was fantasizing, long before he acted. We think, we choose, we act. Our morality reflects our thinking.

As we think clearly and act morally, we will be able to love deeply. God wants us to seek the good of our neighbour — to see him/her as a person, not an object. We’ll avoid a lot of sin that way.

Key Verse: 1 Peter 3:15, 16a “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience…”

There’s a difference between being able to “give a defence” and being defensive. Unfortunately, too many believers take it personally whenever someone questions their faith. They forget that it is not our responsibility to win anyone to Christ (“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” said Jesus in John 6:44). Our responsibility is simply to tell others about the Lord. We should have no performance anxiety or notches on our gun. Saving people is what God does. Telling people is what we do.

Giving a defence for the hope within us, then, is inextricably tied to knowledge — knowledge of God, His word, and of our experience. I refer to knowledge of our experience deliberately. Sometimes people will say, “I know that I know that I know…” — which means, “I know, but I don’t know why.” Peter is saying that’s not good enough. We’ve got to know why. We’ve got to be able to give a reason (NIV) for the hope that we have.

This means we’ve got to engage our minds with Gods’ word, with God’s Spirit, and with ourselves, thinking through what it means to be a believer. It’s not enough to say, through our lack of thoughtful preparation, that “You should believe because I do.”

Rather, we’ve got to be able to say “I believe, and here’s why”, rightly “dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). And we should do so “with gentleness and respect” (v.15 NIV).