Be established in the present truth

2 Peter
{1:1} Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ
{1:2} Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord
{1:3} According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,

**We're not left to flounder. According to the divine power we are given ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness. We get all these thing through knowledge...

{1:3}...through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

**Knowledge of Jesus. The more we know of Jesus the more we know about how we are to live. We are called to live our lives in Jesus, not just accept Him as our savior and then go about out lives as if nothing has changed. We often despair of being able to live in Christ but we are given all we need to do so. We can't ever think we know enough of Jesus, that we've learned all there is to learn. We'll never know all there is to know even if we read the Bible a million time and memorize it backwards and forwards. Forever we need to delve into His words, His life, pray to Him, live in Him accept His Holy Spirit to guide us in our lives as a reality, not as something mystical and sort of real in an abstract way.


{1:4} Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

**
Precious promises in the knowledge of Jesus. Precious promises that through them we are part of the divine nature. We can escape the corruption in the world but only through knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.


{1:5} And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge
{1:6} And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness
{1:7} And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
{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.

Add to our faith- virtue.
Add to our virtue- knowledge.
Add to knowledge- temperance.
Add to temperance- patience.
Add to patience- godliness.
Add to godliness- brotherly kindness.
Add to brotherly kindness- charity.

We have to ADD these, we have to seek these, we have to pointedly bring into our lives through our love of Jesus. We should never be content with who we are if we lack any of these things...


{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.

**
We can't be this way, we can't forget that we were purged from our old sins, that we've been forgiven, that we've been offered a new life in Christ. If we're not growing in these things we have to examine our lives and ask ourselves why.

Are we seeking to strengthen our faith, our virtue, our knowledge, our patience, our godliness, our brotherly kindness, our charity?

Examine your life, we all have to examine our lives and realize that if we're found lacking that it might be because we don't remember how we were first saved by Jesus, how we first came to knowledge of our Lord, our redeemer. The new man we become in Christ as we seek forgiveness through repentance and seek to follow Him, we have to keep this ever before us, never forgetting.


{1:10} Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall
{1:11} For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
{1:12} Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. {1:13} Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance

People shout that you can't do anything to be save and I've said it before and I'll say it million times, they're right. Salvation is a gift of God, through that salvation we find hope in Christ to eternal life and that hope changes us through the Holy Spirit. We can't get caught up in thinking our walk with Christ ends the moment of acceptance, it's only just begun in truth. We have a responsibility not to save ourselves or think we do by anything we may do, but to seek Christ now and always and grow in grace, grow in knowledge, and to be fruitful in all that Jesus would have us be as we come to know Him more and more.

Amen.

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,”- 2 Peter 3:10-11