Study 70

Everything we need

I’d always loved 2 Peter chapter 1. Then one day I read it in the NIV translation and was particularly struck by the words of verse 3: ‘His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness’. I left my desk, went outside and walked up and down the street repeating the phrase again and again. What a statement! What a magnificent promise to every Christian!

Make every effort

Life is often quite a challenge and godliness seems totally out of reach. But this promise tells us that the Lord has given us everythingwe need bothfor life and godliness. Peter goes on to speak of the precious and magnificent promises that God in his grace has given us, telling us that through them we escape the world’s corruption and become partakers of the divine nature. It’s a breathtaking passage.

Perhaps to our surprise these verses are immediately followed by some serious D.I.Y. We receive amazing grace and breathtaking promises but are not told simply to relax and let God act. Rather, we’re exhorted, ‘For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith…’ (2 Pet. 1:5). We must give equal weight to both phrases.

First, ‘For this very reason’. God has been good to us and has extended amazing favour to us. He’s given us his great and precious promises. Peter exhorts us to press on not because life is difficult and there’s not much help available, but because we have everything we need.

Second, ‘make every effort’. Many Christians drift through life disappointed with their personal fulfilment or enjoyment. At the conclusion of many church gatherings they’re often seen at the front seeking someone to pray for them to resolve their problems. It hasn’t occurred to them that the reason for their disappointment may be this: they’re not obeying Peter’s exhortation: ‘make every effort’. They’ve simply succumbed to lethargy.

Don’t be a sluggard

I remember how surprised I was when I first noted that ‘The sluggard craves and gets nothing’ (Prov. 13:4). It never occurred to me that the sluggard wanted anything anyway, but he actually craves things. Many an ‘if only’ drifts through his undisciplined mind! He wants success, but he doesn’t want it enough to take action. ‘Making every effort’ doesn’t feature in his plans. We read, ‘As the door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed’ (Prov. 26:14). Derek Kidner comments, ‘He is more than anchored to his bed. He is hinged to it!’ (Derek Kidner, Proverbs, IVP, 1972).

Grace isn’t meant to produce horizontal ‘bed-fond’ Christians. It’s meant to liberate and motivate, to put a spring in our step and hope in our heart. It sets us free to take action. It inspires D.I.Y. confident that we can succeed, confident that lives previously devastated and ruined by sin can now be built into something for the glory of God. So beware of distorting grace and failing to grasp its wonderful liberating power. Beware the danger of passivity and of blaming God for the way things seem to work out.

When I pass through airports I’m extremely grateful for the moving walkways – particularly if I have a heavy case with me. I can just relax and let the machinery carry me and my luggage along. Sometimes, however, the walkway actually takes me to my bags. So when I’ve got nothing to carry I enjoy striding along, stretching legs that have been confined on the journey and taking advantage of the momentum. And I regard with curiosity those able bodied people who simply stand and let the equipment do the work. Why be stationary when by making the effort you can gain full advantage of the provision?

To Meditate On

Laziness is a choice.

‘Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry’ (Prov. 19:15).

‘The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth’ (Prov. 26:15).

‘If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks’ (Eccles. 10:18).

‘We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised’ (Heb. 6:12).

Food For Thought

What are we exhorted to ‘make every effort to do’?
Romans 14:19; Ephesians 4:3; Hebrews 12:14; 2 Peter 3:5-7; 3:14.

To Learn

Learn 2 Peter 1:3.

To Consider

Read Matthew 25:14-30.

What were the first two servants commended for?
What was their reward?
Why was the third servant rebuked?
What was his excuse?
What other excuses do Christians make for not ‘making every effort’ to serve God?
Are these excuses valid?

To Be Inspired

‘So many people fail and become miserable and depressed simply because they have not taken themselves in hand. You will have to do it yourself. It will never be done for you, indeed, nobody else can do it for you … pull yourself together, don’t shuffle through your Christian life, walk through it as you should do with vigour, add to it that kind of strength and power. Do not be a languid Christian who always gives the impression that he or she is on the point of swooning and fainting and might fail at any moment.’

(D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, Its Causes and Cure, Pickering and Inglis Ltd, 1965).