THE BLESSING BESTOWED UPON BELIEVERS THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD (2 Peter 1)

THE BLESSING BESTOWED UPON BELIEVERS THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD (2 Peter 1)

The theme of this letter is “Faithfulness in a Day of Apostasy.” The three chapters form three distinct divisions.

    Chapter 1.—The blessings bestowed upon believers through the righteousness of God.

    Section 1: Vers. 1–11.—Blessings received and growth in grace.

    Section 2: Vers. 12–21.—The hope of the coming kingdom.

    Chapter 2.—Increasing apostasy, and the call to faithfulness.

    Section 1: Vers. 1–10.—Lessons from the past for the present age.

    Section 2: Vers. 11–17.—Characteristics of apostate teachers.

    Section 3: Vers. 18–22.—Turning away from the truth to the false philosophies of the world.

    Chapter 3.—Looking on to the culmination.

    Section 1: Vers. 1–7.—Forgetting the past and denying the future.

    Section 2: Vers. 8–14.—The day of the Lord and the day of God.

    Section 3: Vers. 15–18.—A final warning.

We should be very grateful to God that He has given such a faithful portrayal of conditions which He foresaw from the first, in order that we might not be disheartened when these things actually developed in the professing Church.

The very righteousness of God demands that faith be extended to all men. This is the very opposite of what some High Calvinists teach. They would have us believe that faith itself is a gift which God grants only to a limited number; that all men have not faith because it is not the will of God that they should have it. This is the very opposite of the teaching of the Holy Scriptures. God desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. The reason that some men have not faith is that they will not give heed to the Word, and “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Where men are ready to hear, God can be depended upon to see that they obtain this precious gift of faith. It would be unrighteous in Him to do otherwise. - H. A. IRONSIDE  

Faith is like the acorn—a living faith, that should characterize us as devoted Christians. So Peter says, “Have in your faith virtue.” The virtue of which he speaks here is not simply chastity, as some might think, but it is really valor, which is the outstanding virtue of a soldier, and we are called to be soldiers of Christ. Then he adds, “And in virtue knowledge.” There can be no proper growth without a deepened understanding of spiritual realities. “In knowledge temperance,” or self-control. A Christian who gives way to evil tempers, or careless habits of any kind, is not growing in grace in self-control. “In temperance patience”—that which enables one to endure without complaining, even though exposed to circumstances that are very distasteful to the natural man. “In patience godliness,” which is really “God-likeness,” or true piety, as we have seen in considering the First Epistle. In godliness we will have brotherly kindness—consideration for all who belong, through the grace of God, to the Christian brotherhood. Last of all he adds, “In brotherly kindness charity,” or “love.” This is the full fruitage of faith, for Paul tells us that faith worketh by love (Gal. 5:6). - H. A. IRONSIDE  

Scripture leaves no room whatever for the doctrine of the sleep of the soul, but only the sleep of the body until the Lord Jesus returns, when the dead will be raised and the living changed (1 Thess. 4:15–17). - H. A. IRONSIDE 

  It is intended by God to illumine our paths and give light in our souls until the day dawn, and the day star arise at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is all important, then, that we give heed to that which has been revealed in the prophetic scriptures; but on the other hand, we need to be careful lest we take some of these scriptures out of their connection and endeavor to interpret them according to specific incidents, rather than in accordance with the entire plan of God, as revealed in His Word. - H. A. IRONSIDE  

Peter had in mind, the folly of taking some portion of the prophetic Word and endeavoring to apply it to some special circumstances, while failing to note its context and its connection with the general trend of prophecy as a whole. This is a snare to which many students of prophecy have been exposed, and numbers of them have failed at this very point. It means much to see that prophecy is one whole, and “known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18); and “the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved (or borne along) by the Holy Ghost.” H. A. IRONSIDE