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Okay we left off last week having read a whole bunch of admonitions of Peter, saying beginning at verse 5:
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
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.
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.
And then we get our text for today:
2nd Peter 1.11
January 3rd 2016
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Just so we can hear these passages from other views, here are a couple different translations of verse 10:
2nd Peter 1:10 (RSV) Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall;
2Peter 1:10 (WNT) For this reason, brethren, be all the more in earnest to make sure that God has called you and chosen you; for it is certain that so long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.
2Pe 1:10 (TCNT) Therefore, Brothers, do your best to put God’s Call and Selection of you beyond all doubt; for, if you do this, you will never fall.
2Pe 1:10 (BBE) For this reason, my brothers, take all the more care to make your selection and approval certain; for if you do these things you will never have a fall:
In the face of these translations and the difficulty of the phrases I think we need to look carefully at the words used in the Greek and see if there is an amalgamated view that would better describe Peter’s meaning than some of these.
Why bother?
Peter has plainly instructed the believers of that day to
“give all diligence to adding (to their faith) manliness, and to that knowledge, and to knowledge self control and to self control patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly love; and to brotherly love agape love” and he added:
“For if these things be in you, and abound, they will keep the adherent from being barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And he added a warning, saying:
“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”
And to top it all off he says – plainly – at verse 10
“For this reason, brethren, be all the more in earnest to make sure that God has called you and chosen you; for it is certain that so long as you practice these things, you will never fall.”
Most of my Christian life I have been told “it is impossible to fall from faith.”
Most of my Christian life I have been told that we can know that we have been elected by God – even from the moment that the election is made known.
And most of my Christian life I have been told that it is up to God to keep those who are His and yet Peter in this passage seems to set all of those phrases aside.
In fact Peter seems to be saying that in light of the fact that people who lack the things I have instructed you to pursue are blind, and that they cannot see the big picture, and have forgotten that they were purged of their former sins, that “for this reason they needed to be ALL THE MORE earnest to make sure of their “calling and their election because AS LONG as they PRACTICE the laundry list they will NEVER FALL!
So first, let’s examine the words of this passage and then the tenses etc:
“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”
Wherefore
“through which thing”
the rather
“an adverb, even moreso”
brethren
“brother”
give diligence
“earnestly, speedily, with labor”
to make
“to make”
your
calling
“an invitation”
and
“like a conjunction and”
election
election, selection, chosen
sure
stable, enforceable, firm
for
if ye do
these things
(all mentioned about by him – things)
ye shall
never ever ever
fall
trip stumble or fall or offend.
From this exercise it’s easy to see why there are so many subtle variances to the translations – many of which actually conflict with each other regarding the doctrine.
For instance, where some say:
“ be the more zealous to confirm your call”
Another says
“be all the more in earnest to make sure that God has called you and chosen you”
And another says
“do your best to put God’s Call and Selection of you”
and another says
“my brothers, take all the more care to make your selection and approval certain.”
Then we have to wonder are we
“Called and elected,” “called and selected,”
or “called and chosen”
And then we have to ask if Peter is saying that if we diligently do all of these things we will never “trip,” “stumble,” “experience a fall” or “will never fall from grace?”
No matter what we determine all I can say is that Peter seems convinced that a person can indeed slip or fall from a position of strong faith – he even wraps the epistle up in chapter three saying:
2nd Peter 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with “the error of the wicked,” fall from your own stedfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever.
Now, the whole verse is understood in the following – which will probably make the most sense to one person here in our live audience – but here is the Greek sense of the combination of words
Wherefore (dio). “Or in light of the exhortation and argument in verses 5-9.” Give the more diligence (mâllon spoudasate) “Become diligent” (first aorist ingressive active imperative of spoudazô) “To make” (poieisthai). Present middle infinitive of poieô, to make for yourselves. “Calling and election” (klêsin kai eklogên). Now here’s the interesting thing – from what I can tell. These words together give us the meaning (klêsin, “the invitation,” eklogên, our actual acceptance of the selection).
If ye do (poiountes). Present active circumstantial (conditional) participle of poieô, “doing.”
Ye shall never stumble (ou mê ptaisête pote). Strong double negative (ou mê pote) e subjunctive of ptaiô, old verb to stumble, to fall.
Consulting a bevy of scholars this is how they interpret this passage:
The Geneva Bible Notes says:
“Seeing that our calling and election is approved by those fruits, and is confirmed in us, and moreover seeing this is the only way to the everlasting kingdom of Christ, it remains that we set our minds wholly on that way.”
Adam Clarke says
Wherefore] Seeing the danger of apostasy, and the fearful end of them who obey not the Gospel, and thus receive the grace of God in vain; give all diligence, spoudasate, hasten, be deeply careful, labour with the most intense purpose of soul.
Family Bible Notes says:
Make your calling and election sure; by diligently obeying God, obtain evidence that you are chosen and born of him. Never fall; from Christ and perish.
Jamison Faussett Brown says:
Give diligence–The Greek aorist implies one lifelong effect [ALFORD].
to make–Greek middle voice; to make so far as it depends on you; to do your part towards making. “To make” absolutely and finally is God’s part, and would be in the active.
your calling and election sure–by ministering additionally in your faith virtue, and in your virtue knowledge, &c. God must work all these graces in us, yet not so that we should be mere machines, but willing instruments in His hands in making His election of us “secure.” The ensuring of our election is spoken of not in respect to God, whose counsel is steadfast and everlasting, but in respect to our part. There is no uncertainty on His part, but on ours the only security is our faith in His promise and the fruits of the Spirit (2Pe 1:5-7,11). Peter subjoins election to calling, because the calling is the effect and proof of God’s election, which goes before and is the main thing (Ro 8:28,30,33, where God’s “elect” are those “predestinated,” and election is “His purpose,” according to which He “called” them). We know His calling before His election, thereby calling is put first.
fall–Greek, “stumble” and fall finally (Ro 11:11). Metaphor from one stumbling in a race (1Co 9:24).
John Wesley said:
Wherefore-Considering the miserable state of these apostates.
Be the more diligent-By courage, knowledge, temperance, &c.
To make your calling and election firm-God hath called you by his word and his Spirit; he hath elected you, separated you from the world, through sanctification of the Spirit. O cast not away these inestimable benefits!
If ye are thus diligent to make your election firm, ye shall never finally fall.
The People’s New Testament says:
Diligence to the end is needful in order to salvation.
Calling and election. The calling is first in order; the election comes when we accept the call.
Sure. Our own efforts are needed to make them sure.
William Burkitt said:
As if our apostle had said, “See that in the diligent exercise of the afore-named graces, and in the daily practice of the afore-mentioned duties, you make your calling and election, which are sure in themselves, sure to you; for so doing, you shall never fall or miscarry eternally.”
Here note, “That it is their own calling and election which Christians are called upon to make sure, not another’s; we must leave their case and state to God that searches the heart; we cannot know the hearts of others, it is well if we know our own: Make your calling and election sure.
Learn! A Christian may be assured of his own salvation. 2. Assurance of salvation requires all diligence. 3. That assurance of salvation deserves all diligence. 4. That the way to make our election sure, is first to make our calling sure.
Matthew Henry (a Reformed believer) said:
The apostle proposes two particular advantages that will attend or follow upon diligence in the work of a Christian: stability in grace, and a triumphant entrance into glory.
(1.) It is the duty of believers to make their election sure, to clear it up to themselves that they are the chosen of God.
(2.) It requires a great deal of diligence and labor to make sure our calling and election; there must be a very close examination of ourselves, a very narrow search and strict enquiry, whether we are thoroughly converted, our minds enlightened, our wills renewed, and our whole souls changed as to the bent and inclination thereof; and to come to a fixed certainty in this requires the utmost diligence, and cannot be attained and kept without divine assistance, as we may learn from Ps 139:23; Ro 8:16.
When others shall fall into heinous and scandalous sin, those who are thus diligent shall be enabled to walk circumspectly and keep on in the way of their duty; and, when many fall into errors, they shall be preserved sound in the faith, and stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
I couldn’t find commentary by Spurgeon, but let me add this one from a commentary called the Teacher’s Commentary which says:
“Your calling and election sure. All Christians have been called, but they must work out their salvation.”
Of course this falls hand in hand with Paul’s words in Philippians 2:12 which says
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
If we stop for a minute and look at the paradoxical nature of these passages listen again.
Paul begins with:
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
Which makes it sound like it is entirely up to us to work out the ways and means of our respective salvation.
But that verse is followed up in the very next verse with:
Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Which makes it seem like it is God that is doing the work in and through us in the first place and properly aligns how this working out of our salvation ought to look. But then in the very next verse Paul adds:
14 “Do all things without murmurings and disputings.”
Which again places orders or commands upon the believer to do (or not to do) in order to be acceptable.
So on the one hand we cannot deny that we have verses that clearly state that we are in charge of how we respond to the Holy Spirit within us.
There is SOO much talk about how God does what He wants through us and we, as His elect, are simply going to do His will.
So much of this that we have gone and submitted to an almost automaton philosophy of God electing who He would and nothing on earth can change this.
Yet in looking at the life of even Christ we can’t help but note He made choices.
At least we can assume He was making the choices to live by the Spirit rather than the flesh. And this process was tantamount to suffering.
We remember Hebrews 5:8-9
“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”
I understand the theoretical and even scriptural ideas of God electing and God causing. But passages like the one in question today trouble me to no end and I cannot help but believe every believing person – called by God – chooses to receive the call (and is therefore elected) AND that all of us have a choice to then live by the Spirit or live by the flesh.
Whether or not Peter was suggesting that believers can fall from grace or salvation or if he was just describing someone who slips from being steadfast in their walk to being slovenly and unfruitful remains to be seen.
But I think we are truly being ignorant if we allow ourselves to think that honest to goodness believers never slip or trip or fall in steadfastness.
For this reason I am convinced that this is Peter’s meaning.
I think he is saying that as a means to ensure that a believer does not stumble in their walk the things He has suggested are an excellent means to protect oneself.
If those who read His recommendations do them they will never slip back from the steadfastness of faith in which they were presently walking and in never slipping back they will make their calling and election sure to THEMSELVES.
Finally, and much to the behest of other sound believers, I am convinced that the redemption of Man is a two way street.
In light of scripture – both micro specific examples and macro themes – I cannot for the life of me look to the heavens and believe that God does not respect our moral agency and freedom to do what we will.
I am convinced that in and through the exercise of human agency that those who truly love Go truly prove it – similar to Adam and Eve who were given an opportunity to relate to God freely and lovingly or to do their own will.
So where Christ certainly saved the world from sin, just as God certainly created a garden without sin, each and all of us have the ability to freely love and receive all the gifts offered to us – or to reject them.
By accepting Him freely, and choosing to love Him we step out of the reign of our flesh and allow Him to bring us through this life by the Spirit.
The instructions Peter and Paul and Jesus give are insights on how we both get out of God’s way AND how we allow Him to reign Spiritually over our natural inclinations.
“Do these things,” Peter says, “and you won’t stumble in your flesh. And you will make the calling – extended to you by God – and your election –sure in your own minds.
I find this approach supported by Paul when he wrote in Ephesians 4:1-3:
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Earlier, in Romans 9:11 Paul explained the election Peter refers to saying:
(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Truly God does the electing, but this does not seem to mean that the elected – once elected – are not expected to respond.
“The Elected are Expected to be Corrected.”
And this seems to be at the heart of Peter’s message –
“Retain and know of your election and calling by allowing yourselves to be corrected by God through the Spirit, which will manifest itself in you as you submit to letting
Manliness
knowledge;
temperance;
patience;
godliness;
brotherly love
love for all abide
The circular argument is always:
“Those who have truly been elected will respond to such things.”
And it is on this point where I stop and wonder. Certainly God elects who He will elect and it seems that those who truly do love Him will respond, but there are far to many warnings in scripture to believers, to the elect, about tripping and falling and even walking from salvation to believe that election and calling are synonymous with certainty of performance.
Perhaps we get better insight from the Greek word translated “sure” here.
I say this because the terms can mean stable. And if we read the passage this way:
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election “stable or steadfast” for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
It makes better sense. And again, it cannot be referring to God, that we make our calling or election stable or sure to God because it does not seem to be that we can do something to make our salvation more certain on His part so the reference must relate to making our salvation sure on ours – internally.
We might put it this way. If we were a branch stemming out from a vine, and had no concept of self – meaning as a branch alone we could not find any real identifiers of who or what we were growing out from, then the only way to really know what type of branch we were (and from what vine we came) would be by the fruit we bore.
This fruit would tell us we are His. And so Peter is saying to bear these fruitful characteristics and in so doing we would never stumble or fall from the knowledge that we have been called and elected.
The Syriac, the Vulgate, and some Greek manuscripts all insert here the expression “by your good works,” that is, they were to make their calling sure by their good works, or by holy living, which would prove to them who they were.
Calvin maintained that these additions are not authorized by the best authority in scripture but it does not materially affect the sense.
This was the message of James 2 – by the fruit of our love we would prove the presence of our election.
If we think about it God has not really given us any assurances or signs that we have been elected. There are plenty of very bad and apparently unregenerate people who believe they are God’s elect.
We don’t get a voice, or vision, or new revelation, to prove that we are elect. It is hard to really rely on internal feelings.
Our sense and intellects are certainly prone to self-aggrandizement.
So for ourselves – and frankly when we look at the lives and professions of others, the only INDICATORS are the fruits of the Spirit that bear the image of Christ that we can say we are His.
I think we have to conclude that Peter believed in the doctrine of election. He uses the language here in the verse.
We also have to admit that just because God has chosen those who shall be saved, does not mean we can lay there producing nothing and know within ourselves that this is the case.
Peter does seem to suggest that it is entirely possible to make our OWN calling and election sure and that this is accomplished through our abiding in the characteristics named in verse 5-7.
And if this can be accomplished in this life, it should be. Perhaps there is nothing more important for us to pursue than to know that we have been elected and called, that proof of this comes by and through His bearing fruits through us, that we recognized these fruits as being Him in us (and not of ourselves) and than in and through this recognition we can personally know we are tapped into the vine and are His.
We have to note that Peter does write:
“For if ye do these things.” (if we do the things referred to in the previous verses).
We will never fall – whether it be stumble temporarily or into perdition I cannot tell – and the scholars cannot agree.
And then he adds at verse 11:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
For so an entrance. Again, language that seems to intimate that our admittance inot the Kingdom of God is predicated on what we do (or allow to be done) within us.
“In this manner you shall be admitted into the kingdom of God.”
“For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
This is interesting because the admittance (in the case of those who embrace or allow these characteristics to flow through them to producing abundant spiritual fruit) is described as “an abundant” entrance.
“One that is richly bestowed upon us.”
“A most ample entrance.”
No doubt of admission.
This isn’t the first time in scripture that admission into heaven is described in terms of scale – that some apparently squeeze in while others have the gates thrown wide to receive them.
It’s really simple to teach that the gates remain at one width and heighth and breadth but from these descriptions its hard to support such a thought.
Maybe, just for fun, the gates of heaven open up and only allow for characteristics of the spirit to enter through.
So if we’re heaving a back-pack full of fleshly attributes and attitudes the gates won’t open at all.
But if we are obese in characteristics of the Spirit, fat with love and faith and patience, and hope, and selflessness etc, that the gates open as wide as necessary to allow our corpulent selves into the eternal kingdom.
And maybe those bearing backpacks of this world will first have to have them rubbed off in a fiery lake of God’s spirit.
Don’t know.
All we do know, however, is there are very few certainties in all of this except that the more we embrace and allow the characteristics of the Spirit to abide and thrive in us, the more stable and steadfast our calling and election will be AND the less chance we will stumble, stammer or fall.
Q and A
