Wilderness Wanderings Anthony Elenbaas and Michael Bootsma

But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. (2 Peter 1:9-15)

Pastor Michael noted the dissonance between our assumptions and reality.  We assume the Christian life is built on what we do.  But in fact, it is built instead on the “everything” from God we have received.  
Verses like the one from today’s text about “making your calling and election sure,” says exactly what we often think.  We’ve got to put in the effort or else we won’t get into the eternal kingdom of our Lord!  But that’s not quite what Peter says, nor how our Reformed tradition has understood it.  
In Q&A 86 of the Heidelberg Catechism, the question is asked why we still have to do good works if Jesus has already done everything necessary for salvation for us.  One of the four answers to that question refers to this passage and says “so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits,” which is part of Christ “restoring us by his Spirit into his image.”  In other words, as the Canons later make clear: we can indeed lose our assurance of salvation when there’s no good fruit in our lives to show for it, but we cannot lose the thing itself.  God’s sovereign choosing in his calling and his election are sure.
That said—the Catechism and the Canons say right along with Peter that we must still do good works.  Or said better—that we get to do good works because of all the good Jesus has done for us.  This is the whole thrust of the Gospel, that the power of God is at work transforming us to become like Jesus in all the virtues we’ve discussed.  God has acted, and we get to respond!  God has given, and we get to receive!  But precisely because none of it is “required” in order to finish up our salvation—we have to be continually reminded of what we’ve received, lest we take the inheritance for granted and forget to act on it.
Remember, remember, remember.  Peter drums away at the theme.  Do not be one who becomes blind, “forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins” (v.9).  “So I will always remind you of these things even though you know them…” “I think it right to refresh your memory….” “And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things” (vv. 12, 13, 15).
I am often struck by how much of our journey of following Jesus and becoming like him boils down to remembering.  Rarely in the Old Testament are people defiantly idolatrous or disobedient.  More often, they’ve just forgotten their God and wandered off someplace else.  Forgetfulness is the biggest problem.  Like in Judges when generations keep rising up who “knew not” the things of old.  Likewise remembering is the biggest gift—like when the book of the law was found under the reign of Josiah, or when the law was read again after the exiles returned under Ezra.  
Peter knows his scriptures.  So he not only preaches his message in the opening verses of this letter—but he tells it again, and promises to keep on doing it.  A broken record that repeats the things we already know over and over is no sin, because knowing something in the deep ways of habit and muscle memory takes exactly this: time, attention, and repeti

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. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins (2 Peter 1:8-9).
My forefathers came from Europe, in part, to escape the devastation of WW2 and build a better life for themselves and their children. Both sets of my grandparents came with eight children in tow. They did not come alone; many were immigrating from the Netherlands because Canada promised a future.
Some came with capital; others came with nothing but the shirts of their backs. They all set to work investing in this new country. They farmed and built businesses, often from scratch. Working for others, many moved up the corporate ladders, being creative, intelligent, industrious, and reliable. Many of these immigrants became successful at accumulating material goods.
Living here in the city of Hamilton, I see new immigrants coming. This country is still perceived to have opportunity for newcomers to build a future. And I truly hope it is--a haven full of opportunities for many people. But whether one came in the 1950s or are just arriving, there are no guarantees of success.
Building for financial success is not wrong. Many well-known biblical folks were wealthy: Abraham, David, Solomon, Job. They were not judged for their wealth. So, the questions I ask today, are not judgements: What are you building? What blueprints are you following? What materials are you using?
The Dutch immigrants of the 1950s generally improved their economic wellbeing. They also built church buildings and Christian schools. They developed political organizations and a labour union. All good work. But I wonder if Peter might have scratched his head a little questioning the emphases and motivations.
When we think of Christianity, we generally think of church buildings, well structured worship services, and committee meetings, hopefully short. Basically, things we have built, organized. When Peter thought of Christianity, he thought of participating in the divine nature, of adding to our faith, goodness, knowledge all the way down the list to love.
For many of us, Christianity is about what we do, what we do for God. For Peter, it was about what was received. God has given us everything we need for a godly life. We have been cleansed from our past sins and given an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4). Peter reminds us that we have been given all the tools with instruction manuals; the Christian life is learning how to use them well.
Peter asks what blueprints we are using and what kinds of material. What are we building with our lives? Are we laying up treasures in heaven through faith, goodness, knowledge…agape? We cannot lose our inheritance, but why play in a sandbox when we have been given the entire beach. I wonder if our fractured churches and families are the result of poor priorities. What good is the accumulation of worldly wealth if it crowds out the much greater wealth of treasures in God’s kingdom? Peter asks us probing questions. Let us take the time to ponder them well, lest we be near-sighted and blind.
So, as you journey on:
Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18).

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. (2 Peter 1:5-7)

Here we come to the end of the list of virtues that Peter puts out to us.  Yesterday’s word was “Philadelphia,” the word for “brotherly/sisterly love” or “mutual affection” in our translation.  Today’s word steps that up a notch by using the word for the highest form of love—that particularly Christian form of “unconditional love” that we call “agape” (ah-gah-pay).
This is the word that describes the whole of the good-news Gospel of Christianity in a nutshell.  God so loved (agape) the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.    
Agape love is God’s love.  It is unconditional love—a love that sets no pre-requisite conditions.  But is more than that.  As Mark Buchanan suggests in his book on Peter, it’s more like “unprovoked love.”  We are loved this way by God (and sometimes our parents too) out of the blue at times, and for no good reason based in our activity at all.  
Agape then is not just a love that sets no prior conditions—it is a love that actively commits to pursuing those who never could have deserved it and who might even actively resist it.  Even when our actions anger God—his commitment to love us in Jesus Christ stands firm.  Even when our actions disappoint, disregard, or demean God—God’s commitment to love us in Jesus Christ stands firm.  It is Agape love—a commitment to love that overcomes and continues to love despite absolutely everything that comes against it.    
It is only because of this Agape love of God for us that any of us can come even close to displaying this kind of counter-cultural love-commitment toward anyone else.  But it is this form of love, more so than any other virtue, that displays what it means to “be like Jesus.”  
This is why Paul says the greatest of the virtues is love in 1 Corinthians 13, and why this virtue gains such a central place in that letter as the linchpin of all Christian community and action.  It is, says Paul, one of only three things that remain into eternity of all our earthly works and virtues, and of those three, it is the greatest.
Of course—there’s a good reason that this virtue comes at the end of the list.  It is the hardest of them all to live out.  Yet it is also the clearest and most oft-repeated command given to us—by Jesus in the Gospels, and by most every New Testament author throughout the letters.  “They will know we are Christians by our love.”
There are two sides to the coin of learning to live this kind of Agape love, I think.  First—each day we must remember and believe that this is the way that God loves us—we must be grounded in the Agape love of God.  Then, second, we must seek to “go and do likewise.”  Step by step, interaction by interaction, conversation by conversation we must practice this Agape love day by day in the power of the Pentecost Spirit.  
Can we take one step further toward loving someone else in an unconditional, unprovoked way today—especially those that frustrate or disgust us?  This is the call if we are to love as God has first loved us, remembering always that when we fail, God’s own Agape love continues to hold us fast: forgiving us, setting us back on our feet, and sending us out to try it again. 
As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:
Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in the grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).
 

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection (2 Peter 1:5-7).
Since the fall into sin, we have been faced with the question, “Where is your brother?” Intuitively, we know the answer. And yet with Cain, we often reply, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). This dark thread of sibling conflict weaves its way through the Old Testament.
Consider the decades long feud between Esau and Jacob that had Jacob running for his life. Joseph’s brothers were so jealous of the special treatment he received from dad, they planned to kill him. In the end, they didn’t, but they did sell him as a slave. When they reconnected with him in the throne room of Egypt, they were petrified he would seek revenge.
There were also David’s brothers who thought he acted all high and mighty. There was deadly conflict among David’s children. God might have asked all these folks, “Where is your brother?” They would all have answered, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Into the New Testament, the rivalries continue. Now its Jesus’ disciples squabbling over which of them was the greatest. I wonder if some of Jesus’ comments aren’t in response to this long history of family feuding. His famous foot washing scene is introduced with ‘Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). It ends with Jesus’ command, “Now that I have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (13:14).
It seems clear enough that when Jesus’ followers are asked, “Where is your sister? Where is your brother?” we should be answering, “Right here with me, because I have been taking care of them.”
Our virtue for today is ‘mutual affection’. You may know it by another rendering, “philadelphia”, literally, ‘brotherly love.’ In the ancient world, it was used to describe blood brothers, sons of the same father. Maybe the phrase, ‘blood is thicker than water’, harkens back to this word. Family sticks together, always.
Philadelphia is now used to describe the relationship between fellow believers. We all have one heavenly father, drawn into His family through the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood is powerful, breaking down the dividing walls of hostility to create one new family in his body. As Jesus washed our feet, we are to wash each other’s feet. There is just no way around this, we are the keepers of our siblings. John puts it bluntly, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar” (1 John 4:20).
We have already said several times that these virtues are bracketed by faith and love. They are rooted in faith and demonstrated in love. Tomorrow we will say more about this love. For today, recall Paul’s summary, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6). Not just the nice siblings, those easy to love. Philadelphia requires us to get up close and personal where we can see the warts and wrinkles and smell the foul odours and love them still.
What will that look like for you today?
So, as you journey on:
Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18).

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings!  The texts come from Matthew 6:1-4, from the New International Version of the Bible.  Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!  To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube.  Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca
 
DIVE IN QUESTIONS
1. What stands out to you from hearing these verses?  Is God offering an invitation or a challenge to you through those words?  Take time to pray about it.
2. Jesus sometimes tells us to let our light shine before others and sometimes to do our acts of righteousness secretly.  How can we know the difference?
3. We’ve moved from the “what” to do of righteous living now to the question of “why” we do it.  What are the different motivations that people might have for “performing” their righteousness vs. doing it “secretly?”
4. Does Jesus tell us to stop seeking other rewards for giving and generosity?  What might he be saying about our desire for rewards?  What rewards ought we to desire?
5. How might you live this out this week in the ways that you give of whatever you have (time, help, money, etc.)?
 

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness… (2 Peter 1:5-6)

Today’s word is “godliness,” and it takes us right back to yesterday’s word of “perseverance.”  In particular, it takes us back to the later section of this letter that Pastor Michael quoted yesterday, where Peter writes: “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (2 Peter 3:11b-12a).  
We have a hope in Christ that keeps our eyes fixed on him, looking forward to his coming again when he will set all things right and make all things new.  In anticipation of that day, we are called to persevere—to hang on to our hope and faith through all the trials, sufferings, and everyday burdens of life.  That was what we talked about yesterday.
But now Peter says we must do more than just hang on and endure until Jesus returns—we must also live.  Not just surviving by living out a life that sources the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and work mind you, but living a life that seeks to embody the faith and hope we claim in Christ.  We “ought to live holy and godly lives as [we] look forward,” ever straining to become who God has made us to be.
For this, Peter uses the word “godliness.”  It’s a word that refers to good deeds that arise from the root of faith and the motivation of love.  It’s a word that also refers to spiritual disciplines like prayer and worship.  It also refers to a respect for the Creational boundaries and proportions that God has set for our creaturely lives in relationship to self, to others, and to him.  Most simply—it is a word that suggest we ought to become like Christ, our God.  
To become godly is to really live out that whole “What Would Jesus Do” line.  It is to respect the boundaries and fittingness of life and interactions, as Jesus did.  It is to tend our relationship with God through practices of prayer, as Jesus did.  It is to do good in this world, as Jesus did.  To do all this, not only “as” Jesus did, but “because” Jesus did.  We seek to become godly as an all-of-life act of devotion to him.  Or, as Paul puts it in Romans 12, it is offering our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is,” he says, “your true and proper worship.”  
Seeking to live a godly life is not something that we do from guilt nor something that we attempt to conjure up out of nothing by sheer force of will.  No, as Peter already told us in verse 3: God’s “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life,” and he has done so “through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
It is God’s desire and design that we should become like Christ.  He is the one who called us to be godly.  He is the one who provides, through the Spirit, all that we need to do it.  He is the one who brings this Christlike godliness to life within us when we join with him.  Finally, he is the one who gives us the hope to lead us on and to assure us that all of this will finally be accomplished: on that day when Christ comes again.  
Until then, let us “live holy and godly lives as [we] look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” 
As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:
Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).