Nov. 22, 2009
Background Scripture: 2 Peter 1:3-15
Devotional Reading: Luke 19:12-26

Studying our text for today, I remembered a day in the mid-1960s while driving my sons, Kevin and Todd, to the Philadelphia Zoo. Every few minutes, it seemed, they wanted to know: “Have we reached Philadelphia yet?” That is my question for you today.

Last week I said that although salvation may be a transaction, it also involves a process: growth in Christ, sanctification in the Spirit. We are not saved by that growth, but salvation is always accompanied by it: “For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love” (2:5-7).

So, how far are you in that process of growth? Have you grown in virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love? Are you more in control of your words and actions, more dependent upon God’s grace, closer to Christ, more loving toward those who seem “unlovable?”

Remember, Philadelphia means, “city of brotherly love.” So, have you reached Philadelphia yet?

Forgetting grace

This epistle speaks of “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2:2), “the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2:3) and “in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2:8). Without this knowledge, we are “blind and shortsighted” and forget that we have been “cleansed” from our “old sins.”

This knowledge is not so much knowing things about Christ, but knowing him personally, as a companion, example and source of strength for our lives. And if he is to be our Savior, it must be as one who has saved us, is saving us and will save us in the days ahead.

In some of the workshops Valere and I have conducted, we have asked participants to draw on a graph a depiction of their spiritual lives. Some people draw charts that depict their spiritual lives going onward and upward. But others indicate with virtually flat-line depictions that their personal knowledge of Christ is pretty much at the same level it has always been.

A disciple of Jesus who does not grow is not a disciple. What hinders us from growing as followers of Christ?

This epistle suggests one reason may be that many have forgotten that they were “cleansed from old sins” (2:9). These “old sins” were those committed prior to their baptism (as adults). They became Christians by agreeing to be washed of those sins and that was no small gift from God. But they forget that gift and, not appreciating much, they do not grow much.

Forgetting our call

Christians who forget their call and election by God are also not very zealous. Perhaps they forget that all that we need to live a sanctified and growing life in Christ is what God already has provided for us: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence …” (2:3).

Twenty years ago, Valere and I wrote a book, What You Need is What You’ve Got.* Its theme: God has placed within us all the resources that we need to live a full and productive life. Instead of looking to pills, technologies and answers outside ourselves, we need to discover and develop what God places within us. The development of those gifts is part of the evolution to which God calls us.

So, have you reached Philadelphia yet?
*Samuel Weiser, Inc. 1989
 
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.