Remember to Practice Righteousness (Rev. Jim Wood, ICI Missionay to Hong Kong)

6 years, now, since God sent Linda & Jim to Hong Kong to train & equip Chinese ministers. Access to materials & ministers allows to aid in spread of the Gospel. November is next training session for approved cell pastors.

2 Peter 1:3-11
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-11 NLT)

"Christian Atheists" is a book Greg Rochelle, by a pastor who has observed this tendency to live as the godless , despite protestations of faith. 2 Tim 3:1-5, "Form of godliness, denying the power thereof."

Chapter 1
2 False teachers take hold of this tendency and developed followings. Rampant problem in China. A/G Supt is trying to find a way to divert these teachers.

The whole book is about, "Remembering." In 3:1, Peter tells he wants to stimulate us to Holy thinking.

2 Peter 3 breaks down like this - God is source of power, vv 3-4; command to righteousness, vv 5-7; ?, vv 8-9; ?, vv 10-11. Verse 3 is the key.

Verse 3 - We have been given:
1) Eternal Life - His divine power gives us eternal life, which began @ new birth. John 5:24, 8:51
2) Knowledge of God -
3) Great & Precious Promises -
Eugene Peterson, "Eat This Book," Uses anecdote of dog lavishing bone he found in the woods. Image of how we are to consume the Word - savor & meditate on the Word.

Command of verse 5 - "For this reason," refers back to vv 3-4, what God has done for us. Practice & pursue Godly excellence.

1) practice Goodness - be surgically clean in moral excellence.
2) Pursue Knowledge - moral insight & understanding.
3) Self-control
4) Perseverance
5) Godliness
6) Brotherly Kindness
"If you are not pressing ahead, you are being pulled back by corruption.

If a law student does not practice law, is he a lawyer? Similarly, a Christian who does not practice righteousness is not truly a Christian. Don't make peace with sin in your life - make war.

Vv 8-9 - Practice of righteousness keeps one from wasting faith & abandoning salvation.

James 2:26 - Faith without works is dead. 2 Peter 2:20 ff - anecdote of those who fall away from faith. "And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.” (2 Peter 2:20-22 NLT)

Vv 10-11 Godly living insures an eternal life, as evidence of our faith. Luke 11:21 - Not all who profess faith are if the faith.

Not miracles, but godly living is the mark of a Spirit-filled life.

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