2 Peter 2
If you think that we are the first
people to feel like the world is moving in the wrong direction, re-read 2 Peter
2. The tension of living as God’s children in a world that is in rebellion
against Him can (and should) be uncomfortable. We are never quite at home here,
knowing that Jesus has prepared an eternal home for us.
The thought of God’s judgment on the
world is a difficult thing for us, too. We want to hear that everyone lives
happily ever after, and that it all turns out well in the end. That just isn’t
the reality.
The truth is that God’s enemies abound
in this world. We, too, have been among them, but, thanks be to God have been set
free by God’s grace – for He knows how to rescue us from trials. His enemies
have infiltrated the church on earth secretly bringing in destructive heresies –
many of which would have us try to know God apart from His Word, twist His Word
to fit our opinions, deny the parts of God’s Word that we don’t like, and put
ourselves over the Scriptures as the final judge of what is true.
The message of this world and its false
prophets is a promise of freedom. By this they mean freedom to do what you
want, to eat what you want, to live how you want, to love whom you want, to
amass what you want. The irony is that while they promise freedom, the
messengers of this world are actually enslaved to their own passions and sins.
This is a harsh fact: Apart from Christ we cannot not sin. Read
that last sentence again carefully. The grammar is awkward. Apart from the
rescue we have in Jesus we naturally and only sin. Oh, we imagine that we do
good, or that the noble deeds people do should count for something in God’s
eyes. They don’t.
There is only one way to escape the
defilement of the world and that is through the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. It is only by believing in Him that we can know that we
have been rescued from this world and our sin. The result of this is that we
hold only to Jesus, and trust that any good we do is because we are forgiven.
Lord God, help me to live in this world
clinging only to Jesus. I trust no worldly promise of freedom, no good work of
my own, but only Jesus’ blood shed for me to make me truly righteous in Your
eyes. Amen.
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