The Day of the Lord
Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
My Understanding: Peter said that he wrote both of his letters to the believers as reminders to “stimulate” them to wholesome thinking. To stimulate someone means “to encourage something such as an activity or a process so that it will begin, increase, or develop; to cause somebody to become interested in or excited about something; or to cause somebody to become more alert or active” (Encarta). This is why the Lord woke me with the song, “Lord, Move Me,” because it is about asking the Lord to stimulate us, i.e. to arouse in us a desire and an interest and the motivation to worship the Lord only, to long for the Lord and for his word, to walk with the Lord in faithful obedience, to serve the Lord with joy, to hear what he says, to love and obey him, and to follow him wherever he leads us. Sometimes we need to be stimulated toward a closer walk with the Lord Jesus.
Peter said he wrote the reminders to stimulate them to “wholesome thinking.” Wholesome means “healthy; nourishing; sensible; honest; practical; helpful; decent; moral; and upright. This is how we are supposed to think, and what we think is directly impacted by the things we take into our minds. If we are taking in the garbage of the world, that is what we will think about. We can’t have wholesome thinking if we feed our minds with the things of this world that are unwholesome. It is hard enough to have wholesome thoughts when we don’t take any garbage into our minds, let alone try to have decent and moral thoughts if what we are feeding our minds, via TV, movies, music and the like, is filled with moral filth, things that are dishonest, and indecent. So, the first thing we have to do is to remove from our lives any sources of unwholesomeness that we are allowing into our minds, as much as is within our power to do so, that is. And, then we need to begin to fill our minds with the things of God and with his word so that our minds can think about the right kinds of things.
The Times in Which we Live
Included in this wholesome (honest, practical and helpful) thinking is the understanding of the times in which we now live, and the kinds of things and people we are up against as believers in Jesus Christ. The Bible warns us much against false teachers, deceivers, liars, and following men, etc. So, we can’t go around with blinders on, refusing to hear any of these warnings, if we are to have the right kind of thinking and responding to our world around us. God wants to tell us what is happening in our world today and how it fits with the prophecy of scripture if we will listen. There are many scoffers in our day, too, who are following after their own evil desires. Remember that many of these are liars and deceivers, so we need to pray for much discernment so that we are not deceived, and so that we don’t buy into their lies. They will mock prophecy of scripture with regard to coming judgment and the rise of a one world government, and they will think they will never see such a time, and that it does not apply to them. Peter says that such men deliberately forget the power of God as displayed in creation and in the flood that destroyed the earth, and through which only 8 people were saved. And, they refuse to acknowledge the fact that God has in store for us a day of judgment when he will destroy the earth with fire.
Peter, thus, refutes these scoffers and exhorts the followers of Christ to not forget that the Lord doesn’t keep time like we do. With him a day can be like a thousand years. He is not slow in keeping his promises as some might think. He has not yet brought about this day of judgment because of his grace, mercy, kindness and compassion toward mankind in that he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Notice the wording here, especially if you are of the belief that repentance is not necessary for salvation. Peter said that God is not willing that any should perish, but that they should come to repentance, meaning obviously that repentance is what keeps them from perishing, though not repentance alone. It is by God’s grace that we are saved because Jesus Christ died on the cross in putting our sins to death, and because he was resurrected back to life in conquering death, hell, Satan and sin. He gives us this gift of eternal life to all who believe, yet even the ability to believe and repent of sin are gifts from God. It is the Holy Spirit of God who works the change in our hearts as we cooperate with that work. All we have to do is to appropriate to our lives what Jesus Christ already did for us by cooperating with his work of heart transformation. The Bible is real clear on the fact that repentance and obedience to Christ are necessary requirements for salvation, so don’t be fooled!
Reality Check
Included in this “wholesome thinking,” thus, is the belief and understanding that we really are going to face a time of great tribulation on this earth at which time God will judge the earth and its inhabitants, and believers in Jesus Christ really will be persecuted and put to death for their faith in Christ, even here in America. God is going to really judge people and decide their ultimate fate for eternity based upon whether or not they truly believed in and followed Jesus Christ with their lives or not. We can’t go about life as if it is one big party after another and put on our blinders and forget that a day of judgment is going to come and people really are going to be in eternal punishment in a lake of fire for eternity. We can’t spend our lives making nice with the world and befriending the world without caring enough that people’s eternal destiny is at stake. We are called to come out from the world, and we are called to be lights to the world for the gospel. We have a job to do in reaching people with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we need to be about doing it.
So, we need a reality check. If prophecy of scripture is true, which it is, and a time of judgment is really coming, which it is, then what kind of people should we be? How should we be living our lives? We ought to be living holy (set apart for God; upright) and godly lives as we look forward to the Lord’s return and speed the day of his coming. We ought to be living like we really believe what the Bible teaches about eternity, and we should be sharing the love of Jesus and his gospel with the world around us, because one day we are all going to come before God and many are going to hear, “I never knew you. Depart from me.” We should live as though we really don’t belong on this earth and as though we really are strangers and aliens here, instead of living like this world is our home and that we are supposed to live for its pleasures and fulfillment. We should live as though we are looking forward to the day when we are with Jesus forever. If we ignore him while we are on the earth, why would we want to be with him in eternity? We should live with eternity’s values in view, instead of the values that this world has to offer us, which will perish.
On Guard
We need to be on our guard, not only against false teaching, but against the subtle lies and deceptions of the enemy which try to convince us that it is really ok to have a little “poop” in our brownies, and it doesn’t hurt anything. We have to guard against lying to ourselves and against putting on blinders to the things we don’t want to hear, and we don’t want to accept, because they mess with our comfortable lifestyles. We have to guard against becoming one with the world and thinking that the way to win people to Christ is by making nice with the world. I am not saying we should not be kind to people. I am saying that the Bible tells us we are not to make friends with the world, i.e. we are not to conform to the likeness of the world and we are not to act and talk like the world so that the world will accept us and like us. We are to be lights for the gospel, which means the world should hate us, not embrace us. We need to guard against watered-down gospel messages that negate our need to repent of our sins, and we need to guard against becoming followers of men instead of followers of Christ, or followers of the teachings of men over following the word of God. If we don’t guard against these things, then we might easily be caught up in them and be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from our secure position, i.e. from a pure, unadulterated (not living in spiritual adultery) relationship with Jesus Christ.
Instead, we are to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ. The way we do this is through spending time with the Lord each day in prayer and in his word, listening to what he says, and then doing what he teaches us one day and one moment at a time. If we fail, we confess our sin, we turn from it, and we continue on in walking in faith and obedience. None of us is perfect, but that should never be used as an excuse for willful sin. Jesus Christ died so that we no longer have to live in bondage to sin. He conquered sin and he can conquer it in our lives, too, if we cooperate with him in his work in transforming our hearts and minds to conform us to the image of Christ. Jesus said that if anyone was to follow him, he should take up his cross (dying to self and sin) daily and follow him.
To follow Christ means to obey him and his commands and to follow his example for how to live out our daily lives on this earth. Jesus was not “one of the boys.” He didn’t just hang out with people and do the things they do so that they would like him and think he was a nice guy. He told us the truth about our sin, about our need to repent and obey, and he told us that a day is coming when God will judge. If we truly want to love people the way Jesus loves us, we will tell them the truth about their eternal destiny, and we will call them to faith in Jesus Christ, i.e. to turn from their sins and to turn to walk with Jesus in humble surrender and obedience to his will. May we all take this to heart, and may we all allow Jesus to stimulate us to “wholesome thinking” and to have him move us to follow him today.
Lord, Move Me / An Original Work / October 16, 2011
Be my desire, my heart set on fire,
Lord, move me to worship You only, I pray.
Fill with Your Spirit, my heart overflow.
Lord, may I long for You; Your word to know.
Teach me to walk with You, Lord, in Your power,
And may I serve You, Lord, right now in this hour.
Lord, how I want to obey You forever.
Help me to hear You, Lord, so I will not stray.
Teach me to love You; adore You always.
Envelope me, Lord, with Your grace today.
Meet me in my need, and show me Your mercy.
Forgive me for all things, as I humbly pray.
Counsel me, lead me, direct me, and guide me,
So I follow You, Lord, where’er You lead now.
I love to hear You speak Your words to me.
I am so grateful that You set me free.
Wash me, and cleanse me, and make me like You, Lord,
And I will live with You for eternity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-0kezkuEg
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