Agnostic is a person who says it isn’t possible to know God. For some, this seems intellectually honest, but, in fact, it is a hopeless dilemma. The one thing agnostics believe is that it isn’t possible to believe. That takes a lot of faith. The apostle Peter was a fisherman, not an intellectual. But he was very, very sure about what he believed. The reason? He had seen the risen Christ (John 21:1-25). When you think about it, that’s the only thing that could explain why a bunch of powerless, uneducated disciples could all of a sudden become fearless evangelists, willing to suffer and sacrifice their lives. If they knew the Resurrection wasn’t true, they would have backed off But they couldn’t because they had seen Jesus alive again.
So what was Peter so sure about? The first thing was the “new birth” (1:3). Being free of our sin and reunited with God is like being born again (1:23; see also John 3:5-8). It’s a new life. The second thing is a “living hope” (1:3). Because Jesus is alive, we have real hope, not just fairy tales to help us get to sleep night. No matter what happens in this world, we can have the solid assurance that someday we’ll be with Jesus forever.
Because of that, we should be “strangers” to the evil ways of this world (2:11). Instead, we should focus on Jiving self-controlled, loving, and holy lives (1:13-16,22), even if we have to suffer or if everything goes wrong. And. we can always rejoice because the Big Story has a happy ending for all who believe in Jesus Christ, and nothing can change that (1:4). In the meantime, we gain strength and support from knowing that we are part of the church -- not a building, but “a people belonging to God” (2:9-10) with the living Christ as our leader. The Good News is that Jesus makes hope possible.
Week 19 (Wed.), Reading 93: Be Holy -- 2 Peter 1:13-2:12
Click here for today’s reading: https://www.biblestudytools.com/1-peter/1.html
Agnostic is a person who says it isn’t possible to know God. For some, this seems intellectually honest, but, in fact, it is a hopeless dilemma. The one thing agnostics believe is that it isn’t possible to believe. That takes a lot of faith. The apostle Peter was a fisherman, not an intellectual. But he was very, very sure about what he believed. The reason? He had seen the risen Christ (John 21:1-25). When you think about it, that’s the only thing that could explain why a bunch of powerless, uneducated disciples could all of a sudden become fearless evangelists, willing to suffer and sacrifice their lives. If they knew the Resurrection wasn’t true, they would have backed off But they couldn’t because they had seen Jesus alive again.
So what was Peter so sure about? The first thing was the “new birth” (1:3). Being free of our sin and reunited with God is like being born again (1:23; see also John 3:5-8). It’s a new life. The second thing is a “living hope” (1:3). Because Jesus is alive, we have real hope, not just fairy tales to help us get to sleep night. No matter what happens in this world, we can have the solid assurance that someday we’ll be with Jesus forever.
Because of that, we should be “strangers” to the evil ways of this world (2:11). Instead, we should focus on Jiving self-controlled, loving, and holy lives (1:13-16,22), even if we have to suffer or if everything goes wrong. And. we can always rejoice because the Big Story has a happy ending for all who believe in Jesus Christ, and nothing can change that (1:4). In the meantime, we gain strength and support from knowing that we are part of the church -- not a building, but “a people belonging to God” (2:9-10) with the living Christ as our leader. The Good News is that Jesus makes hope possible.
-- Whitney T. Kuniholm