Teaching | Understanding 2 Peter: Make Every Effort (2 Peter 1:1-15)

How would you respond if God revealed to you the manner of your death? You’d probably lose a lot of sleep. For most of us death exists as an abstract concept that happens to people “out there”. But for Peter his death loomed large over his life. Listen to Jesus’s words to Peter in the gospel of John, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” For Peter following Christ meant following his Lord into the clutches of death itself armed with nothing but the promise of resurrection and glory. This energized Peter’s life with urgency, an urgency that charges through this letter as he calls the young church to pursue godliness by God’s own divine power. We have in 2 Peter the final words of a great sage to the people he loves. Words of comfort, warning, and hope. Words that echo and resound throughout the ages until this very day. This is Understanding Second Peter.