This article could be titled, What Kind of People Ought You To Be? from Peter’s instruction on the end times. The full passage is 2 Peter 3:8-15. My summary of Peter’s message is: the Day of the Lord is coming soon and the Way of the Lord needs to guide us until he arrives. Here is the full text (NIV 1984):
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.
What kind of people ought we to be? We ought to be…
· A hopeful people. Peter doesn’t use that term, but three times he assumes we are looking forward to Jesus’ second advent. It seems that some Christians are more hopeful about recent political decisions… and other Christians have become hopeless in light of those. (To be fair, not so many months ago, those groups were reversed, generally speaking.) But Peter is speaking about the sure hope of Christ’s return and “look forward to speed its coming” (v.12). QUESTION: is your outlook more hopeful or more despairing? How about the people you lead?
· A holy people. I’ll simply combine the many virtues Peter references in this passage: holiness, godliness, righteousness, spotlessness, blamelessness (see vv.11, 13, 14). The character of our lives will shine brightly in these dark times. These virtues and the associated fruit of the Spirit are God’s work in us. Yet Peter also says we are to “make every effort” to live this way (v.14). QUESTION: where are you vulnerable to giving into the flesh? What temptations are you facing that you must flee?
· A winsome people. I love the adjective “winsome.” It means having an attractive, appealing appearance or character. Winsome traits are pleasing, engaging, and charming. Our passage from 2 Peter 3 begins and ends speaking of God’s winsomeness. Notice in v.9 that the Lord is patient, he wants everyone to come to repentance. In v.15 it says that the Lord’s patience means salvation. QUESTION: are you becoming more patient with others, especially with those who don’t yet know Christ? Are those who disagree with you or challenge you or attack you being met with Christlike love and compassion? How about the people you lead?
I believe that all three of these points are deserving of greater attention the closer we get to the Parousia. But it is the third that we will focus on in our Regional Partnership this Spring.
Listen to a quote by one author / counselor / Rabbi about the times in which we live:
“It is a highly reactive atmosphere pervading all the institutions of our society – a regressive mood that contaminates the decision-making processes of government and corporations, at the highest level, and, on the local level, seeps down into the deliberations of neighborhood, church, synagogue, hospital, library, and school boards. It is ‘something in the air’ that affects the most ordinary family no matter what its ethnic background.”
Doesn’t that feel like the spirit of the age? The crazy thing is that Ed Friedman wrote those words 30 years ago! How much more now!
What kind of people ought we – Jesus’ body, his bride – be? Ours is not to match worldly reactivity with equal reactivity. Ours is to be a hopeful, holy, and winsome people that de-escalates the tensions and toxicities, that calms anxieties, and navigates a different way… a way that leads to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Please join in one of the five Regional Partnership gatherings dedicated to this pursuit.