"Be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure". - 2 Peter 1:10
I used to see this as Peter telling me to find assurance that I was saved through my performance. But recently after reading the verse above, I read something in Hebrews that says the opposite.
"And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises."
So here we see the author of Hebrews is urging us to have full assurance of our complete salvation in Jesus Christ so that we may act like who we are in him. We must first be sure of who we are in him before we can begin to behave as someone who is in him.
How can I love if I am not sure that I am loved? How can I love if I don't know that his love is really inside me? How can I have faith if I am first to prove that I have faith? What a never ending cycle of self-evaluation! One day I perform well (in my own eyes) and the next I am sulking in failure and guilt!
We need a sure foundation! And that foundation is Christ alone!
So Peter is urging us to make our calling and election sure so that we may practice the qualities he mentions in 2 Peter 1:5-8. I believe he is also urging us to have these qualities for the sake of conscience. When my conscience is yelling at me, I feel guilty. And I don't like feeling guilty.
1 comment:
Excellent words! How often does the church make passages like these out to be all about performance. Really, we must be rooted and established in grace, and then our performance will simply be a natural result or fruit of our identity. Truly indeed, we can't make our calling and election sure by our performance! That's the antithesis of grace.
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