Week 7 Day 1
2 Peter 1:2Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us [a]by His own glory and [b]excellence. 4 [c]For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
I have been “unpacking” this passage for a long time and have not yet come to what I believe is a full comprehension of Peter’s mind and heart as he penned this to a disparate and widespread church. At one level he definitely speaks to our constant grasping after more of everything. This acquisitiveness has been a notable characteristic of Western Christianity for as long as I can remember. Bigger places of worship, larger congregations, more resources, more activities, the list goes on and on. It is quite possible that herein lies the root of all of the church hopping that goes on.
Peter’s wish and hope is that the believers would know and receive the “multiplied grace and peace” which are imparted to us in the “knowledge of God and of Jesus”. Consider, the word “everything”. This word rendered in the Greek panta (panta) means literally “all things” and I believe speaks to every physical, emotional and spiritual need. The divine power of God is all encompassing.
So then, you ask; Why do people suffer and go about bereft of even the needful things to sustain life? What kind of loving God would allow his creation to suffer? My answer is to go back and consider the “promises”, all of them. What happens when people go without, when people suffer and cry in anguish is the result of the world’s wholesale rejection of the Lordship of Jesus, and the unnatural infection (pandemic if you will) of rampant sin.
Romans 819 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, [i]in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Larry M Lawrence- Mysteries 