Getting to Know the Lord

II Peter 1:1-4

I Peter was written especially to Gentile Christians living in Gentile cities with little Jewish influence, focusing especially on situations they would face. II Peter, also written by the apostle, is written to deal with problems every Christian faces. It is for everyone who depends on Christ for their righteousness, through faith.

“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:” (II Peter 1:1)

It is generally conceded that we tend to become more like those we associate with. We begin to adopt their standards of dress, speech, and morality, as well as their attitude if we are not careful. Choosing our associates has a tremendous effect on how we will develop in life. Wise parents try to help their children find friends who will encourage proper behavior and attitudes.

Who we associate with as Christians will have a singular effect on our spiritual development. For example, Proverbs 22:24-25 warns, “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” Many Christian leaders are in constant conflict, trying to convince others they are right. James 3:16 warns, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” II Timothy 2:24-25 commands, “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;”

To avoid being led into such behavior we need to associate with people who do not do them. Jesus Christ is the example we are to follow, a perfect example. II Corinthians 3:18 promises that Getting to know the Lord will result in our becoming increasingly like him. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Friendship depends on getting to know the attitudes and opinions of the other person. That takes communication, listening and understanding what is being said. Far too often the focus is all on talking, rather than listening. We talk to the Lord by prayer, but we listen primarily by reading his word and allowing him to speak to us through it. Real friendship cannot develop if one refuses to listen, insisting on doing all the talking, because they never get to know the other person. Christ already knows us far better than we will ever know him on earth. but if we listen, the Holy Spirit will teach us, and the fruit of the Spirit will begin to develop in our life.

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (II Peter 1:2-4)

Our very existence is dependent on God’s action, as Acts 17:28 states, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being;…” He has made us holy and given us salvation by his power, not our efforts, as Ephesians 2:8-9 states. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

He has made us independent from the power of sin, giving us power to live a sin free life as Romans 8:2- 13 states. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” (Romans 8:2-13)

God has provides every thing for both our physical and our spiritual life. Getting to know the Lord and observe his attitudes changes our attitudes, and develops and understanding of how to apply his teachings. We stop resisting the Holy Spirit’s efforts to change us so much, becoming more like him.