Growth is Intentional - II Peter 1:1-11

Most parents are very concerned about the intellectual growth of their children, and will go to just about any extreme to see that thy begin school at entrance age or before if possible. I will never forget my most extreme example of the point at hand. It was in the late 1950’s while I was employed as an elementary principal. You must realize that this was before Arkansas elementary schools included kindergarten and first graders had to be six years old to legally attend public school which usually started in mid August each year. First graders would register in the late part of the spring and were supposed to bring their birth certificate as proof of age. There were always a few that would not have the certificate, and this gave them the summer months to obtain the certificate before opening day. One parent registered the cutest little black headed doll, and promised to obtain her birth certificate. The experienced first grade teacher was suspicious that the child was underage and tagged her enrollment forms. The summer passed and the expected proof of birth was never received. The doll showed up the first day of school with no certificate and the parents were called…the mother said that she did not have the money to waste on a birth certificate. As principal, I ordered the certificate and when it came to the office it confirmed that the child was barely four years old. Most parents complained when their children would barely miss the deadline. Much has been learned about how fast children can learn at a lower age. Kindergarten for five year olds is now mandatory and many schools offer pre-kindergarten for four year olds. It is sad, heart breaking, when young parents may be overly-concerned about the intellectual training for their children but remain completely unconcerned about their spiritual training. They will sue for the right of the child to receive public education—but will refuse free training to improve life spiritually. GROWTH IS INTENTIONAL. There are three areas of growth in a child—they are physical, mental, and spiritual…and they are all INTENTIONAL. That means that neither will be successful without some interested person [parent preferred] intending or making an effort to see that success does occur. Without proper food the body fails to develop properly and may die. Without proper instruction the mind is impaired and may be wasted. Without concerned role models including parents, teachers, and Christian friends starting at an early age—every child is at risk. It is appalling to concerned Christian people when they stop to realize the lack of emphasis that is place on spiritual teaching in comparison to intellectual teaching. If my calculation is anything near correct a child with perfect attendance at church and in school will spend about 30 hours a week in school and about 3 hours a week in spiritual training…that ratio is 10 to 1. Think about this for a moment. Do you feel that our priorities are in the right place? We all will agree that is important for a child to master the three R’s…but is it ten times as important as know how to live? In verse one Peter says he is writing to all people both Jew and Gentile, and then in verse two he prays for our grace and peace and he indicates that it comes through our knowledge and understanding of God and Christ. This means we must learn…and we learn by study which requires teachers… and Peter warns against the false teachers that are cropping up even as he wrote. We must realize that our ability to grow, in strength and goodness does not come from within ourselves—but, it must come from God. Our grace and peace is ours but it is not in us…it must come through our growing knowledge of Jesus our Savior. Many want this grace and peace but are unwilling to put forth the effort to obtain it. It only comes through our true knowledge of God. True knowledge comes only through study and prayer. You must want to pray and study. It must be your intent to pray and study that you may grow spiritually. That is what the title of this lesson means…you will only grow intentionally…and it will never be accidentally. The same concept regarding his power is found in verse three…his power is not from within us, we only have access to his power when we study…it comes through knowledge and knowledge comes from self study under good teachers…and Peter warns us that these cannot be ‘false teachers.’ Verse five tells us that we must have more than just faith. Peter says that we should add to our faith things like goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and kindness and finally LOVE. Baptist likes to say that we are saved by faith and not works, that we could boast about. That is true. However, James tells us that “Faith without works is dead.” Is this a contradiction? No it is not. The works must me added to our faith…not to save us but to show that we are saved. Look again at what Peter is saying. We are saved by faith…But then we must add to our faith [not to save us but to prove that our salvation is alive and working]…he says to add goodness, knowledge, self-control…and finally Love. If we are saved by grace through our faith—and we are… then why are some additional works necessary? Look at verse eight and Peter makes it very easy to understand. If you possess these qualities [knowledge, control, perseverance, and love] the more they increase, the more they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive. One can say they have faith…however works like these prove they have faith. When you say you believe in God is that the same as saying that you have faith in God? Not really. The devil believes in God, but I doubt that he has faith to believe that God will save him, Faith must be more than belief in certain facts—faith must result in positive action, growth in Christian character and a positive practice in moral discipline and if it does not produce these works it will die see [James 2: 14]. These were the days when immorality was rampant and the false teachers were saying that works have nothing to do with spirituality. False teachers were saying that self-control was unnecessary, because deeds do not save the lost or help the believer. It is true…good deeds [works] will not save a person but they are important for a saved person to look and act like Christ and serve others. True faith goes beyond what one believes. Faith becomes a part of what we do when and if our deeds are righteous. Salvation does not depend on good deeds but it surely will result in good deeds—and when it does not…it is questionable. Peter realized that there were a bunch of complacent believers that were willing to listen to any teaching that tickled their ears. They wanted their salvation and their immoral lives and wanted to believe there was no conflict. Peter told them that they needed to examine themselves to see if they were indeed saved. He was literally saying that he could tell by their life examples and deeds that they were being misled. Are there any false teachers around in the twenty-first century? Oh yes. There are so many that we have more problems than the early Christians had. I worry about this problem…no wonder the bible warns that “few” will enter the narrow gate as compared to the “MANY” that will find the broad road and wide gate. There is no doubt that the number of false and non believers today will far out number the confessed believers…and many of them will hear Christ say—“Depart from me I never knew you.” Please continue to study…to show yourself approved…by God.