2nd Peter 1:5-11
Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers and sister, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So, here we are, on our last day of this long journey through the New Testament. Second Peter is not only the last letter we’ll be looking into, but it is also almost certainly the last of all the New Testament documents to be written. Some scholars place its writing as late as the year 150. Most place it at least somewhere between 120 and 150.
A date of 150 A.D. places this missive a full 120 years after Jesus’ earthly life. While the author of this letter clearly identifies himself as Peter the Apostle, naming himself as such and insisting he was present at the Transfiguration on the mountain, the spread of years makes that an obvious impossibility.
This author is also not the author of 1st Peter, even though here again he identifies himself as such. If we take the earliest possible date for this letter it is chronologically feasible, but the language and syntax is entirely different, and so it is highly unlikely to be the same. This is once again a case of someone writing in another’s name to give their teachings more credibility.
That 150 years is also lot of time for Jesus’ message to go a little squirrely – and take on a lot of ideas that come from the writers, not from Jesus -- as we heard last week with 1st Peter’s impassioned urging to love and honor the emperor whom God placed over the Christians of that time, to lead them.
The language of this letter writer sound very similar to that of the writer of the Letter of Jude, in which, if you will recall, Jude used sometimes rather over-the-top hyperbolic language in describing those he preached against as “dreamers who defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones." Similarly, today's writer describes those who think differently as being "licentious scoffers, indulging in their lusts."
Now, granted, the gospels tell us that Jesus occasionally got a little heated in his language – comparing the Syrophoenician woman to a “dog” and calling the Pharisees “white-washed graves” but he never went on and on and on as these second century letter writers so often do. He spent much more of his time teaching on what we should do, rather than teaching against what we shouldn’t do. There’s also that bit about “shaking the dust of a town” off their feet and moving on if their message wasn’t accepted. I don’t recall anything about declaring verbal warfare on those who differ from you.
The main focus of this 2nd letter of Peter is a strictly topical subject, one specifically for the second century Christians: Why has Jesus not yet returned for the believers as promised? This is a question that was becoming more and more urgent as the years passed. The first Christians believed this was something that would happen in their lifetimes. Now the first generation has already passed away, and much of the second generation as well. The question is becoming, not when will Jesus return? but will Jesus return?
After assuring the people that this is just how it is – we’re supposed to get scoffers and doubters the closer we get so just don't listen to them. The writer goes on to explain God’s time-frame:
A date of 150 A.D. places this missive a full 120 years after Jesus’ earthly life. While the author of this letter clearly identifies himself as Peter the Apostle, naming himself as such and insisting he was present at the Transfiguration on the mountain, the spread of years makes that an obvious impossibility.
This author is also not the author of 1st Peter, even though here again he identifies himself as such. If we take the earliest possible date for this letter it is chronologically feasible, but the language and syntax is entirely different, and so it is highly unlikely to be the same. This is once again a case of someone writing in another’s name to give their teachings more credibility.
That 150 years is also lot of time for Jesus’ message to go a little squirrely – and take on a lot of ideas that come from the writers, not from Jesus -- as we heard last week with 1st Peter’s impassioned urging to love and honor the emperor whom God placed over the Christians of that time, to lead them.
The language of this letter writer sound very similar to that of the writer of the Letter of Jude, in which, if you will recall, Jude used sometimes rather over-the-top hyperbolic language in describing those he preached against as “dreamers who defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones." Similarly, today's writer describes those who think differently as being "licentious scoffers, indulging in their lusts."
Now, granted, the gospels tell us that Jesus occasionally got a little heated in his language – comparing the Syrophoenician woman to a “dog” and calling the Pharisees “white-washed graves” but he never went on and on and on as these second century letter writers so often do. He spent much more of his time teaching on what we should do, rather than teaching against what we shouldn’t do. There’s also that bit about “shaking the dust of a town” off their feet and moving on if their message wasn’t accepted. I don’t recall anything about declaring verbal warfare on those who differ from you.
The main focus of this 2nd letter of Peter is a strictly topical subject, one specifically for the second century Christians: Why has Jesus not yet returned for the believers as promised? This is a question that was becoming more and more urgent as the years passed. The first Christians believed this was something that would happen in their lifetimes. Now the first generation has already passed away, and much of the second generation as well. The question is becoming, not when will Jesus return? but will Jesus return?
After assuring the people that this is just how it is – we’re supposed to get scoffers and doubters the closer we get so just don't listen to them. The writer goes on to explain God’s time-frame:
Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.....
Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. (2 Peter 3:8-18, 14-15)
But as with most of these later writings we’ve been reading this summer (and fall) there is no mention of living as followers of Jesus in the kingdom of God which is here and now. Everything tells us to lead good pious lives so that we will be received into heaven at Jesus’ return. Nothing about building and strengthening the reign of God. Nothing about working for justice for the least among us. Nothing about serving our brothers and sisters.
Nothing but “be without sin so that Jesus will take you with him when he comes back.” And yet, as I recall it, there’s a whole lot of “care for each other, create justice, feed the hungry,” etc. in what Jesus taught. It is what he taught. So where did it go? How did it fade away so quickly?
What happened to the parable of the sheep and goats? What about “whatever you did not do to the least of these you did not do for me?” How about “many will cry out Lord, Lord, but I will say, I do not know you”? It seems Jesus was quite clear on these things, so where did these teachings go?
In just a little over 100 years justice has all but disappeared from Christian teaching, to be replaced with personal piety, perhaps because these newer Christian communities are mostly gentile and so don’t have the 100’s of years of calls for justice that were built into the Hebrew psyche.
That millennia-old teaching still crops up in Christian practice off and on down through the centuries – such as with the Franciscan movement in the 1100’s, or the social gospel movement in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It is also still very much a part of many churches' practice today. I know of some marvelous work being done in diverse communities -- but by far the dominant teaching of Christianity down through the centuries has been that “be good so you don’t go to hell” thing that we were all taught and which so many denominations still make the focus of their belief.
How far we have gone adrift and how difficult it seems to steer us back in the right path. I wish more Christians would read the gospels – and maybe Acts – and get them down pat before ever venturing out into anything else. The various Letters are the compound story of how the original Christians took Jesus’ messages and tuned them to their own life experience -- not always for the better.
Sadly, justice and care for each other seem to have been the first things to go.
Nothing but “be without sin so that Jesus will take you with him when he comes back.” And yet, as I recall it, there’s a whole lot of “care for each other, create justice, feed the hungry,” etc. in what Jesus taught. It is what he taught. So where did it go? How did it fade away so quickly?
What happened to the parable of the sheep and goats? What about “whatever you did not do to the least of these you did not do for me?” How about “many will cry out Lord, Lord, but I will say, I do not know you”? It seems Jesus was quite clear on these things, so where did these teachings go?
In just a little over 100 years justice has all but disappeared from Christian teaching, to be replaced with personal piety, perhaps because these newer Christian communities are mostly gentile and so don’t have the 100’s of years of calls for justice that were built into the Hebrew psyche.
That millennia-old teaching still crops up in Christian practice off and on down through the centuries – such as with the Franciscan movement in the 1100’s, or the social gospel movement in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It is also still very much a part of many churches' practice today. I know of some marvelous work being done in diverse communities -- but by far the dominant teaching of Christianity down through the centuries has been that “be good so you don’t go to hell” thing that we were all taught and which so many denominations still make the focus of their belief.
How far we have gone adrift and how difficult it seems to steer us back in the right path. I wish more Christians would read the gospels – and maybe Acts – and get them down pat before ever venturing out into anything else. The various Letters are the compound story of how the original Christians took Jesus’ messages and tuned them to their own life experience -- not always for the better.
Sadly, justice and care for each other seem to have been the first things to go.
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