Leaving the Last Word
Read II Peter 1:1-2
One of our dear sister disciples, La-lanie, lost her precious mother just before 2024 dawned. Words cannot soothe the loss, nor platitudes. I just hugged her close and encouraged her with God’s word. “Maranatha! Jesus is returning soon. Mother is only asleep. You will see her again and praise the Lord together.”
As I drove home, I pondered on death and what my last words would be to my family. Would my life leave a legacy of love, encouragement, and comfort? I don’t know. Would my family be there when I woke up from this deep sleep? That’s my blessed hope.
What will be my last words on my death bed?
Peter’s Final Words
When Peter penned this epistle, they were his last words to the church. They would murder him for his faith not long after he wrote this letter. (possibly AD 67, during Nero’s reign). His letter encourages us in the word and growing in our faith. He cautions us about the reality of false teachers and prophets. Finally, he reminds us that the Day of the Lord is coming soon.
Maranatha!
Peter wrote with authority. Wasn’t he was one of the chosen twelve apostles — a servant of Christ Jesus? Yes. He submitted wholeheartedly to the headship of Christ and he divinely ordained/commissioned for the gospel. Peter also was an eyewitness of the transfiguration of our Jesus Christ and also heard God’s voice, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”
We do well to contemplate his last statement of faith. Let us stop to listen and lean in to learn. II Peter is only three chapters long but filled with treasured words gained from a life close to the Master.
Four Things
The Holy Spirit placed on Peter’s heart three things: spiritual growth, God’s Word, false teaching, and our blessed hope. Our faithful maturity is important, trust in God’s word vital, awareness of false teachers invaluable, and our hope in Christ’s soon coming return our blessed hope.
The same Peter who denied Christ three times before the cock crowed bravely faced the enemy’s death blow, with no doubt in his soul.
He could do this because Peter lived the “with God” life. He challenges us to live authentic, faithful lives as well. What was it like to live, eat, and even sleep near Jesus and then come to know Him as God?
Jesus’ promise of coming back to get him — get us — was real. He lived his life in expectation.
With-God Life
We can assume, and scholars are not sure, that this letter was written to the same people as 1st Peter. But we know it is the word of God filled with the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding we need, for God supplies all our needs in Christ Jesus.
With a vivid imagination and understanding of the truth, you can read this letter as if addressed to you.
Our motive in living the with God life is not the thought of merely dying someday and going to heaven. It is living as if Jesus will come now, this very moment, as you read this article. The King is almost here. He’s at the door, and we want to be the first believers He sees. We would like to enter the kingdom of God with joy and rejoicing.
We will see Him face-to-face. We not only know the sound of His voice, we speak His language.
You belong to the Lord, holy and acceptable to Him. Live like it. With a fixed eye and an expectant ear, be resolved to not only live, but live with God here, now, and today.
Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
II Peter 1:1-2 NIV.
Bonus
Here’s only two passages penned by Peter. If these are his last words, then the words matter. We understand that those who live the “with-God” life are ones who’ve received a faith equal to his through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. But let us take a magnifying glass to some of these words to gain a richer understanding.
Words Examined
Servant: One that serves others; especially one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer.
Apostle: One sent on a mission — one of an authoritative New Testament group sent out to preach the gospel and made up especially of Christ’s 12 original disciples and Paul.
We can trust this epistle as the word of God. We can trust the Holy Spirit writing these words in Peter’s soul, him writing them down, sending them out and then, in time, they’re bound, preserved, translated and distributed generation after generation.
Faith: Belief and trust in and loyalty to God. A firm belief for which there is no proof. Complete trust and with strong conviction, believing even if there is no physical evidence. The soul knows what the soul knows.
Grace: Unmerited divine assistance given to humankind for regeneration and sanctification (the state of growing in divine grace because of Christian commitment — set apart to a sacred purpose and equipped for that purpose).
Peace: A state of tranquility or quiet. Free from civil strife. Secure and safe. Agreeing God’s will and mutual freedom from strife, discord, and disorder.
Faith, grace, and peace are familiar to every Christian. Knowing and understanding those words is vital to our continued life “with-God”.
Faith does not grow in our hearts by nature. Neither does it spring up from education nor excellent instruction. It’s a gift given and gladly received by the authentic Christian. The regenerated soul gladly grows in faith as he/she fellowships daily with the Father. Faith takes hold as we walk in the Spirit. Cultivating our love relationship with the Father takes faith, perseverance, and consistency.
Faith helps us cultivate our relationship with God — faith, grace, and peace develops in us the sweet intimate relationship we treasure.
Experience God’s grace and peace depends on our knowledge of God. To know God is to love Him and to love Him is to trust Him and to trust Him leads us on the adventure of the “with-God” life.
Again, may I emphasize this fact, knowledge only comes from a cultivated relationship centered on God and immersed in His word. Grace is God’s favor, peace is our “perfect” well-being in Him and knowledge is full/personal. Trust the Lord today, as Peter did yesterday.
If you had to write your last letter to your family and friends, what would you write?What would be your last words before you enter God’s rest?
Now we can read with assurance II Peter 1:3
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.
Another Bonus
Not too long ago, I read these words from Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), a simple American Episcopal clergyman and author. He is remembered for writing the lyrics to the Christmas hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
But as you read this quote, I believe his greatest legacy was that he lived the with God life.
“The great danger facing all of us is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we all feel that life has no meaning at all — not the things.
The danger is that we may fail to perceive life’s greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to render the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God — and be content to have it so — that is the danger, that some day we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with husks and trappings of life and have really missed life itself.
For life without God, no one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible. That is what one prays one’s friends may be spared — satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle or thrill that comes from a friendship with the Father.”
Honestly, I’m eagerly awaiting to learn even more from God’s word — II Peter. Thanks for joining me in this adventure.
Yours in Christ,
