II Peter Made Easy
Joyce Webb 2010
II Peter Chapter 1
II Peter 1:1
Peter introduces himself as Simon Peter —a servant and apostle of Jesus. Peter means a servant in a spiritual way. He serves God/Jesus.
An apostle means one of the 12 disciples or one of the first special called men to follow Jesus. Paul called himself an apostle but he was not one of the 12 disciples. Paul was specially called to be a missionary for Jesus.
History says that this letter was written a short time before Peter died.
Peter was crucified. He felt that he was not worthy to be crucified as was his Lord, Jesus, so he asked to be crucified upside down.
II Peter 1:2
Peter give greetings and blessings to the people
II Peter 1:3
Peter says that God by His power has given us all things that we have in this life, and He has given us a way to be godly through Jesus. God has called us to show God’s glory and to have “virtue” behavior that pleases God, and thoughts that please God.
II Peter 1:4
God by Jesus has given us great and precious promises. And because of these promises we can take of the divine nature of God. We can escaped —stay away from—the sin, desires of the flesh that has power to destroy) that is in the world. This power to destroy the spirit happens through lust—desires of the flesh.
Lust is often thought of as sexual desires that are sinful. But lust can also be a great wanting things of this world —wanting things of this world more than wanting to please God.
II Peter 1: 5
These promises that God gave us help us to be careful and watchful
about our spirits. To the faith we have we add virtue (godly behaviors). To the virtue we add knowledge. (Knowledge about God and what He wants and how He works.)
II Peter 1:6
To knowledge we add temperance. Temperance is being in the “middle”—-not too much, not too little. Temperance is often used when talking about drinking alcohol. It means being careful to not drink too much. Temperance can mean “balance” in many things. Not eating too much, not spending money foolishly, not losing your temper when you are angry. Temperance means balance–control—self-control.
To temperance add patience. To patience add being like God in being holy and in loving.
II Peter 1:7
To being godly add brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness add charity (showing kindness to those not part of the family—to our neighbors or other people in need).
II Peter 1:8
If these things are in you, then you will have spiritual fruit and grow in Christ Jesus. You do not want to be a barren tree with no fruit.
II Peter 1:9
The person who does not have these things in his life is spiritual blind and cannot see and understand God’s plan for them. They have forgotten that Jesus has forgiven them and saved them from their sin and old way of life.
Peter to telling these Christians that they need to be growing in the Lord. When we first come to Jesus we may have many bad habits. We may having trouble with sinful sexual desire, we may have trouble with drinking, we may have trouble keeping control of anger, we may not be a kind and loving person.
But as we live as a Christian, we need to let the Holy Spirit teach us how to stop our bad habits and get control of ourselves so that we show God’s glory in our lives. We should each month look more and more like Jesus.
If we do not, then we are like a tree that never has fruit.
II Peter 1: 10
Give attention and care to make your life in Christ what it should be.
He has called you to be His follower. So follow. He has chosen you to be His child. So act like you belong to God.
If you do these things, you will stay true to God and you will not fall back into sin.
In other words, if you are always careful to grow in Jesus and go forward—you will not be going backward to sin.
II Peter 1: 11
If you stay true and faithful, you will be welcomed into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior.
II Peter 1: 12
Peter says: I know you know these things, but I am reminding you of them anyway.
II Peter 1: 13
Peter says: As long as I am alive in my body, I will remind you and keep this before you.
II Peter 1: 14
I know that soon I will not be in this body. Even as the Lord has shown me. (Peter seems to know that he will soon die.)
II Peter 1: 15
I will remind you of these things, and I want you to remember them after I am gone.
II Peter 1: 16
We have not followed fairy tale stories. When we told you about the power and the coming of Jesus Christ—it was true—we saw those things with our own eyes.
II Peter 1: 17
Jesus received from God the Father honor and glory. When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, there was a voice from heaven that said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17
II Peter 1: 18
And when we were on the mountain with him, we heard a voice from heaven saying the same thing. Luke 9:35
II Peter 1:19
Because of hearing this voice from heaven speaking that Jesus was God’s loved Son, we can trust even more the prophecy from the Old Testament that spoke about the Messiah.
Their words are like a light shining in a dark place—until Jesus comes again— like dawn–like a day star.
II Peter 1: 20, 21
Know this—-no prophecy of the scripture (Bible) is given by one man’s own ideas and thoughts. The Old Testament prophecy is not just men speaking for themselves from their own thoughts. Everything they said, was because the Holy Spirit moved on them and God told them to say it.