2 Peter Study Guide Pt 1

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pt 1 RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1

Introduction This is a guide to help you spend daily time in God’s Word in conjunction with our teaching series in 2 Peter. It is meant to take approximately 15-30 min, and includes time for reading, studying, and prayerful meditation. We will work through approximately one chapter of the book per week, studying a few verses each day. There are ﬁve days each week, which will allow you some space to take a break (or catch up if you fall behind). Below are some tips for getting the most out of this guide as we jump into God’s Word together!

Everyday… Read this week’s chapter everyday to begin your time with the Lord. This may feel a bit repetitive to do everyday, but by the fourth or ﬁfth day you will understand why it’s important! Read the focus verse for the day and the accompanying study notes. These notes are not God’s Word, but they are helpful for learning about the historical, cultural, and language background of the passages we will be studying. A few meditation questions have been provided to help you pray and reﬂect on your response to the passage we have been studying and what God’s Spirit might be saying to you. There is also some space for you to write down your thoughts and prayers (or to doodle!). RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 Scattered throughout the guide are video or web resources designed to enrich your experience as you study God’s Word. Just hover your smartphone camera or QR Reader over the logo (like the one to the left for an overview of the book) and click the link that appears on your phone.

Want to listen to the chapter instead or listen while you read along? Check out the Streetlights Bible App! Streetlights has put much of Scripture to a musical backdrop and is great for meditative listening! RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 Day 1

1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:1-4 NIV The Greek word for “grace” is charis. It is the favorable attitude toward someone or something. The Greek word for “peace” is eirene. It is a state of freedom from anxiety and inner turmoil. It is the freedom from worry. Peace here is not the peace with God which we have in justiﬁcation, but the peace of God in our hearts, and can be deﬁned as tranquility of mind housed on the consciousness of a right relation to God. It is from eirene which in its verb form means "to bind together." Thus, Christ Jesus through the blood of His Cross binds together that which was separated by human sin, the sinner who puts his faith in the Lord Jesus, and God.1 The Greek word for “godliness” is eusebeia. It deals with having approbate beliefs and devout practice of obligations relating to supernatural persons. Godliness can be also godlikeness. Having reverence toward the Lord and aspiring to be like Him is 'godlikeness' Words like: "Be Holy for I am Holy" and "Forgiving one another even as

1 Word Studies - Wuest's Word Studies: From the Greek New Testament Page 160 RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 the Lord has forgiven you," and "Be merciful as your Father also is merciful," demonstrate our capability to acquire godlike qualities. The very word "Christian" means a miniature Christ or a reﬂection of Jesus. With eusebeia we love the way Jesus loves, we talk the way He talks, we walk the way He walks, we care for people the way He cares for people, and we reach out and touch people the way He touched them.2

How has God shown you grace today so far? What worry or anxiety is calling you away from today? How can you place it in God’s hand? How can believers train themselves to be more godly or have more ‘godlikeness'?

2 How To Be a High Performance Believer...In Low Octane Days Page 181 To 182 RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 Day 2

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self- control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8 NIV There are two main Greek words for “knowledge": oida and gnosis. Oida is a perceptive knowledge while gnosis is an acquired knowledge. When the Bible says that Jesus knew their thoughts, Luke 11:17, it was the eido/oida based word. He perceived, or could see, what they were thinking. The Latin word for oida is "video" or acquiring knowledge by sight. Gnosis is essentially similar to "audio": acquiring knowledge by what you hear. The word for "knowledge" in 2 Peter is gnosis, Strong's #1108. Gnosis is used 29 times in the New Testament. Jesus called gnosis a key to knowing and understanding the heart of God. Generally gnosis signifies intelligence, understanding, having the facts, insights, awareness.3 The Greek word for “perseverance” is hypomone. It is the capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances —‘endurance, being able to endure.’ ‘Endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ’ 1 Th 1:3.4

3 How To Be a High Performance Believer... In Low Octane Days Page 129 to 131 4 Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (Electronic Ed. Of the 2nd Edition., Vol. 1, P. 307). New York: United Bible Societies. RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 The Greek phrase “brotherly kindness” means affection for one’s fellow believer in Christ—‘love for one’s fellow believer, affection for a fellow believer.’ ‘there is no need to write you about affection for your fellow believers’ 1 Th 4:9; ‘keep on loving one another as fellow believers’ Heb 13:1.5

What are some decisions I can make to “add” to the faith God has given me? How does God call us to bear up under diﬃcult circumstances? How can we grow our kindness toward the family of God?

5 Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (Electronic Ed. Of the 2nd Edition., Vol. 1, P. 292). New York: United Bible Societies. RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 Day 3

9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are ﬁrmly established in the truth you now have. 2 Peter 1:9-12 NIV

Our central call—the calling for all Christ-followers—is to hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lee Hardy writes. In the New Testament the primary, if not exclusive, meaning of the term "vocation"—or calling (klesis)—pertains to the call of the gospel, pure and simple Here we are not being asked to choose from a variety of callings, to decide which one is "right" for us. Rather, one call goes out to all—the call of discipleship. For it is incumbent upon all Christians to follow Christ, and, in so doing, to become the kind of people God wants us to be.are We're called to respond to the gospel and to invite others to do likewise. As we respond by joining God in his work of restoring creation, we fulﬁll the Great Commission: to make disciples of all nations, baptize them and teach them to obey everything Christ has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). We are aall called to these things: • To hear and believe the gospel (Romans 10:9) • To love God and love others (Mark 12:28-34) • To join God in making culture, cultivating the good creation (Genesis 1:26) • To make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20) • To obey everything God has commanded us (Exodus 20:1-20; Matthew 28:18-20) RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 • To be holy in all we do (1Peter1:15) • To rest (Genesis 2:2; Exodus 20:8-11; Hebrews 4) • To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).6 Why is it dangerous to allow ourselves to become nearsighted and blind as believers? According to this chapter, how can we discipline ourselves to make our calling and election sure?

6 After College: Navigating Transitions, Relationship and Faith Page 167 and 168 RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 Day 4

13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every eﬀort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. 16 We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 2 Peter 1:13-16 NIV

Parents are well-trained at recognizing"fables" from their children. When we hear the word today, we usually take it to mean "a story or statement which isn't true," but its primary meaning is "a short story devised to convey some special lesson, esp. one in which animals or inanimate things are the speakers or actors"(oed); thus, for example, the fable of the tortoise and the hare. In the KJV the word appears five times as translation for the Greek mythos. Since the word "myth" did not enter the English language until the early nineteenth century, "fable" long carried its meaning. But the favor with which the word "myth" was received and its quick establishment in English usage have tended to restrict the word "fable" to stories more or less akin to the fables of Aesop. The word mythos in the Greek New Testament is now generally translated as "myth," which is defined by the old as purely fictitious narrative usually involving supernatural persons, actions, or events, and embodying some popular idea concerning natural or historical phenomena.” Paul instructs Timothy to "refuse profane and old wives' fables" and to warn certain persons not to "give heed to fables and endless genealogies" (1 Timothy 4:7; 1:4, KJV). The contemporary versions translate these as "profane [NIV, “godless"] myths and old wives' tales" (1 Timothy 4:7, NIV, NIRSV), RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 and "myths" (1 Timothy 1:4, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT, RSV; the NCV has"stories that are not true).7 How does Peter tell us to avoid being deceived by false stories or myths?

7 Page 151 I Never Knew That Was in the Bible RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1

Day 5

17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. 19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:17-21 NIV After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. RECALCULATING Week 1: 2 Peter 1 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”8 Why do you think it was important that Peter reminded his readers that he, along with James and John, was personally present for when Jesus was transfigured (see Matthew 17:1-12)?

Study Resources:

How to Read The Bible Video Series by the Bible Project

Literary & Historical Context of the New Testament Letters by the Bible Project