Peter echoes the other New Testament letter-writers in suggesting a progression in qualities of character that stem from faith. In 2 Peter 1:5 onwards he traverses all the way from faith to love. While Paul stops at hope in Romans 5:4, he puts love at the very top in the well known 1 Cor 13 passage. It is no surprise that love forms the pinnacle, because God is Love as per John's letters.
The emergence of these qualities correlates to our effectiveness, according to Peter (v8). Our knowledge of Jesus is not simply academic, to be privately kept in a box marked 'faith' in our minds, but has a purpose that will produce things.
Yet what is Peter's diagnosis for those lacking these qualities? It is not 'try harder', or 'get your religious or spiritual act together'. No - it is blindness, not being able to see Christ. Not seeing Christ straight-forwardly means that we no longer appreciate what he has done for us, the rescuing, the cleansing from our wrong.
Remember Jesus at the end of Luke 7 chides the Pharisee who could not appreciate the extravagant out-working of being forgiven with the phrase 'whoever has been forgiven little loves little'. Maybe with Peter he means 'whoever appreciates little (of Christ and his work achieved) loves little'.
We love not by trying harder ... but by seeing Christ, and realising to ever greater magnitude just how much he has already done for us. That adds to our faith, resulting in a greater quality of love in our lives.
Monday, 17 August 2015
Saturday, 11 July 2015
Ten Percent Success Rate
Its easy for us to get to discouraged by low numbers. Whilst it is good to think through how many people have engaged (and get a handle on where where they have come from), we need to be wary of being obsessed with percentages fuelled by our target-driven culture.
I wonder what Jesus' target was when he was confronted by the ten men with skin diseases in Luke 17. They called on his mercy, and Jesus instructed them to check in with the priest (who would pronounce on their condition, if it had improved). They seem to go in faith ... with their healing coming through their action of going. So far so good!
Yet only one returns to give thanks and praise to God. So only one has connected the action of being sent to the priest with faith that then needs to respond appropriately to God and to Jesus through whom that faith came.
Its a 10% success rate - not very high! Quite discouraging in fact.
We don't have enough data to gauge Jesus' mood, but he does question the outcome. Yet nonetheless the one is sent on his way with blessing and commendation. Perhaps just that one is encouragement enough?
I wonder what Jesus' target was when he was confronted by the ten men with skin diseases in Luke 17. They called on his mercy, and Jesus instructed them to check in with the priest (who would pronounce on their condition, if it had improved). They seem to go in faith ... with their healing coming through their action of going. So far so good!
Yet only one returns to give thanks and praise to God. So only one has connected the action of being sent to the priest with faith that then needs to respond appropriately to God and to Jesus through whom that faith came.
Its a 10% success rate - not very high! Quite discouraging in fact.
We don't have enough data to gauge Jesus' mood, but he does question the outcome. Yet nonetheless the one is sent on his way with blessing and commendation. Perhaps just that one is encouragement enough?
Monday, 29 June 2015
Too Comfortable Not To Pray
My previous post made a play on the book title 'Too Busy Not to Pray', suggesting that here in the West our problem is as much 'Too Comfortable to Pray'.
I think we can play on the words even further. Just as the original book points out that we cannot afford to not pray - using our busyness as the lead thought, I wonder if we should consider the same with our comfort too. It seems to me that Paul never expected to be comfortable, and saw oppression and direct persecution as the norm for us Christ-followers. In 2 Timothy, chapter 2 verse 3 and chapter 3 verses 10 to 12 are just two of many examples of this thinking.
So if we are 'comfortable' (so for example we don't feel a pressing need to pray for our own survival) then perhaps we should wonder if we are actually on the right track? A wonder that itself might spur us to pray! In other words, perhaps the phrase we need to grasp is 'Too Comfortable Not to Pray', just like the original book.
I'm not saying that we should wish on ourselves trouble, nor that we should go looking for it. But if we can bounce along comfortably, perhaps we are in a state where we simply cannot afford to not pray, lest we simply end up too complacent.
I think we can play on the words even further. Just as the original book points out that we cannot afford to not pray - using our busyness as the lead thought, I wonder if we should consider the same with our comfort too. It seems to me that Paul never expected to be comfortable, and saw oppression and direct persecution as the norm for us Christ-followers. In 2 Timothy, chapter 2 verse 3 and chapter 3 verses 10 to 12 are just two of many examples of this thinking.
So if we are 'comfortable' (so for example we don't feel a pressing need to pray for our own survival) then perhaps we should wonder if we are actually on the right track? A wonder that itself might spur us to pray! In other words, perhaps the phrase we need to grasp is 'Too Comfortable Not to Pray', just like the original book.
I'm not saying that we should wish on ourselves trouble, nor that we should go looking for it. But if we can bounce along comfortably, perhaps we are in a state where we simply cannot afford to not pray, lest we simply end up too complacent.
Saturday, 27 June 2015
Too Comfortable to Pray
I have always loved Bill Hybels' book 'Too Busy Not to Pray'. The title says it all - when we are pressured and busy, we must pray in order to survive/overcome those pressures. I have often had occasions myself where my To-Do list, or the pressures of the day ahead, seem to have no room for anything but the doing ... yet I have deliberately still carved out time or at least paused to pray. Somehow the priorities or the tasks themselves then adjust to allow things to work out.
Yet I now wonder if a more relevant critique for our culture would be to have a title 'Too Comfortable to Pray'. Are we in the West simply too comfortable to make prayer together (especially calling on God with respect to His ministry and purposes) a priority? Too comfortable to make the effort, to schedule, to be there?
In our relative comfort have we lost the urgency that Paul seems to have, with his expectancy of Jesus' imminent return, the desire to pray Kingdom realities into the now, the compelling and hope to see the Gospel breaking in to places or areas where it is absent? Have we become disconnected from God's mission imperative, and therefore ambivalent when mission opportunities seem to be blocked, threatened or unable to progress?
Of course as Christians we all pray. I also don't think we only use prayer as a crutch, when things are particularly bad. Yet when it comes to making a deliberate point of praying together, are we simply too comfortable to make that kind of effort?
Yet I now wonder if a more relevant critique for our culture would be to have a title 'Too Comfortable to Pray'. Are we in the West simply too comfortable to make prayer together (especially calling on God with respect to His ministry and purposes) a priority? Too comfortable to make the effort, to schedule, to be there?
In our relative comfort have we lost the urgency that Paul seems to have, with his expectancy of Jesus' imminent return, the desire to pray Kingdom realities into the now, the compelling and hope to see the Gospel breaking in to places or areas where it is absent? Have we become disconnected from God's mission imperative, and therefore ambivalent when mission opportunities seem to be blocked, threatened or unable to progress?
Of course as Christians we all pray. I also don't think we only use prayer as a crutch, when things are particularly bad. Yet when it comes to making a deliberate point of praying together, are we simply too comfortable to make that kind of effort?
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