“Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace.”
We are coming to the end of Peter’s second letter. For the third time in this chapter, he addresses his readers as his dear friends. And he exhorts them to do two things while they wait for the day of the Lord: To be found without spot or blemish and to be at peace while they are waiting.
Peter says that they are to make every effort to do these things. He has used this phrase two other times in this letter. Let’s review what other things he has reminded his readers to make every effort to do. The first thing he writes is this. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness,godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Next, he writes, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble” (1:10). Here’s my takeaway. Sanctification takes work. It takes effort. We cannot just sit back and live in this world and expect to be any different than the world. We need to be actively different. We do this by reading our Bible, by praying, by fellowshipping with other believers. We need to know what God’s Word says. We need to have a Christian worldview. We are going to see things differently than the world does. We are to be holy as God is holy.
That leads me to the first part of the verse. Peter says to make every effort to be found without spot or blemish. This contrasts with the false teachers he wrote about earlier in his letter that he described this way. “They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions while they feast with you” (2 Peter 2:13). Peter is telling his readers that they are to be the opposite of this. Douglas Moo writes this in The NIV Application Commentary. “Remember, however, that this is a goal we are to strive for, not a condition we will finally be able to achieve. For the New Testament makes clear that the believer will always have sin to confess (1 John 1:8) and that our struggle with sin will never finally end until our bodies themselves are ‘redeemed’ (see Rom. 8:23). But this realization should not diminish our effort to get as close to that goal as possible.”
Let’s look at some other verses that address this idea. Paul writes in Philippians 1:9-11, “And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.” And then, “Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life” (Philippians 2:14-16a). And Jude writes, “Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen” (vv. 24-25). How do we do this? Through Jesus Christ. He left us with a Helper- the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it through our strength, but we can through His.
Lastly Peter says to be at peace. I don’t know about you, but this one is hard for me, especially in these turbulent times. But it is important to remember, our peace doesn’t come from anything that is happening here. It happens because we are reconciled to God. Paul writes in Romans 5: 1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Douglas Moo writes, “This ‘peace’ may be the peace of a satisfied conscience, the tranquility that the true believer can enjoy at the time of judgment, knowing that Christ has taken care of the sin problem. But the ‘peace’ that Peter has in mind is probably the peace of reconciliation-the restored relationship that the believer enjoys with God through the mediation of Christ (see e.g., Rom. 5:1-2).”
I am going to leave you today with this benediction from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.”
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 