Peter is known as a ‘shepherd’ of Christ’s sheep. He writes this epistle to believers facing a real danger of false teaching within the church and he also seeks to commend to his readers a wholesome combination of Christian faith and practice.

 

So to help the believers continue in the truth, Peter in today’s passage tells the believers 3 things he will do to see them remain in the truth.

 

Verse 12-“ ….I will always remind you of these things…” What are ‘these things’ he is talking about? We find it in the preceding verses 6 to 8 “add to your faith goodness; and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self- control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love.”

Peter is gently reminding them to continue walking in these qualities, and if they do, they could never be ineffective or unproductive in their Christian life. So he takes it upon himself as the shepherd of this flock to keep reminding them that this is the truth that Jesus had taught them and apart from this everything else is false.

As this letter is addressed to believers at a time when the church was slowly being insinuated to false teachings by false teachers thus misleading the children of God, Peter now decides to refresh their memory (2 Peter 1:13) by reiterating the truth once spoken to them. The Word of God has a unique ability to refresh a tired soul. It is new every morning- fresh as the dew from heaven. Jesus says in John 4:14 ‘he who drinks of this water will never thirst again’. Here water is compared to God’s Word. Peter knew that the false teachers had many novel ideas to try and impress the weary, suffering church thus getting them to be dissatisfied with what they followed. In this situation, Peter decides to refresh their minds on the teachings of Jesus, thus getting the believers back on track and helping them be satisfied with God’s living word and nothing more.

According to historians, the second epistle of Peter was written toward the end of Peter’s earthly life. He knew that there was very little time left for him to live. So he wanted to make the best use of his remaining days of his life to build and prepare God’s people to remember the very things he had spoken (2 Peter 1:15) so that they would continue in the truth even after his demise. He wanted them rooted in the word so they would become strong in their faith and could detect and combat the spreading apostasy.

Just like Peter, God has placed shepherds in our lives to remind us of God’s divine promises, refresh us by speaking His Word into our lives and to stimulate our thinking so that we would remember to apply God’s teachings in our lives. The shepherd’s heart always has the welfare of his sheep.

Let’s take a little time to thank God for these godly men, our shepherds who work tirelessly to keep us in God’s truth.

P.S.   Even as you watch the video posted below, remember to thank your pastor and his family for all that they have been to you.

 

To Appreciate:

“For everything you do, in every season of our lives… Thank You!”  

Hebert W Armstrong

Listen- ‘Pastor’s song’