The Second Letter Of Peter- 12

Subtitle: A Final Exhortation

A link to the audio can be found at the bottom of this article.

2 Peter 3:14-18.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, October 11, 2026.

Peter finishes this letter with a final exhortation to believers on how we should now live in light of the future that God has planned and revealed to us.

Let’s look at our passage.

Be diligent to be found by Him in peace (v. 14)

This verse opens with the condition, “since you look for these things…”  The word for looking here has the sense of an expectant attitude.  It could be translated as “looking forward to these things.”  This should be our condition of heart.  As opposed to the earlier scoffers, we hold on to the promise of God’s judgment and look forward to it.

Peter’s main exhortation is for us to be diligent, or exert ourselves, to be found by Him in peace.  The second part helps us to understand what kind of exertion we are to give ourselves.  To be in peace refers to a particular state or way of life that is marked by God’s peace in our life.

This peace originates internally.  We are no longer enemies of God but are at peace with Him through Jesus.  This reality is the bedrock of our inner life.  It is then supposed to express itself through a life of peace towards others.  Even when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and points us to repentance, we can respond in the reality of His grace towards us.  His purpose is not to destroy me and cast me out.  His purpose is to teach me, train me, help me to grow into the character and faith of Jesus.  We can repent with the peaceful joy that this is His desire, and we will be accepted.

We also need to live at peace with the wisdom and timing of God’s judgments.  Many people scoff at the word or even turn back from following Christ because they allow their hearts to be stirred up in turmoil against the judgments of God.  Rather than kicking against them and falling back into a life of scoffing unbelief, we are to trust Him and hold onto the peace that comes into our heart when we know that we are at peace with God.

In reference to the idea of being found by Him, it is easy to jump to the belief that this is talking about the Second Coming alone.  Thus, it would have the idea of being diligent so that Jesus will find you living in His peace when he arrives.  This can definitely be a part of what Peter is saying.  However, the verb “to be found” has the sense of an inspection or examination.  Yes, the return of Christ will be a day that reveals the results of God’s inspection and examination of every heart.  However, the Holy Spirit within believers is helping us every day to hear the Word of God and inspect our own hearts.  This co-laboring process ensures that we will be found on the ultimate day, whether his coming or our death, in his peace.  In fact, the phrase “by Him” is literally “to him.”  It has a sense that we are inspected and found “in his estimation” to be in peace.  It doesn’t matter what the world thinks about us, but what Christ thinks about us.

Peter then adds two extra descriptions of this state of peace: spotless and blameless.  It emphasizes the imagery of a sheep that is being inspected by the Good Shepherd.  It can even emphasize a sacrificial lamb that is inspected by the Priest in order to determine if it is worthy of offering (notice that Christ is both our High Priest and Good Shepherd).  We want our lives to be a holy offering unto God that, when inspected by the Priest (Jesus), is found worthy.  That is not something that we wait for the end of our life to discover.  It is a daily spiritual walk with Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Remember also that in 1 Peter 1:19, Peter had reminded them (us) that they were redeemed by “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”  Just as the life of Christ was found acceptable as a sacrifice that would redeem others, so we should want our lives to be acceptable to him by following his path.  Of course, our sacrifices cannot pay the price for the sins of others, but they don’t need to do so.  Jesus has already done that.  Our sacrifice in a lesser but still important way can help people to see and embrace the forgiveness of sins found in Christ.

How can I live a life of sacrificial love that is spotless and blameless?  We won’t do it in the same way that Jesus did it, i.e., without error.  However, we can be spotless and blameless by walking in God’s love through repentance and forgiveness.  This is not just between us and God, but also between us and others.  We need to be quick to ask forgiveness from people we have wronged.  We also need to be quick to give forgiveness to those who ask.  Our goal must be to draw people into the peace of Christ and help them remain there by the love of Christ. 

By the way, this is not blameless in the eyes of people, or even yourself.  You may ask forgiveness and turn away from prior sin, but some people may never let it go.  They may continue to blame you as a bad person because of something you did in the past.  This is blameless in the eyes of Jesus.  He sees your heart and your attempts to make things right with people.  They may hold on to blame in your regard, but they will have to answer for their lack of forgiveness.  None of us will stand before Christ blameless because we have never sinned.  We will do so because we have followed the Holy Spirit on the path of repentance and following Jesus, the path of loving God and loving others.  It is only the judgment of Jesus that puts us in a place of being spotless and blameless in his peace.

The Lord’s patience is salvation (v. 15a)

In verse 15, Peter reminds us of the earlier point that the Lord’s seeming delay is actually patience making room for salvation (2 Peter 3:9).  We are to consider, regard, the Lord’s patience (the long time of not coming yet continued to this day) as the opportunity of salvation for those who are even now perishing.  Each day that he doesn’t come is another opportunity of salvation for the lost.  In fact, each day that a person wakes up on the right side of the dirt is a gracious opportunity of salvation.

The “delay” of Christ should not be called a delay.  It is truly an exercise, a gift, of patience.  It is an opportunity of salvation.  It is a cause for rejoicing and not complaining to God or scoffing at His promises.

Working for the Lord in this life is meant to be a joyful thing.  Even when people bite your head off simply for pointing them to Jesus, we can rejoice as Jesus said in Matthew 5:11-12.  “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  We rejoice because we have a ministry of reconciliation that can turn enemies into fellow brothers and sisters.  We rejoice because we are in good company and have a sure reward for our labor.

Paul’s letters (v. 15b-16)

Peter brings up the Apostle Paul and the letters that he had written to these same Christians.  Paul had founded these churches and was the primary apostolic influence.  Peter emphasizes that what he tells them is no different from what Paul had already written to them.  God had given Paul wisdom, which he had shared with these believers in person and in letters.  It was a message that agreed with Peter and the other apostles.

This is important because there have been attempts by certain teachers through the years to present Paul as having hijacked the early Church.  They accuse Paul of changing the Gospel.  Yet, this is not the testimony of Peter who had sat at the feet of Jesus as he taught.  The early apostles were clear on the reason why Jesus had not come back yet.  Christ had not come back yet because God was patiently keeping the door of salvation open for the lost.  Yet, this would not be without an end, which is the main point of this chapter.

In verse 16, Peter mentions that some of the things that Paul has written are hard to understand.  Paul was trained in the Scriptures to a high degree.  When this was surrendered to the Holy Spirit, it gave him a deep understanding of what God was doing in Christ and how that connected to the Old Testament.  People (apparently even Peter) found it hard to follow his train of thought and line of argument.

We should also notice that Peter includes Paul’s letters in the category of Scripture: “some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures…”  The Apostles knew that their teaching was inspired by the Spirit of Christ.  The duty was upon them to lay the foundation of faith for the Church, once and for all.  Their writings about the Gospel were inspired (God-breathed) and binding upon those who would follow Christ.

Let’s broaden our perspective on this.  When Paul wrote a letter to the churches that he had founded, his letters were not out of the blue without any context.  He had taught them many things and answered many of their questions.  They knew his mind about many things. 

Even if his letters were hard to follow, they understood the bottom line of what he was teaching.  They could not twist Paul’s words to mean something other than what he had already taught them and remain intellectually, even morally, honest.  However, those who were untaught and unstable had no such guardrails.  Even if they were told of Paul’s true meaning, their wisdom and flesh would pull them away from that meaning to a distortion, a lie.  You cannot live out lies and find life.  It always leads to destruction, for yourself and for those who follow you.

The scoffers earlier in the chapter are in this category.  They were distorting, perverting, and twisting Paul’s words to mean something that he did not mean.  The Judaizers in the book of Acts similarly twisted Paul’s words.  In this case, they were accusing Paul of teaching error.  They accused him of promoting lawlessness and destroying the Law of Moses.  Of course, Paul was not doing this.  Anyone who knew him knew that this was not the case.

Be on your guard (v. 17-18)

Both Peter and Paul have done their job to forewarn Christians of the danger posed by those who twist Scripture and the words of the apostles of Jesus.  Thus, we must be on our guard against such false teachers.  However, the guarding begins in our hearts.  We must know the Word of God and refresh our memory in it every day.  We must prayerfully work it into our lives by the various helps of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, this guarding has an external aspect.  We are to reject false teachers as they surface in our lives and in the lives of our Christian communities.  Church elders must clearly stand against any false teachers who come into their assemblies.

If we do not stay on guard, then we (or others) can be carried away by the error of these “unprincipled” men.  He calls them unprincipled because they are a person who refuses laws, boundaries, and wisdom in order to gratify the desires of their flesh.  They cast off sound teaching, or twist it to support their desires, in order to follow paths that are not from the Lord.

Earlier in the letter, Peter had mentioned Balaam in connection with these false teachers (2 Peter 2:15).  They stray from the path of Jesus onto the path of Balaam.  The path of Balaam was a path of trying to gain riches through God’s Word.  The lie behind this is the same lie that the devil told Eve.  You can get something better by going your own way, rather than God’s Way, i.e., Christ’s Way.  This lie always leads to destruction, unless we repent and turn back to the Way of the Lord.

Not only can we be pulled down a path of error, but it can also be described as falling from our steadfastness.  Believers have been securely set upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus.  As long as we remain in Him, we are secure.  However, we can be deceived, seduced, discouraged into following a path of error.  We step off the foundation of Jesus and the place of security that God has given us.  It would be as if one of Noah’s sons jumped off the boat as the flood waters began to rise.  Those who have faith in Jesus remain in the place and life that God has set them.  They hold to the truth despite the chatter of unbelievers and false Christians.  This is what Peter is warning against.

Peter closes with the call for Christians to grow, to increase and become greater, in grace and knowledge of Jesus.  The grace of Jesus is the foundation upon which we grow to become more like him.  Grace is the whole measure of God’s good gifts, particularly salvation.  It is the constant supply with which we are enabled to become more like him.  This is true as individuals but also true for us as a local expression of the Church.  We are all called to be a part of God’s grace to one another.

Knowledge of Jesus is primarily what Jesus taught.  We come to know this through the faithful work of the apostles recorded in the New Testament.  However, it is also how that teaching (knowledge) affects our life and makes us more like him.  Therefore, it is a knowledge that comes from experience and relationship with Jesus and his teaching.

Peter reminds us of just what Jesus is to us.  He is Lord.  That not only meant that he had authority over all powers on the earth (Lord of lord and King of kings), but also in the heavens (save the Father Himself).  It was also understood to directly tie into the covenant name of God at Sinai.  He is Yahweh of the Old Testament, the LORD.

He is also Savior.  He is the one who has delivered us, or rescued us, from sin and the slavery in which we were stuck.  He has rescued us from the path of error and destruction while placing us in a place of being children of God.

He is also Christ, the Messiah.  He is the Anointed One of God sent to redeem humanity back to its rightful place of direct relationship with the Father and Imagers of His dominion upon the earth.

Peter lastly declares that to Jesus be the glory now and forever.  Our aspirations in life should be to give him all the glory, the credit, the praise.  But also, we should desire that our life itself be lived in a way that causes Him to be praised.  Thus, we glorify him in the present, but everyday until eternity.  The idea is not that it stops when eternity starts, but that it continues to eternity.

May God help us to live lives that are growing each day to be more like Jesus.  May we bring glory to him and may we praise God for all that Jesus has done for us.

Remember this.  The wrong things that happen in the Church or are done by Christians, happen because someone wants the glory, the praise, of others.  Don’t give people the praise that belongs to Jesus alone.  In short, let him who boasts boast in the LORD Jesus!

Final Exhortation audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 5

Subtitle: Christ's Work through Paul

Colossians 2:1-5.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 10, 2025.

Last week, Paul was describing how Christ was working among the Colossians.  He ended chapter one writing about how Christ was working through him to help them.  This passage continues that discussion.

Paul's struggle for them (v. 1-4)

In Colossians 1:29, Paul mentioned that he was “striving” on their behalf, but with the power of Christ working through him.  This word is used again in chapter 2 verse 1, but now as a noun.  Paul has been in a struggle for them that has the sense of intense labor.  This struggle is about establishing the believers of Colossae as complete in Christ (1:28 and 2:10).

It will be clear as we go through this letter that Paul is not just thinking about being completed in the resurrection.  He is thinking of the present reality of being complete in Christ.  We are complete in Christ right now because we have everything that we need for life and godliness in this life.  I don’t need to find a guy in Tibet who has great wisdom.  I don’t need to go to secretsoftheearth.com and pay 5 easy payments of $999.99.  We have all we need because of Jesus.  Every believer in Jesus needs to have this understanding as foundational in their life.

Yet, Paul is not just struggling for them.  He speaks of “those who are at Laodicea,” a town that was roughly 10 miles away, and “all those who have not personally seen my face.”  Paul went to many cities and personally started many churches, but the work of Christ was bigger than him.  The churches he started spread the Gospel and started churches throughout their regions.  Also, this was a very mobile time in the Roman Empire, so it was common for Christians to travel due to business. 

So, why does Paul care about these Christians that he has never met personally?  It is because of the ministry that Jesus had given to him (1:23).  He was tasked with proclaiming the hope of the Gospel among the Gentiles (1:23, 27).  He cares because Jesus cares.  Christ is the source of this care, this struggle, to help them have everything they need.

Have you ever thought that there might be someone doing spiritual battle on your behalf that you have never seen?  Perhaps you would be surprised to hear prayers prayed by your ancestors for their offspring.  Jesus himself even prayed for those who would one day believe because of the words of those he sent (John 17:20).

Don’t look at the lives of others and complain that you don’t have what you need.  Instead, look to the heart of Jesus for you and trust that He is supplying all that you need.

Paul’s overall purpose is to establish them as complete in Christ, but verse 2 gives us an immediate goal: he wants to encourage their hearts.  The word for encouragement here is a verbal form of the word used for the Holy Spirit as our Helper.  It has the sense of strengthening in the various ways that we may need, whether strengthened in mind, heart, or deed.

The Colossian believers are facing threats that could discourage them from following Jesus.  That may be through false information about Jesus, or through promising things that are false.  We will see more about this as we go forward.

Just as he speaks of them as part of a larger group (those who have not personally seen my face), so he reminds them that their encouragement is not just an individual thing.  Their hearts are being “knit together in love.”  How is this happening?  It is the work of the Holy Spirit as we go through life.  He is working to tie our separate hearts into a unity of purpose that is centered on Christ alone.

When we cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in knitting our hearts together in love, we are enabled to receive something that God has for us.  It can be thought of as a target or as a place into which we can come:  “to reach all the riches of the full assurance of understanding.”

The Greek grammar requires extra words to bring the sense into English.  Some versions show this by putting these extra words in italics.  The grammar points to the riches of the full assurance of understanding as a target or end result of being knit together in love.  Thus, some versions will add the word “attaining” and others “to reach.”

This phrase is similar to the riches, or wealth, talked about in 1:27.  These are spiritual riches that come from our understanding of Christ, which full assurance is a part.  When we have the proper understanding about God’s will and the Anointed One He has sent, we will then have a full assurance.  Again, notice Paul’s emphasis on the fullness we can currently have in Christ.

This phrase is somewhat general, even vague, on its own.  The next phrase will make it clearer.  Yet, it is important to recognize the role of having full assurance and full understanding of what God is doing.  If you think you are lacking something, then you will be susceptible to the charlatans who come along offering something “more.”  It is similar to the idea of shopping while you are hungry.  It isn’t wise.

It doesn’t take a long time for a believer to have full assurance of understanding.  This is not about understanding every aspect to God’s Word and reaching a certain level of training.  We need to be careful what we hunger for.

I believe the next phrase is simply restating the prior in a specific way: “to reach the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ.”  The mystery of God regarding Messiah is no longer a mystery.  Generations prior to Jesus did not fully understand what God would do through Messiah.  In Jesus, we have received that full understanding.  The mystery is revealed and the curtain is pulled back.  We ought to daily praise God for this revelation.  The Apostles were faithful to record what Jesus did and revealed to them about his purpose.

Just in case a person is missing Paul’s point, verse three drives the point home.  In Jesus, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.  This continued use of words like “fullness” and “all” is connecting us back to Christ and the Gospel about him.

We can grow tired of the “Jesus solution” that has been given to us from God.  A “new and improved Jesus” might be more alluring.  We might even have a hunger for a better solution.  Believe me, the devil is working overtime to put such solutions in front of you.  Beware!  No true knowledge can come from any source, but Jesus.  All we need has been written down for us.  We also have the same Spirit that moved upon Paul to write these words working in our hearts to receive it by faith and walk it out.

Thus, Paul says in verse four that he doesn’t want anyone to delude them through persuasive arguments.  This may come across as a general concern, but we are going to see in this chapter that Paul is aware that this is already happening in Colossae, Laodicea, and elsewhere.  People were traveling around, claiming to have something better, or a better understanding of the Gospel of Christ.

We see this still today.  These people are far more accessible due to the internet.  They can sound persuasive until someone like Paul begins to point out all the errors in their reasoning, which he will do in short order.

Paul’s joy (v. 5)

Though Paul is concerned that someone may delude them with persuasive arguments, there are things for which he is joyful.

He has not been there in person.  However, he has been in spirit.  He thinks about them, pray for them, meditates on what to say or to write to them.  Like a parent with a kid who has gone off to college, so we can carry the spiritual burden for others.  This spiritual concern has led to Paul having great concern for them, and yet also, great joy.

He rejoices in their orderliness.  Part of loving one another is doing things in a way that allows peace to reign among us.  God creates things, but then puts them in an orderly relationship with His creation.  These relationships among created things began as “very good!”  Believers are to let this new creative work of the Spirit bring an order to the chaos of the previous life of sin.

Our attitude and actions with one another should not be in ways that try to disturb or upset one another.  Their “love” for one another is not by their definition, but by Christs.  This kind of love will display itself in an orderly way.

Of course, a person can complain when they are corrected that a teacher is “disturbing” them and being disorderly.  This kind of special pleading is not being serious.  There are orderly ways to correct someone.  Of course, it will feel disruptive to them and because they are following their flesh and not the Word of God or the Spirit of God.  So, we are not talking about an orderliness that is defined by each one of us, trying to find a lowest common denominator.  Christ commands us to love one another in the way that he loved us.  He loved us enough to tell us the truth about our true condition and the only means of salvation.  He called us to repent.

We see this orderliness also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul describes the operation of spiritual gifts.  “All things must be done properly and in an orderly manner” (14:40).  Also, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (14:33).  Some try to rule out many spiritual gifts as being disorderly.  However, they often have a view that treats some of the spiritual gifts as “no longer in service.”  In their minds, they no longer exist and are out of order in any exercise of them.  This again is a special pleading that says more than the Scriptures do about spiritual gifts.

Paul also rejoices in the steadfastness of their faith in Christ.  This may be because many of them have not been deluded (v. 4), at least not yet.  Just as God is steadfast in His love towards us by sending Jesus while we were yet sinners, it is good for us to display faithfulness to one another and towards Christ.  We are following His lead.  A faith that remains strong, even when buffeted by  ill winds and false teachings, is something that should lead us to rejoice.

These are the things we need to do in following Christ and bringing joy to those whom Christ has given the ministry of encouraging our hearts.

Christ through Paul audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 2

Subtitle: A Prayer of Petition

Colossians 1:9-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 20, 2025.

We are continuing in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae.  Last week, we looked at Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving for their faith, their love, and their hope in God.

In these verses, he moves into a prayer of petition on their behalf. 

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul asks for certain things in their lives (v. 9-11)

Just as prayers of thanksgiving are a kind of prayer, so we have prayers of petition, where we ask God for things.  The idea of petition may seem strange to connect to prayer.  However, think about how we use petitions in our society.  At its root, a petition is going before some authority and asking them for something.  Yet, due to the political nature of most authorities, we get as many people as possible to “sign” our petition, basically saying that they are asking for this also.    Thankfully, our prayers to God are not generally dependent upon getting enough people to agree with us.

We should recognize that there are different categories of things in our petitions to God.  Some things like food, money for bills, or healing from a sickness, if they are answered by God, will no longer be in our prayers of petition.  They will be a part of our prayers of thanksgiving, but we will no longer be asking God to heal someone who is already healed.

The things that Paul asks for them are not the kind of things that can be answered tomorrow and be done.  They are the kind of things that are being answered throughout our life and are completed through death and resurrection.

This brings up a side issue.  It is common for people to compare their petitions to those of others.  When we are praying for someone that has stage-4 cancer, it is common for people who are battling a cold to feel like their healing is too small to bother God.  We can find ourselves in a strange place of not praying because we are convinced God is too big to be bothered with us.  The problem here is this.  We don’t realize how we are diminishing God in thinking that He is too big to be bothered.  What we are really saying is that He is not quite big enough to be able to deal with the big and small things of life.  Your petitions are important to God because they are part of the way that He is working to make you like Jesus.

Before we get into what Paul is asking for them, he mentions that he has “not ceased to pray for” them (vs. 9).  To pray without ceasing is not so much about praying every second.  It is a prayer that is always in his heart for them.  He loves them, and he desires things that can’t be answered in a moment in time.  Thus, he continually prays that God will do these things in their lives.  He said the same thing to the Thessalonians and other churches.  Paul’s prayer for one is his prayer for all.

These are not prayers of empty (vain) repetitions.  Jesus didn’t say, “When you pray, do not repeat your prayers.”  Rather, he said, “When you pray, do not use vain repetitions.”  There is a repetition that has meaning.  It is when we are praying for things that take a life-time to complete, and we are doing so out of love.  However, empty repetitions happen when we think that we can get what we want by God through some mantra or mechanism of prayer.  People can build rituals of prayers and activities as a means of acquiring whatever they prayer.  This puts us in the driver seat and makes an answer to prayer all about our ability.  Prayer at its root needs to be a child coming to their father.  There is no way we can force our Father in heaven to give us what we ask.  But, we can seek His wisdom as we ask.

In our flesh, we can grow weary of praying for the same thing over and over.  However, the Spirit of God can stir in us a love for our family (biological or spiritual) to the point that we won’t give up praying, asking, these things for them.

Paul asks God to fill them with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

The word for knowledge here has a prefix that gives the added sense of a precise and correct knowledge.  How can we have a precise and correct knowledge of the God’s Will?  In fact, think of all the ways in which we are surrounded by imprecise and incorrect knowledge of God and His will.  The only way we can get this is if God reveals Himself to us, which He has been faithful to do.

Can you imagine this prayer being “answered” completely in this life?  I mean to the point where you never have to pray for it again.  This is the kind of thing that you will be asking God over and over again, not because He isn’t answering, but because the knowledge of God’s will has an incomprehensively large range.  It goes from the micro such as decisions for our individual life: jobs, marriage, kids, etc.  However, it stretches out to the macro, such as the response of our Republic and this world to the Gospel, to the point in time in which the saints will inherit the Kingdom of God.

God answers such a prayer as we live life and wrestle with it before Him in prayer.

Paul adds the modifiers of “spiritual wisdom” and “understanding.”  He calls it spiritual to highlight the source of the wisdom and understanding.  However, we know that Paul doesn’t mean just any spiritual source.  The devil is a spiritual source of false wisdom that many in the world embrace and call wisdom.  Paul clearly is pointing to a wisdom whose source is the Spirit of God.

This is what James speaks of in James 3:15.  He warns to have a wisdom from God, “from above,” versus a wisdom that is earthly, from the earth.   He uses two more words to describe a worthless wisdom.  The second is that it is sensual, that is, from our senses and flesh.  Lastly, James speaks of a wisdom that is demonic.  We can treat earthly, sensual, and demonic as three different kinds of wisdom, but they are tied together.  The devil uses our flesh and the world around us to manipulate us like he did to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of our flesh simply becomes a proxy for the wisdom of the devil because he leads us by the nose through them.

What is the difference between understanding and wisdom?  Well, understanding is an aspect.  It is the moments when we gain insight into what God wants and why He wants it.  However, wisdom flows out of understanding and answers the question, “So, what should we do?”  The source of wisdom is critical because it will direct the things we do and don’t do.

How does God fill us with the knowledge of His will?  He does so through the written Word, through mature believers, and through the help of the Holy Spirit.  This means we must be a people who are reading the Word of God (seeking His wisdom), interacting and talking with mature believers, and seeking the leading of the Holy Spirit through prayer.

Paul also asks God that they walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him in all respects. There is a lot of water under the bridge in this area within the Church.  There is a whole range of how people respond to a verse like this.  On one side of the range is a group that sees absolute obedience without failing as the meaning of this.  It is a legalistic perfectionism that typically has a group of elders who are the judges of how well you are doing.  On the other side of the range is a group that promotes Jesus as such a covering for our sins that we don’t even have to quit sinning.  They will even dissuade the desire to obey God because you are trying to save yourself.  This is the easy grace crowd that demands next to nothing for those who are in their group.

Let me be clear.  Jesus is worthy of absolute perfection, but Paul is not calling for this.  He is referencing the reality that we represent our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus to a world that doesn’t know them.  Part of the understanding of His will that we need is to see how God works through the way we live our lives in order to draw others to Him.  A manner “worthy of the Lord” is a focused life that seeks to please Him in everything.  Anyone who does this will find themselves failing in many things, not on purpose, but simply out of falling short of Jesus.  Yet, what do we do when we fall short?  God’s word tells us to heed the Holy Spirit, repent, and pray for His help.  We shouldn’t do this out of fear, but out of a desire to please our Lord and help his purposes.

In this area, it is important to distinguish between salvation issues and discipleship issues.  I will come back to this in a moment, but this is critical here.  This “worthy manner” phrase is not about obtaining or keeping our salvation.  It is about our discipleship in Jesus.

Paul also prays that they would bear fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God.  There is a theme that begins in Genesis 1 and flows throughout the Bible.  God made humanity to be fruitful like He is.  Yet, he connects it to “every good work.”  God is the one who defines both what is fruitful and what is a good work.  He is the source of every good thing, and it is He who puts good things in front of us to do, whatever that be.  He is the teacher of both what is good and how to do it.

Some people can be picky and choosey about what they want to do or not to do.  This calls for yielding our fleshly desires and surrendering to His heavenly desires.

When we do the work that God gives us to do well, then it bears good fruit.  This involves pruning things that are not good out of our life.  It also involves pruning things that are fine in and of themselves.  However, there is too much crowded into our life, demanding our time.  It can squelch and inhibit good fruit.  Thus, a perfectly good branch can be cut off to give more sunlight and oxygen to the other branches around it.

A person led by the Spirit of God will have the very life of God springing up within their life and flowing out into the lives of others.  This fruitfulness has the by-product of increasing our knowledge of God. 

This brings us back to the tension between salvation and discipleship.  How can we do good works?  I thought all our works were as filthy rags?  The apostle Paul was not contradicting himself.  Rather, we need to distinguish between salvation and discipleship.  None of our works and worthy walking can save us.  In and of themselves they fall short of the absolute righteousness needed to save a person.  When it comes to salvation, it is the work and walk of Jesus that can save.  He creates a place within him that we can step into by faith.  It is a faith in him.  He is the One who performed the work of saving me.  However, now that we are in that saved and cleaned place, he wants us to learn of him, become like him, discipleship.  In that saved place of trusting Jesus, we can do good works and walk worthy.  Our works are no longer filthy rags because they are done by faith in Jesus, and they are stirred up by the Spirit of God.  The works that are done in Christ and by the leading of the Holy Spirit are cleansed by Jesus, and we now do them for the right reasons, to glorify God for Jesus as opposed to trying to impress Him with us.

Paul also asks that they be strengthened with all power for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.  We can get excited about the idea of having power.  Visions of creating worlds and vanquishing the armies of Pharaoh may dance in our heads.  Yet, Paul speaks of a power that is “according to His glorious might.”  This is the power displayed by Jesus when he went to the cross.  It is in contrast to the power that the Corinthian Christians desired.  There desire was all about a power that would distinguish them above each other.  The power of Christ is distinguished by it penchant to place ourselves beneath others in order to lift them up.  It is the strength to die to what our flesh wants.  This is at the root of any good work that we may do for Christ.

Paul sees a connection between the exercise of spiritual strength and something that it produces in us.  It will make us steadfast and patient.  These two words are really about patience, but it is patience looked at from a different facet.  Steadfastness pictures patience as the ability to remain under a heavy load, rather than quitting.  It is perseverance, endurance.  The second word translated patience is the picture of not easily losing your temper and blowing your top.

Only the power of God’s Holy Spirit can help us to persevere and not lose our cool, whether this is with others or towards God.  Yet, we will need to die to the cries of our flesh to quit and get angry.  We will have to picture Jesus on the cross and choose to join Him there.

Some translations connect the phrase “with joy” to patience, i.e., having patience with joy.  Others connect it to the next verse, “joyously giving thanks…”  It is one of those strange cases where the grammar can actually allow for both interpretations.  Whether we can determine which of these Paul intended, I think the difficulty is moot in the end.  Think about it.  Is there ever a time when we shouldn’t be patient with joy?  Or is it okay for our thanksgiving to be without joy?  Regardless of which of these you think is most likely, we should do all things with joy. 

Give thanks to the Father for what He has done (v. 12-14)

We should see this as the last thing that he is praying for them.  Just as He gave thanks for them, he desires that they too become a people giving thanks to the Father, and with joy.  We should notice how all of these things tie together.  Our growing in spiritual wisdom and understanding helps us to know the Lord and be joyful for all that He does in our lives, even just for our lives.

Yet, Paul is transitioning out of what he prays for them and into a treatise about God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus, verses 12 through 14 describe what the Father has done for us.  When we understand what He has done for us, we will joyfully give thanks to Him even in difficult times.

He points out that our Heavenly Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints of light.  This could also be translated as, “qualified us for a share [a portion, a lot] in the inheritance.”  What is this inheritance of the saints?  It is the promise throughout the Old Testament that God will give the Kingdoms of the world to His representative and the saints.  This is most clearly described in Daniel 7.  Verses 13 to 14 focus on the Son of Man (aka the Messiah) who receives full dominion over the kingdoms of the world and a Kingdom that will never end.  However, later in verse 22, it explicitly states that the saints will take possession of the Kingdom.  Thus, this singular person, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the One through whom the saints can participate in the Dominion of Messiah.

By ourselves, we were (are) not worthy to receive this kingdom.  At the tower of Babel, God casts off the nations and creates a nation for Himself out of Abraham.  The nations failed to qualify.  However, we have a similar dynamic at the cross of Jesus.  Israel is cast out of the land because it has disqualified itself as a recipient of the Kingdom.  Christ then takes a remnant of Israel and uses them to be a light to the Gentile nations.  The key to this is that Jesus was the only one, Gentile or Jew, who qualified to receive the Kingdom from the Father.  Yet, the good news is that we can participate in his qualification.

There is a present aspect to the portion that we are qualified to obtain, and there is a future aspect to it, but more on that in a moment.

Why does he use the phrase, “the saints of light?”  Saints is a reference to the fact that we are set apart for God’s purpose.  This makes us holy, holy ones, and that is what the word “saints” means.  Light here is used to refer to the God of all Light.  It is symbolic of the way that truth helps us to see the realities that exist around us.  Jesus is the light of the world.  Yet, he in turn tells us that we are the light of the world. How is that?  When we put our faith in Jesus, and his Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, the light of Jesus shines through us like a clay lamp.  In and of ourselves, we are just a clay lamp.  However, with the oil and flame of God within us, we can be used of God to shine the light, the truth, of Christ to the world.

Part of what qualifies us is that the Father has rescued us from the domain of darkness.  This is external imagery that takes on a military feel.  His people have been stuck in a kingdom of darkness and need to be rescued, like Israel in Egypt.  However, this is not a rescue from a geographical place or a particular government. 

A child born into this world starts out innocent of any evil.  Yet, the darkness of this world presses in upon them.  It seeks entrance by any means.  By the time we become adults, the darkness of this world has made us a part of its dominion.  In the end, each of our hearts is where the domain of darkness reigns.

It is the Father who sent the Son to take on the nature of a man in order to rescue us from the grip of the devil.  These people in Colossae were under the dominion of the Beast Kingdom of Rome, but now they have been rescued and are no longer at the mercy of that darkness.

Finally, the Father has transferred us to the Kingdom of the Son of His love.  God hasn’t just rescued us.  He has put us in the Kingdom of Jesus.  Of course, they are still in Colossae and must deal with the Roman governance.  This is due to the “now but not yet fully” nature of the Kingdom of Jesus. 

This kingdom will never end, but it will go through phases.  We are in the phase where he is offering terms of peace to his enemies.  “Join me!  Why will you die?  Take my hand!”

He is called the Beloved Son, or Son of His Love, because it is tying into the prophecies about the ultimate son of David.  God promised a forever kingdom ruled by one who would be a son to God and God would be a Father to him.  These prophecies of an Anointed King are fulfilled in Jesus.  He is the One who has a perfect relationship of love with the Father.  It is God’s love for Jesus that is the bedrock of our hope.  If I was alone, then I could fear that He would deny me.  However, when I am with Jesus, God will not deny Himself!

Paul ends by stating that in Jesus we have redemption and forgiveness of sins.  These are also things that the Father has done, through the work of Jesus.  These are the foundation of our qualifying to inherit the Kingdom of God. 

Those who are in Christ have forgiveness of their sins.  However, this is not so that we can go out and sin more, but so that we not lose heart and give up when we fail.  Jesus cleanses us from our sins.  Yet, our cleansed state is only as we stand in Jesus.  Yes, I can be cleansed, but I am also standing within a cleansed place, the Lord Jesus.

How can we be sure that we have been redeemed and forgiven?  It is not because you have never failed, that is for sure.  We can be sure because we are obeying what the word says: put your faith in Jesus, turn from your sin, and follow him by the help of the Holy Spirit.

I pray that you have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and are firmly in the Kingdom of the Beloved Son, Jesus.  Yes, your geography hasn’t changed, but your soul has changed!

Prayer of Thanks audio

Finding Focus after Failure

Philippians 3:7-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father’s Day, June 16, 2019.

Today, we take time to celebrate fathers; a blessing for which they did not ask.  Being a father can fill you with all kinds of moments in which we feel great success and, of course, great failure.  It is one of those things that we cannot fully appreciate until we have been put in the harness ourselves.  Of course, this applies to parenting in general.

Our passage today is not about being a father.  However, it presents a problem that is common within parenting, that of getting up from failure and moving forward.  What do you do when your greatest attempts and endeavors are found out to fall short?  What do you do when that little baby who has grown up yells at you and slams the door to their room, or storms out of the house?  Sadly, many men run from such experiences.  Our society is full of missing-in-action fathers who decided to never start in the first place (often despite the children they have helped create).

Yet, for those who bravely jump into marriage and children, the challenges can mount and overwhelm a person.  We seem to be confronted with our weaknesses and shortcomings at every turn.  It is a very intimidating situation, even a crucible of sorts. 

So, I want to use this passage where the Apostle Paul is explaining his come-to-Jesus moment.  In it we will discover the proper response to those moments when you are made aware of your failures.

Confidence in the flesh does not lead to Jesus

Paul often spoke against the religious mindset that focused upon its own religious accomplishments because this does not lead anyone to Jesus.  Oh, it leads to all manner of places, but never to Jesus.  Confidence is good if it is placed in the right thing.

Paul had been raised in a religious environment in which performance was everything.  In verses 4-6 of this chapter, Paul lists his credentials among the Jewish people.  He had been circumcised when he was 8 days old.  This was the required mark that he belonged to God.  He was also from the tribe of Benjamin, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Thus, he was a true heir to the promises of God.  He was also a Hebrew of Hebrews, which meant that he was not one of those Hellenized Jews who adopted the Greek culture and mixed it, in varying degrees, with the culture of Israel.  He was a Pharisee, who prided themselves on exact, literal conformity to the Law.  His zeal was so great that he had been persecuting the Christians and even going to Damascus in order to seize more.  Lastly, his law keeping was blameless by the standards of his day.  Everything in Paul’s life told him that he was blameless and succeeding within his society.  Yet, the day that Jesus confronted him, he was made aware of just how greatly he had been failing God. 

Think about how we come from different subcultures within the greater USA culture.  Even Christians grow up within a subculture of the overall world-wide Christian community.  Each subculture has its own variation of what it means to be good, right, and successful.  However, those cultural trappings, whether religious or not, can blind us to our mounting failures.

Paul should have had his confidence centered upon God, but he had been taught to center it upon himself inadvertently.  On the road to Damascus, when Paul finally saw the light, he began to know just how far away from God he was, and yet also, that God still loved him.  I pray that today you may know that no matter whether you were a failure or a great success story, in regard to the subculture in which you were raised, God loves you too much to leave you alone.  He calls you to Himself through Jesus and says, “Put your trust in me.” 

Perhaps the greatest problem within Christianity throughout history has been the many men who were more confident in their ideas about Scripture than they were in the God who gave them.  On top of this is a similar problem.  Christians are often looking back to smart Christian men of the past and put more confidence in their great ideas about Scripture than in the Word itself.  Whether a group points to Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, or for Pentecostals, men like Charles Parham or William Seymour, or for the Assemblies of God, men like E. N. Bell and J. Roswell Flowers, it matters not what men your subculture points to and holds up as the great light to this generation.  What matters is if our confidence is truly placed upon Jesus instead of the reason of brilliant men.

Knowing Jesus is more important than the things we lose

Paul recognized that everything for which he had been working fell short of God.  He would rather know Jesus than have the greatest Jewish resume among his people.  Thus, he had to let go of certain things in order to know Jesus.  He had come to that moment of realization (my great works have fallen short), and chose to go after Christ rather than doubling down on his life’s work.  He let go of his standing and reputation within the religious community.  He let go of his potential within the leadership of Israel.  However, verse 9 also points out that he had let go of the righteousness of his own attempts to satisfy the Law of Moses, in order to obtain a righteousness that is from God through faith in Jesus.  The righteousness of faith in Jesus is diametrically opposed to the self-righteousness obtained by keeping the law.  Paul points to this as the great problem for Israel in Romans 10:2-3 where he says, “I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.  For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”

To know Jesus is more than to know information about him.  Yes, we want to learn about who Jesus was, what he did, and what he taught.  However, the words used for “knowledge,” and “know,” in this passage, include a knowledge that comes through a relationship with someone.  Paul doesn’t just want to go to school and learn about Jesus.  He wants to do life with Jesus.  His life would now be about learning who Jesus is through a personal relationship with him.

So, how do you have a relationship with Jesus?  You do so by faith.  You pray, you believe, you trust, you succeed, you fail, you repent, you keep your eyes upon Jesus.  I pray that today you will be struck with this desire to know Christ and not settle for anything less.

However, to really know Jesus, you must also get to know those major aspects of his life.  Paul wanted to experience and to learn about that same power that raised Christ from the dead.  He wanted that power operating in his life.  He also wanted to experience and to learn about the sufferings that Christ submitted himself to go through, even to the point of laying his life down for others.  Paul wanted his death to conform to that kind of death that Jesus had, which was a noble and godly one.  Ultimately Paul wanted to experience the Resurrection from the Dead himself, which is promised by Jesus to all believers.  There is coming a day when he will give the command and all the righteous saints of history will receive glorified, immortal bodies.

What do I do when I haven’t arrived yet

Fatherhood is a constant reminder that we haven’t arrived yet, and I’m not talking about the kids in the back seat droning, “Are we there yet?”  It is easy to get the wind knocked out of your sails when you are faced with your own failures.  In fact, it is easy to get angry, even filled with rage, as life constantly reminds us of how short we fall.  Yet, just as Christ was calling Paul to a different life that was not filled with hatred, anger, and rage, so Christ is calling us to let go of our failures and follow him.

Paul clearly says in verse 12 that he had not attained the list of the facets of knowing Jesus.  In fact, because the Resurrection is on the list, he still hasn’t attained that whole list even today.  Unless Jesus returns in our lifetime, all of us will close our eyes in death, realizing that we hadn’t attained it all yet.  But, God will not fail us.  He has set a time in which all of these things will be attained by all of the saints of all time together.  All of us will simultaneously enter into our full inheritance on the Day of Resurrection.  Wow!  What a day that will be.

Paul could have run away from his failures and away from Jesus.  Instead, he ran towards Christ.  Jesus is the “author and finisher of our faith.”  Yes, we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and work hard for our Lord, but we always remember that he will bring us through and finish us.  Yes, I haven’t arrived yet, but Jesus will get me there, just as he will get you there too.

Paul points out that he had to forget those things that were behind him.  We can learn lessons from our past, but we must not allow ourselves to become stuck in our past and frozen.  Paul had much guilt and shame behind him.  Yet, Jesus had forgiven him.  Have you ever noticed that we can still hold failures over our own head, even though Jesus says that he forgives us?  Faith is letting go and trusting Jesus.  Yes, you fell short.  Leave it behind you and move towards Jesus who promises to forgive you.

In fact, Paul was pressing forward to the things that Christ had set before him and us.  We first press towards those things that Jesus has for each of us in this life.  We don’t know what that will involve and everybody’s story is unique.  Yet, as we approach the end of our life, we must again press forward to those things that lie in our resurrected future.  Our greatest prize is that which we enter into at the Resurrection of the Dead.  All of us have to learn to get up and go to work.  This is what Paul is expressing.  He had to get up and get to work finding out just who this Jesus was.  Jesus is calling to each of us today.  “Come and get to know me!”

Paul ends this section with a reminder of our thinking, which he had been addressing back in chapter 2.  The mind of a person who keeps doubling down on their own accomplishments is not the mind of Christ.  Christ trusted the Father instead of trusting what he could do in the flesh.  He submitted to the cross and was rewarded with the highest honor of the entire universe.  The mind that is never too great to simply do what the Father asks us to do.  Failure is part of who we are as humans, but in Jesus it is not the final word.  If we will humble ourselves and press forward towards him, then Jesus will bring us to victory!

Finding Focus audio