Simon Peter, a
servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God,
and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that
hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Divine promises are an area of great controversy in modern
churches today. A great number of preachers across America are trading their
theology out for a new set of teachings that minimize the call to personal
holiness and virtue, and over-emphasize the Divine promises (promises of God)
that deal especially with health, fortune, and overall success. The “gospel”
(good news) that they preach is not the gospel that Jesus desires that
ministers and pastors should faithfully proclaim. Rather, these “Prosperity
Gospel” teachers purport that the greatest news of the Bible isn’t that Jesus
saves us from our sins, but that Jesus saves us from our problems. When we read
today’s text, Peter mentions “exceeding great and precious promises of God,”
but in context, those great and precious promises of God aren’t the ones that
deal with health and prosperity, they are promises that deal with escaping the
corruption of this world that is brought about through the lusts and sinful
desires of greedy and vile people. Furthermore, in the beginning of the
passage, Peter plays out what the true gospel is. He doesn’t present a set of
promises about getting wealthy using a secret formula of prayers and attitudes,
but rather he shows that “grace and peace” have been multiplied through God’s
Divine power to declare us righteous because of the work of Jesus. The God who
saves has given us power now to live in a way that helps us draw closer to him
in godliness and holiness. The measure of our blessing from God is not the size
of our bank account, but the amount of grace and peace that He gives us. In
true understanding of the blessings of God, it is not good enough to say that
the people of God don’t have health or money problems. Instead, we should say
that the people of God that truly live in the blessing of God have grace and
peace from God, even in the midst of financial or physical problems. The gauge
of the gospel is not determined by the needle of the temporal, but by the scale
of the eternal.
Food For Thought:
What are the promises that Peter says we should be excited about? What is wrong
with “prosperity gospel” promises?
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