(2 Pe) 1:3, 5, 8, 10-11 CJB “God’s power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through our knowing the One who called us to his own glory and goodness. For this very reason, try your hardest to furnish your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, For if you have these qualities in abundance, they keep you from being barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Therefore, brothers, try even harder to make your being called and chosen a certainty. For if you keep doing this, you will never stumble. Thus you will be generously supplied with everything you need to enter the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah.”

Christianity is not passive. Peter places two truths side by side that we must never separate: God provides everything we need for godliness, and then God commands us to pursue godliness with everything we have.

That is not a contradiction.

That is the Christian life.

God provides the power.

We practice obedience.

God supplies the grace.

We pursue godliness.

God calls us.

We live like men who have been called.

God Has Given Us Everything We Need

Peter begins with an extraordinary statement: “God’s power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.”

Notice where the Christian life begins.

Not with our discipline.

Not with our determination.

Not with our ability to make ourselves better men.

It begins with God’s power.

The man who has been born again through faith in Jesus Christ has been given the Holy Spirit. God does not save us and then leave us to manufacture the Christian life through sheer willpower.

His Spirit lives within us.

His Word instructs us.

His grace sustains us.

His power enables us.

Everything necessary for pursuing “life and godliness” has been provided by God.

But Peter doesn’t stop there.

Christianity Is Not Passive

Immediately after telling us what God has done, Peter tells us what we must do:

“Try your hardest…”

Then a few verses later:

“Try even harder…”

That should destroy any notion of passive Christianity.

Grace is not opposed to effort. Grace is opposed to earning.

We don’t work hard to become God’s children. We pursue godliness because through Christ we belong to Him.

Peter tells believers to add to their faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.

Why?

Because when these qualities are increasing in us, Peter says they keep us from becoming “barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”

God intends His power within us to produce His character through us.

Play Like a Man Who Made the Team

Think about being chosen for a team.

Being selected isn’t permission to sit on the bench and admire your uniform.

You’ve been chosen—now practice and play like it.

You train.

You learn the plays.

You listen to the coach.

You discipline yourself.

You take the field.

Not to earn your place on the team, but because you’ve been given one.

That’s close to the relationship Peter describes between God’s calling and our obedience.

God calls us and supplies everything necessary for godliness. We respond by diligently pursuing the life for which He called us.

Our obedience does not purchase our salvation.

Our obedience demonstrates the reality of a faith that saves.

That is why Peter says: “Make your being called and chosen a certainty.”

He isn’t telling Christians to save themselves. He is telling them to pursue the kind of life that confirms God’s saving work in them.

Put On Christ and Walk Like Jesus

Christian men should increasingly look like the Christ whose name we bear.

His character becomes our character.

His commitment becomes our commitment.

His commission becomes our commission.

We put on Christ.

We walk as Jesus walked.

We submit ourselves to the Father’s will as Jesus submitted Himself to the Father’s will.

We do God’s work in God’s way with increasingly Christlike character.

That requires intentionality.

We open God’s Word when we’d rather sleep.

We pray when we’d rather worry.

We obey when obedience costs us something.

We resist temptation when our flesh wants satisfaction.

We speak God’s truth when silence would be easier.

We serve when we’d rather be served.

We proclaim Christ when fear tells us to keep quiet.

This is not an attempt to make God love us.

It is the response of men who already have been loved, called, redeemed, and empowered by God.

Don’t Be Barren When Jesus Returns

Peter’s warning should get our attention.

A Christian can become barren and unfruitful in his knowledge of Christ.

That’s not how I want Jesus to find me.

And I doubt that’s how you want Him to find you.

Jesus is coming again. He will judge the living and the dead. Peter therefore points our eyes toward “the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah.”

We aren’t supposed to spend the years between our conversion and Christ’s return doing our own will while waiting for heaven.

There is work to do.

There are people to disciple.

There are families to lead.

There are temptations to resist.

There is truth to proclaim.

There are good works God has prepared for us.

There is fruit to produce.

There is a Savior to know more deeply and glorify more completely.

Christianity Is Not Passive—So Get in the Game

God acted first.

The Father sent His Son.

The Son sacrificed Himself.

The Spirit was sent to dwell within God’s people.

God called us, saved us, equipped us, and continues transforming us.

Now Peter says:

“Try your hardest.”

And then:

“Try even harder.”

Men, Christianity is not passive.

Take up your cross.

Surrender your will.

Open your Bible.

Get on your knees.

Put on Christ.

Walk as Jesus walked.

Do the work God has given you to do.

Not so God will choose you—but because those whom God has called should increasingly live like men who belong to Him.

God has supplied everything you need.

Now get in the game.

Run Today’s Play

Spend focused time in God’s Word and prayer today asking Him to show you one area where your obedience has become passive.

Then, act on what He shows you. Don’t merely intend to obey—do the next thing God has already made clear.

God supplies the power, and by His grace, we must supply the effort.