MOI-06
130303AM
Every day we each make a big choice. Each day we choose which master we will follow. This is not about what we say because, with our mouths, most believers would readily say that Christ is our Master.
Each day we point to our Master by our choices, with our time investments, and with our motivations that drive our handling of money: those are the actions that speak louder than our words. Those are the choices that clearly frame who really is the master of our lives.
As we turn again to 2 Peter 3 we see what Peter had heard way back there in the Sermon on the Mount, with the disciples: that we can only serve one master at a time. Right there, at the start of His ministry, Jesus comes right to the point.
Choosing Which Master We’ll Follow
We have a choice of Masters, and only one can be served. Peter held onto that truth all his days.
 
As we look at 2 Peter 3, note the repeated tone of Peter’s challenge. It is gentle, loving, and urgent. Peter repeats the word “beloved” five times. That should jump off the page for us, setting in our hearts the tone Peter has in this exhortation.
 
2 Peter 3:1-18
Here are links to the 52 Greatest Chapters Bible Study Resources we are using:
1. The MacArthur Study Bible I use: https://amzn.to/33vqwsm
2. Grudem Systematic Theology: https://amzn.to/3y1M1iu
3. The ESV Audio Bible: https://amzn.to/3bJ4WF5
4. The NKJV Audio/Dramatized Bible: https://amzn.to/3u4BqA3
5. The KJV Audio Bible: https://amzn.to/3hHEnny
6. The NIV Dramatized Bible: https://amzn.to/2RD1Uvf
7. The Larger Moleskin Notebook I use: https://amzn.to/3biMwLh
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9. This is the personal-sized Bible I take with me everywhere as I travel, and that you see in the videos: https://amzn.to/3tM11ha
10. These are the Bible Tabs I showed you on the videos: https://amzn.to/3boMDVt
11. This is the Daily Bible that Bonnie & I read from for 15 minutes each day so we as a couple go through the Bible once each year: https://amzn.to/3ucDFl6
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Beware: Is Our Challenge
 
Peter loved his brothers and sisters so much that he warned them: Beware. The word translated “beware” means “be constantly guarding yourself.” Just like Paul had already said, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands to take heed lest he falls” (1 Cor. 10:12, NKJV).
 
True believers can’t fall away from being saved, just from being solidly living out what they say they believe. Steadfastness is when what we say and what we do, lines up with God’s Word.
 
Beware of what? Beware of falling away from steadfastness. What was this steadfastness? Peter has already defined this word using the verb earlier in 2 Peter 1:12 (NKJV):
 
For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.
 
Our stability or “steadfastness” as believers rests upon our trust in God’s Word and experiencing daily, how to apply that Word in those practical decisions of life. The only way to keep from being “led away” as v. 17 says, is to grow spiritually. But, Peter said it isn’t a sprint or a spurt, it is continuous growth that God desires.
 
Be Constantly Growing: Is Our Charge
 
“But be constantly growing” is the literal translation of the opening phrase of v. 18. That is what the form of the verb communicates. Today we need to beware (constantly guarding against anything) that hinders our growth. Peter raises our awareness of the constant dangers of exposure to the materialism-infected world we live in.
 
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