Saturday 2 January, 2022

14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

“Glory to God in the Highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests” – the angels to the shepherds announcing Jesus’ birth.

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him.” Isaiah 26 v 3

“Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” – v 14

We have just past Christmas, 2 Peter speaks to me of the restoration message of Jesus’ birth. The end point of God’s restoration work is The Day of The Lord, when Jesus will return to bring an end to this earth and the start of a new heaven and earth. The finality of this event is really underlined by the statement in verse 15 that the Lord’s patience in delaying his return allows for more and more to be saved.

Being restored to relationship with God is not enough. I cannot then just live any way I want because I am saved. This is Peter’s warning – be ready for the coming of Jesus.  

Verse 14 is not about making myself spotless, blameless and at peace with him.  He has done all this through Jesus’s death in my place. To me, “being at peace” speaks of being whole again, of something that was damaged being restored.

I believe Peter is calling me to keep living in that relationship every day, with my “mind stayed on him” and “living the life to which I have been called.”  Christmas is a time for a “peace” reality check. What has the peace of Christmas really mean in my life?

Lord Jesus, through you my life is changed. I am at peace with God because you stood in my place when you died on the cross. Thank you so much. I ask that you make this something active in my life as I live my best life and as I look to bless others. Amen.

Written by Claire Moore