Two Things to Learn

Read

2 Peter 3:15-18 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. 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. 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. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

What it is speaking to me:

I have always enjoyed these verses because I feel like Peter "sees" me. Even HE, the great apostle, can acknowledge that some of Paul's writing is "hard to understand". Whew. It's not just me.

But while he condescends to me, the reader, in this, like all good scripture, he also calls me up higher. He warns me in two ways about remaining ignorant of the scriptures. First, that unstable and ignorant people are going to distort scripture for their own ends, and to their own destruction. Second, that because of this, we have to be on guard so that those ignorant and unstable people don't lead US to destruction.

Of course we think we are too smart for that. We see those documentaries or interviews about people who were in a crazy cult, and it is easy to dismiss them as simply stupid, or certainly at least incredibly naive. But reality might also be that we aren't as smart as we think we are, and unstable people can prey on our blind spots too and lead us towards destruction without us realizing it. What then is the safeguard?

To grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. And we need both. One without the other doesn't work out well. Grace without knowledge leads to scriptural error and often poor doctrine. Knowledge without grace leads to pride and in some cases, ironically enough, disbelief. (The new fancy term for that is "deconstruction" — for you hipsters out there.) We need both to avoid the unstable and the ignorant around us, and we need both to not become unstable ourselves.

Grow in grace and knowledge.

What is it saying to you?

Do you find it easier to grow in grace or knowledge? Can you separate the two?

How do you achieve measurable growth in the Word? In grace?

What are we going to do about it?

Set a specific, measurable learning goal for your biblical knowledge for the upcoming week. That could be reading a book of the Bible you have never read before, or digging into a verse you have always wondered about.

Then apply some grace to a situation next week based off that knowledge. You get to grow in both together then.