Lesson 21: Diligence to our call

Read 2 Peter 1:1-21- https://www.bible.com/bible/59/2pe.1
 1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

In 1 Peter the focus was on holiness. In 2 Peter the focus is on diligence. Holiness is being separated from the world around us, even while we live in this world; diligence is a careful attention to what we are doing. So in putting these two letters together in this study we see Peter’s encouragement to us to be carefully working on living separate from the things of this world.


He begins this letter with an amazing statement in Verse 3 which will be the focus of this lesson, and we will touch on it again in later lessons. Peter says God has given us everything we need to live our life of holiness – a life of Godliness. You might say you do not have everything you need to live the life God meant for you to live, because you do not have victory, or confidence, or freedom, or whatever you feel you are lacking. But the verse does not end with this statement; we must read the rest which tells us where to find all the things we need. We find it in the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence.

Therefore, the knowledge of Jesus is the most important factor in what we have been given by Jesus.

This knowledge is a treasure, and Jesus told two stories about great treasures in Matthew 13:44-46. The first treasure was buried in a field, and the man sold everything he had so he could buy the field. The second is about a fine pearl, and the merchant sold everything he had to purchase it. Jesus told us the greatest treasures are worth more than everything we have, and they are worth giving up all we have to get them. Peter says in this letter that the treasure of a Godly life is worth spending all our time and effort to find – and we find it in the Bible as we read and study it to learn all these things that pertain to life and Godliness.

We are called to unwrap and explore the wealth of His great promises to us. Ephesians says we have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). We will not understand or be able to apply them to our life until we diligently dig for them in the Bible.

*What treasured promise have you found in the Bible this week?