Suggestions for leading a study:
Partnering with God
3 His divine power
has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of
him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given
us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may
participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused
by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every
effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to
knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to
perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to
brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing
measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is
nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his
past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the
more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things,
you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Discussion Questions
-Read verse 3. What two things does knowing Jesus give us
everything we need for?
-Do you think Peter is talking about our spiritual life, or our
physical life (or both)?
-How would you define “godliness”?
-According to verse
4, what is it that helps us to escape being corrupted by the world? What do you think that means?
-According to verse 5, our response to this is supposed
to be to “make every effort.” If God has
given us everything we need for life and
godliness already, what is the point to that?
-Look through the
list of character traits in verses 5 through 7.
Is there some specific way you can “make every effort” to grow in one of
these areas?
-According to verse
8, why is that we are making every effort to partner with God and grow in these
areas of our lives?
-Re-read verse
9. Does not growing in these areas mean
we lose our relationship to God?
-According to verses
10 and 11, What other benefits do we receive from partnering with God? What do you think these refer to?
Leaders' Guide
This lesson explores the relationship between the resources
God has for us to grow spiritually and what our role is in accessing those
resources and causing them to bear fruit in our lives, as well as why we want
to do so.
- Read verse 3. What two things does knowing Jesus give us
everything we need for?
The two things are life and godliness. The next two questions explore deeper what these refer to.
-Do you think Peter is
talking about our spiritual life, or our physical life (or both)?
The word here (Zoe) simply refers to anything that is animate, or alive. The key to understanding is, as always, in
the context which is pretty clearly all about our spiritual character. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t give us
what we need to maintain our existence physically, but that is probably not the
focus here. If the range of answers
include our physical life, don’t “mark
them wrong”, but put the emphasis on the spiritual
-How would you define
“godliness”?
The term here means respect, or reverence. The answers you get might include various
types of behaviors which is not, of course, wrong. But this is really about attitude, or the
focus of the heart. Again, the context
clarifies that this is about developing character more than specific
behaviors.
- According to verse 4, what is
it that helps us to escape being corrupted by the world? What do you think that means?
It is “participating in the divine nature” that is the key. The divine power that verse 3 promises is the power to tap into the nature of God himself. For some background on this, look at the key prophecy in Ezekiel 36: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (vv. 26,27) You can also refer to the statement by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (v.21) and Romans 8: For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, (v.13), among others.
The bottom line goes back to
meaning of godliness: the focus of the heart.
We tend to focus on our misdeeds and try hard to “fix” our behavior,
when the real answer is to focus on God in ways that tap into the Spirit’s
power. How you do that: through prayer,
Scripture, accountability, worship, etc. can be a long discussion. It deserves to be touched on, but would probably
take up the rest of the time if it was really explored at length.
- According to verse 5, our response to this is supposed
to be to “make every effort.” If God has
given us everything we need for life and
godliness already, what is the point to that?
This gets to the very heart of the lesson. Having access to everything we need does not automatically cause it to be at work in our lives. We need to partner with God to make that happen. Throughout the Scripture we are reminded that what God really wants is an intimate relationship with us as we work together with him to accomplish the things he wants for us, including the growth in character this passage refers to. He is never interested in just imposing sanctification on us. The “participation in the divine nature” referred to in this passage is going to be a life-long process of becoming incrementally more like Christ as we partner with God in that primary endeavor.
- Look through
the list of character traits in verses 5 through 7. Is there some specific way you can “make
every effort” to grow in one of these areas?
One way to address this question might be to
just go around the room have everyone pick something and think of a specific
way that they could go to work on that issue.
Or just ask if there is anything on the list that jumps out as an
obvious growth area for someone. However
it happens, the point is to try to get to real action plans, or at least some
start on it. Again, this lesson is about
matching up spiritual realities with physical realities to create a transformed
life, so the more concrete the better.
- According to verse 8, why is
that we are making every effort to partner with God and grow in these areas of
our lives?
Doing
so will keep us from being “ineffective and unproductive.” Here is God’s real agenda in partnering with
us for spiritual growth: he wants our lives to count on this earth and
accomplish the works that he has for us to do.
God never just saves us from something, he also saves us for something. This, too, is an act of his grace in our
lives.
- Re-read verse 9. Does not growing in these areas mean we lose
our relationship to God?
This
issue of whether you can “lose your salvation” is a tricky one, of course, and
different scholars believe different things about it (both sides claiming a
solid biblical foundation, of course).
In this context, just failing to partner with God for spiritual growth
certainly doesn’t qualify as a “deal killer” with God. But we won’t be “effective and productive”
either, because we’ll be acting like people who forgot what God did for them,
so in turn fail to respond appropriately.
- According to verses 10 and 11,
What other benefits do we receive from
partnering with God? What do you
think these refer to?
We will never fall and will receive a rich welcome into his eternal kingdom. If anyone is concerned with the whole “losing their salvation” issue, here is the answer: If you believe that is possible to do, then continued spiritual growth is the way to ensure you never fall. If this is really about making sure that you’re useful for kingdom ministry, then you don’t want to get “tripped up” on that either, and growth is also the answer.
In regards to a rich welcome in the eternal kingdom, that implies that there will be some whose welcome is not so rich. This gets into the issue of eternal rewards for those who have been found faithful, a solid biblical teaching (see 1 Cor. 3:10-15, 2 Cor. 5:10, and many other related passages). Partnering with God for growth in these areas will maximize our value here on earth and the value of our eternity. Pretty solid motivation to “make every effort.”
Again, try to finish up with specific plans to grow in one or more of these key areas, or at least a commitment to make those plans. Your group can be act as a key accountability arena for people as you give each other permission to check up on the progress of these kinds of commitments.