Year 6, Day 220: 2 Peter 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

As Peter opens this letter, we can hear a large exhortation to have a good character.  I’d like to start near the end of this letter, though, because I think that it is there that we find the root of Peter’s call for character.  It is in this chapter that we hear Peter’s reminder of the Transfiguration.  “This is my Son; with whom I am well pleased.”  In other words, the Father approved of the character of the Son.  We should imitate Him.

Because Peter heard this first hand, he can be confident in his assertion.  Because he heard this first hand, he can be confident that the character that he saw in Jesus is the goal for which we should strive.  If we wish to please God, we will need our character to be modeled after the character of Christ.

What does the character of Christ look like?  It is faith supplemented with virtue.  It is knowledge supporting the faith and virtue.  It is self-control.  It is steadfastness.  It is godliness, which of course leads us to love.

This is the character of Christ.  This is the character that allowed Him to obediently sacrifice His life for our sake.  This is what allowed Him to look evil intentions in the face and come out victorious with His honor intact.  This is the character that we should boldly proclaim with our lives and with our words.

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