Becoming Like Jesus -- I Peter 2: 1-9

There are two kinds of leaders—commanders and inspirers.  

Generals are commanders. Sergeants are inspirers. They are down among the troops. Scholars and professors give us plans and ideas.  Pastors and elders inspire. God gives them to the church to be examples. We need to be people who give themselves as an example. Paul said, “Be followers of me, even as I am a follower of Christ.” That’s a bold statement. How many of us would really be willing to hold ourselves up as an example of Christian virtue? Organizational leaders give us plans, strategies, and tactics. Inspirational leaders give us virtues and examples. If we have to choose between being commanding and inspiring, then we should choose to be inspiring every time. We need people who are willing to be commanders, but even more, we need those who will boldly lead by example.

Jesus both commands and inspires us. This is what Peter means in 2 Peter 2:3 when he says, “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.”  ESV says “excellence,” but the Greek word is literally “manliness” or “heavy lifting.”  A man is supposed to be a heavy lifter--a person who doesn’t shun hard work. Jesus is the heavy lifter of our burdens, so our yoke will be easy. Furthermore, He is the living example before us of how we should be heavy lifters in every situation. 

We become heavy lifters, by knowing Jesus.  Peter uses a different word for knowledge--an intimate, thorough knowledge. We don’t just what Jesus says. We know how He feels, thinks, and acts.  To have that kind of knowledge, we can’t just listen. We must also follow. 

You don’t know a man until you have followed in his footsteps. You can read all about Michael Jordan, but if you’ve never played basketball, you don’t know Michael Jordan. You can’t know war if you’ve never been in battle.  You can know all about Jesus, and read every page of the Gospels, but until you’ve tried to follow Him, you don’t know Him. We must know, feel, and act along with a person, beside him or her, if we want to be like them. 

Jesus is not calling us to sit on the sidelines of life reading His book. He wants us to imitate Him. That is the goal of Christian life—to be like Jesus in all things imitating Him in every way.

This is what Peter means in verse 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.”

To partake in the divine nature is called theosis--becoming godlike. To escape worldly corruption means more than just escaping hell. We escape from that by seeking in all ways to put on the image of Christ, receiving from Christ the Spirit of God to give us the power of becoming like Him.   

Peter goes into detail to explain how we cope, giving us an eight-step pattern for how we grow into the image of Christ.

 Begin with faith. Faith is our ultimate concern. It doesn’t mean just belief, but a reckless abandonment to following Him first. That’s what faith is. When we put or trust in Jesus and Jesus alone, when we make Him the goal of all of life, then that is the beginning, but by no means the end of our journey to be like Jesus.

Supplement your faith with virtue. Virtue is something we are willing to work at developing.  Many people think of virtues as either inborn or gifts of the Spirit. But these are neither inborn or gifts.  If we are loving, then it’s because we are working at being loving. If we are gentle, then it’s because we have committed ourselves to be like Jesus in gentleness. No virtue may be accomplished without work. No amount of faith will ever substitute for the pursuit or virtues. It is not something God does for us automatically. He expects us to work at being Christ-like.

“and virtue with knowledge.“   We start being virtuous through studying what virtue means. When we read the Greek philosophers and the Hebrew sages, we discover that while they may come to different conclusion, they all sound the same. They ask questions such as “What is good?” “What is truth?” “What is beauty?” Then they devote their lives to finding the answers. Without this search for knowledge, there is no real virtue. God doesn’t just put the right thing to do out in front of us always. He expects us to understand why what we do is right. Our choices are based upon our understanding. If we don’t understand why we do what we do, it’s no wonder we are always making the wrong choices.

“ and knowledge with self-control.”  Psychologists today call it “impulse control.” We prize and celebrate people who “do what comes naturally” or “tells it like it is.” But in truth, those are marks of spiritual immaturity, not maturity. The mature people realizes he or she always has a choice in speech and behavior. We can say what’s on our mind or we can hold our peace. We know when it is appropriate to complain and when it is important to shut up. We do not become addicted to things, but always have a choice about what to do with our passions. 

“and self-control with steadfastness.”   Steadfastness is not a good translation of this word. “Patience” is better. The person who is seeking to build Christian virtues must be patient. Expect delays. Expect setbacks. Don’t be thrown off because you haven’t yet overcome, or you haven’t yet won, but keep working and don’t give up. In our increasingly ADHD society, every little delay seems to set us off. But learning patience is important.  Someone once said, “The poor plan for Saturday Night. The rich plan for three generations.” The more we realize that progress is a long term goal, the more likely we are to achieve it.

“and steadfastness with piety.” ESV translates this “godliness” which is not exactly correct. It really means to piety. Piety is the ability to treat sacred and important things with important. It is a display of appropriate behavior at the right time. “Respect” might be a better term. Treat Godly things with respect. Don’t mistreat them. The opposite of respect is flippancy—treating everything as if it were a joke, or insisting in our own importance in the face of God. Respect is learning the obedience of the heart, not just the mind, but learning to honor those who need it. 

“and godliness with brotherly affection,” The word used here is “Philadelphia” (just like the city!)  it means the love we have for one another. Peter places the development of love for one another as coming before the love expressed to others beyond the family. It’s not that family love is more important or higher, but that brotherly love is a step towards developing Christ-like love. Christ went about healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons, but first he chose his disciples. If we ever in our pursuit of love for others come to neglect our love of our own family, then that love will collapse and we will fail Christ.

Kenneth Taylor wrote a best-selling book in the Sixties about revival called The Problem with Wineskins. In the sequel to that book A Second Touch, he wrote about some of the unfortunate impacts his book success had on his own family. One incident he recounts was what happened when he got serious about praying for the lost. One morning he was in his prayer closet praying for the lost when his children were getting ready for school. They wanted to kiss him goodbye when he heard his wife shush them. “Don’t bother him,” she said. “He’s in there praying so he can love the people downtown.”  The kids needed his love right then. If we reach out, but neglect brotherly love, then we are no more like Jesus than a salesman or business man who neglects his family for business.   

“and brotherly affection with love.” Loving the stranger is our ultimate goal, and comes out of our love for Jesus. When we come to the place that we are not just praying for the lost, but loving them, then we are truly becoming like Jesus. But it does not come until we have gone through all the other layers of obedience.

What if this doesn’t work?  Peter has something interesting to say about that in verse 8-9. 

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

Salvation from sin is the ground from which all these things spring. If we try to become like Jesus before we are loved by Jesus, then we are building on a false foundation.

I have a friend who is a sculptor. He can make a figure that looks exactly like a man from a lump of clay. But he cannot make that man live. It takes life to make him live. We can seek to have all the godly virtues we want, but if the forgiveness of Christ is not in us, then we are just lying to ourselves and to others. 

Do you know if you are saved from your sins? If you aren’t, then that’s where you start. If you have been saved, then keep working your salvation, and become like Jesus.