An Urgent Message for Troubled Churches 2 Peter 3
Many churches in the west are facing difficult times. A patient of mine was the church warden of a local village church. At the end of the consultation I asked how the church was going. She replied,
“It is getting difficult, we are getting older and smaller.”
“I am sorry. Tell me, do members of the church talk about the Lord Jesus with others in the village?”
“Good gracious me. No! We don’t even talk about him amongst ourselves.”
This is the situation in many traditional churches today, whether Anglican, Roman Catholic, United Reformed, Baptist or Methodist. The root problem is how we are thinking and what the basis is for what we believe.
Peter’s problem
The apostle Peter was in a sorry situation. He was imprisoned, probably in the Mamertine prison in Rome and he knew that he would shortly be executed. He wanted to write a ‘last will and testament’ to all Christians.
“I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.” 2 Peter 1:13
These were not new ideas he was bringing, but reminding his readers of the old apostolic truths. Dr Johnson wisely said,
“It is not sufficiently considered that men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.”
In the final chapter of this remarkable epistle Peter repeats the reason for his final letter,
“Dear friends, this is now my final letter to you. I have written them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.” 2 Peter 3:1
Three times in this chapter he calls his fellow Christians ‘Dear friends’ which is sometimes translated ‘Beloved’. There is no clericalism here. Those ordained to lead churches are not in some way superior to other Christians. Peter’s reminder is for all Christians in all times. How deeply he must have longed that his readers would continue to live by faith. He writes,
“Dear Friends, remember” 2 Peter 3:2
“Dear friends, . . . make every effort” 2 Peter 3:14
“Dear friends, . . . be on your guard” 2 Peter 3:17
It is significant that ‘remember’ comes first. It is when we forget the basics that things start to go wrong. ‘Dear friends, remember . . .’
At the end of this letter, in his last urgent plea, Peter reminds all Christians what is most important,
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18
Being a Christian is never a static acceptance of doctrines, it is a growing relationship with God through Christ. This is not a mystical relationship, it is an increasing awareness of the Christ revealed in Scripture. We are never the finished article in this life, there is always more for us to learn and follow. We are all meant to keep growing in our experience and knowledge of God. But note the wording that Peter actually uses – he intentionally calls Jesus his Lord and Saviour. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for the great God, Jahweh, is translated in English Bibles with the word ‘LORD’, using capital letters. When these Old Testament references about the LORD are quoted in the New Testament, the Greek word curios is used instead of ‘Jehovah’. Here Peter is referring to Jesus as Lord, the Lord of the universe.
At he beginning of this letter Peter used a similar phrase:
“To those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours.” 2 Peter 1:1
Notice how he openly interchanges ‘Lord’ and ‘God’. Peter has no doubt that he is talking about the creator of this universe who entered this world in human form and who is therefore not to be trifled with.
Think Clearly
Peter wrote his two letters to get Christians thinking clearly.
“I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.” 2 Peter 3:1
There are churches you can enter today where it seems that emotionalism is everywhere and thinking is limited. It is as if people should leave their minds as well as their coats at the door as they enter. Emotionalism will only prosper for a short time. An American study has shown that under 6 per cent of those who make a decision for Christ at evangelistic meetings will go on to live their lives for Christ. They may have been stirred but emotions pass or a replaced by other emotions. People need to be convinced that the path they are entering into is indeed God’s true path. Wholesome thinking is what is required.
Peter goes on to explain how this can come about.
“I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.” 2 Peter 3:2
It is our minds that need feeding, not just our emotions. Peter appeals to all Christians to return to understanding Scripture. Today many are dying of ‘biblical malnutrition’. Peter uses the term ‘holy prophets’ to mean the Old Testament. The command given by our Lord and Saviour through your Apostles refers to the New Testament. The only way the early church accepted a book into the canon of Scripture was if they were certain it was written by an apostle. It wasn’t the church authorities who later decided on what books to include. The decision about authenticity was made during the lifetime of the apostles themselves.
Good ministers will ensure that their main purpose is to teach the Scriptures to their congregation. We hear the voice of God in Scripture. Some churches today are trying to survive by becoming a hub of social activity with jumble sales, food banks and advisory programmes. These are not bad but the danger is that they can supplant man’s greatest need, to hear what God wants to say to all people. When the leaders of the early church in Antioch felt that meeting the social needs of church members was becoming too demanding they made a decision,
“It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:2-4
It is all too easy for Church leaders to be swamped with the mundane and fail to feed God’s sheep with His word.
Some churches emphasise praise and prayer but these can become distractions if teaching God’s word is not the main reason for meeting together. This is the message of the whole of Scripture. Psalm 119 has 176 verses almost all of which emphasise the centrality of God’s word which must be obeyed. The last verses summarise this Psalm’s message,
“I long for you salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight. Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me.” Psalm 119:174-175
This is no legalism, being saved by trying hard to follow God’s rules. We all know we fail at this. The psalmist ends,
“I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.” Psalm 119:176
We are all so weak. We will stray if we are not constantly hearing God speak to us through his Word. As we will see there always have been those who think God speaks directly to them, both in the days of the early church and today. False prophets have always been a menace to the church. The apostle Peter longs for us all:
“ . . . to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.” 2 Peter 3:2
Peter is here referring not to the missionaries who came and shared the gospel with local groups of people but the twelve apostles who were given authority to teach the church all about Christ who is the ultimate authority. It is they and they alone who were put on the same level as the prophets of the Old Testament. Their ministry was to serve the church by teaching God’s Word, their role was not to dominate but serve.
Watershed
Too often churches today are all at sea about what they should be teaching. It doesn’t matter whether it is about sexuality, spirituality, spiritualism, whether Jews or Muslims should be evangelised or the priority of social concerns, so many teachers are being blown by the winds of fashion. In contrast, the Old and New Testaments of the Scriptures clearly teach what God thinks about such timeless issues. God is not a fickle God, his mind doesn’t change about what he judges to be holy living and what is repugnant to him. Furthermore he has never changed his mind on how people can have a close relationship with him and this is what people need to hear.
The secret of church growth today is to teach the Word of God in a faithful, interesting and challenging way. No-one should be allowed into a pulpit if they are not committed to this task. In Anglican Ordination services, those being ordained are given a Bible and are commissioned to teach nothing else but the truths this contains. Deacons are told:
“Receive this book, as a sign of the authority given you this day to speak God’s word to his people. Build them up in its truth and serve them in its name.”
Those being ordained as presbyters are told:
“Receive this book, as a sign of the authority which God has given you this day to preach the gospel of Christ and to minister his holy sacraments.”
Bishops are told at their consecration,
“Receive this Book; here are the words of eternal life. Take them for your guide, and declare them to the world. Keep watch over the whole flock in which the holy Spirit has appointed you shepherd. Encourage the faithful, restore the lost, build up the body of Christ; that when the Chief shepherd shall appear, you may receive the unfading crown of glory.”
Note how the Anglican reformers wanted the more senior ministers to prioritise teaching the Bible. In the earliest days of the church, the deacons were asked to administrate the affairs of the church so that the presbyters could give their time to teaching and praying. Too often today bishops (biblically they are the same as elders and presbyters) concentrate on administration whilst leaving the teaching to the less experienced juniors!
It was always recognised that the prime role of the church leader was to teach the word of God. In the early church, as in the synagogue, the elder who was teaching the Word would sit in a chair, a cathedra (Latin), to teach. Remember there were hardly any church buildings until Constantine recognised the Christian faith in the 4th century. When an elder was ordained he would sit in the teaching chair and the other church elders would lay hands on them and pray for their ministry. This was the origin of the consecration of bishops. What a disaster it was when bishops were given political power and their enthronement meant this chair took on a very different meaning, it became a throne!. Cathedrals became political bases instead of centres for teaching the Word of God!
Let us all ensure that we keep growing as Christians by adding to our faith in Jesus Christ those characteristics that Jesus has. By doing this we become like our Lord Jesus and so will become more effective and productive Christians. Peter started this short letter in just this way:
“He has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape from the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to you faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 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.
The foundation of our faith is the word of God which tells us all about Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. If we fail to prioritise teaching God’s word to ourselves, to our families, to our churches and to our society, there will be dire consequences.
In 1990, 34 per cent of regular churchgoers in the United Kingdom were evangelicals, Christians who accept the Bible as God’s Word to the world. By 2020 that figure had risen to 45.9 per cent. It is clear that churches grow most when people believe in the authority of Scripture, that this is how God speaks to us, and the decline is most in those churches whose teachers do not. The emergence in our cities of large vibrant churches packed with young people and people with African or Afro-Caribbean backgrounds who hold fervently that God speaks through his word, is most striking. Many overseas churches who hold to the authority of Scripture are even beginning to send missionaries back to Britain. How the whole world needs to know that there is a sure and timeless word from God.
BVP
Jan 2022
