Great and Precious Promises....

2 Peter 1:4 “And because of His glory and excellence He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

The word for share is “Koinonos” and it means a partner, associate, comrade, companion; a partner, sharer, in anything of the altar in Jerusalem on which the sacrifices are offered; sharing in the worship of the Jews.

2 Cor 7:1 says, “Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward holiness because we fear God.”

What are these great promises? Just above 2 Cor. 1:7, Paul takes a look at what God has promised. Read 2 Cor. 6:16-18. Look at these promises…. These are promises straight from God’s mouth… He says:

I will live in them and walk among them.
I will be their God and they will be my people.
I will welcome you
I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters

Wow! Precious promises indeed. I need to spend about an hour on each one of these just to begin to ask Him to open my eyes to what He means here. He will live in us. LIVE IN US! Not just dwell among us – although, that was perfection in the garden…. He will abide, reside, make His home, LIVE IN us! A holy, perfect, untainted God will dwell within our frail bodies that are dying and weak. He calls us His people! He welcomes us – not just as a friend, but as a Father – a perfect, loving Father. As we BELIEVE these promises, we will become free from the temptations of the world, because they are NOTHING compared to the precious promises we have. So, he says, again, “let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit.”

Woah, even a quick list could be days long. How much do we let corrupt our bodies and especially our spirit’s? We fill ourselves with food, tv, entertainment, activities, phone calls, magazines…. The list goes on and on… but aren’t we killing our spirits? The very One who lives inside us has the smallest pull on our hearts. He has the smallest voice in our minds. We are defiling our spirit… every day, in so many ways. Soap operas – defilement. That racy novel by that “wonderful” author… defilement. Why do we fill ourselves up with it? Why, when we have those great and precious promises? So, he says, “let us work toward holiness because we fear God.” We don’t fear God. That is why. We don’t fear God, and we don’t really love God. We love the world. One last thought…. 1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love this world, nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”