Today’s Bible Journaling Scripture is 2 Peter 1:3, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” (NASB 1995) What seemed to stand out to me when I read this was that God has given us “everything pertaining to life and godliness.” As I was thinking about this, God impressed upon my heart that this is the abundance we have been speaking about in this series.
Abundance isn’t necessarily monetary or the acquiring of “things.” We can have abundance in anything. God gives us an abundance of love for Him and others. When we are filled with love for others it is reflected in how we treat each other, in how we become generous to others, and how we show God’s love to them. God gives us abundantly the ability to show Christ-like qualities so that others see Jesus living in us. In this manner, we witness by the way we live our lives for Him.
How has this abundance been given to us? Peter tells us that it is through God’s “divine power.” We lack nothing to live our lives in a manner that brings Him glory and honor. I needed to get a deeper understanding of this verse, and so I read J. Vernon McGee’s commentary on 2 Peter. He says, “Don’t say that God has not made an arrangement for you to live for Him. He has made every arrangement for our life in Christ and our godliness of life for Him.”
Notice our verse tells us that we gain this abundance “through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” The King James Version says, “through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” J. Vernon McGee says, “It is only through the knowledge of Christ that you can really learn to live down here and grow to be a more godly person. The only way in the world that you can become the kind of person with a fully developed personality is through knowing Jesus Christ. The knowledge of Him that ‘hath called us to glory’ means to be like Christ.” God gives us everything we need spiritually to become more like Jesus.
We notice the King James Version says, “glory and virtue.” In this instance, Peter is using virtue, not in the conventional meaning of being chaste, but it is more of living with excellence and courage. We can have courage to excel in everything we do in life. We don’t need to be shy or afraid, but we can boldly step forward and proclaim that God is the source of our strength. We can show others how that living for Jesus is not a wimpy way to live, but one of faith and courage, joy and blessing, peace and life! When we live in this manner, we give glory to God.
God abundantly grants us the spiritual resources we need to live a God-honoring life. When we take those resources and use them to share Jesus with others, we can see how God uses what we take, so that it gives Him honor.
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