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I worked for my friend’s Dad on his lawn service for a few summers. This was a side business for him, and we worked with normal push mowers. The first stop of the early morning was always a challenge to get the mower started. I’d pull on that ripcord and listen to the engine sputter and then stop. Then I’d give it another pull, and perhaps it would run just a bit longer. Eventually the flywheel would keep on spinning, the engine would roar to life, and I could get to work.
Question: which pull started the mower? I really needed all of the pulls, didn’t I? In other words, I had to put in some effort in order to get the mower to work. Then I could actually be productive in my work.
Last week we talked about the dual blessings Peter says that God wants to send us—grace and peace. Notice that Peter longs for us to know these in abundance. Not just a small sampling, but overflowing blessings—sort of like my lawnmower that is running at full speed.
2 Peter 1:3 tells us it is “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our KNOWLEDGE of Him Who called us by His own glory and goodness.”
(See all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)
Remember that Greek word means our personal, intimate, experiential knowledge of Jesus. God allows us to know Him intimately (Jeremiah 29:13-14a). Notice it is “His divine power [that] has given us EVERYTHING we need for a godly life.”
“Divine power” literally means God’s power—Theois dynamis. This is the power which Jesus promised in Acts 1:8. Then His followers were able to live like Jesus, as we see in Acts 3:12; 4:7, 33.
But Jesus is the One Who got this started for us. HIS divine power has given us everything we need for A GODLY LIFE.
“Godly life is two words in Greek: “life” and “godliness.” The word for life is zoe. This is everlasting life that is deeper and richer than biological or psychological life. And the word for godliness is eusebia, which is the reverence, respect, and holy fear that gives evidence of one’s assured relationship with God through Jesus.
Check out two other translations of this verse.
The AMPC says: For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that are requisite and suited to life and godliness, through the full personal knowledge of Him….
And The Message paraphrase says: Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.
Here’s the power cycle for saints of God. The more intimately I know Jesus, the more the Holy Spirit’s dynamis power is unleashed in my life. The more His power flows through me, the more godly I can live. The more godly I live, the more I grow in intimacy with Jesus!
This is a flywheel that can really start spinning! Look at some of the blessings in the next few verses:
- Participating in Christ’s divine nature—becoming more and more Christlike (v. 4a). The Greek word is defined as a way of feeling and acting which by long habit has become more and more natural to me.
- Escaping the corruption in the world (v. 4b).
- Becoming increasingly effective and productive in your knowledge—that’s the word epignosis again—of Jesus (v. 8).
I had to put the effort in to get the mower’s flywheel spinning so that I could actually do my job.
Peter says, Jesus got this poem cycle started so that I could be productive for Him. Peter introduces a phrase that we are going to see three more times in this letter: Make every effort (v. 5).
We are not saved by good works, but we are saved in order to do good works.
Jesus was empowered to do good works (see Luke 4:18-19 and Acts 10:38), and Jesus calls us to live the same way with the same anointing (John 20:21-22; Acts 4:30-31).
The cycle of power and godliness and greater intimacy is for you. Make every effort to keep it spinning so that you can bring more glory to God by increasing your capacity to be a blessing to those around you.
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Craig T. Owens 