February 2023

Eschatological Ethics

Eschatos is the Greek word for “end.” So, eschatology is “the study of end/last things.” As Peter ends his reminder to Christians to be grounded and growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, he urges us to remember the end towards which God is bringing all things. Jesus will return and […]



Patient to the End

When life is going well, we perceive time as sweet and God as good.  But when life is hard, time becomes bitter and we question both the character and concern of God.  The good news is that this experience of life has been a challenge faced by every generation of Christians.  Thus Peter wrote to […]



Fallacies and Failures

In a perfect world we would be able to trust everyone with the proper credentials and positions of authority. Unfortunately, because humans are sinful we are all prone to deceiving and being deceived. This is true, even in the church. One of Peter’s chief concerns in his second letter is the presence of false prophets […]



January 2023

The Gospel of God’s Love

It is shocking how easy the very things we put into place to remind us of commitments we have made fade into the rhythms and routines of our lives. Verses written on notes, gospel tracts carried in wallets, and alarms to remind us to pray get passed over because of our familiarity with them. This […]



Corroborating Witnesses

Without the proper motivation, it is easy to grow lax in any area of our lives. We put off studying for the test, we cut corners, or we just quit altogether. Peter wants us to know that we have the greatest motivation in the universe to make every effort to grow in grace and godliness: […]



Essential Christian Qualities

We may not be people who believe that the grace of God is a license to sin but we might easily slip into the belief that the grace of God grants us a free ride.  After all, if Jesus has done everything for me why do I need to do anything at all?  Peter knows […]



Life AND Godliness

We all struggle with feelings of inadequacy. We can feel this way when life becomes overwhelming. We can feel this way when we compare ourselves to others. We can feel this way when we think about all that God desires from us. But in the opening verses of his second letter, Peter wants to ground […]



December 2022

King of kings

In the same way that we do not like to be judged by imperfect individuals, we do not like to be ruled by them either. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords who will one day come, defeat his enemies, and establish his perfect reign over all creation. On that […]



Faithful and True

Hard wired into each of us is a sense of what is right and wrong and, therefore, a desire to see the wicked punished and the righteous vindicated. But none of us like being judged because we know how notoriously unreliable human judgement is. We are inconsistent and unfair in our judgments which is why […]



Son of God

Our lives are full of waiting. In the waiting we are confronted with how little control we have over our lives and how dependent we are on others. Being dependent can easily induce anxiety because we know how notoriously unreliable we are as humans. But God is not like us. He always keeps his promises […]