10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Prophecy of Scripture
12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
Dig Deeper
During my first year of teaching and coaching high school basketball I realized that the inner-city charter schools in Milwaukee got the short end of the stick. There really was no equitable outlet for the kids in those kinds of schools to compete on a level with the regular public high schools. To try to solve this inequity I had the opportunity to begin an athletic conference for charter and alternative high schools. It was difficult but very rewarding work. As the years went on, we developed more and more conferences and eventually became a state athletic association that organized sporting events all the way up to state championships for charter and alternative schools. Many people were pleased at the success that we had had in creating this organization and the statewide attention that we had begun to attract. I knew, however, that, although gratifying, the real measure of success would be if it would go on and continue to grow and be strong after I was no longer running the organization. After seven years, I finally stepped down and handed the reigns of the whole operation over to other people. I did everything in my power to make sure that things would go well after I left. Having things go on well after I was no longer around would be the true sign that we had built something worthwhile. Sadly, that particular entity has had increasing problems since then to the point that it barely even exists only five years later, proving that I didn't prepare things as well as I might have hoped.
Peter apparently knew that his time for active ministry in the present age was drawing to a close. He was well aware, however, that it was vitally important that the Christian communities to whom he was writing would continue to go on strong and faithful long after he left. He wanted to make every effort according to the abilities and opportunities that the Lord had given to him to set up the Christian community to stand strong in their life of Christ. Peter had been called by Jesus to feed His sheep and Peter is bound and determined to do that as best he can as his days come to a close, and even more importantly, long after that.
In the last section, Peter urged Christians to make ongoing and intense efforts to grow in their spiritual maturity and virtues. He exhorted them to take up the gifts that God had given them and to increase them through their own obedience and submission to God, reminding them that God has given believers everything they need to stay in Christ. He made clear that there is no room in Christ for spiritual immaturity or stagnation. They would either increase and grow in the image of Christ or they would become ineffective and unproductive. This hearkens us back to Jesus' words to "Consider carefully what you hear. . . With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." 'The word had been given to those following Jesus, but he urged them to take it, obey it, and grow it in their lives, to put it to use. If not, even what they had been given would be taken away from them, presumably by Satan (Mark 4:15).
This provides us an understanding for Peter's words to be all the more eager to make their calling and election sure. If, as some claim, election means that God chooses some to be saved regardless of their will and with no possibility of losing or leaving their salvation, while others are selected for damnation, then this verse causes some problems. Peter's point is the same as Jesus' in Mark 4. Christians have been given the word and now it is up to them to take advantage of it, to plant it in good soil, and allow it to grow into the true life of Christ. The Christian community are the elect (a term that was applied to Israel in Old Testament times denoting them as the corporate people of God). This means that God had always predestined a people in Christ (Eph. 1:3-14) but it does not mean that God has selected who would be in that body without any regard for their own free will. There are, in fact, two reasons Peter gives for making their election sure and continuing to increase in their growth. The first is negative. They should be eager so that they will never fall and open themselves up by becoming so ineffective that they simply leave themselves vulnerable to being taken away by Satan. The second is positive. They will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This verse is a demonstration of the common Christian theme of "already but not yet." Christians are part of the kingdom of God, the rule and reign of the almighty, but look forward to the time when Christ returns and establishes His kingdom fully in the renewed creation (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 21:1-5). This is the time that Peter was pointing to in verse 11.
Peter makes it clear that he will continue to remind them of the demanding call of the life of Christ even though they know it well and are firmly established in the truth. Peter is no doubt comforted that they are firmly established. The word he uses here is sterizein, the same word used by Jesus when he told Peter, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen [sterizein] your brothers." He could take encouragement in the fact that he had done precisely what Christ called him to, but that didn't remove the need to take on the false teachings that might continue to hound the Christian community after Peter has died. So, that is what he will do with much of the remainder of this letter.
Peter plans to continue to refresh their memory and call them to the authentic life of Christ as long as he lives in the tent of this body. It was not uncommon in the early church to refer to life in the present age as a tent, stressing the temporal aspect of life before death and resurrection. This is precisely what Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 as he discusses the fact that while he is in the tent of his body in the present age, he is looking past the time when he will be in the presence of God after death and without a body (what he called being naked), and looks forward to the time when he will receive his resurrection body and be in the age to come with God forever. Peter alludes to this same truth but does not develop the topic any further because it is not his primary topic at the moment.
Peter knows that he will soon put his present life aside, as the Lord Jesus Christ had made clear to him. How did he know though? The simplest answer is that Peter put together the circumstances that were whirling about his life with the prediction that Jesus had made to him that he would die a martyr's death (John 21:18-19). Through the discernment of the Holy Spirit, Peter evidently knew that his time was drawing to a close. So, in these few verses, Peter has commended his readers for their spiritual maturity (v. 12) which would remove the danger of them becoming offended by his reminders, but he has also given his letter a "dying man's" earnestness, which gives credence and reinforcement to his letter.
Peter is committed to doing everything he can to see to their continued growth and establishment in the gospel as he says he will make every effort to see that after his departure (a common idiom in the first century for death) they will always be able to remember these things. Some think that Peter may be referring to ensuring that the gospel of Mark is written down, although it is far more likely that Mark was already written at this point. His point is probably that his purpose in writing the current letter is to provide the sort of ongoing instruction and strengthening after his death that he has in mind. Peter is not only their shepherd now, he wants to continue to feed the Good Shepherd's sheep long after he has gone to be with the Lord where he will await the resurrection and the age to come.
Devotional Thought
Peter knew that a wise Christian leader needed to shepherd people in the present but also to set things up for continued strength in the future. Do you take the time to do that or do you just live moment by moment? Planning for the continued spiritual strength of your family, ministry, and church takes time, effort, and planning. What are you waiting for?
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