2 Peter 1:5, “For this reason, make every effort…”
What did Jesus mean, “make disciples”? Did He have something in mind? Of course He did. At some point a disciple is “fully formed” and therefore fully capable of making disciples who will be fully aware of the full relevance of Jesus for their lives.
Many people have outlined a discipleship process. Most of these have common features: start with understanding, move toward key relationships, deal with likely problems, and then lastly, go and make disciples ourselves.
But how many of us took an orderly road, like that? How many of us walked with a mentor for three years and were guided through key subjects, with excellent resources, for deep conversations with our fellow travelers? In other words, how many of us enjoyed the kind of discipleship experience Jesus’ disciples had?
Most of us took a Sunday school class here, went to a conference there, read some books, heard some sermons, listened to some praise music; we've guided ourselves toward discipleship using opportunity, interest, and whimsy. In today’s pinball church-culture this is often a best-case scenario.
Peter, in 2 Peter 1:3-12, is talking to people similarly situated.
They have divine power; they have all they need for life and godliness; they have the opportunity to become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pt 1:3-4). But they’re stalled—they’re in danger of uselessness, of being unfruitful, of spiritual forgetfulness (2 Pet 1:8-9). In other words, the significance of Jesus, and His relevance, is diminishing for them.
And it’s all unconscious. Life happens. Age directs us down paths we could not have anticipated. Family life moves from one season to another. We learn and grow, and not always in healthy ways.
So Peter calls them, and us, “to make every effort.” Because of what we have been given in Jesus, we are to make every effort to assess our spiritual location and get help “supplementing” our oversights, forgotten lessons, and incompleteness.
And it all begins with a bright trumpet call: “make every effort.” This will require effort! Nothing good grows in this world, in this soil, without nurture, sweat, patience, and prayer. Following Jesus takes effort. Enjoying His “rest” takes planning, saying-no, will-power, etc. It can be hard work, resting in Jesus!
There’s a spiritual letting-go that is at the heart of “resting” in Jesus. True. But there’s also a spiritual effort that is simply what it means to enjoy His shalom. And there’s a spiritual vigilance necessary to maintain peace in Christ against wave after wave of anxiety and desire. This is effort.
But not just some effort: “every effort.” What does that mean? It means saying, “Well, I tried,” is no good. It means we find a way. It means that if we have faith but lack virtue, or have knowledge but lack self-control, we do what it takes to see that situation improved. We invest. We spend money. We make time. We find a way.
Conclusion:
Scrooge ends his ghostly visitations by assuring the “spirit of Christmas yet to come,” that “I will remember the lessons of the past, the present, and the future! I will treasure Christmas in my heart, all year long!” In that feel-good story, he does: “Scrooge became as a good a man…” It’s fiction. In real life we have said to Jesus, “I will follow You! I will remember the Gospel! I will make every effort!” We said it and meant it, but we have not been able to keep it.
So Peter writes: “I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you know them, and even though you have already been established in the truth.” (2 Peter 1:12) We get it. We got it. Where is it? What are we going to do now? Are we ready? To put some effort in? “Every effort” sounds intimidating, so let’s start by asking, Are we willing?
Photo by Cyril Saulnier on Unsplash
