Meditation on the Second Letter of Peter, Chapter 1
The first part of this chapter is an encouragement to cultivate Christian qualities to prevent us from being either inactive or unfruitful regarding the accurate knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ: « Simon Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have acquired a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ:
2 May undeserved kindness and peace be increased to you by an accurate knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 for his divine power has granted us all the things that contribute to life and godly devotion through the accurate knowledge of the One who called us by his own glory and virtue. 4 Through these things he has granted us the precious and very grand promises, so that through these you may become sharers in divine nature, having escaped from the world’s corruption produced by wrong desire.
5 For this very reason, put forth all earnest effort to supply to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, 6 to your knowledge self-control, to your self-control endurance, to your endurance godly devotion, 7 to your godly devotion brotherly affection, to your brotherly affection love. 8 For if these things exist in you and overflow, they will prevent you from being either inactive or unfruitful regarding the accurate knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For anyone lacking these things is blind, shutting his eyes to the light, and has become forgetful of his cleansing from his sins of long ago. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and choosing sure for yourselves, for if you keep on doing these things, you will by no means ever fail. 11 In fact, in this way you will be richly granted entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ » (verses 1-11).
We must be well-established in the truth: « For this reason I intend always to remind you of these things, although you know them and are well-established in the truth that is present in you. 13 But I consider it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you with reminders, 14 knowing as I do that my tabernacle is soon to be removed, just as also our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15 I will always do my utmost so that after my departure, you may be able to recall these things for yourselves.
16 No, it was not by following artfully contrived false stories that we made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather, we were eyewitnesses of his magnificence. 17 For he received from God the Father honor and glory when words such as these were conveyed to him by the magnificent glory: “This is my Son, my beloved, whom I myself have approved.” 18 Yes, these words we heard coming from heaven while we were with him in the holy mountain.
19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, and you are doing well in paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place (until day dawns and a daystar rises) in your hearts. 20 For you know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. 21 For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were moved by holy spirit » (verses 12-21).
In verses 13 and 14 it is written: « But I consider it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you with reminders, knowing as I do that my tabernacle is soon to be removed, just as also our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me ». The tabernacle mentioned by the apostle Peter is the metaphor referring to his human body. To be in the tabernacle means to live with the human body. The removed tabernacle means the death of it by ceasing to inhabit this body. This death will subsequently be followed by the heavenly resurrection with a spiritual body, no longer requiring inhabiting a human body (for those having the heavenly hope of everlasting life).
The tabernacle is a tent. Nevertheless, in the biblical context, it has a sense of a tent representing a temple (Exodus 39:32,40). The temple is built to worship God. This means that the human body has the sacred value of a temple, originally made to worship God, in recognition of the fact that he gave us the life (Apocalypse 4:11). The temple made with stones cannot be moved like a tent. However, the human body is a temple that can move, hence the expression of tabernacle. It shows how sacred are the human body and the life, in the eyes of God.
In verse 15 it is written: “I will always do my utmost so that after my departure, you may be able to recall these things for yourselves”. The apostle Peter wanted to give good training to the elders so that they could act in the same way as he did, by shepherding the flock of God. Especially since he knew that his death was approaching (verse 14). He was anxious to make them autonomous on a spiritual level, without the elders should have to depend on Peter, who was going to die.
In verses 17 and 18, it is written the narrative of the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, which apostle Peter witnessed, with the apostles John and James: « For he received from God the Father honor and glory when words such as these were conveyed to him by the magnificent glory: “This is my Son, my beloved, whom I myself have approved.” Yes, these words we heard coming from heaven while we were with him in the holy mountain”.
Here is the narrative of the transfiguration of Christ: « Six days later Jesus took Peter and James and his brother John along and led them up into a lofty mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone as the sun, and his outer garments became brilliant as the light. And look! there appeared to them Moses and E·liʹjah conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus: “Lord, it is fine for us to be here. If you wish, I will erect three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, look! a bright cloud overshadowed them, and look! a voice out of the cloud said: “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved. Listen to him.” At hearing this, the disciples fell facedown and became very much afraid. Then Jesus came near, and touching them, he said: “Get up. Have no fear.” When they looked up, they saw no one but Jesus himself. As they were descending from the mountain, Jesus commanded them: “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of man is raised up from the dead” » (Matthew 17:1-9). In verse 19, the apostle Peter explains that the purpose of the transfiguration was to make more sure the prophetic word of God, the Heavenly Father, as a guarantee of the fulfillment of the biblical prophecies by means Jesus Christ, His Son.
20 and 21 show that the prophetic words of the Bible are inspired by God. They are a guarantee of truth: « For you know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were moved by holy spirit”. The Bible is the scriptural deposit of the Holy Spirit, the active force of God.
***
Peter is one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. In the Gospels, he also has the name of Simon Peter (Matthew 4:18) and Jesus Christ gave him another name, Cephas (John 1:42). Among the twelve, he was one of the three closest apostles of Jesus Christ: Peter, James and John his brother. These three men saw the transfiguration of Christ (Mark 9:1-10).
Achieving Spiritual Maturity (Hebrews 6:1)
***
Table of contents of the http://yomelyah.fr/ website
Reading the Bible daily, this table of contents contains informative Bible articles (Please click on the link above to view it)…
Table of languages of more than seventy languages, with six important biblical articles, written in each of these languages…
***