Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. 2 Peter 3:17-18
These are the final passages of Peter’s letter and in these last passages, Peter tells us certain things about the Christian life.
- The Christian is a person who is forewarned. This is to say a Christian cannot plead ignorance. The Christian knows the right was and its rewards for following. The Christian know the wrong way and its disasters. The Christian is one who has no right to expect and easy way because we have been told that Christianity means a cross, and we have been warned that there will always ne those who are ready to attack and to pervert the faith. To be forewarned is to be forearmed; but to be forewarned is also a grave responsibility, for those who know the right and does the wrong is under a double condemnation.
- The Christian is one with a basis for life. The Christian ought to be rooted and founded in faith. There are certain things that we should be sure about. There is a certain inflexibility to the Christian life; there is an absolute basis for belief which never changes. The Christian will never cease to believe that, “Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:11).; and the Christian will never stop to be aware that there is laid on them the duty of making their life fit their belief.
- The Christian is on with developing life. The inflexibility of the Christian life is not the rigidity that leads to death. The Christian must experience the daily wonder of God’s grace in their lives and daily grow in the gifts that this grace can bring. The Christian must enter daily deeper into the wonder of Jesus Christ. It is only when we establish a firm foundation that great building can tower into the air, and it is only because of its deep roots that a tree can reach to the sky. The Christian life is a life with a firm foundation but always growing outward and upward.
And so Peter finishes his letter by giving glory to Christ, both now and to the end of time.
