2 PETER+—An Illustrated Summary of Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible by G. Campbell Morgan

"On every page of the God-breathed writings are many thoughts that stretch out like long, clear arms of light across the darkness, discovering things otherwise hidden and illuminating wider areas than those of the immediate context. They are searchlights. I have selected one in each chapter of Scripture, for at least one central thought in every chapter should arrest the mind and affect the life," wrote G. Campbell Morgan, a skilled, wise, warm-hearted Bible teacher who conducted a classic 3-year study called Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible. Here is the fruit of that research—summarized, illustrated, and amplified with useful details—on all 66 books of the Bible.

GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, 

DEUTERONOMY, JOSHUA, JUDGES, RUTH, 

1 SAMUEL, 2 SAMUEL, 1 KINGS,  2 KINGS, 

1 CHRONICLES, 2 CHRONICLES, EZRA, 

NEHEMIAH, ESTHER, JOB, PSALMS, 

PROVERBS, ECCLESIASTES, 

SONG OF SOLOMON,  ISAIAH, JEREMIAH,

 LAMENTATIONS, EZEKIEL, DANIEL, 

HOSEA, JOEL, AMOS, OBADIAH, JONAH, 

MICAH, NAHUM, HABAKKUK, ZEPHANIAH,  

HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, MALACHI,

 MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, JOHN, 

ACTS, ROMANS, 1 CORINTHIANS,

2 CORINTHIANS, GALATIANS, EPHESIANS, 

PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, 1 THESSALONIANS,

2 THESSALONIANS, 1 TIMOTHY,  2 TIMOTHY, TITUS,

PHILEMON, HEBREWS, JAMES, 1 PETER, 2 PETER,

1 JOHN, 2 JOHN, 3 JOHN, JUDE, REVELATION

2 Peter 1:9 "Whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins." Second Peter is the second of two letters the apostle Peter wrote. He begins with this astonishing reality for all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ: "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness ... by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature" (verses 3-4). That is God's part in our sanctification, or progressive holiness and Christ-likeness. This is what Peter says about our part: "Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue ... knowledge ... self-control ... steadfastness ... godliness ... and brotherly affection with love" (verses 5-7). The verse highlighted above is a graphic description of the spiritual condition of a Christian who fails to advance as Peter outlines. The condition, thankfully, is not total blindness, but a serious form of nearsightedness. Such a person sees what is immediately before him or her, but fails to recall what is eternal. He focuses on himself but not on God. He has "forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins," which means he has failed to respond to the enlargement of life and vision that came to him when he received the cleansing of his nature at the beginning of his Christian life. The cure for this nearsightedness, Peter says, is to "be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities," the aforementioned virtues that characterize our Savior, who purchased our forgiveness, "you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (verses 10-11). High levels of assurance rightly accompany high levels of obedience rooted in God's grace.

2 Peter 2:19 "They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. Whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved." This entire chapter is a serious warning about false prophets or teachers who promise freedom, but cannot deliver. This verse explains why they cannot. The apostle Paul says something similar here: "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16). It is a truth mankind is slow to believe because it means that the freedom of the will is strictly limited. I am free to choose my master. I am not free when I have chosen. I become the servant of that master. A man or woman may choose to yield to temptation and sin, but in doing so he or she becomes the servant of that sin. It is impossible for anyone to treat sin as completely under his control, to be either indulged in or set aside at will. Yielding is yielding and that means submission, the bending of the neck, and being compelled to obey the commands of sin. The only way to freedom from the mastery of sin is escape through submission to Christ, and that submission must be more than an act, but instead an attitude maintained by steady action. Otherwise, to quote Peter, those who superficially profess faith in Christ but are again entangled in the defilements of the world, "the last state has become worse for them than the first. It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them" (verses 20-21).  This truth humbles the soul and leaves no room for pride of will. When we recognize and obey it, however, we will remain free from the dominion of sin. Abandoning ourselves to the Lord delivers us from the power of sin, but in no other way shall we be anything other than slaves of sin.

2 Peter 3:8 "Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Peter concludes his final letter with a challenge to Christians of all times and places to rethink how we think about time. We basically need to cancel the time element when contemplating the ways and works of God. Time is as nothing to God. We become hurried and flustered because we have only a day in which to do something. God has no such unrest, for in our small one day He is able to accomplish things we could only hope to do in a thousand years. On the other hand, we look down on the long time that must elapse before things can happen that we earnestly desire, but to God a thousand-year wait is as a day in passing. Throughout this chapter Peter has been talking about the imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ. People today tend to declare either that the promised return is false because about 2,000 years have passed since the promise was made or that He who made it is not acting as speedily as He might. But when we look at time from the Lord's perspective, thanks to Peter's clarity, we see that the purposes of God are so vast that their working out in human experience must take place at what He deems to be the optimum point in our time. On the other hand, His power is such that if and when He will, things can be done in the "twinkling of an eye" that will revolutionize all life, something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. To let Peter have the last word, "What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (verses 11-13). Meanwhile, "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity" (verse 18).

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