How I love God Pt 23: How should I live?
2Peter 3:10-14 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. 14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
Revelation 3:3 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
2Peter 1:5-9 5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past.
Some of the interesting things about the Word are those sections which speak about coming days. Those sections are prophetic, which means they talk about things that are not yet and their speakers are called prophets. We are eager to know what will happen next, but the Bible does not give us prophecy simply to satisfy our curiosity about tomorrow. Prophecy is meant to transform how we live today. Peter describes a day when the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be exposed. Yet his purpose is not to frighten believers into panic. His purpose is to move us toward holiness, godliness, spiritual readiness, and hope. Jesus makes the same point in Revelation 3:3:
“Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.
But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief.”
The message is remarkably practical: Stay awake. Remember Christ. Repent quickly. Grow spiritually. Live holy lives. Keep looking toward the day when righteousness will finally have its permanent home.
So, what kind of people should we be?
Come like a thief
This is kind of an odd metaphor for the of Christ’s return don’t you think? But actually, it is very apropos because certainly Christ’s return has an appointment only the Father knows; not even the Son knows the date. Christ’s return as the thief in the night is an appropriate metaphor. A thief does not normally announce his arrival with a calendar invitation. He does not send a text saying, I'll be there Thursday at midnight. His arrival is unexpected. Peter says the same thing about the Day of the Lord:
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.”
Peter is not presenting the return of Christ as a possibility. He is declaring it as a certainty. The question is not whether Christ will come. The question is whether we will be ready when He does. Jesus warned His disciples repeatedly about spiritual sleepiness. In Matthew 24:42 He said, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” The danger is not simply that we might fail to understand prophecy. The greater danger is that we might become spiritually comfortable.
Revelation 3:3 speaks directly to this problem: “Wake up!” A sleeping person can miss what is happening around them. A spiritually sleeping Christian can become so absorbed in ordinary life that eternal realities fade into the background. Here’s where the danger lies: Work becomes everything; money becomes everything; entertainment becomes everything; political arguments become everything; comfort becomes everything.
And somewhere along the way, Jesus becomes something we think about on Sabbath rather than Someone around whom we organize our lives. Peter's warning is therefore not designed to make us obsessed with dates; it is designed to make us awake.
Almost everything is linked to the end
12[God’s grace] teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,… (Titus 2:12-13)
44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matthew 24:44)
There are many, perhaps dozens, of verses linking present day activity with the coming End of Days. People occasionally ask, “Why can’t we know the date of Christ’s return?” The answer seems obvious, because if we did know our entire focus would be on accepting Christ as Savior just a micro-second before that moment. Further, Jesus doesn’t want us focused on time but on our heart condition. Scripture speaks of every person’s eventual audience before his or her Lord God and Savior, and if the reader were to look at every verse linking activity with the End of Days he would discover every one of them reminds the reader of the consequence of standing before Jesus unprepared.
Of course we are never truly ready, but if we don’t look forward to that time the risk of not entering Heaven becomes more real. Christians can sometimes approach biblical teaching about the end of the age as though its primary purpose were to help us construct a timeline. We may become interested in identifying signs, interpreting events, or trying to determine how close we might be to the Lord's return. Those questions can have their place, but Peter's concern is more fundamental. He wants the certainty of God's future intervention in history to affect the character of God's people in the present.
Rather than having curiosity about the future, God's people should be characterized by holiness, godliness, spiritual alertness, perseverance, and hope. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58:
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.”
The word “therefore” is important. Paul has just spent a lengthy chapter explaining the resurrection and the believer's future hope. His conclusion is not that Christians should withdraw from ordinary life. Monks did that in the Middle Ages and discovered retreat to be ineffective. His conclusion is that they should remain faithful because their work “in the Lord is not in vain.” The future gives significance to the present.
Where righteousness will dwell
“But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth,
where righteousness dwells.”
We live in a world where righteousness is often resisted. Sometimes people who act dishonestly seem to prosper while those who try to do what is right experience difficulty. We see corruption, violence, exploitation, broken relationships, injustice, and countless other expressions of human sinfulness. Believers are not exempt from these realities.
Following Jesus does not mean that we will never experience disappointment or injustice. Sometimes faithful believers experience profound suffering precisely because they refuse to participate in wrongdoing. But there is a coming reality in which righteousness is not an occasional exception. Righteousness will dwell there. For believers, therefore, the End is not merely something to survive. It is something to anticipate. A Christian who has no hope beyond this life will naturally become preoccupied with preserving everything that can be preserved now. But the believer who trusts God's promise can hold earthly things with an appropriate looseness.
That does not mean we stop caring about this world. Christians should care deeply about people, families, communities, creation, justice, and mercy. But we understand that none of these things is ultimate. There are times when a person has prayed faithfully and circumstances have not changed. There are times when illness, grief, financial hardship, loneliness, or broken relationships seem to dominate life. In such moments, the promise of a future where righteousness dwells is not an escape from present reality. It is God's assurance that present reality is not the whole story.
How then should we live?
Holiness means taking God's character seriously in the way we conduct ourselves. It includes our private decisions, our relationships, our words, our attitudes, our treatment of other people, and the choices we make when nobody else is watching. Godliness means living with an awareness of God. It is not merely performing religious activities. It is allowing our relationship with God to shape the ordinary details of life.
This is where 2 Peter 1:5–9 becomes especially practical. Peter tells us to cultivate goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. These are not abstract theological concepts. They become visible in everyday situations.
Self-control may mean refusing to respond immediately when someone insults us.
Perseverance may mean continuing to trust God when prayers seem unanswered.
Godliness may mean remembering God's presence while making a decision at work.
Mutual affection may mean caring for someone whose needs have become inconvenient.
Love may mean choosing patience when another person's behavior repeatedly frustrates us.
This is what preparation for Christ's return looks like in ordinary life.
It is becoming the kind of person who is ready to meet Christ.
What about me?
The Christian life is lived between two great realities: Christ has come, and Christ will come again. While we wait for that Second Coming, we should ask ourselves, “What kind of person am I becoming?” Recently, a leader in our church came to us elders to repent of a recent activity. I didn’t think the activity was sinful at all, but he did and it affected me profoundly. He didn’t like what he was becoming.
Does my faith make a difference in the way I treat people? Am I growing in self-control? Am I becoming more patient? Am I learning to persevere? Is my knowledge of Christ producing greater godliness? Am I becoming more loving? When I fail, do I repent and return to Christ, or do I defend and excuse my behavior?
Christ's return should not make us careless about today. It should make us more faithful today. The knowledge that this present order is temporary should cause us to think carefully about what deserves our time and attention. The promise of a new heaven and new earth should give us confidence when the present world seems deeply broken. The warning that Christ may come unexpectedly should encourage us to remain spiritually awake. And Peter's teaching about Christian growth should remind us that preparation for eternity involves becoming increasingly like Christ.