SET YOUR MIND ON THINGS ABOVE

 

2 Peter 3:14-16 (NIV) ¹⁴So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. ¹⁵Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. ¹⁶He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Peter had just warned his readers that the world would be destroyed by fire. Since everything here will go up in smoke, we should be looking forward to the new heaven and earth, a home of righteousness. How should that affect our daily lives? We should be endeavoring to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with our Lord. This does not mean that we are earning our salvation, but that when our time comes, we have nothing left of the world that will be destroyed. Christians whose hearts are still set on things of the passing world will not find the transition as wonderful as those who are at peace with the Lord. Peace with the Lord means our affections are toward Him and not the things of the world.

Peter adds that Paul has written the same thing. He makes an interesting comment in regards to Paul's letters. He compares them to sacred writings. Peter writes that the unlearned distort the meaning of both. We will always have people who use the sacred writings for their own personal desire and advantage. Actually, it is to their disadvantage, though they do not realize it. They twist the Scriptures to justify an attachment to worldliness, to pleasures and wealth. What they set their heart upon will perish.

Consider: Am I reading into Scripture a justification for worldliness or living with the realization that it will all perish?