And To Knowledge Temperance - 2 Peter 1:1-11

1:1-4 - This letter of Peter is different from his first one in a couple of ways. First, the IM notes that some scriptorians have concluded that the writing styles of the author of 1st and 2nd Peter are too different to be written by the same person. But we know that Silas helped Peter write the first letter and I don’t know who helped with the second letter. Another difference is that while the first letter is about building up their testimonies and their individual churches, the second letter was probably written shortly before Peter was martyred so it is more like a good bye and a “this is what I want you to know before I leave,” kind of thing. This letter is written “to them that have obtained like precious faith with us.” This is for people who value the gospel more than anything else. Peter wishes “grace and peace be multiplied” to the readers “through knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.” I struggle with Peter’s words because it just seems like he’s saying all the Jesus words that he knows and I just can’t follow it. It seems to me that Peter is talking to those who are partakers in the “exceeding great and precious promises” given to us by Jesus. We use these promises to “be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” There is the reference again to people’s obsession with sex. The word “partakers” is cross-referenecd with D&C 93:27-28 which says, “And no man receiveth a fullness unless he keepeth his commandments. He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.” The word “nature” is cross referenced with 1 Samuel 10:6 which says, “And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.” This might be an interpretation of Peter’s message basically saying that if we keep the commandments we will receive light and truth until we know all things by the Spirit and become a different person. One thing that is interesting to note here is that “another man” is connected to the phrase “divine nature” which could indicate that the true spirit within us is more like God naturally than not. In the new “Ben Hur” movie there is a part where Judah sees a crowd chasing a man out of town throwing rocks at him. The man falls on the ground and the people keep throwing rocks. The guy is all bloodied and beat up then Jesus throws himself on top of the man begging the people to stop, saying something like, “He is your brother. You must see that love is our true nature.” I don’t know why that was such a powerful statement for me, maybe it’s because for most of my life I have not felt love, mostly I’ve just felt dead inside, loving people and pets and things is new for me. And I can’t imagine that I’m alone in that state, in fact I don’t think that most people grow out of it. Anger, jealousy, lust, hatred, etc. are all just emotional states that people live in because of the nature of the fallen world. Our whole lives are filled with trauma and difficulties and that perpetual state of being can take over who we think we are. But I think Peter is saying that through Jesus Christ, we can not only become the best version of ourselves, but revert back to who we really are. It’s an interesting concept. I mean, it makes sense. If we are all children of God, then that means God is the Father of our spirits. Just like mortal reproduction, I would imagine that we were created by taking a bit from Heavenly Father and a bit from Heavenly Mother and that is what we are made out of and that to me is the definition of divine nature. Our very spirits are made from God, which is divine, meaning that there are characteristics we have that are innate to us. I think it’s like a baby when they are born. Sure there are psychopaths that are born that way, but they are few and far between. For the vast majority, take any baby and put them with loving, kind, amazing parents that the end result will be an adult that is vastly different from who they would have become had that same baby been raised with abuse and neglect. The question then becomes, who is the child really? I would contest that the child who was raised in the good environment was able to grow their natural selves whereas the child who was raised in the bad environment adapted to their situation by shielding their sensitive, happy, loving selves as a self-defense mechanism. 1:5-11 - Peter continues with the steps to work through the process of coming back to ourselves. We start with diligence. If I were to make this list, I might have started with a “desire” to grow closer to God, but ultimately, desire is not enough, you have to work at it. One might even say we must work “diligently” to grow spiritually. This could mean studying the scriptures, attending church meetings, and praying, the big three. What’s interesting is that in order to move on to the next step, we don’t have to actually meet a standard of like 5,000 hours spent studying the scriptures or going to church for a year or anything like that. There isn’t a quantifiable “amount” of work that we have to do in order to gain blessings, we just have to do it and when we are ready, the Spirit will guide us forward. Add to diligence “virtue.” I hate this word. I think it’s from all the years of being called a whore by my parents and sexualized that I just hate the idea of someone judging my worth by my sexual partners. Especially in our society where women are demonized and men are celebrated for the same activities. And when Peter says “virtue” here, he doesn’t specify “women’s virtue,” but I guess I just read it as implied. But in fact that probably isn’t the case at all because I think that most of these letters are written to men. I think that in order to separate myself from the condemnation that I feel at the word “virtue” I have come up with other parts of what constitutes “virtue.” I don’t think it’s just obeying the law of chastity, even though it seems like that is the only part that is ever talked about. For me, “virtue” is clean motives in actions, helping others because they need it not because they can do something for you. I think its clean thoughts, not lascivious, but also not angry, not violent, not jealous, not suspicious, not hateful. For me, “virtue” is building others up instead of tearing them down. It’s encouragement, and positivity, and kindness. The scriptures cross-reference “virtue” with not only chastity but good works as well. It means being unencumbered by self-defense mechanisms that don’t serve you. As we are diligent in praying and scripture study, we begin to be more careful how we talk, the joke we tell and laugh at, what thoughts we have, what movies we watch, what songs we sing along with. It’s implied that the next step for us to focus on is to gain knowledge, but I contest that that isn’t a step that is up to us on our journey. It seems like when we are done “mastering” the study and cleanliness, then we change our focus to knowledge, but we don’t get to decide “ok now I’m ready to gain spiritual knowledge.” Knowledge is what comes to us as we move through the other steps, it is dictated by God and our readiness to receive it. It is a pervasive consequence of our efforts to grow spiritually, no matter how small. As we gain knowledge, we will become more “temperate,” meaning we will have more self-control. This all follows the concept of “unconscious competence.” It’s the idea that there are four steps to mastering something. 1. Unconscious Incompetence – you’re doing it wrong, but you don’t know that it. 2. Conscious Incompetence – you’re doing it wrong, but now you are aware of it. 3. Conscious Competence – you do the right thing but you have to think about it every time. 4. Unconscious Competence – you do the right thing without having to think about it. When we build walls to defend ourselves against the harshness of this world, its subconscious, we don’t know we are doing it. This is how we become distant from the gentle, loving beings that we naturally are. We are acting in a way that is detrimental to spirits, but we don’t know it. As we put in effort to be obedient to the commandments, we suddenly become aware of what we are doing wrong and the damage we are doing to ourselves. Then we work to keep the commandments and it’s hard at first, we have to purposefully decide not to entertain bad thoughts, not to speak bad or hurtful words, we have to decide to turn of certain shows or songs or close certain books. We have to make intentional decisions all day every day until eventually we just start to do it automatically without thinking. It's like if you swear off sugar. At first you probably have to remind yourself not to eat that candy or whatever that is on the counter, but after a while, you probably won’t even recognize it as an edible food item. At first, I had to remind myself to pray or to turn off something that got too racy or to not tell a certain joke or not say something that would hurt someone else’s feelings. It took a lot of time and energy to live in such an intentional way, but there are a lot of things now that I wouldn’t even think of doing, or that don’t come as naturally as they used to. This is how we grow in self-control. It isn’t that we will be able to white knuckle everything in our lives effectively, it’s that eventually we won’t have to. And just as a side note, this not only works to become more skilled at spiritual things, but it can also work to degrade our spirit, to go from being a good person to having us act on our temptations without a second thought. As we are more self-controlled, we add “patience.” We focus on the eternal perspective and why we do the things we do. Because honestly, if we were just supposed to keep the commandments but there was no better life after this one or no reward or no peace or anything good after this life, then what’s the point. It would be a case of, this life is the only time we have to have any kind of fun so let’s do whatever we can. In order to truly grow spiritually, we have to believe that we are working toward something, that we are making an investment in ourselves and our spiritual future. And when we consider our obedience in that light, it is easier to be ok with waiting. To “patience” we add “godliness,” which word is cross-referenced with “reverence, piety, godliness.” I’m taking this to mean a better relationship with God. We learn not only who God truly is, but who we are to Him, and this step changes lives. This is the “love God” step. As we come to love God, it becomes easier and more natural to love our neighbor, or as Peter says, we add to godliness “brotherly kindness.” We understand that God loves every single person the same way that he loves us, and because we have a more clear view of the depth of that love, we begin to open our own hearts to others as well. As we gain “brotherly kindness” or a genuine love for others, we grow in that until we get to “charity” which is the pure love of Christ. It’s a process to be sure, and probably one that extends into the eons of time we’ll spend in the next life, but it’s not a race, it’s a journey. If we embark on this journey, Peter says we will “abound” which is cross-referenced with “abundant life,” which is interesting because when we think about what it means to have an abundant life, we think of wealth, money, and power, but Peter doesn’t mention any of those physical aspects. He doesn’t say “get a good job and work hard,” he says to be diligent in our spiritual efforts, to have virtue, knowledge, etc. Living a physically comfortable life isn’t possible for so much of the world’s population throughout human history, so if we considered wealthy as the definition of “abundant life,” then God’s love and opportunities would be few and far between. But Peter says here than anyone can do the things that give peace to the heart and joy to the soul. We won’t just survive but we will thrive. Peter also promises that we will not be “unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is cross-referenced with D&C 107:30-31 which is long but profitable. It says, “The decisions of these quorums, or either of them, are to be made in all righteousness, in holiness, and lowliness of heart, meekness, and long-suffering, and in faith, and virtue, and knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity; Because the promise is, if these things abound in them they shall not be unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord.” There is no mention of anything physical in either requirement or reward. Anyone can grow “in the knowledge of the Lord,” regardless of age, sex, gender, social status, and the rewards will be non-material as well. I mean, they can be physical blessings and surely they are, but they are not the main aspect of growth. But for those who will not undergo this process, “is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” Those who will not make the effort to grow spiritually will not see the world in the higher plane of God’s love. They will be blind to anything other than the physical aspects of this life and that is a tough go because when we don’t have spiritual aspects, our lives become filled with materialism and the desire for more, power and the desire for more. That is a tough way to live because there’s no guiding principles, nothing to tell you what’s right and wrong, the only things that are right is what gets you what you want and nothing else. There is no hope for the future, there is no comfort for pain, loss, or rejection. It’s a very lonely, desperate existence. Instead we should “give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” How can anyone read that statement and think that the physical world is better? Maybe it’s because I’m a small female but I know that even if I dedicated 100% of my time, energy, and resources to the accumulation of wealth and power, there will still be things I want but can’t get. There will always be people actively working to take it away from me. I can’t win all the time, I will lose a lot of the time too. It’s such an anxious, shallow existence that will never satisfy me, will never bring me peace of mind or joy because I will always want more and it just isn’t possible. Therefore, ignoring all the benefits that come with a relationship with Jesus Christ, I should rather spend my time, energy, and resources building myself up spiritually because that is at least fulfilling and gives me hope, happiness, comfort, and peace. If we just look at the emotional and spiritual benefits, being devoted to spiritual growth is the only thing that would make me feel like I was living a good life, because if I dedicated myself to material acquisition, I would spend all my energy protecting it, and there are NO benefits to that. And then you have that sweet, sweet quiet burning that tells you everything will be ok, that all will be paid for, that all will be compensated for, that all will be protected. There is that calming comfort that wraps you in “this life is not the end, and everything will be repaid.” There’s the indescribable ache that is filled when you learn in a way without words just how God feels about you. That is priceless and there is nothing in the world that I would trade my experience with that for.