Light on the Word

​Light on the Word
 
2 Peter 3:1-2 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
 
PETER wrote his letters to the church as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. In the Greek meaning, “wholesome thinking” is “sun-judged”. This describes how a piece of pottery was held to the sunlight to reveal any faults or cracks. Peter’s mandate was that all Christians’ words and actions could be sun-judged, “True.” when held up to the light of God’s Word. Jesus said it this way in his Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Good minds lead to good deeds. To keep our minds free of flaws, Peter closes the letter with a focus on keeping God’s Word pure in our minds.
   He first points the church to the prophets. We must have in mind the prophets’ teachings and learn from them. Sixteen books of the Bible are named for prophets. Four are “major” prophets and 12 are “minor”. This designation is based on the size and duration of their prophecies. All prophets are “major” in God’s sight because they reveal his Word. Within each is the truth or an example of God’s sovereign plan to purify the world though the Savior, Jesus Christ.  
   In addition there are prophets within the history books of Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, etc. David, Elijah, Elisha, Samuel and all the prophets were – and are through the Bible today – God’s remarkable tools to point the Jews to wholesome thinking against the flaws of lawless living, idolatry and paganism. But the Jews “killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.” (Luke 11:48b) Jesus judged the Jews for their literal killing of God’s spokesmen and for “killing” their words to Israel.
   The Israelites throughout history have had many flaws in their thinking of God and his will for them. They were cracked by evil desires that spread through hearts and minds to break a strong nation into an exiled, shattered and dispersed pieces. Wholesome thinking seemed to vanish from the nation.
   But then Jesus came. And after his ascension, the wholesome thinking advanced when the church received the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. The first-century church had the privilege to hear from the men Jesus had personally commanded: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20).
   “Teaching them to obey” is a sure command to stimulate your mind to wholesome thinking. We are to develop obedient minds, so they will become wholesome minds, withstanding the scrutiny of the gospel light.