In 1 Peter 1:5-7, the writer has described a virtuous life. But the one who lacks these qualities has forgotten they are cleansed of sin (v.9). Two metaphors are used to describe someone that lacks the virtues listed in verses 5-7.
First, they are like people who have poor vision. They are not blind, but so nearsighted that they might as well be blind. Perhaps we might call that “legally blind” in contemporary 
culture. If you really cannot see well, you find yourself in difficult, embarrassing, or potentially dangerous situations. It is one thing to not be able to read a menu in a restaurant, for example, and quite another to not be able to tell one person from another. Worse yet, if you cannot see well enough to read street signs, driving a car becomes very dangerous.
In the same way, someone that is not developing godliness does not have the spiritual vision to recognize dangers around them and may find themselves not just in an embarrassing situation, but a spiritually dangerous place. A Christian who lacks self-control may say something that is harsh or judgmental when they ought to have controlled their tongue (this is something I have done many times!) They might even be too blind to know that their harsh speech is doing more harm than good.
The second metaphor is forgetfulness. A person who is not perusing godliness has simply forgotten what they are, a forgiven sinner. Most people have had a moment when they forgot something important. Usually it is a name, or something that you 
said you would do, etc. Like blindness, forgetfulness can lead to embarrassment (who are you again?) but also to potential danger. Think of people who have serious problems remembering who they are, such as an amnesiac or a person suffering from Alzheimer syndrome. It might be dangerous for a person to be on their own because they have forgotten critically important information that will keep them out of danger.
The person who is not pursuing godliness in Peter 1:9 has forgotten the most important thing imaginable, they have forgotten that they have already been cleansed from sin. Imagine a very dirty child who takes a bath so that they are ready for bed, and then wants to go out and play in the mud again. The believer has already been cleansed of sin, why would they “forget” and go back to their past sins?
This too might be a hint at the problem Peter needs to address in the letter. The opponents claim to have superior godly knowledge of God, and that knowledge allows them (or so they claim) to behave in any way they choose. They are “sinning that grace may abound,” to use the Pauline phrase, since later in the letter Peter will say that the opponents are twisting Paul’s letters in order to support their sin.
Once again I think Peter’s letter is applicable to the current state of the Western church. In our pursuit of some good things, we have lost sight of the most important elements of the Gospel. What is the Church blind to? What are we not seeing (or worse, closing our eyes to?) What have we forgotten in the Gospel?
Is it possible by forgetting what is really important we have become like a child who wants to go play in the mud again?
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
I think the modern church has become blind or forgetful to the true needs of believers and to the importance of unification. Nowadays churches are willing to split over anything and they forget what the truly important things are. I think this has to do with blindness when someone in charge gets so focused on one thing they neglect other important things and it has to do with forgetfulness because they forget what something means to them and begin to go through the motions. Going through the motions is something that many christians struggle with and I believe that it can come down sometimes from those in charge who force certain things with so much vigor that they forget about the heart. Actions are seen as more important than the condition of the believer. I also think it is possible for us to forget the danger and pain of sin and we get drawn into what it has to offer for us. The devil takes away shame before sin and then gives it back after, with the time before being a period of forgetting the harm that is really being done.
Modern churches have been influenced by culture and let things in that are contrary to what God says. I agree with what Karen Jobes said that this second letter is applicable to those today who wish to think of themselves in some sense as Christians yet resent the biblical claim that they are accountable to God and will be judged by the standard of his revealed word in Scripture. Today’s culture is so demanding in keeping up appearances, we forget that God is present in us and with us all of the time, and eventually forget that he is even there. Decisions and choices then become our own to make, and God is left out of the picture which gives freedom to our worldly selves to make the wrong decisions. Jobes also says what one believes about the future determines how one lives today, and that affects how Christians let the “little” sins by and integrate culture and church by losing focus of our life beyond the grave. Losing sight of why we were put on the earth, and where we are heading after our time here, affects how we judge our lives, by being like God or unlike him. We also lose our interest to live like God and get pulled into culture when we forget the purpose that was meant for us and lose desire to live for God.
Peter describes in 1 Peter 1:9 someone who is lacking of the characteristics of one living a virtuous life. He describes one who is forgetful and has poor vision (v. 9). It’s clear to me that all of us can tend to have both poor vision in life and how we make our decisions and forgetfulness in the sense of what Christ has done on the cross. These are challenges that we all experience and go through. But I also believe the church today is in battle with these two challenges as well. Is seems as if the American church has forgot the true meaning of the Gospel and discipleship and has casted a poor vision on where it needs to go moving forward. Often it seems as if many churches are focused on large numbers, perfect worship, and flashy buildings. While many of these aspects of ministry are not bad, it’s important that one goes back to the origin of why the church is in existence. Is it to sell merchandise, grow gratuitously in numbers or have the most current and poppy worship? No. It is to spread the true, authentic Gospel and to grow in spirituality with one another in fellowship and discipleship. I hope that Paul’s words is able to not only challenge ourselves as individuals, but also challenge the body of Christ.
You really meant to say that Luke wrote it.
Your comparison to a child playing in the mud to a human playing in the mud is really good. We tend to revolve around this cycle of us sinning and then being forgiven, sinning then being forgiven. We say we are sorry over and over until it has become an obsession. But is that how God wanted it? I do not think that God wants our desperate apologies every day that we might (or more likely will) sin. I think that after Jesus died on the cross we no longer become dirty which is why God turned his back on so many (Isaiah 59:2). I think that 2 Peter 1:9 says that we are no longer in mud because we are cleansed. The only thing that could allow us to be “dirty” is what we believe about Jesus as God. Jobes says that what we believe about the future determines how we live today (Page 376) and believing that we will see Christ in Heaven has a major role in our cleanliness.
I totally agree and even would argue that it seems very common that believers forget the sacrifices that Christ had to endure to provide us with eternal life. As 2 Peter 1:9 says people are forgetting that they have been cleansed and for that reason they believe it is still ok for them to sin. However, I would also argue that Romans 6:1 is a example of another extreme, where people are so aware of the grace that Christ has given us that they seek to take advantage of it as a excuse to sin. The secret is knowing that while we sin, and our sins are pardon; we must be sincere about our intentions and always try to glorify God. 2 Peter 1:5-8 goes through a list of virtues and calls us to supplement our faith with them. We must hold strong to our faith, and my getting in the word, we will be less prone to forget the wonderful things that Christ has done for us because we will be reminded daily of his deeds.
It is pretty easy to see that we have a world view problem here, not only a forgetful problem. We focus so much on our becoming a Chistian we, as a whole, forget how to teach others about living a Christian life. You always hear how we have fallen short of the glory of G-d, accept Jesus Christ as your saviour every week at Church. We don’t teach how to live a Christian life. Beyond just being an honest ethical person, we have to teach how to live a life with a Christian world view. We are influenced by so much in society without learning how to fight it. Christians have sacrificed the public sphere and only play in the private sector. We teach sociology from an athiest book, pschology from a secular book and don’t use Biblical based world view books. Imagine if we taught how the Bible answers these questions better than these other views. It is another way to have us increase our faith and redirect it to Him.
If the Bible is true, it should have the answers as well as influence us in the right way to find those answers. Christianity is treated like a mythical story because we have sacrificed so much of our influence. If everything we taught it based off the Bible it would be more difficult to forget and go play in the mud. It would be easier to have vision that sees past what the world throws at us. Instead of living for a safe life we lived for a G-d filled life. Every Christian should be taught apologetics and be able to debate with answers of equal credibility in the scientific community. It is easy to forget because we aren’t living a life that’s soul purpose is to fulfill G-d’s plan. Maybe our forgetfulness comes from our lack of commitment to G-d’s plan in our lives?
If everything we do doesn’t focus upwards, how are we to expect to live a life without so much sin and failure?
Some thoughts I have been thinking on lately. I’ll leave with this example. Imagine that instead of teaching as a job you taught to spread knowledge and understanding of the gospel. Would you then need the paycheck? Is it right for students to go into debt to go learn about the Bible? What if the goal of Grace was to make Biblical education affordable and seek ways to minimize the cost to students. How many more could Grace reach by living a life of Giving? Wouldn’t the low cost bring others in who want but cannot afford an education? What if it was free? It could be paid for by Churches and donations and through volunteer work. The business part of Grace could actually run businesses, taking parts of the profit to help pay for costs.
What if we adopted a missionary view of college instead of business view of college.
This is what I hope to do in my future. Create a place where people can learn without going into mounds debt.
Rabbit trails, everywhere.
TL;DR
Yes, it is very possible we have lost sight of what is important.
The church now needs an overseer is what Peter is saying. You need someone to guide even the leaders so when they start to forget or get off topic that overseer can lead them back to the path that they have left. It is also important to note that Peter doesn’t always exclaim that they do this knowingly but over some time you lose sight of your goals and what God has put in you to desire to do. Then since we no longer can see what his desire is we use ours instead and we forgot what he has for us.
I have found that without content research into what you believe and without the content exercise of growth in your relationship with God you lose sight of not only him but what you were doing and why you were doing it. The bible asks us to find God’s desire in our lives, John 7:17 English Standard Version (ESV) “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” This versus is John talking to the people on understanding that if they follow God truly than they will know if what he says is not of God. You can also take for it that if YOU truly desire to do God’s will, you will know his will for you by what you and others say.
I remember that I translated a verse in the Bible, I have eyes but do not see and I have ears but do not hear. But Matthew Explains what Peter is saying. “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’” (Matthew 13:15) Peter is asking you to do these things and has given you instructions on how not to fail. All you must do is fall them.
Blindness and forgetfulness have become epidemic in the modern day U.S. church. The main symptom of this I think is judgmentalism in the church. Especially with the forgetfulness. I think that when believers forget that we all started from the same place, and though we may be in different stages along the way, we all needed the blood of Jesus, but we spiral into this attitude of judging others. I think blindness is a huge problem, and I think is also a symptom forgetfulness. When we forget everything that Christ has done for us, then we start to go blind; we get spiritually complacent and dumb. Peter’s warning for his people also applies to us, and is one that we need to pay attention to as well lest we fall into the same traps.
I can relate a lot to this blog, especially with poor vision. In societies terms, I am “legally blind” and at times I even need reading glasses to help assist my vison. I know if I were to drive without my contacts or glasses I would be in a serious problem because everything just blurs together and I can’t make figures out. And I think that is what is really happening in churches, they are blurring biblical truth with what society says true. Like homosexuality, the Bible goes against it but society says it is okay, but some churches are saying it is okay. I don’t think that churches are becoming blind to issues as much as they are blurring issues together. I think it is possible that we can become like the forgetting child if we are not careful. I know in my life I have become that forgetting child and did what I enjoyed because that sin made me happy. I think that is what many people tend to do, they go back to doing what makes them happy, but it doesn’t fully fill them the way God does and that is something they have to learn on their own.
I think it is very possible to forget that we are cleaned and want to go play in the mud again. I think that this problem has something to do with not understanding that once Christians have given their lives to Christ, they are now called to live life dramatically different. This could be the person who dedicated their lives to God but think it is still okay to treat their spouse badly or maybe even someone who struggles with addiction. However, another mindset that could cause this is the mindset of there is better things in the world than what Christ calls us to do. You want to follow Christ but you do not want to miss out on what the world offers, you want to “enjoy life to the fullest”. I have a friend who is like this, she proclaims her love for Christ but on weekends she goes to parties and drinks alcohol, at the age of nineteen. Her actions reflect poorly not only on herself, but on the Church as well. Peter states in 1:4-5 that as Christians we are to live a life of virtue because Jesus saved us from the corruption of this world. There are two parts to being a Christian; proclaiming faith in God and salvation through Jesus and living a life of virtue to reflect Christ. Works and faith go hand in hand, and this is often a subject Christians struggle with. As Peter has stated with passion in this first chapter, living life without virtue brings no fruit and is ineffective (1:8). Having faith and no virtue brings embarrassment upon one’s self and reflects poorly on the faith.
After reading this post this quote by Jobes stuck out to me. “Peter wanted his readers to live well today by growing in virtue (1:5 – 8), by not being taken in by false teachers (2:1 – 2), and by not losing patience or growing weary with the Christian life (3:9) (Jobes, 402). This post talks about Christians being not blind but nearsighted. In other words someone that is not developing godly behavior will find themselves in some dangerous situations. When thinking about my own life i have seen both scales of this. I have done things that i regretted later because i made a choice to follow through with behavior that was not godly. On the other hand, i have made the right decisions and got our of situations that would harm or go away from my faith. With maturity i have gotten better at handling these situations. Also, i do believe it is easy to forget and lose sight of what is important (like the child going back to the mud). I believe this happens with selfishness, or when things go wrong.
With respect to the aricle, both words (forgetfulness, and vision) have often played a role in both the individual and church itself. Jobes, as stated above, is depicting the actual meanig of Peter stressing the fact that by living well will grow your maturity virtue. 1 Peter is stressing the idea of both of these actions that through building an individuals moral standards through the word can help one attain a good self-satisfaction. Ungodly behaviour is a support subject because Peter is speaking to the idea that this kinda behaviour will lead to danger. Choices and events tend to have an impact on a persons decisons because of peer-pressure (mainly young adults) or the benefit if its a risky decision. Either way, it’s difficult to go back and make a different decision for a scenario that had a negative outcome. However, if an individual continues to make the negative choices, it will impact their “forgetfulness” in their identity. Which is the other aspect of this post, because a person can easily forget who their true identity is with the continued choices. All throughout high school, I dealt with identity issues, and it does make you lose focus on your spiritual life. The Peterine is speaking to this and I think he is warning and encouraging the reader to not lose their identity in Christ and continue to seek guidance and wisdom to live a godly life.
I think that by living, yes we will grow in maturity and virtue, but I also think that gaining a head knowledge of what the Bible has to say will help to turn into wisdom. I think that the letter is bringing to light that some of the people during that time (and like people in the church today do) were having ‘poor vision’ in the sense that they were blinded by some of the choices that they were making. They were not fully understanding how their actions and words were impacting those around them as well as their witness to others. I think that for the other metaphor of forgetfulness that the people were forgetting who they were in Jesus Christ; they were forgiven sinners. I think that this forgetfulness happens a lot today in the church, we have our separate lives, our church life and our own personal life and we try not to let the two overlap all the time.
I believe people can be clean but then go back to playing in the mud because just like the people that Peter was addressing, they can just simply go get washed off again over and over before they head to bed. Yes God’s grace is endless and we cannot possibly run out of it. But, this does not give us the freedom to continue willingly, in light of grace, to choose sin over what we as mature Christians know hurts God. At this point, the people Peter was talking to were people who knew what they were doing was a sin, therefore they knew God did not like it, yet they continued to choose that over what God wills for them expecting that God will just forgive them later. This is not the Gospel, the Gospel is supposed to free us from this, so we are not held down by our sin. It gives us a new purpose and a desire to want to obey God. His Grace spurs us to worshiping him, with everything that we do! His grace is like a tyvec suit, so that when we slip and fall in the mud we can get right out and we arn’t even dirty. We just keep going, living our life for him.
Seth, I agree with you!
Some people will go back to their sins because they know God will wash them of their sins over and over again because His love is endless. I think that if someone willingly goes back to their sin after asking for forgiveness and knows in their heart, it’s wrong, but they continue doing it because “God will forgive me anyway” it makes the question, are you saved? Valid. Once we are saved, it’s not like we are 100% clean from sin (we are not Jesus) and we are not 100% clean from the temptation of our sins from before we were saved, but once we are truly saved, we have a different heart which should change our mind and body and soul in which should impact what we do with those sins and temptations moving forward. It does not mean we won’t fail, but to just say “God will forgive me anyway” and continue to do it without trying to fight or ask for guidance or seek the Lord, is what makes someone’s faith questionable. I think it’s possible for someone to be clean and then go back to playing in the mud, but it is all about how you handle it going forward, if you’re okay with continuing to do the same sin or sins without wanting to change, it’s really hard for anyone that is a Christian to believe their faith is sincere because one who is a Christian will fail, will sin, but always try and fight and always go to the Lord in prayer and in scripture to try and become better for His glory.
What the author seems to be getting at is whether or not the hearer was actually living out their faith. The passage is clear on saying that the “Christians” who do not example certain qualities which are intrinsic of being filled with the Holy Spirit) have forgotten all together the faith they say they believe in. Jobes writes that some of the believers to which Peter was writing believed in false teachers who said they were doing God’s will without thinking about what was right and what was wrong. (Pg. 375) This logic allowed them to sin, most likely claiming that whatever they did was within the will of God. Whoever then lives this lifestyle, one that is void of this almost secondary “fruit of the spirit”, makes it seem as if they forgot Christ’s sacrifice. If they did know it, their lives would look a lot different. This makes me think of “Sunday morning Christians”. They come to church to feel good (they may have even said a saving prayer) then they leave and revert back to whatever sin they were in the middle of when they decided to go to church. Do they actually believe in Jesus’ forgiveness or are they just feigning an appearance of Christianity?
I guess what comes to mind reading this is…what then for those who have forgotten? For those who are blind? I can say from my personal experience with not feeling very close to God that being blind is a difficult experience without any real easy answers to get out of. Perhaps the answer is more simple than it seems, but for some reason my experience with Scripture does not really give a very easy answer about this.
It becomes easy to fall back to our own ways, because we start to take our faith for granted. I think that is the most dangerous place to be is stuck in “forgetting.” Peter was trying to warn the body not to warp the words of Paul so they can continue to play in the mud. When we accept Christ as our savior we are to be rid of our old selves. When we are not pursue God we end up stuck in our ways. We do not view it necessarily as wrong when we have a “fall back” plan of asking God for forgiveness. That is not what Christianity is about. It is about diving into the Word and trying to living an honorable life for Christ.
Jobes states that being nearsighted is the same as thinking only in the moment, and you have become blind to the bigger picture, eternity (Jobes, 377). She is saying that neglecting ones moral responsibilities is to forget about the cleansing of past sins (Jobes 377). Each time we commit a sin, I believe that it becomes easier for us to fall back into that same temptation because it has already begun to break down the walls of our faith through one offense. Yet, at the same time, it takes a lot of temptations to fight against the Holy Spirit inside of us, whether that is to break down our faith or tempt us to sin. The problem is that we do actually become like kids wanting to go play in the mud, and the reason why is because playing in the mud is FUN. One thing we cannot argue against is that sin is fun, even if it is only for a season as Paul says. We know it is better for us to suffer for Christ than to live in sin, but one thing he mentions is that living in sin would still be fun. This is the same issue right here, we are becoming blind to the bigger picture and focusing more on how sin affects our lives today. We become like children, falling back down and getting scraped.
As this blog post states, Peter uses this passage of 2 Peter 1:5-9 to describe a virtuous life for Christian believers. Throughout the course of this week, we worked on Short Paper #4. Short Paper #4 asked us to discuss what 1 Peter and Jobes (2011) had to say in regards to what it means for Christians to imitate Christ. Throughout Jobes (2011) and the New Testament book of 1 Peter clearly identify the importance of living out Christian virtues in order to imitate Christ to the highest degree possible. Christians may not be able to imitate Christ in the exact manner that He lived His life on Earth, but Christians can imitate Christ by following His footsteps by displaying Christian virtues in all circumstances of life (Jobes, 2011, p. 344).
This passage of 2 Peter is another clear indicator that Christian virtues are important to practice. 2 Peter 1:5-7 lists out important Christian virtues to live by, but 2 Peter 1:9 claims that Christians and humans who fail to have or display these virtues are nearsighted and blind. When one reads these traits, they come across as more of vices than virtues.
The blog post itself makes a very interesting and important point in that those that 2 Peter labels as nearsighted and blind, for the initial blog post claims that the nearsightedness and blindness is not a physical shortfall, but it is a spiritual shortfall. This is important to understand. Obviously, these people do not actually struggle with their own vision out of their own eyes. However, they struggle with their spiritual vision, and this is very dangerous for any human. Those who struggle with a nearsighted or blind version of spiritual vision struggle to find spiritual dangers that may hinder their relationship with the Lord. In contrast, a person with a clear spiritual vision is able to see these spiritual dangers, avoid them, and grow closer to the Lord. This is why living a virtuous life is so incredibly important for Christians, and as Jobes (2011) writes, the new birth that the resurrection of Christ allows for in Christians should initiate a full-body transformation that will encourage the practice of Christian virtues (p. 330).
One of the hearts and main themes of Christianity is the fact that Christians and people around the entire globe have been forgiven for their sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Forgetfulness can cause just as much spiritual danger to the life and heart of a Christian as spiritual blindness and nearsightedness can cause.
One could definitely claim that the Church is blind to various aspects of spiritual living. To answer the question at the end of the blog post, I would claim that the Western Church is blind to how their actions are viewed by the non-religious or non-Christian public. Hypocrisy is a common thing that people who are not involved in the Church view of the people in the Church. When Christians do not practice these Christian virtues that we preach to the outside world and that the Bible teaches, then others claim hypocrisy. This can push them even farther away from the church.
Jobes, K. H. (2011). The Letters to the Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Honestly, 2 Peter 1:9 is a pretty bold verse because it pretty much says (or at least my interpretation of it) that if the characteristics described in verses 5-7 are not evident in a Christian’s life, then we are failing at our job of being like Christ and showing him to the world. Verse 8 says, “ For 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.” Personally, I do not think the issue is that people are forgetting about these things, but rather they are not intentional about being held to these standards and do not consciously ask themselves if they are acting in self-control or love or godliness. Long (2018) had offered that this is because they have forgotten their identity as a forgiven sinner. Looking at my own life, I would not say that I have forgotten this inevitable truth, but I will admit that it seems to play more of a passive role in decision making or action taking process than something that I see and remember everyday such as being a woman or a student. As modern Christians it seems easier to make excuses and ask for forgiveness instead of challenging ourselves to grow in these spiritual virtues.
I do not know what it is like to be blind. I have very bad eyesight that is often an inconvenience but never to the point where I felt myself in danger of harming myself or someone else. When I think of my eyesight as my faith, I think in some ways they are very similar. There are times when I feel that may faith is weak and I feel a lot of shame for the things that I have done, forgetting that Christ has already saved me and I know longer need to live in that shame. In the previous verses it talks about pursuing brotherly affection, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, virtue, and love (v. 5-7). If not pursuing these qualities, then what are we pursuing? When thinking of the American culture but more specifically the American church, I think that at times we give up one of these things, so that we can push an agenda of another quality. We may abandon godliness in the pursuit of knowledge, or love in the pursuit of virtue. I see this in the way we treat others that don’t live lives we agree with, whatever that may be. We push our virtue and our own godliness but neglect to show love and self-control. One of these qualities may not be better than the rest, but the commandments are clearly stated to love one another and love God. If we forget what God has done for us, then we are danger of forgetting what it means to love Him in return.
I believe it is important to realize how easy it is to metaphorically get back in the mud. There are a lot of temptations in the world around us. We can easily get into the wrong influence of people that hang out in the mud for fun. 2 Peter is giving us a reminder, a firm slap on the face warning that we should not lack these qualities. He points out virtues that express holy conduct for our lives. In 2 Peter 1:9, he gives to main reasons for this. The first being poor vision. This meaning that believers view is blurry, you cannot see the dangers that lie around you, but you continue moving regardless. This reminds me of those moments you get sucked into an influence of people that constantly tell you what you are doing is not bad. It is the time you slowly keep fading into temptation and continue justifying it because of short-term pleasure. When we lack spiritual vision we look for those short-term rewards that make us feel good. It becomes dangerous for you and those around you. The second reason Peter gives his forgetfulness. 2 Peter 1:9 says “having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” This means we focus on the moment and the world so much we forgot who we are. Someone with Alzheimer’s not knowing who they are can be very dangerous. When we forget who we are and what Jesus has done for us, we are in danger. Our words and actions will appear different and lose peace and content in our lives. Rather, we get anxious and infaltradided with the panic of the world. In the church I personally see this happen with those who think they are superior to another. We say we love everyone but judge our brother, neighbor, pew mate. We make our lives out to be perfect, but we forget we’ve sinned too. When we love one another we must come together humbly to celebrate what God has done for everyone in unique ways.
Peter started 2 Peter by reminding believers about how Jesus saved us from our sins. It is through this salvation that one is free from the penalty of death. Yet believers should not take this freedom from death lightly. Just because believers are free from the penalty from sin, does not mean that believers should continue to sin. It is important for believers to continue to live apart from the world. Peter lists off some things that believers should do in order to live a life separate from the world. These things include self-control, steadfastness, love, and godliness. Yet after listing all of these things, Peter stresses that it is important for believers not to forget these things. In fact, he describes the people that forget these things as near-sighted or blind. As Professor Long points out, the result of forgetting these things can cause embarrassment to the believer. I believe the greatest embarrassment that a believer can endure is living a life that does not reflect Jesus is in their life. The reason being is that they can lead others astray by not following Jesus.
1 Peter 1:9 is a great passage that is always convicting in my personal walk with Christ. P. Long provides a great, in-depth blog on 1 Peter 1:9 and what Peter is specifically meaning.
As to P. Long’s question, I think the Church, like P. Long stated, in the pursuit of love has forgotten the accountability that comes with being in community with other Christian brother and sisters. Often the American Church probably leans too far on either side of love or truth without finding the balance in the middle that we witness in Scripture in reference to the early church.
Perhaps another aspect that we have forgotten within the American church is stated in Acts 2:42. The Church has gotten distracted and forgotten what is truly important which is dedication to Biblical teaching, to fellowship, and Christ’s communion. Instead we look for a for sequenced service with worship, a half hour sermon, a few more songs, and than going home, Perhaps the Church has forgotten the God’s commands for the Church and what the Bible states in reference to what the Church should look like. Perhaps.
I say our modern church has become blind or forgetful in the truth of the Bible. Some churches will take it out of context or probably change it differently thinking it is okay or not okay or willing not believe certain things like some churches will not believe in spiritual warfare which is such a thing. It seems to me that some churches forgot about the Gospel. I have not heard churches evangelize and I have not seen one. Before COVID-19 happened, the church that my parents go to, they go evangelize every month of the first week of Saturday with the other church members and give out tracts and pray over the person. It would be nice to see that happening to this day. I feel that we have become lazy and forgot what we learn in the Gospel including blindness as well. We are not doing things right ourselves by realizing it and we are not doing the right things in God’s eyes. We should not go back to our old past and deal with our same sin again. We were born again and the scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us the old is gone and the new has come! We need to forget our old sins and move forward to follow God’s path even though it is going to be challenging. About the blindness that is true that Christians need to be careful of what they do and should not be harsh and hold their tongues of what they say. There are some Christians that will take it the wrong way and others have to be careful they think they are saying the right way. Churches need to wake up and realize that there are other people that needs to be saved and what we need to remember in the Gospel.
To answer the first question, believers go back to their sins because a lot of the time, sins become habitual. Romans 7:15-17 states, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” This describes how we as believers fall back on doing what we do not want to do. We fall back on what is comfortable to us in todays day and age. The church has become blind to so much in todays western churches. I believe the biggest issue that churches have become blind to are the true meaning of the gospel and the idea to directly focus on what the gospel teaches. A lot of churches put too much emphasis on social aspects and what is going on in the world rather than teaching what is directly from scripture. You cannot make up interpretations of scripture and then teach on a completely new interpretation without any backing or scriptural backing. We have forgotten also the aspect of going out and not being afraid of the Gospel. Many people shy away from preaching or talking about God because of judgment from those in the world that do not believe. It is entirely possible that we as believers that continually fall back and forget what is important are like a child that wants to go play in the mud. When we as believers continually make the same sins over and over, or make new sins following up moving past another, we are like children constantly playing in the mud getting dirty. We can only continually ask for forgiveness because we live in a broken world and will never be perfect no matter how much we strive for it.
To answer the first question, believers go back to their sins because a lot of the time, sins become habitual. Romans 7:15-17 states, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” This describes how we as believers fall back on doing what we do not want to do. We fall back on what is comfortable to us in todays day and age. The church has become blind to so much in todays western churches. I believe the biggest issue that churches have become blind to are the true meaning of the gospel and the idea to directly focus on what the gospel teaches. A lot of churches put too much emphasis on social aspects and what is going on in the world rather than teaching what is directly from scripture. You cannot make up interpretations of scripture and then teach on a completely new interpretation without any backing or scriptural backing. We have forgotten also the aspect of going out and not being afraid of the Gospel. Many people shy away from preaching or talking about God because of judgment from those in the world that do not believe. It is entirely possible that we as believers that continually fall back and forget what is important are like a child that wants to go play in the mud. When we as believers continually make the same sins over and over, or make new sins following up moving past another, we are like children constantly playing in the mud getting dirty. We can only continually ask for forgiveness because we live in a broken world and will never be perfect no matter how much we strive for it..
I heard snippets of a sermon recently from Peace Church in Middleville about the world’s “gospel” of self-love (link at the bottom). This sermon reminds me that we are prone to forget the fact that we even need to be saved in the first place. The preacher focused his attention on Hosea 13:1-9, with one of the most compelling verses being 4b, “you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior”. In his sermon, he discussed the ways that elevating self-love to saving power hurts us in the long run by damaging our relationships to people, ourselves, and ultimately, God. It’s especially easy for Christians in America to follow this trend of self-love because it goes with the grain of our culture and has for a long time (If it feels good, do it! YOLO). Jobes brings up the point that “Peter’s second letter is quite applicable to those today who wish to think of themselves in some sense as Christians yet resent the biblical claim that they are accountable to God” (376). As you (P. Long) pointed out in your post, these people are not necessarily blind but extremely nearsighted. In the same way, resenting the biblical claim (nearsightedness) is not the same as rejecting it (blindness). When we elevate self-love to saving power, we forget one of our basic claims as Christians: we need a savior because we cannot save ourselves.
https://peacechurch.cc/repeat-will-we-ever-learn/
In our hectic life, our growing, blossoming life, we often tend to forget that we are saved through Christ and God, and that we were blessed with a new life in which we would rebuild our relationship with God. When we feel comfortable in our lives, when everything is going good for us, and when life seems to be coasting in your favor, we as humans do not give credit where credit is due, meaning God made our life regular, paced, and satisfied, and as soon as we start to get comfortable and we forget why we are in this world, that is when we forget who helped us get to where we are. This in term goes back from when P Long had said that those people aren’t blind, but are nearsighted which is correct, because they have a generalization of God, but are so lost in their own lives that they become separated between man and God, and then the person then asks the question “Why is this happening to me.” When we didn’t keep faith and got too comfortable.
Being forgetful is something that all of us Christians and people in general deal with daily. Nobody is perfect and all of us forget something that is said or a task that needs to be done almost daily. We all have an identity for ourselves. There is something that a lot of us have gone through in our lives where we tend to fall away from Christ and our beliefs. We have all had the feeling that during these times, where we feel like we have forgotten our true identity and we fand find ourselves. I know that I have felt this on many different levels many different times. Now as a follower of Christ I have truly found myself and where I belong in life. Being a follower of Christ is very helpful and finding our own identity because we are not solely going through life by ourselves, yet we have God watching over us and following us in everything that we do. In the modern-day church, it seems that it has become a norm for people to continuously fall from God and regain faith because they cannot hold their religious minds to certain beliefs. As people of faith although it may be tempting sometimes to live our lives and go find the ways of our childhoods again, it is important to keep training our minds in faith, so we don’t continuously fall away and lose our identities.
I really liked this blog post because in the society and current day in age that we Christians currently live in there are so many distractions whether it be work, relationships, or new products coming out we can so easily find ourselves distracted and taken away from the true things that really matter in our life. I one hundred percent agree with what P.Long mentions toward the end of the blog post stating that “In our pursuit of some good things, we have lost sight of the most important elements of the Gospel” (P.Long). I really side with this passage from P.Long because there are so many things that we rush toward and focus on that we “think” are good for us when we need to stop rushing and be content with the things God has given us. 2 Peter is a book that is trying to help Christians see truth in every action that one may commit and owning up to it whether the decision is good or bad. Moreover, 2 Peter talks about confirming your calling and election, and it is important to answer the call that God has sent for you and to not forget about what God has done for you. We cannot forget that God gave His only Son Jesus Christ to be sacrificed for our sins. “For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:9). Thus, we as Christian believers need to stay clean and always do godly acts to make Him proud for, He can bring suffering and judgment to mankind quicker than anyone else.
I agree with Professor Long when he talks about 2 Peter’s letter being applicable to today’s modern churches and situations. When society becomes such a heavy factor in which we are influenced to live our lives, it becomes harder to go against what society says and turn towards what Scripture and Christ says. We see this all throughout the world and throughout Western culture. Jobes mentions how, “those today who wish to think of themselves in some sense as Christian yet resent the biblical claim that they are accountable to God and will be judged” is just as applicable then as it is now. 2 Peter was written to combat the false heresies that were entering the church during the time it was written (Jobes). Much like today, the recipients of Peter’s letter were taking part in sexual immorality as well as bad ethical and other moral principles that are clearly against Scripture (Jobes). They were basing their Christianity on their own knowledge, superior to God’s which is not the way Christ’s body should be acting (Long). As 2 Peter 1:9 emphasizes, those who act in this way are blind and forgetful. I think different churches tend to forget about the eschatological judgment that will come, and focus solely on the love and gift of forgiveness and grace that is given to us. I can think of a few postmodern writers and pastors who are so focused on the forgiveness of God, that they fail to see and realize the importance of living according to Christ, and continue to live and even encourage the sinful natures that they possess. The Church has seemed to lose the “accountability” aspect of Christianity. The need to be accountable for the sins we commit and to push for biblical morals and ethics has been lost to the societal views of “it’s all about me and what I want”. As hard as it may seem to push against the views of culture and society, Peter clearly expresses the need to combat the destructive heresies that are within churches, and to not live in this “forgetful” and “blind” lifestyle.
I was once at camp and they had asked a question I wasn’t paying attention to, and when we had gotten outside (the ones who had raised their hands), the camp counselor discussed being saved. She prayed for us and we were figuratively brought before Christ years past and I had forgotten about that, and my faith in God lessened through bad things that have happened in my life and my doubt in everything God is. I did not abandon my faith, as I still believed God is the only God, but I also did not believe in everything the Bible said God was, because of the inconsistencies I thought I saw. My memory is strained, so I do not know if I was actually saved or not. And so I got saved again because I felt in my soul I should take part in communion. My personal example may not be the greatest for the situation, but it shows that I had lost sight of what was important in the Gospel. I had doubted God and focused on the “bad” qualities he had. I lost sight of the “magic” of God that had captivated me so easily as a child, because all I could do was question if it was all real. My faith was lacking.
In 2 Peter 1:9 Peter essentially talks about how “in our pursuit of some good things, we have lost sight of the most important elements of the Gospel” (Long, 2018, pp. 7). Peter wants his readers to have a virtuous life and lead one of faith. He explains how those who lack the ability to see their speech is harsh, or to recognize dangers, as well as those who forget they had been saved, also lack the virtues of a virtuous life.
We spend so long fighting each other to be heard as right over other denominations/religions that we fail to recognize we are failing in our mission to scatter and bring others to faith. God wants us to treat each other as family, as someone we respect and love. He wants us to show others our actions and words how much God has changed our life while also respecting the boundaries of others. We are not called to judge or to heal but to spread seeds of faith of the good news.
So, “is it possible by forgetting what is really important we have become like a child who wants to go play in the mud again?” (Long, 2018, pp. 8). I would say we do. As a child who wants to play in the mud again also forgets how mad their parents got when they trekked mud in the house, or how they had to take a bath and go to bed early without privileges. They forget how much they itched because of the mud. At the same time, a Christian who lacks virtue also forget who God is, the important elements of the Gospels, and what they are called to do and how to accomplish it.
To follow that question, I see it as very possible to forget. Many people and churches are forgetting the importance of the virtues laid out before us. I just saw an article about a church pastor speaking out to his congregation in a negative and angry way about a staff member leaving the church. This was shocking as it was someone who is very well known as a head pastor. This is not what leading by example looks like. He was lacking in many virtues laid out and it was an example of why it’s important. Self-control is something that many people talk about but it is fading away. It is so imperative to be in a community that stands in the virtues laid out by Christ. Jobes talks about how following Christ’s example is important throughout Peter’s letters. It is not only important to read these and study them. I think in college it is so easy to read and study the Bible for class but this verse reminds me to put these words into action. It is not about what I am studying, it is about how I am living it out. I could get a 100 percent on every quiz and yet if I forget the importance of the meaning of the words I am studying then I am not doing it right.