Be Diligent

"Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for it you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
2 Peter 1:10-11

In the Merriam Webster dictionary, the word "diligent" means, "characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort." Now, to bring that definition into today's text, it would mean that to be diligent to make our call and election sure, that there would be some kind of effort on our part, as Christians. In other words, it isn't going to just "fall out of the sky" and happen to us. We must make some sort of effort. In fact, Peter tells us that if we do "these things" we will never stumble. But what is he talking about? Someone once said, when you see a "therefore" in the Scripture, you should go back and read the verses before it to see what the "therefore" is there for. Poor grammar but you get the idea. So, looking back on the preceding verses, it goes back to the things we talked about yesterday, the adding to our faith these qualities and characteristics listed in v v.5 - 9. Add to your faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Peter is telling us that if we do this, and if we are making an earnest, steady, and energetic effort to make our call and election sure, we will never stumble. Wouldn't it be great if we would never stumble? Never saying something we shouldn't; never having that wrong attitude about something or somebody. To never stumble would be a great thing.

Peter tells us here in the text, that we will never stumble, and an entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be supplied to us. Peter tells us to make our call and election sure. Paul tells us to examine ourselves to see if we are found in the faith. It is diligence of introspection. It is a looking at ourselves and not looking at others. My mom used to tell me as a child, that if I just took care of myself, then I wouldn't have much time to "take care" of my brothers and sister, referring to our quarrelling, if I remember correctly. But that is so true for us Christians. If we are being diligent about ourselves, we won't have time to say, in the words of Peter in John 21:21, "What about him?" We let the Lord deal with others. We make sure OUR call and election is sure.

Beloved, God so loves you, and has given us His Word to get to know Him, and by which to guide our life. Let us add to our faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. And let us make a steady, earnest, and energetic effort to do these things and make our call and election sure, so that we will not stumble, and be supplied an entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen.