Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

In the last chapter of his letter, Peter advises his hearers to remember to use the experiences of the prophets of the past to judge those who come in the name of the Lord. Essentially, how do we discern those who come into the fellowship to cause confusion against those who have come to help establish the building up of the kingdom?

beware of the ploters!!!

What we glean from Peter’s exhortation is that although times change, people’s attitudes and motives remain the same. So when we are judging an individual, do not just listen to what they say or what they say they have done, but look at their track record. We must be spiritual but we must also have our eyes wide open. Our enemy is very bold and blatant and will sit right under our nose trying to mock and ridicule us as we do what God has called us to do.  So if we were to look back at Judas, we notice that he was always there in the mix, listening to the plans, the sermons and the teachings of Jesus. However his motivation for following Jesus was skewed as he was on a different agenda. And as we remember from my previous writings, all double agent eventually gets killed.

So Peter’s motivation in writing to his hearers is to remind them that as the time for Jesus’ return gets closer the enemies of his church will try to cause maximum confusion by distracting us from our primary purpose. As we read the words of the apostles, let us ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us into all truth as we remember that there is no new thing under the sun.

Read 2 Peter 3:1-7.