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“"Make Your Calling And Election Sure"”
Categories: Apostasy, Daily Living, Expository Study, False Doctrine, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Peter, Salvation, Satan, Sin, Spiritual Growth, TemptationFor the second time in chapter one, Peter says there is something to which a Christian needs to “give diligence” (II Pet. 1:10). When we read the context, we see that it is connected with adding to our faith. In this case, we must be diligent in making our “calling and election sure.”
The phrase teaches me that “once-saved-always-saved” is a false doctrine. Though many teach it today, they are wrong. This passage says that Christians have a responsibility to be diligent (eager, earnest, Strong’s) to make our calling and election sure (steadfast, firm, Strong’s). There is no need for this warning if once one is saved, he is always saved and can never fall! A simple reading of verses eight and nine also show that Peter was teaching just the opposite! We can fall from grace (Gal. 5:4). “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith ...” (I Tim. 4:1). Therefore, we better be diligent in making our “calling and election sure”!
How do I make my “calling and election sure”? I do this by following what Peter taught in II Peter 1:5-10! I add to my faith or grow daily (II Pet. 3:18). I make sure that what is produced is genuinely in me and “abounds” (v. 8). This means it overflows. My life as a Christian is a truly changed life, being changed from the inside-out! Being a Christian is not like putting on and taking off a coat. Instead, the old man of sin was put to death and buried, and I rose from the watery grave of baptism ready to “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4-7).
Making my “calling and election sure” is a full-time job! Satan tempts us constantly, looking for some weakness in us that he can exploit (Jas. 1:14-15; I Pet. 5:8). He wants us to leave the Lord and return to the kingdom of darkness. We need to remember how dangerous this is. “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (II Pet. 2:20-21).
Friend, make your “calling and election sure”! Live faithfully for God every day (Rev. 2:10; I Cor. 15:58). Add to your faith, grow closer to God daily (II Pet. 1:5-8), and see the blessings that come as a result of doing what God has said. There is nothing better we can do on this earth!
- Jarrod M. Jacobs
