11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Verse 11 asks a great question: “What sort of people ought we to be…?” Then in the following verses Peter answers the question in 4 different ways. Discuss together the questions below regarding what he says.
1) We are to be an eagerly waiting people (verses 11-13)
What is it that we are to be waiting for?
What is the difference between waiting and eagerly waiting?
How can we be deliberate about waiting eagerly?
Can you think of any examples from your life where you were eagerly waiting for something?Describe what you did during this time to prepare for what you were waiting for.
What should we be doing to prepare for when Christ comes again or when we go to Him?
Read the story below in Note 1. What lessons does it teach us about waiting and “keeping on keeping on” in a world where oft times life can be really hard?
2) We are to be a diligently holy people (verse 14)
What does it mean to be a holy people?
What does it mean to be diligently holy?
What are some holy habits that believers should practice as they pursue holiness?
What habits has God used in your life to help make you more like Jesus?
What unholy habits have you observed in your own life that have hurt your pursuit of holiness?
What do you think about the following quote:
When you drink from the fountain of life you are less likely to indulge in the cesspool of sin.
3) We are to be a biblically informed people (verses 15-17)
The Bible is to be our primary source material when it comes to thinking about cultural issues. What are some of the headline issues of our day that call for us to be biblically informed on?
What other sources do people usually turn to when trying to decide how to think about these issues?
Example #1: What does our culture generally think about sex apart from marriage? Does the Bible have anything to say about this? If so, what and why?
Example #2: One of the prevailing thoughts about God is that He exists primarily to make us happy. Is this true or not true? How does our culture define happiness and how does it suggest that we attain it? What does the bible have to say about this? (Check out this article if you get a chance)
4) We are to be an intentionally growing people (verse 18)
In what ways have you grown in your walk with God over the past year?
What have you done to intentionally spur this growth on?
What are 3 things you would recommend to someone who was asking you about how to grow deeper in their faith?
Note 1:
In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She’d already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside, told her she was close and that she could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out. It wasn’t until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away.
At a news conference the next day she said, “All I could see was the fog.…I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”