When I was putting together my notes for my Sunday School class on 2 Peter, I spotted something in the vocabulary that puzzled me.
Let me start out by giving you the passage leading to the specific verse I have in mind. (Most of the quotes in this post will be from the NASB20 version.)
“Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.” – 2 Peter 1:5-7
This is a list of virtues the apostle Peter deems essential to our life of discipleship. Without them, we’re in danger of becoming spiritually lazy or barren, as he indicates in the next verse:
“For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they do not make you useless nor unproductive in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 2 Peter 1:8
Life is for living! There’s so much God has given us in Christ, but it’s up to us to explore all His gifts and make full use of them. Godly virtues are powerful, but power has a purpose. The Lord wants us to grow into the full image of His Son. He intends for us to be like Jesus.
To live as He did–that’s being useful and fruitful!
Peter warns us about the alternative. If we decide to live for ourselves rather than for God, there are harmful consequences.
“For the one who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.” – 2 Peter 1:9
A lack of virtue affects our vision. Either we can’t see anything, or our sight is limited.
(By the way, the Greek word for “short-sighted” is muopazo. Often English translations replace the Greek letter “u” with a “y,” so if we do that here, we get “myopazo.” You might recognize this as resembling the English words “myopia” and “myopic” which refer to near-sightedness. I’ve worn corrective lenses most of my life, so I’m pretty familiar with this problem. When you’re near-sighted, you can’t see anything far away; only what’s up close is clear.)
Neither condition Peter mentions is good.
We hurt ourselves if we lack Christlike virtue. We fail to grow as children of God and we don’t produce anything of value in His kingdom.
Although Peter uses visual analogies, he’s not talking about physical sight. He’s discussing the righteousness given us in Christ.
What ruins our spiritual vision?
Forgetfulness.
Forgetfulness of a particular fact–through the blood of Jesus, God has cleansed us of our sins. As Peter says in his first letter,
“He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed.” – 1 Peter 2:24
In both letters, the apostle connects purity and virtue. The grace of Jesus Christ qualifies and enables us to live a new way. It can and should affect everything we think, say, and do.
This isn’t easy, but such is the call of discipleship. We’re equipped to fulfill our responsibilities.
It’s also an amazing privilege. We get to grow in holiness! Every day, the Spirit makes us more like our Savior Jesus!
So what’s the puzzling issue I mentioned at the beginning of this post?
Well, it has to do with the second half of vs. 9: “having forgotten his purification from his former sins.”
When I research Bible verses to prepare for lessons or messages (or blog posts!), I usually check out the original Greek and Hebrew vocabulary by using the Blue Letter Bible website. It’s a great online tool for Bible study.
I was exploring the words in the second half of vs. 9 when I noticed that an Old Testament verse had two of the same words.
“Why did You not assign my lawlessness to oblivion and my sin to purging? But now I shall depart to the ground, and early in the morning I shall be no more.” – Job 7:21 (NETS)
(“NETS” stands for New English Translation of the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament set in English. So I was reading an English translation of a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible! Dizzying, isn’t it? I consult the NETS translation because most of the New Testament quotations of the Old Testament are from the Septuagint. Most likely it’s what Peter had access to during his ministry.)
Here’s a small table which shows you the two Greek words and how they’re translated (with a slight exception).
|
Greek Word |
2 Peter 1:9 |
Job 7:21 |
| lethe | forgetfulness | oblivion |
| katharismos | purification | purging |
The exception is “forgetfulness,” which is my translation for the word lethe in 2 Peter 1:9. It’s joined to a past participle of the verb lambano which means “take” or “receive.” In a literal sense, the phrase Peter wrote would be “having taken or received forgetfulness,” but that’s pretty awkward English! So I don’t mind how the NASB20 handled it. “Having forgotten” communicates the idea well.
But what struck me as odd was not the translations. It was the fact that a minor verse in the book of Job would contain these two Greek words. They sound like sacrificial or priestly terms, more appropriate for Leviticus than for Job. But no, they’re in Job!
What makes things stranger is that nothing else in Job 7:21 relates to 2 Peter 1:9. For that matter, nothing in Job 7 does, either. In fact, the book of Job as a whole doesn’t cover the same ground as 2 Peter does.
So why would Peter borrow from this verse?
Maybe he didn’t. It could be a coincidence that these two Greek words happen to occur in two verses. That might be correct, but I wasn’t ready to treat it as a fluke.
The more I scoured the text, the more I discovered.
I’m convinced there is a connection between these two verses. And there’s material in Job 7:21 that leads to other verses in 2 Peter 1 and in the Old Testament.
So for the next couple of posts, I’m going to unpack what I’ve been learning and see where it takes us. God’s Word is for our good, so whatever we discover will be for our benefit.
To wrap up, then, let’s remind ourselves of the foundational ideas. God calls us as followers of Christ to exercise spiritual virtues so that we will fulfill His plans in us, for us, and through us. If we don’t, we risk blinding ourselves to the vision the Lord has for us. His will is our holiness. By the death of Jesus on the cross, our sins are removed and we’re inspired to live in ways that please and glorify Him.
In some way, Peter’s admonition relates to a verse in the book of Job which doesn’t appear to be talking about the same subject matter. But we’re going to find out there’s more here than is obvious. We just have to take the time to probe.
And that’s what we’re going to do!
