“Thus all these things being dissolved, what sort [of persons] ought you be in holy livings and godlinesses?”
Having dispensed with my exegetical spelunking, I must move on to applications. Ruminating on this passage, I find its overwhelming effect to recall Francis Schaeffer’s book, “How Should We Then Live?” “…what sort [of persons] ought you be?”
I read Dr. Schaeffer’s book very early in my walk with Christ and to this day feel that it and JI Packer’s “Knowing God” are the two books which most shaped who I am. “How Should We Then Live?” Is this not the proper question of all Bible study? “How Should We Then Live?” “Thus all these things …, what sort [of persons] ought you be?” All these things being true, what effects should their apprehension have upon your life?
Again, is this not the proper question of all Bible study? My emphasis here may sound trite or cliché, but is it? In over 30 years, I have heard a lot of sermons, read a lot of books, listened to a lot of people supposedly doing “Bible” teaching. And in all that time there have been two glaring omissions: 1) too often it was obvious to me that the speaker really hasn’t spent the time studying to begin with. He or she simply does not know their Bible; and 2) even when they actually seemed to have done their exegesis, there was little or no application. I have walked away from so many sermons asking, “So what?” “Yes, those were nice verses. Yes, you are a good speaker (sometimes). Yes, you seem passionate. Yes, you presented a lot of profound observations. But, so what?” I have at times verbalized those very words at the risk of sounding blasphemous. But is it blasphemous? Is it wrong to ask at the end of any sermon or lesson, “So what?” In fact, if any sermon or lesson leaves people even tempted to ask, “So what?” is that not an indication that the speaker failed? Should not the speaker themselves have been asking, “So what?” before they ever dared to enter a pulpit and propose to speak for God? If the speaker him or herself cannot clearly answer the question, “So what?,” are they even qualified to teach it?
Again, at the risk of being cliché or trite, and at the risk of being accused of being blasphemous, is this not always where proper Bible study should lead? “…So what?”
I once listened to a very small boy (maybe 6 years old) give a little 2 minute sermon. In it, he read a verse, gave some small explanation, then applied it … well. As he stepped down from his chair (he had to stand on one to be seen over the top of the podium), there was what I honestly would call a holy hush over the room. People knew they’d just been fed spiritually. They had honestly heard Scripture and been moved to consider “what manner of persons ought you to be?” They’d heard a message from God … from a six-year old boy! What made it so moving I believe was that it really did hit home … and that from a six-year old boy!
Is this not exactly the question Peter is proposing? “Thus all these things …, what sort [of persons] ought you be?” What will you do with this Truth?
Several verses immediately come to my mind:
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them”(John 13:17).
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt 7:24).
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (II Tim 3:16,17).
“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (Joshua 1:8).
“I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (Psalm 101:2).
The Holy Spirit didn’t write the Bible so it would gather dust but He also didn’t write it to be studied for the sake of knowledge (or whatever). He gave it to equip us. He gave it that we might know “what sort of people we ought to be”(!).
I don’t believe every time I pick up the Bible (or even every time I spend hours studying it) that I will necessarily see how it applies to my life. In fact, if a reader follows my blogs long enough, sooner or later you’ll find me “doing a Habakkuk.” Habakkuk said, “I will stand at my post and see what the Lord will answer me.” Sometimes I study and study, believe I really do understand the technical details of a passage, but still just don’t know what to do with it. So I just go into a Habakkuk: a praying mode for a few days and asking the Lord to show me. Usually He does and He blows my mind. But sometimes He doesn’t and I just have to lay the passage down and move on. Guess the point is, though, that I believe that is where we must always be headed. Yes I want to study. Yes I want to know my Bible. Yes I love Greek and Hebrew and all the ins and outs of grammar and parts of speech. But it all needs to be headed toward this very question: “So what?” or more Biblically: “What sort of persons ought you to be?”
We so need for the Lord to repackage our brains. Our own sin natures and the world and Satan have filled our minds with lies and deceptions. But as Jesus said, “When you know the Truth, the truth shall make you free.” The Bible is “… mighty through God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor 10:4,5).
And so I study on. Lord, teach me Your truth. Help me see the world clearly. Help me see myself clearly. Help me to make the connection between the Scriptures I’ve studied and the kinds of changes those truths should make in my life. In the very passage before me, I know for a fact “All these things will be dissolved.” My present material world will not last. What sort of person should I then be? “How Should I Then Live?” What sort of “holy livings” and “godlinesses” should be true in my life?
That is the question.
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