2 Peter 1:3 (Everything We Need through Knowledge of God)

2 Peter 1:3

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

How does someone know, if they have everything they need? Consider someone who is packing-up to go on a long trip. How does someone packing for that trip truly know when they have packed everything they will need? Suppose they head out with enough food to last three days, because that's how long their trip would be, but then they were delayed and ran out of food. Now, they're hungry, even though they thought they had all they would need. Just as it's nearly impossible for someone to know if they have everything they need for a trip, Christians might have a hard time knowing if they have everything they need to run the race marked out for them (Hebrews 12:1). How can Christ's followers know they truly have everything they need for their trip from earth to heaven?

The apostle Peter wrote a letter to some early Christians struggling with similar questions. He opened his letter with this assurance, "[God's] divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness," (2 Peter 1:3). Peter is proclaiming that a Christian has everything they will need in order to live a life for God. Of course, one can wonder how it is that God can give His followers everything they will need to live for Him, and even then how His followers can receive all they need.

Peter says that it is by God's divine power that God can give His followers what they need. God knows exactly what His people need, even before they ask Him for it, (Matthew 6:8), because God is omniscient, He is all-knowing (Psalm 139:1-6). God has the power to do whatever He pleases, (Psalm 115:3), because He is omnipotent, He is all-powerful (Genesis 1:1). God also will not withhold what His followers need, (Matthew 7:11), because God is omnibenevolent, He is all-loving (1 John 4:16). It is for all these reasons that Jesus can proclaim what He says in Matthew chapter 6 from verses 31 to 33:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So, God can give a Christian everything they need by His power and because of His nature (He is all-knowing, powerful and loving). Yet, how does a Christian receive all of their needs from God?

Peter says a Christian receives all they need to live a Godly life through knowledge of God. A Christian's knowledge of God is a key to their living a Godly life. Paul prayed for Christians that God would "fill [them] with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that [they] may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God," (Collosians 1:9-10). It is by one's knowledge of God that someone is able to have faith, and it is by faith that someone is saved (Ephesians 2:8). One does not need to know everything about God in order to follow Him, for no one can truly understand the mind of God (Isaiah 40:13). One needs only knowledge simple enough for a child to understand to have a place in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3). If anyone has simple knowledge of God's love for them (John 3:16), then they have a faith that saves (Acts 13:39), and through this knowledge they have been given everything they will need to live a life worthy of God, pleasing to Him in every way.

All who follow Christ have everything they need, to best live for His glory. There's no need to double check, cross-off a list or scour one's house for anything else. A Christian's bags are already packed, by their loving Father, with no need to add or take-away. Christ's followers can run the race (1 Corinthians 9:24), fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12), and carry the burden (Matthew 11:29-30) all the way to end, without ever turning back. They need not worry how they will do these things, for they can be confident that God "who began a good work in [them] will carry it on to completion," (Philippians 1:6). It is for this reason Peter writes this urgence in 2 Peter chapter 1 from verses 5 to 9:

Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Sources

• The Bible (New International Version)
• Bible Hub: Knowledge
• Knowing Jesus: Saving Faith

Can You Lose the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is one of God's most precious gifts. He freely gives His Spirit to those who follow Him, but is it possible for God to take this gift back? Is it possible for a Christian to do something that causes them to lose the Holy Spirit (either in part or in whole)? Can anyone who has received the Holy Spirit lose this gift?

When believers think about the Holy Spirit, it's common to think of Him as something from the Bible in the New Testament, but the Holy Spirit appears several times in the Old Testament. One moment is at the anointing of Israel's first king, Saul. When Saul was anointed king, the prophet Samuel told him, "The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you... you will be changed into a different person," (1 Samuel 10:6). So, the Spirit of the Lord (the Holy Spirit) remained steadfastly with Saul throughout his kingship, until one day when Saul gravely disobeyed God. Saul's disobedience was so great "the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul," (1 Samuel 16:14). From this section of Scripture, we can see that in the times of the Old Testament it is possible for God to give His Holy Spirit and to remove it Himself, as an action against disobedience.

Later on in the Old Testament, though, we come across the next king of Israel, David. As with Saul, David was anointed king by Samuel, "and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David," (1 Samuel 16:13). So, during David's reign as king, the Holy Spirit was with him. One day, though, like Saul, David committed a horrible act of disobedience against God. Confronted with his guilt and sin, David cried out what is written in Psalm 51 from verses 10 to 12:

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from Your presence

    or take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

God honored David's cry of repentance, and God never took away His Holy Spirit. From this section of Scripture, we can see that disobedience can lead to God taking away His Holy Spirit, but this is not always the case.

So, how come Saul was abandoned for his sins, but David remained in the Holy Spirit's presence? When Saul was caught in his sin, he asked that he be forgiven, but he did not ask God to forgive his sins. He only asked for Samuel to forgive him (1 Samuel 15:24-25). No one can forgive our sins, except God, (Isaiah 43:25). David, knowing this, confessed his sins, saying to God, "Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight," (Psalm 51:4). Because David asked God and not any man for forgiveness, the Lord forgave him, for it is written, "If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness," (1 John 1:9). It is because God can maintain the righteousness of all those who follow Him that those who follow Him can keep the Holy Spirit.

God described David as a man who was after God's heart (Acts 13:22).

This maintaining of righteousness is not something that was readily available in the times of the Old Testament, but it is available to all who live today. Jesus came to earth to make it so, as it is written, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life," (John 3:16).  All who follow God today can remain righteous in God's sight, because all of the sin of God's followers was paid for on the cross of Jesus Christ. It is written, "'He himself bore our sins' in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; 'by His wounds you have been healed,'" (1 Peter 2:24). We, who believe in God and what He has done, have been healed from our sins, and so "in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace," (Ephesians 1:7). 

It is written that those who have been redeemed by God are His children, (John 1:12). God's children belong to Him, and "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ," (Romans 8:9). This means everyone who belongs to Christ has received the Holy Spirit.

So, it's not possible for someone who has received salvation through the cross of Jesus to lose the Holy Spirit, but is it possible for a believer to lose some of the Holy Spirit? Is it possible for someone to dwindle in some way and so have less of the Holy Spirit?

In answering this question, let's look at what the Holy Spirit is: The Holy Spirit is not a "what," but a "who." The Holy Spirit is not an "essence" or a "force," but a person with whom believers can have a relationship. This relationship with the Holy Spirit is just like a believer's relationship with the Lord and with Jesus, because, like those two, the Holy Spirit is God. For someone to say that they have lost some of the Holy Spirit, but not all of Him, would be the same as if someone said they lost some of a friend. A person can either have a relationship with someone or not have one (and things are never "complicated" with God). If someone has a relationship with a close friend who loves them for all of time, then that person will never lose their relationship with their friend; no matter how they feel about the relationship or their friend. It is written, "A friend loves at all times," (Proverbs 17:17), and God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is the friend of all who believe in Him (John 15:15). Believers can never lose their relationship with God, because nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God," (Romans 8:39).

Oftentimes you might hear somebody praying, or you might even be praying this, "God, I pray that you would give me more of Your Spirit." ... God has already given you His precious Holy Spirit. The Bible says that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit of God dwells within us. So, to pray and ask God to give us more of His Spirit, that's not gonna happen, because God does not give Himself to us in pieces.

- Allen Parr

Though it is better for us to think of the Holy Spirit as a person
in much the same way Jesus Christ is, the Holy Spirit is often
depicted as a dove, because that is how He came upon Jesus,
when Jesus was baptized (Matthew 3:16).

Everyone who is a child of God has been baptized by God and has received the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13), and there is only one baptism by which all believers become God's children (Ephesians 4:5). This is not a baptism on earth, but a supernatural one that comes from God Himself (1 Peter 3:21). Everyone who has received the Holy Spirit, has received the Holy Spirit in full and He will never leave them nor forsake them; just as God will never do so (Deuteronomy 31:6). If anyone has received God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, then they are newly restored righteous children of God, for "the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" and the old will never come back, (2 Corinthians 5:17). Those who believe in Christ today can never lose the Holy Spirit.

Sources

• The Bible (New International Version)
• Sight & Sound Theatres: Psalm 51 (Inspired by)
• Got Questions: How Do we Receive the Holy Spirit
• Everyday Servant: 15 Bible Verses-Jesus Paid it All
• THE BEAT: 5 Things Christians Need to STOP Praying For
• WWUTT: Do you have to be Baptized to be Saved