The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Peter — Section 22

the Lord, to sP,ck bis gl0ry only. This holy reverence for the felt presence of God can only be maintai1:'ed in_ the life of faith and self-control; in the worldly life of mere pleasur? and busmess 1t cannot flourish. G<>d is the centre of the devout life, the life of godlmess; and to fix the eye of the soul on him we must learn the great lesson "love not tbe world." (6) Brotherly kindness. Out of godliness must flow the lov~ of the brethren ; for Holy Scripture tells us that "if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" GoJ's elect are knit together in one communioa and fellowship; all loving their Father in heaven, they must for his love's sake love all who in virtue of the heavenly birth are made the children of God. There is no love truer and holier than that which lives in the communion of saints; the nearer they draw to the hea,·enly Father, the Fountain of all holy love, the more fervently out of a pure heart they love one another. (7) Cha1·ity. Christian love must not be confined within the limits of the Chrislian Church. It is specially due, indeed, to those who are of the household of faith; but it cannot stop there. For it comes from God, who is Love, whose love is without limits in range and in intensity; and that love which his chil- dren learn of him must be, in its poor measure, like his love-it must not be cribbed and confined within conventional boundaries; it must continually increase in depth, and as it increases in depth it must increase also io. extent. It will do so, if it is real and true; for it is a living thing, nay, the very life of the soul with God, and that life which it bas of God in,•olves the necessity of constant growth. Love is free, spon- taneous, full of life and energy and warmth. All Christian graces meet in it; for it is the crown and centre of the Christian character, the golden link that binds togelher into one glorious whole all the fair adornments of those holy souls that have been created anew after the image of Christ. IL REASONS URGING US TO THE ZEALOUS PERFORMANCE OF OUR DUTY, 1. T/ie po.sitive reason. If only we give all diligence, we must succeed, for the Divine power is with us; and when, by the help of that power working in and with us, those precious graces are made our own, they will not Jot us be idle or unfruitful. Love, the crown of all the rest, is not a mere sentiment; it is a force, an energy; it will not allow the Christian to be idle ; it must work, and in its working it will bring us ever nearer to the full blessed knowledge of Christ, that knowledge which is eternal life, in comparison with which all the good things of this world are as dross, as very dung. 2. The 'negative reason. Without those graces men are blind; for faith, the :first of them, out of which all the others spring, is the eye of the soul. He that bath not faith is spiritnally blind; he is not blind to the outward objects which lie close around him,-those he can see; but the things that belong to his peace are hidden from bis eyes. He cannot discern the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ; he cannot see the awful realities of the eternal world ; he cannot discern the spiritual powers that are working even now in the Church-the Lord's body that is offered to the faithful in the Holy Communion (1 Cor. xi. 29), the grace of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of baptism (1 Cor. xii. 13). Through that spiritual blindness he has incurred forgetfulness of the cleansing from hiB old sins; and it is not the outward washing of baptism that saves us, but the inquiry of a good conscience after God. He will not inquire after God who has received the grace of God in vain; his baptism will not profit him, for he is fallen fror.1 grace. Then let us give all diligence not to be idle or unfruitful, but to seek earnestly after those special graces which by the mighty working of the Divine power we may oblain of God. III. FoBTHEB ENFORCEMENT OF THAT DUTY. 1. For present safety. St. Peter again urges us to earnest dili~ence, to the active use of the blessed means of grace. He uses the language of entreaty: "brethren," he says, in tones of affectionate appeal. He knows how hard it is to persevere, how much need we all have of encouragement and exhortation. God's exceeding great gifts, the danger of misll6ing them, the profit to be gained by faithfully using them,-all this, he says, should urge us on to continually increasing diligence. Such diligence, brought in by the side of the Divine power (ver. 5), working with that Divioe power which alone is the source of our salvation, will tend to make our calling and eleclion sure. While we are diligent io. working out our own salvation, we feel God's working in us; doubts arise if we relax our energios. Satan suggests from time to time that miserable doubt, "If thou be a child of God/' 011. 1.1-21,] THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER. 15