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2 Peter 1:10–11
“Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Peter has warned that the absence of Christian virtue signals a dangerous spiritual blindness, a forgetting of the gospel that leaves a person fruitless and adrift (2 Peter 1:8–9). Now, with the word “therefore,” he draws a practical conclusion: Believers must be “all the more diligent to confirm [their] calling and election” (v. 10). The Reformed tradition has consistently taught that true believers cannot finally lose their salvation, that they will persevere in faith to the end according to the sovereign electing purpose of God. Yet today’s text reminds us that this glorious doctrine is not a call for spiritual laziness but a spur to earnest effort.
At first glance, Peter’s command might seem to suggest that our election depends on our effort, that we must somehow earn or secure what God has chosen to give. But that reading contradicts the wider testimony of Scripture, which teaches that those whom God elects He also preserves (John 6:39; Rom. 8:29–30). Election is God’s act, not ours. We confirm our election subjectively, gaining assurance of it through seeing the fruit it produces in our lives. The practice of the virtues listed in 2 Peter 1:5–7 is the evidence of our election. When we see faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love growing in our lives, we have reason to believe that God’s sovereign grace is genuinely at work within us.
This is pastorally vital. Many believers struggle with assurance, wondering whether their faith is real and whether they truly belong to Christ. Peter’s counsel is not to look inward for some mystical feeling but to look at the trajectory of their lives. Are you growing, even slowly? Do you grieve over sin? Do you hunger for righteousness, however imperfectly? These are marks of the Spirit’s presence. And they do not stand alone, for the Holy Spirit also bears witness directly with our spirits that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16; Gal. 4:6). The evidence of fruit and the internal testimony of the Spirit work together to strengthen our confidence that God’s electing love rests on us.
Second Peter 1:11 adds a glorious promise: Those who practice these things will be “richly provided” with “an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The destination is certain, but the manner of arrival differs. Some will enter with abundance and joy; others, as Paul puts it, “as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). Peter wants believers to press forward so that our entrance into glory is marked by the richness of a life faithfully lived.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
When doubts about our standing before God trouble us, the answer is not to retreat into introspection alone. We do well to look for evidence of the Spirit’s work in our lives, lean on the promises of God in Scripture, and seek the encouragement of fellow believers who can remind us of what God has done and is doing.
For further study
- Deuteronomy 7:6–13
- 2 Corinthians 13:5
- Ephesians 1:3–14
- 1 John 2:28–3:3
The bible in a year
- Job 41–Psalm 1
- Acts 16:16–40