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2 Peter 3:1<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We all need to be reminded of Biblical truths.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The word translated \u201cwholesome<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word eilikrin\u0113s<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of eile<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cthe shining or splendor of the sun\u201d and krin\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto judge, discern, or examine.\u201d So, eilikrin\u0113s<\/span><\/em> literally means \u201cjudged or examined in the sunlight.\u201d<\/p>\n The word translated as \u201cthinking<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word dianoia<\/span><\/em>, which is a compound word made up of dia<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cthrough\u201d and a form of noe\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto think over.\u201d Hence, dianoia<\/span><\/em> means \u201cto thoroughly think over or to think completely through.\u201d<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Peter starts off this third section of his letter with an explanation of why he is writing. He says this is the second letter that he has written to these people and that the reason for writing both letters was that they might be \u201creminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n Peter wants to remind these people that they have thoroughly thought about the previous truths taught to them by Peter and others. They have taken the words of Scripture and have given them careful examination under the most illuminating conditions. They have not just accepted teachings on face value, especially those teachings of the Old Testament and of Christ himself (as we will see in the next verse). They have thoroughly examined them and thought about them extensively.<\/p>\n So how is this different from the \u201cfull knowledge\u201d possessed by the deceived ones in the verses we studied in the last chapter? Those people possessed a \u201cfull knowledge\u201d of salvation. That is, they tried to intellectualize their way into Christianity instead of believing their way in. The act of salvation is not an act of our intellect; it is an act of our will. It means a submission of our will to His in accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as complete payment for our sins. To understand it intellectually and to believe it are two distinctly different things. What Peter is talking about in today\u2019s verse is the thorough investigation of the teachings after salvation has taken place.<\/strong><\/p>\n Peter is now reminding them again of the things that they have believed in the past and that they have examined and discovered to be true but which they are likely to forget if they are not occasionally reminded of them. This is one of the reasons that it is important for us to be reading and studying our Bibles day after day, going over things we have learned previously to remind us of what God is trying to teach us.<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I am reminded of a powerful sermon that I heard as a very new Christian in which the preacher proclaimed that the Christian life is never standing still, \u201cYou\u2019re either moving forward!\u201d <\/strong>he bellowed with a grandiose gesture of the arm in the forward direction, \u201cOr you\u2019re moving back!\u201d<\/strong> proclaimed with an equally grandiose gesture of the arm to the rear.\u201d<\/p>\n Which direction is your Christian life moving today?<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2 Peter 3:1 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. Truth to Learn We all need to be reminded of Biblical truths. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cwholesome\u201d is the Greek word eilikrin\u0113s, which is made up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[345,346,347,348],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-forward","tag-reverse","tag-sunlight","tag-think-through"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-g2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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