An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of II Peter 1:3-8 and :16-21, for Sunday, May 11, 2025, with the title, “Be Equipped.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:

To introduce the lesson this week, you might consider posting one of these quotes, and you/your group can discuss it:

“Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.”

(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, The Red Circle, p. 867)

(If you use this quote, you might point out that similarly, our education as CHRISTIANS never ends; we continue to grow until we cross that last river and reach glory, and see the Lord and become like Him.)

AND/OR:

“A Christian is not of hasty growth, like a mushroom, but rather like the oak, the progress of which is hardly perceptible, but in time becomes a great deep-rooted tree.”

(John Newton to Mrs. Gardiner, Letters of John Newton, Josiah Bull, ed., p. 285)

(You might point out here that we should’t be discouraged as Christians if we can’t always “feel” or “see” our spiritual growth; that our growth as Christians is gradual, like that oak tree. But the point is, God’s plan for us as His children IS that we should GROW spiritually.

Whichever way you choose to open the lesson, then indicate that growing is what today’s lesson is about.  It teaches us how God promises to help us grow spiritually as His children.

CONTEXT:

Today we move from I Peter to the Book of II Peter for three lessons, one each from Chapters 1, 2, and 3 in II Peter. 

In I Peter, the apostle focused repeatedly on the theme of how Christians in the midst of persecution and difficulties of various kinds should live, and witness to those around them.

Now in the Book of II Peter he writes to encourage us to grow spiritually in the face of many false teachers and teachings — which is surely as applicable today as it was in the first century! In today’s first lesson from Chapter 1, Peter focuses on spiritual growth: on how God wants us each to grow spiritually, and what specifically we can do to help us grow spiritually. 

OUTLINE:

I.   God’s Promise of Spiritual Growth (:3-4)

II.  God’s Process of Spiritual Growth (:5-8)

III. God’s Word and Spiritual Growth (:16-21)

TEXT:  II Peter 1:3-8, :16-21

I. God’s Promise of Spiritual Growth (:3-4)

:3 “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 

Peter begins this section by teaching that God has given us everything we need to grow spiritually: “His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” 

+x Psalm 23:1, “the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Literally this means, “I will not LACK anything.” God provides for us what we need. This applies not only to material things, but is especially true regarding our spiritual growth: “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” He promises to give us all we need to grow spiritually. So you don’t need to feel inadequate, as if it is all up to you. (Now, to a great extent, it IS up to you; how much you desire to grow; how much you will commit in spiritual disciplines to grow.) But it is NOT “all up to you” in the sense that you are in it alone. No, “the Lord is your Shepherd,” and He will lead you and provide for you means of spiritual growth. He promises to help you grow.

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???
You might ask your group: Can you share about a teacher who really helped you learn something, that without them you don’t think you would have “got” the lesson or passed the class?

(Most people have a memory of a teacher who really helped them. After your group has shared, then point out that the LORD is the greatest teacher of all — and HE has promised to walk with us and help us to grow spiritually. We are not in this journey of spiritual growth alone. “The Lord is our Shepherd”!)

Notice some more things we learn about our spiritual growth from :4:

— He says first of all, it is based on “His precious and magnificent promises.” The promises of God’s word are the basis of our spiritual growth. (We’ll speak some more about the importance of God’s word for our spiritual growth in a later point. To me that will really be the focus of today’s lesson. Don’t miss point III!)

— Then he says by the promises of God “you may become partakers of the Divine nature.” The ultimate goal of our spiritual growth is to become like Christ. Romans 8:28 says that God causes all things to work together for our good, then :29 says the goal of that “good” is that we might be “conformed to the image of His Son.” In other words, our ultimate goal is to become like Jesus.

We’re going to talk about how important reading and memorizing scripture is to our spiritual growth. But make no mistake: the goal of spiritual growth is NOT “how many chapters I’ve read” or “how many verses I have memorized.” It is how much we become like Jesus. Our goal is to become like Him. Don’t lose sight of what our ultimate goal really is!

— And he concludes by saying: “Having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” In other words, spiritual growth includes a growth in personal HOLINESS. We aren’t just to remain in our same worldly lusts and sins as a Christian. You are to “escape” them; you turn away from them as you grow. If we are not increasingly turning away from sin in our life, then we are not growing spiritually, again, no matter how much we go to church, or how much of the Bible we ready. Growing Christians are growing in holiness, and Peter emphasizes that for us here. 

So God promises here to help us grow spiritually, towards our goal of a holy life, that makes us more like Jesus. HOW does this happen? We learn something of the process in the next point, in 5-8:

II. God’s Process of Spiritual Growth (:5-8)

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control,

perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a very interesting set of verses, in :5-8. It shows us a process of spiritual growth. In this process Peter lists 8 different qualities. Each of these qualities is important in our spiritual growth, and it is instructive that these qualities follow one another in the list: in other words, he says, to this, add this, throughout the list. 

What I might do to teach these verses is to LIST the qualities on a poster or image slide, like this:

FAITH

MORAL EXCELLENCE

KNOWLEDGE

SELF-CONTROL

PERSEVERANCE

GODLINESS

BROTHERLY KINDNESS

LOVE

??? DISCUSSION???

And then ask your class: “What insights do you see, looking at this list, starting with faith, and ending with love?” What do you make of the qualities that are listed (or left out!)? What insights do we get from the ORDER they are listed here?

(Some insights might include:

— FAITH is the very first quality he lists, and he does not list it first randomly. Faith is how we are saved; how we first come into the Kingdom of God. Like Romans 5:1 says “we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.” So the Christian life has to start with faith. It is the foundation of everything else.

— BUT THEN notice what comes next: “moral excellence.” To me it is interesting that moral excellence is listed next, and not knowledge. One might think: once we have saving faith, we really need to add knowledge to that, in order to grow. But remember Paul wrote in I Corinthians 8:1 “knowledge makes arrogant; love edifies.” So it is not knowledge that is the next thing we need to add to our faith, but “moral excellence” (this word means “virtue, excellence, moral character”). So learning to do right; to be holy, comes before mere “knowledge.” To me this is insightful.

— THEN for the 3rd quality, we DO need to add “knowledge.
 And not just “head knowledge,” which as Paul says can make us proud, but a knowledge of Christ, and of His word, which continues to make us holy and like Him.

— “Perseverance” is another vital quality. How many people start off in the Christian race, only to drop away and demonstrate that their faith was not genuine. Perseverance is one of the most crucial qualities of the Christian life. “For you have need of perseverance,” Hebrews 10:36 says. So Peter indicates here that it is one of the vital elements for our spiritual growth. (And it’s one of the reasons why God allows trials to come into our lives: to test us, and build that needed perseverance!)

— All these qualities are making us more like Christ, which as we have seen (Romans 8:29) is our ultimate goal: “godliness.”

— And notice the last two: “brotherly kindness,” and “love.” The Greek words are revealing here:  “brotherly kindness” is “philadelphia,” “brotherly love” (like Philadelphia, “the city of brotherly love.”) And then “love” here is “agape,” godly, sacrificial love. This list reminds us that LOVE IS THE HIGHEST QUALITY. “The greatest of these is love,” as I Corinthians 13 says. When we have grown to maturity, the sign of it is not how much we “know,” but rather how much we LOVE! How much sacrificial, Christlike love do we show? 

The pinnacle of Peter’s list here reminds me of the story of Dr. Richard Feynman, one of the most brilliant physicists in the 20th century, who taught at Cal Tech. Feynman had a student who was enamored with Feynman’s teaching on physics. This young man would go home and try to tell his mother all the marvels of physics he was learning, but she just wasn’t interested. Her son invited her to come and listen to Dr. Feynman, because he just knew that if she heard it herself, then surely she would fall in love with physics just like he had. But despite all his persuasions, she would not come. Finally this young man went to Dr. Feynman, and asked him if he would write a letter to his mother, and tell her himself just how important it was for her to learn physics. Feynman said, I’ll write your mother a note, and he did. He gave it to this student, but when he opened it, to his dismay the letter read: “Dear Mrs. Chown; please ignore your son’s attempts to teach you physics. Physics is not the most important thing. Love is.”

That’s perhaps the most important reminder we see from Peter here in this list of the process of spiritual growth. Whatever happens along the way, whatever the other qualities are, when we get to the pinnacle of spiritual growth, what we will have is, is love. And not just “any” love, but a Christlike, agape, sacrificial love, like He had for us when He went to the cross for us. However we grow, this will be the end result: agape love! 

So just how DO we grow? What can we do to grow spiritually? Peter shows us perhaps the single most important means of spiritual growth in our last point for today:

III. God’s Word and Spiritual Growth (:16-21)

16 “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”— 18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

A. The Certain Word of Eyewitnesses (:16-19)

:16-18 Peter says we didn’t make up some stories when we told you about Jesus’ life and ministry; we SAW these things happen! We were eyewitnesses.

He then gives the example in :17-18 of when Jesus was on the mountaintop in Matthew 17, and was transfigured as white as light before Peter, James, and John. He says here that we heard God say, “This is My Beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased,” when we were on the mountaintop with Him. He says, we personally saw and heard these things.

The Apostle John says the same thing in I John 1:1-3:

“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

Do you see how John repeatedly references how they personally witnessed these things:  “what we have HEARD, what we have SEEN WITH OUR EYES, what we have LOOKED AT, and TOUCHED WITH OUR HANDS … (:2) “and we have SEEN …” (:3) “what we have SEEN and HEARD we proclaim to you …”.

Three, four, five, six times in these three verses he powerfully re-iterates how they saw these things personally. 

As Peter writes here, these are not “cleverly devised tales” that someone made up. The eyewitnesses saw and testified to the reality of it.

This is the power what Paul says in I Corinthians 15 when he shares the Gospel in a nutshell. He says the gospel is that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep …”. 

Paul says, listen, what Jesus did, did not happen “in a corner” (as he told King Agrippa in Acts 26:26). Jesus appeared alive not only to Peter, John, Paul, and all the apostles, but also to FIVE HUNDRED PEOPLE at one time! And these people testified to what they had seen and heard. And as we know, many of them went to their deaths, many under torture — there is ZERO record that any of them ever recanted, and said, “We just made it up!” No, they all went to their graves testifying that they had seen Jesus alive. 

ILLUSTR:

Chuck Colson, former Watergate criminal who later became a strong Christian wrote:

“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

(Chuck Colson, Born Again)

ILLUSTRATION

Richard Bauckham has a powerful book called Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. It is not light reading, but it he makes a powerful, scholarly argument that the Gospels are full of accounts of people who personally saw and experienced what Jesus did. He says the specific names we come across in the Gospels: like Jairus, and Bartimaeus — why are those names there? It is because, he says, these were REAL people, who saw and experienced those things, who were STILL LIVING when the Gospels were written. And if the Gospels were not true, the people still living who saw and experienced those things would have known it. It’s a powerful argument: the power of the eyewitnesses to the truth of the Gospel.

So Peter emphasizes here: we haven’t just “heard” this stuff from someone; and we didn’t just “make it up.” We were were personal eyewitnesses to these things — and he and the others backed it up with their lives!

B. The More Certain Word of God

BUT THEN he says in :19 that as powerful as the personal eyewitness is, we have something even better than that. What could be better than a personal eyewitness? The word of God! He says we have “the prophetic word made more sure” — literally it could be translated: “the more sure prophetic word” — in other words, God’s word is even more sure than our own personal testimony and experience!

We can trust the word of God. 

And we can trust the word to equip us to grow as believers, and to equip those we seek to grow in Christ. 

The best thing you/others can do to grow spiritually, is get into the word of God.

(As I Peter 2:2 says, it is “the pure milk of the word, that by IT you may grow in respect to salvation.” This word is how we grow.

The perfect scripture cross-reference (+x) here is II Timothy 3:16, 

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”   HOW are we to be “adequate, equipped” to do what God wants us to? The Scripture is God’s “inspired” (literally “God-breathed”) means of correcting us, training us, and equipping to do His will and work. 

Let me just share a personal testimony with you. A few years ago, someone said to me, “Bro. Shawn, I just admire your knowledge of scripture. I guess you got a lot of that at seminary.” I had never really thought about it before, but I had to respond, you know, I did not get that much “Bible knowledge” per se from seminary; there are so many classes on education, and missions, and philosophy, etc. I can honestly say that the predominance of my Bible knowledge did not come from seminary, but from spending time in God’s word every morning for the past 45 years. God’s word is what has helped me to grow. God’s word is what teaches me to pray (with the Psalms). God’s word is what convicts me and purifies me from sin. God’s word is what tells me how to preach and teach. His word has been the primary element of my spiritual growth. (You can share that testimony if you want to, or perhaps you have/know of one like it.)

The point is that God’s word will play that same role in your life, and in the lives of your class members, and those you seek to grow in Christ. Get into the word every day. Get your disciples into the word every day. 

Remember Pauls word to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:32, “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”  If you’ll commit yourself and your disciples to God’s word, it will be the “pure milk” that will help you all grow. 

??? DISCUSSION/APPLICATION???
So if God’s word is His primary tool to equip us, HOW exactly does this happen? What are some specific things we can do to grow spiritually through by the word of God?
(Answers should include:

— NUMBER ONE and most important: read the Bible every day for yourself. Just you, an open Bible, and a notebook or computer or note sheet, on which your write down things God shows you, things to pray for, questions you may have, etc. This is has been the single most important element of spiritual growth for me personally over the past 45 years, and it can be for you and your group members too.

(Let me suggest this too: one way to promote getting into God’s word regularly and to have some accountability, is to take just 5 minutes at the beginning of class, to ask for volunteers to share something very briefly that they got out of their Bible reading this week. I have seen that be very effective at keeping Bible reading at the forefront, and encouraging others to read their Bibles.)

— Another way to grow through scripture is to do a specific Bible study. There are many workbooks, study books, video-led classes, etc. today for this. Don’t substitute that for your own Bible reading, but use it as a supplement and it can help you grow.

— AND: continuing in a “through the Bible” class like you and your members are in right now, is a great way to grow spiritually. Encourage them to continue this, and to invite others they want to see grow in the word. 

— Scripture memory is an often-neglected means of spiritual growth. For me personally, scripture memory is a close second — or maybe even a close FIRST! — to my daily Bible reading in enabling my spiritual growth. I’ve memorized Psalms which I use to pray back to God in prayer and make the most powerful prayer times; I can quote scriptures when I witness to people; and when I am discouraged and need uplifting, quoting a chapter or verse of scripture will lift me up. A needed verse can also help me resist temptation. Most people think scripture memory is too hard, but you know what: war is hard. And as we saw last week, we are in a spiritual war, every single one of us. And what is our weapon? “The sword of the Spirit is the word of God” as Ephesians 6 says. Have some “swords” ready in your life when you need them. But you have to “hide the word in your heart” in advance, through scripture memory, to have that weapon ready.)

All of these are specific ways we can grow spiritually through the word of God.

NOW: after telling us how important God’s word is in helping us grow, Peter then gives a caveat (a warning, a stipulation). He says, as important as God’s word is, you can’t just do whatever you want to with scripture. He says in :20, “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.”

Some have taken the old Baptist doctrine of “the priesthood of the believer” to mean that everyone has a right to their own personal interpretation of the Bible, and that your interpretation is as good as mine. But this is not true. There IS a true interpretation of God’s word. It does not just mean whatever someone wants it to mean. People twist and distort God’s word today. We need to be careful that we are using it in context, and in the way God intended it. Asking wise, mature Christians, and checking with godly, conservative commentaries, can help keep us on track. I don’t get most of my insights from commentaries; I get the vast majority of them from personal prayer and Bible reading. But from time to time I will check a commentary just to make sure I am on track here; that I haven’t “gone off in the woods” with some errant interpretation or application. 

THEN :21 closes with one of the great verses on the word of God itself:  “men, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God.”

Here we see several things about the doctrine of the Bible:

(??? You might even ask your group to help you point out here; ask them: “What all do we learn about the Bible from the second part of :21?” ???

(Answers/points should include: 

— It shows us WHO wrote the Bible: “Men.” Men did write it.

— But it also shows us that it was not “just” men: it says they spoke “from God.” GOD Himself was behind what they wrote.

— But HOW did this happen, that God spoke through men who wrote? It tells us: they were “moved by the Holy Spirit.” So God used His Holy Spirit to write His word, through the writings of men. 

You might consider sharing all or part of our Baptist Faith & Message Article I, our SBC statement of faith on the Scriptures:

“The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.”

Especially focus on that first part: “The Holy Bible was written by MEN, DIVINELY inspired.” Men wrote it, but God inspired it.

As we saw in II Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is INSPIRED by God, “inspired is “theo-pneustos,” God-breathed. God breathed it through the human authors. And it is the very best tool He has given us, to help us grow spiritually.

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Per my licensing agreement with Lifeway:

— These weekly lessons are based on content from Explore the Bible Adult Resources. The presentation is my own and has not been reviewed by Lifeway.

— Lifeway resources are available at: goExploretheBible.com  and: goexplorethebible.com/adults-training

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