To Encourage You

2 Peter 1:12-15 “Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”

Have you ever noticed how the commercials we see on television are replayed over and over and over again? Often, they are replayed every few minutes. Why do they do this?  Why this monotony?  Obviously, marketers and advertisers have learned somewhere along the way that if you want a message to be internalized with someone, then you need to repeat it – and not just once, but over and over again. 

I’m writing this on Sunday morning, the first Sunday morning that the adult Sunday School class that I teach will start meeting again after the delay caused by the Covid pandemic.  We haven’t met together now for nearly four months. As I was preparing for class today, I read over my notes on Paul’s letter to the Colossians, which is the letter we’ve been most recently studying.  Although I’ve been teaching on this book, I was surprised at how much of what I had taught I didn’t remember.  To go on with the study, I needed to remind myself of what I’d studied and taught on before.  And if I needed to be reminded of these things before I went on, I would think that my students would need to be reminded as well.  But then I thought that this need to be reminded isn’t something that should be relegated to the circumstances of the current pandemic. No, being reminded of the Scriptures is something that is to be the constant practice of every believer. 

In the passage above, Peter tells those to whom he wrote that he intended to constantly remind them of the truth of God.  He tells them of their need to be “stirred up by way of a reminder.”  He tells them that his efforts were designed to make certain that after he died, they would “be able at any time to recall these things.”  You see, the marketing world wasn’t the first to recognize that for a message to stick, it needs to be repeated.  We are fallen creatures that have short memories. It’s just the way we are.  If we want to be filled with the knowledge of God, we need to continually be reminded of the truths of His Word. 

In many places in the Scriptures, taking in the Word of God is likened to eating and drinking.  God’s word is called such things as “milk,” “meat,” “bread,” and “manna.” It is something that needs to be constantly “eaten.” It was Job who said “I have treasured the words of (God’s) mouth more than my portion of food” (Job 23:12).  I don’t know about you, but if you were to ask me what I ate for dinner on Wednesday night three weeks ago, I would be very unlikely to be able to tell you.  But I do know that I ate, I do know that it benefitted me, and I’ll likely eat the same thing again in the future, regardless of the fact that I don’t remember what it was. And why would I do that? Because I know I need to eat. It’s a fundamental need of life. To fail to eat is to invite weakness, and if that failure continues, it could bring sickness and even death.  So it is with the Word of God.  We need to take it in, to feed on it, to be reminded of its truths over and over again.  If not, we will grow weak spiritually.   There will be very negative spiritual consequences if we fail to spend time in God’s Word just as there are negative physical consequences when we neglect to eat and drink physical food. 

But unlike physical food and drink, we will never suffer by eating too much of God’s Word.  Unlike the endless repetition of the commercials on TV which can bore us and wear us out, repetition of the Word of God will always strengthen us and build us up. More than that, it is in the repetition of God’s Word that our eyes can be opened more and more to the infinite depth of insight that is there for us if we only look, and look, and look again. 

So, are you reminding yourself of God’s Word? Are you taking it in over and over again so that the many facets of this treasure that is “more precious than gold” (Psalm 19:10) are imparting themselves on your eyes and heart?  Do you realize that “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:3-5)?  And all of these precious and very great promises are found in only one place: they are found in God’s Word.  Are you reminding yourselves of these promises? Are you feeding constantly on God’s Word?