"Make Your Calling And Election Sure"

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith: that ye, being rooted and grounded in Love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to 'know' the Love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19) There are two different kinds of 'knowledge' that we are talking about here in the first few verses of 2 Peter. First off, we must understand that these things which are listed in verses 5-7 (virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity), are already things which have been bestowed upon us, because they are all qualities which come with the Holy Spirit. As I shared before, when I first came to Christ, I received a knowledge of who He was; it was as if a Light had been turned on, and everything that I had ever heard, read, or been told about the Truth of God rang alive in me. In verse 5, where Peter says, "And to virtue, knowledge", this knowledge he mentions is from the Greek word 'Gnosis', which is more like 'the power of knowing'. If you remember what we saw when Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love Me?", Peter had come to understand who Jesus really was, and why He had to go willfully to the cross; this is the kind of knowledge we are talking about here. It is the 'knowledge' of who God is; His Love, His Mercy, and His Grace. Now then, contrast that with the 'Knowledge of God' which is spoken of in verse 2, "Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you through the Knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,"; this comes from the Greek word 'Epignosis', which is clear and exact knowledge which expresses a more thorough participation in the object of knowledge on the part of the knowledgeable subject. This type of knowledge would be more easily expressed or understood by our active involvement in the work or the change which God in bringing forth in us through the knowledge of Him. A good example of this, would be the knowledge that Peter had of his 'friendship' with Jesus; that he could 'now' call him friend, and that Jesus could 'now' receive that declaration as so. It is this 'knowledge' that is vital to us to come to know, because the knowledge which follows virtue has already been given, and is present with the Holy Spirit; but the 'knowledge' which comes through our relationship with Jesus, that is a 'knowledge' which comes through our experience with Him; and He has given us 'everything' that we need to be able to experience Life and Godliness in Him. So; that is the reason for the 'knowledge' which is given and added unto our 'faith'; not that we need to add it, but that it is already there, and we must receive it as so; just the same way we have our faith, so we must hold these things as who we are in Jesus, because they are the qualities of God; and if we are in Christ Jesus, then the Holy Spirit is dwelling within us; and if the Holy Spirit is dwelling within us, then we have these qualities also within us, and they come from God. In verse 3, Peter uses that word 'knowledge' again, and this is the same word he used in verse 2, which means 'knowledge which shows the relationship of the learner to the object of his knowledge'. "According as His Divine Power hath given unto us 'All Things' that pertain into Life and Godliness, through the 'knowledge of Him that hath called us' unto glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter 1:3 & 4)