Escape Corruption

The reason God gave us the promises in 2 Peter1:3-10 is not just for us to be partakers of His divine nature, but that we can through them escape by flight the corruption that is in the world through lust. Look around you; corruption is the order of the day all over the world, either physically or spiritually. It is so rampant that it is increasingly looking as if there is no one that can escape it. In the days of the Roman Empire, when a man kills another man, the offender is made to carry the corpse of the dead person on his back as a way of punishing him. In fact he is made to sleep and even eat with the corpse on his back; he goes everywhere with it and does everything with it on his back. Until the stench and the decay of the dead gradually kills him. That is corruption! Same thing is happening with us in the world. The game plan of the enemy is that as we live in this world, the decay and stench of its customs and practices will gradually kill us. No wonder, Christ had to pray for us to be protected from the evil one and be sanctified by the truth – His word. As a result, God has given us everything we need to live in this world above the corruption. Now, if God is saying that the promises are given to us that we might be partakers of His divine nature, it is because we cannot have His nature if we get entangled in the corruption that has eaten deep and is still eating into the world through evil desires, greed and lust. It then follows that except we escape the corruption it will gradually seep in and kill us. Naturally speaking we know that anything that has weight cannot be suspended in the air because of the force of gravity. So it is with corruption it has a force that pulls everything down to it. In science we have the ‘escape velocity’ which is the velocity of a rocket with which it escapes the force of gravity, that is what we need to apply deliberately through exercise that we may escape the corruption. In verse 5 we see something profound there, it said “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge...”  It therefore means that there is a part we must play for this to happen. These promises have been given by God but they will not happen in us automatically, we would need to carefully and deliberately work (exercise) them out in our lives as we know and continue to grow in the knowing of the Lord.  We must understand that God desires that we grow continually if not we become useless, shortsighted, blind, corrupt and unfruitful. If we don’t increase in our knowing Him, it is a matter of time before the corruption of the world would seep in and corrupt everything within and without the man. When something is seeping in, it means it is coming in slowly and unnoticed. In the case of corruption, it becomes noticeable when it gets to an unbearable level. The question that then occupies our minds is: how and when did it get to this level? Friend, the corruption was seeping in unbeknown and unnoticed to us! To check this seepage you must keep adding to your faith; don’t be content with the level at which you are now. 2 Peter 3:18 says “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” Friend, growth is essential if we must partake of His divine nature and also escape the corruption of this world. God bless you as you yearn for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.