NEW
2 Peter 1:3
“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.”
God’s glory and excellence. I don’t think I’ve stopped to ponder these. I’ve seen them as flowery language to enrich the passage. We tend to relate to God through our needs. We feel pain, we go to Him for help, He assists. We relate to Him as our caretaker. Those traits become prominent.
We sing about His glory, but what is it? One author calls it holy perfection going public. Another calls it the beauty of His spirit. Beauty is captivating. I saw a view of the ocean that was beautiful. The waters were light blue and green. Not a mix of them, but different colors based on the waters depth. The setting was from on high looking down. The contour of the land also curved nicely. I kept on staring at it. I couldn’t get enough. As I was analyzing it, I seemed to be filled with awe and wonder.
This is one way we could understand His glory. When we see Him, we will be awestruck. This helps me understand some of the heaven scenes from the book of Revelation. It won’t be just duty, but a reaction to His glory and excellence. They won’t be able to stop themselves. It could go on forever. We can appreciate these traits now.
The next word is excellence. This word is more easily understood. I see excellence in athletes. Their ability to function so well with such fluidity and strength is amazing to watch. God is excellent in everything. His ability to orchestrate His will in so many lives is mind boggling. We attempt to time things, but we get frustrated by the human element. God does all of that perfectly in billions of lives.
Moses sought to see the glory of The Lord (Exodus 33:18). May we be those who don’t only go to God for help, but to grow in our knowledge and relationship with Him.
Lord, help us to know Your glory and excellence.