The Fullness of the Indwelling

2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Ivory soap, (is that still around?) used to be famous for being “99 and 44/100ths percent pure.”

I always wondered, “What’s in that other 56/100ths?” (That’s how my mind works.)

And there is an importance in that wondering. It may seem silly to focus on the small percentage rather than the larger one, but in terms of purity, why would we settle for less than 100%?

Anything less than pure is an alloy. While some alloys are indeed stronger than their individual parts, (steel being one,) the Bible refers to any alloy of the mind and heart as being displeasing to the Lord.

The reason God hates an alloyed mind and heart is because of the impurity which remains, especially when the potential for total purity is present. I don’t know what prevents the Ivory Soap people from getting out that last 56/100^th bit of impurity – but I do know what prevents me from being 100% pure – and that is me.

What percentage of lust is permissible for me? How much lust can I safely handle?

What Peter says is that by what we add to our lives in the Spiritual sense, we subtract from our lives in the arena of lust. If you take a vessel which is filled with impurity, and you add what is pure to that vessel, than you drive out that which is impure. The more you fill the vessel with that which is pure, the less of that which is impure remains.

Many of us seek to deal with lust by focusing on the lust. Peter teaches us to focus on adding that which is pure, and the lust will disappear of its own accord.

-Pastor Bill