Lesson for the Lord’s Day
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. 2 Peter 3:1
Our text appears as a link between two great topics in this epistle. The first topic, which Peter explores at length in Chapter 2, is the description of the great evil of the false teachers that would come among the Lord’s people to destroy them and lead them astray. These were totally false, and Peter condemns them utterly, warning his readers against them. The second great topic, in the next verse, is the identification of the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, that make up the Word of God. In today’s text, Peter tells us the purpose of not only this epistle, but of his previous epistle written a couple of years earlier. His purpose is to use the vehicle of remembrance to stir up the pure minds of the Christians.
We use remembrance to enable us to function effectively in our everyday lives. For example, we move about our homes and workplaces by memory, and most of us could easily do so in the dark if needed. We drive our cars by memory, almost unconsciously following the steps to safe and effective travel. But nowhere is memory more important than in spiritual matters. The joy of our salvation is renewed every morning as we remember God’s dealing with us to bring us to repentance and faith in Christ. Our hope is restored each day as we recall the great promises of God that we have explored in the reading of His Word. Our appreciation of the work of redemption completed for us by the Lord Jesus on the cross is refreshed each Lord’s Day as we eat the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of His death. Remembering is a very important element of our Christian attitude and our walk.
By frequent reading of the Scriptures, many portions will become very familiar to us. And those that we have appreciated and received help from should be committed to memory. If remembering the Word of God is so important, we should devote considerable effort to it. That is why Sunday School teachers assign memory verses to their students, so that the children will have the Word of God in their minds. Most of us can still recall and recite those memory verse of early days. But we should also be able to recite verses, and sections of verses, that we have learned since then. David speaks of the importance of memorizing the Scriptures when he says ‘Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee’ (Psalm 119:11). A good help in memorizing the Scriptures is to always use the King James Version, which has a built-in cadence for memorization, a cadence that no other version has. You can memorize so much more and so much better by using the KJV. And when you recite it, everybody will know you are quoting the Bible, and not just something that you picked up from another book or person.
There is no greater use for our memory than to review all that our God has done, is doing, and will do for us. And there is no better way to do that than to flood our memory banks with the Word of God. – Jim MacIntosh