In 2 Peter 1:10-11, the Holy Spirit inspired this Scripture through the Apostle Peter:

“Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

Are you being increasingly diligent to be sure about God’s calling, or saving you?

Do you, at this very moment, know with absolute certainty that God has saved you from your sins? And if so, what is your certainty based on? Is it based on your personal subjective experience, is it based on something that an imperfect person has told you, or is it based on what God’s perfect Word tells you about yourself? Do you know what the consequences are if you live your entire life to the end without having a permanent, true knowledge that God has saved you? Do you realize that at this moment you could be deceived about the condition of your soul? Do you realize that you may be under the wrath of God, and yet believe that you are one of His children, while you are storing up His wrath to be unleashed upon you on the day of judgment?

If you know that you have been saved, are you seeking to have more knowledge of the glories of that salvation, to know God more, to experience more of His presence and power in your life? Or are you content with just having a head knowledge that you’ve been saved? Do you want to be more sure about your salvation? Well then, the Apostle Peter says that there are 2 main things preventing from you from obeying the command I quoted, and that these have devastating consequences. However, he also provides the way to overcome those obstacles, and he explains how to obey the command. Not only that, he gives us consequences of disobeying this command, but also promises rich blessings from obeying it. Therefore, we need to put this command into practice.

So, what would be preventing you from being all the more diligent to be certain about the reality of your salvation? The Apostle Peter gives us the answer in the chapter I quoted from. In 2 Peter 1:9, he writes this through the Holy Spirit:

“For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.”

What are these things he speaks of? They are the same things that he speaks of in 2 Peter 1:10, which again says this:

“Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble . . .”

How are you to be more diligent in making sure that you’ve been saved? By doing these things. What are they? Again, Peter tells us in verses right before 2 Peter 1:9, verses 5-7:

“Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love.”

So, if you’re not being all the more diligent to be sure about the reality of your salvation, it’s because you’re not doing those things.

Secondly, Peter says in 2 Peter 1:9 that the reason you’re not doing those things is that you’re blind, or seeing only what is near, because you’ve forgotten that you’ve been cleansed from your old sins, the sins you practiced before you became a Christian. So, those are the two main reasons why you’re not being more diligent to be sure about the reality of your salvation: First, you’re not doing the things that the Holy Spirit tells you to do in verses 5-7, and Second, you’ve forgotten that you were cleansed from your old sins.

What do these failures lead to? The Apostle Peter gives us the answer in 2 Peter 1:8, which says,

“For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Do you find yourself to be idle, or useless, in the work of the Lord, and do you find that you’re not producing good fruit from knowing the Lord? Don’t you want to be useful in the Lord’s work, and to produce much good fruit from knowing Him? Don’t you want to have increasing certainty and increasing knowledge of the reality and power of your salvation? Then these problems must be dealt with.

So, how are you to deal with them? Well, Peter says in 2 Peter 1:9 that the reason we don’t do the things that the Holy Spirit commands us to do is that we’ve forgotten that we were cleansed from our old sins. So, how do you deal with this? First, you must remember that, when you became a Christian, you were cleansed from your old sins. In other words, one of the things that becoming a Christian means is that you’ve been cleansed from your old sins.

What exactly does that mean? First, it means that we’ve been redeemed through Christ giving Himself for us by dying. The Apostle Paul teaches this in Titus 2:11-14: 

“For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.”

What exactly does it mean that Christ redeemed us from our iniquity, or sin? It means that He payed the redemption price that we owed to God for sinning against Him by suffering and dying on the cross, and in so doing, He bought us from the damned condition that we were in because of our sins. Second, being cleansed from your old sins means that you’ve been given a pure heart that is no longer capable of practicing them as a lifestyle. The Apostle John teaches this in 1 John 1:5-9:

“And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So, to truly remember that you were cleansed from your old sins, you must believe that God treats you as if you’ve been cleansed from all of your sins because He sent His Son into the world to become a man, to die to take your punishment for your sins, and that He raised Him from the dead. Also, you must keep in mind that if you’re only trusting in Christ, His death for your sins, and His resurrection for God’s complete cleansing and forgiveness, then you’ve been cleansed from your old, sinful, way of life.

But after you’ve realized that you’re cleansed from your old sins, 2 Peter 1:9 also says that you are not being all the more diligent to make certain about God’s saving you because you lack the things that Peter lists in verses 5-7, so obviously you need to start doing them. Here’s what the Holy Spirit commands you to do:

“Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; and in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience; and in your patience godliness; and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love.”

The first thing he says you must do is add on your part all diligence in these things. That means to make every effort to do these things, or to do these things with all of your might and energy. Second, you must supply, or live out, your faith with virtue. What faith is he speaking of here? It’s the same faith he speaks of in 2 Peter 1:1, which says this:

“Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ . . .”

This is a faith that is obtained, and not held to, or believed. In other words, this is the faith we have in Christ, that God grants us. So, the Holy Spirit commands us to supply our faith in Christ with virtue, or moral excellence, as the New American Standard Bible translates it, and James 2:14-17 says

“What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.”

You see that true faith in Christ always produces works, or morality. Third, you must live out your moral virtue with knowledge, and what knowledge could he speaking of but knowledge of the meaning of God’s Word, since we need that knowledge to know how to live excellently, and 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 says,

“Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

You see, true Christians are able to know the things of the Spirit, including God’s Word. Fourth, you must live out your knowledge of God’s Word with self-control, since knowledge of God’s Word without self-control doesn’t allow you to control yourself in putting that knowledge into practice. Galatians 5:22-23a says

“But the fruit [or effect] of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control . . .”

All Christians possess the Spirit’s indwelling, and thus, they all possess self-control. Fifth, you must live out your self-control with patience, or perseverance according to the New American Standard Bible, in order to continue to control yourself through your trials of various kinds. James 1:12 says

“Blessed is the man that endureth [or perseveres in] temptation [or trials]; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him.”

You see, those who endure, or persevere, are the ones that receive the crown of eternal life. Sixth, you must live out your perseverance with godliness, or living for God and worshiping Him, since there is no reason of eternal value for persevering under trial in your moral excellence, knowledge, and self-control, unless it is done for God. Titus 1:1 says

“Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness.”

If you know the truth, and all Christians do, then that means that you are godly, since the knowledge of the truth is in accordance with godliness. Seventh, you must live out your godliness with brotherly kindness, or kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, since worshiping God is incomplete unless you have a brotherly or sisterly affection for His children. 1 Peter 1:22a says,

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren.”

This means that all those who have obeyed the truth, which includes all Christians, have a sincere love of the brethren, or brotherly affection or kindness. Eighth, you must live out your brotherly kindness with love, which is the most prominent type of love in the New Testament, translated from the Greek word agape. This must be supplied to brotherly kindness because mere affection and kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ is incomplete unless it involves actually loving them. The Apostle John illustrates this love for us in 1 John 3:16, which says

“Hereby know we love, because he [meaning Christ] laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

He defines it in 1 John 3:18, which says,

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth.” 1 John 4:8 says

“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” All Christians know God, and thus, all Christians have this love.

So, why must you do all these things to know that you’ve been saved? After all, can’t I just believe the gospel and know that I’ve been saved? Well, you can, but the question is how do you know that you’ve believed the gospel? After all, 2 Corinthians 13:5 says

“Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves.”

And 1 John 5:13 says

“These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Clearly, it’s possible to think that you believe the gospel, when you really don’t. Thus, it is imperative to make sure that you believe the gospel.

So, what are you to do to be increasingly diligent to have the certainty that you’ve been saved? You are first to realize that you’ve been cleansed from your old sins. Then, making every effort to do these things, you are second, to live out your faith with moral excellence, third, to live out your moral excellence with knowledge of God’s Word, fourth, to live out your knowledge of God’s Word with self-control, fifth, to live out your self-control with perseverance, sixth, to live out your perseverance with godliness, seventh, to live out your godliness with kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, and eighth, to live out that brotherly kindness with love in deed and truth.

Why does the Holy Spirit tell us to do these things? Partly because, according to 2 Peter 1:10, this is how you are to “give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble . . .”

Do you realize what will happen to you if you don’t be all the more diligent to make sure of the reality of your salvation? Again, the Apostle Peter tells us what will happen in 2 Peter 1:9:

“For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.”

If you don’t endeavor to be all the more diligent to make certain about the reality of your salvation, you will be blind to the reality of your spiritual condition, you will only see or understand what is near to you, or on the surface level of your life, and you will have no knowledge that you were cleansed from your old sins.

What is the implication of that? The implication is that you will have no sense of having your old sins cleansed, so that you may even think that you haven’t been cleansed from them. And the reality is, if you don’t have certainty that you’ve been saved, what makes you think that you will be able to face your death or the return of Christ with assurance that you will enter heaven? If you don’t know you’ve been saved, then how do you know you won’t end up in hell for eternity, suffering the torment you deserve for your sins?

But, if you start to be all the more diligent to make sure of the reality of your salvation, the Apostle Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:8 that

“if these things [the things you are to supply] are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The implication here is that if you are not all the more diligent to make sure of the reality of your salvation, then you will be idle, or as the New American Standard puts it, “useless,” and you will be unfruitful, or unproductive in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, he implies that you will have no good use in knowing the Lord, nor will you produce any good thing from knowing the Lord. However, if you make every effort to make certain about the reality of your salvation, then you will rather be useful and produce good fruit in knowing the Lord.

Not only that, but he says in 2 Peter 1:10-11:

“Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

So, if you are all the more diligent to make your salvation sure, you will never stumble. What does this mean? Well, what he says next gives us an idea. Again, he says

“if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

In other words, if you do stumble, then the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will not be richly supplied to you. On the other hand, if you do the things the Holy Spirit commands you to do, then you will never stumble, and therefore, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you. To put it another way, if you obey the commands in verses 5-7 and verse 10, then you will pass from this life into the next with certainty that God has saved you, and you will enter into the Lord’s eternal kingdom with abundant ease and joy. You will know that you’ve been useful to Him, that you’ve produced good fruit for Him, that you are not blind, that you have been cleansed from your old sins, and that you have not stumbled. Thus, you will gain an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So, what must you do in response to this passage of God’s Word? Be all the more diligent to make sure of the reality of your salvation by making every effort to live out your faith in Christ with moral excellence, to live out your moral excellence with increasing knowledge of God’s Word, to live out your increasing knowledge of God’s Word with self-control, to live out your self-control with perseverance, to live out your perseverance with godliness, to live out your godliness with brotherly kindness, and to live out your brotherly kindness with love in deed and truth.

I’ve mentioned being cleansed from your sins, but do you know how you can be cleansed from your sins at this very moment? The Apostle Paul wrote about it this way:

“. . . I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve; then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to the child untimely born, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”              1 Corinthians 15:1-9                                                     

This is what the Apostle John said about the gospel in John 1:1-18:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth. John beareth witness of him, and crieth, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that cometh after me is become before me: for he was before me. For of his fulness we all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

This is what Christ Himself said about the gospel:

“. . . God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” John 3:16-20

John the Baptist said this: “. . . he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on [stays directed toward] him.” – John 3:36

The Apostle Paul said this in Romans 2:4-16 and 1:18-32:

“. . . despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life: but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: for there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified; (for when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them); in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.”

“. . . the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousnessof men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness; because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse: because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves: for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful: who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practise such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practise them.”

Speaking of those that practice sin, the Apostle Paul uses this quote:

“. . . There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God; They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one: Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues they have used deceit: The poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness . . .” – Romans 3:10-14

This is my appeal to you, as written by the Apostle Paul:

“. . . we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”       – 2 Corinthians 5:20b-21

This is how you become reconciled to God:

“. . . if thou shalt confess [acknowledge] with thy mouth Jesus as Lord [Greek: kurios, or Supreme in Authority], and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him [depend upon Him]: for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord [who He is, what He has done, and what He can do] shall be saved.”                    Romans 10:9-13