If we read then, he describes the coming of Jesus Christ in Verses 16-18...
2 Peter 1:16-18 – “We did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father, honour and glory, when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain”.
He's talking about the things that Matthew wrote about, in Matthew 17; that Mark wrote about, in Mark 9; that Luke wrote about, in Luke 9; and now here, Peter is giving his own version. He's referring to when Jesus took three disciples up onto the mount, and as He prayed, He was transfigured. The glory that was within Him began to shine forth, like a light shining through a thin veil, and all His body and countenance became changed, and shone and radiated glory. He was transfigured before them, and then there was a crown of glory came over them. God spoke, and they saw Moses and Elijah, who were talking with Him. They were very excited about this whole thing, which is what they had been looking forward to.
Moses was the one who introduced the law; and Elijah brings the prophetic. Moses and Elijah are both there, and they're talking with Jesus about what is happening, and what's about to happen. Their lives are literally a prophetic heads-up of what was about to come, so they're incredibly excited at that time, and the disciples are completely overwhelmed. They fell down. They didn't understand what was happening. Peter said: “we should make booths, and stay here”, meaning - in his mind, he's thinking: this must be the fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles - when there’s a blowing of the trump, and the Lord returns, and the kingdom comes. He didn't understand that it wasn't that fulfilment yet -we are the ones living in the hour when it will happen! Peter then is giving an eyewitness testimony of Jesus coming - he saw it personally; he heard everything, and now he's speaking and writing it.
The context then, is that what he is experienced is about to come; and then in the writing, he talks about “an abundant entrance for us into that kingdom - if we qualify”. Notice that, in all the teaching we've had – something is always required. We have to qualify. We read in three verses, and each of these verses makes it very clear, that the promise is conditional…
2 Peter 1:11 – “…for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ...”
Notice the conditions: “if”.
“…If these things are yours and abound, if you do these things, you'll never stumble”.
So very clearly, he puts conditions on it. He says: there's a condition placed on being fruitful; and on having an abundant entrance to the kingdom - the two are the same.
When he says: “if these things are yours and abound, if you do these things you'll never stumble”, he's saying that we need to do some things about our life. We must work with God in the transformation process, or we will be unprepared. When we enter the coming kingdom, we enter by qualifying for it - by entering through the First Resurrection - that's our “high calling, and our hope”. Seeing that that as the context, now we'll go into it...
Firstly, we want to talk about the need for intentional personal growth, meaning transformation. We shared before about many Christians remain very, very immature; but there are many, many ways that the necessity for growth is pictured in the Bible, and there's descriptions of where we need to grow. We need to grow in grace - that's the empowerment of the Holy Spirit; and the knowledge of God - that's revelation of Him. We need to grow by the word of God.
1 Peter 2:2 – “As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby”.
It's talking about growth.
2 Peter 1: 5 – “Add to your faith…”