Devotional 25 September 2025

September 25, 2025 • Steve Torres

2 Peter 1:10-11.jpg

“Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:10–11, ESV)

Peter urges believers to examine themselves carefully, to ensure that their lives reflect the reality of their calling in Christ. This is not about earning salvation, but about living in such a way that the fruit of salvation is evident. As Paul also commands, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). True faith is never stagnant, it grows and produces evidence.

Peter has just listed the qualities of a growing Christian: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love (2 Peter 1:5–7). To confirm our calling means to be diligent in practicing these, not passively waiting for maturity to arrive. The Christian life is not mimicking goodness, as the world does with empty appearances (Matthew 6:1–2), but walking in the Spirit so that real transformation comes (Galatians 5:22–23).

Peter also connects this diligence with the refining fire he described earlier. “You have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7). Just as gold must pass through fire to be purified, so the Christian passes through trials to be shaped into Christ’s image (Romans 8:29). These hardships are not accidents, but God’s refining work.

There are no shortcuts to this transformation. No mantra, no quick fix, no program can bypass the path Christ Himself walked. Jesus warned, “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). The author of Hebrews reminds us that God is giving us “a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28), and steadfast perseverance is the proof of belonging to that Kingdom (Hebrews 10:36).

Peter’s conclusion is a promise: if we continue in diligence, living out the faith God has given us, we will not fall away. Instead, God Himself will “richly provide” our entrance into the eternal kingdom of Christ. What greater assurance could there be? The refining fire does not destroy, it purifies us, preparing us to meet the Savior face to face.