I want to thank both Anthony and Angel for filling in for me these next two weeks. As I thought about what to write in this week’s article, I did not want to distract from Anthony’s message, so I thought I would simply reflect a little bit regarding our Sunday morning bible class on discipleship. It centers around this idea of reaching our full potential. How many of us see ourselves as having potential? To be able to answer that question, we need to understand potential. It is the latent, unrealized capacity or possibility. Latent means something that is present, existing, or holding potential, but is currently hidden, inactive, or not yet manifest. So, let us ask the question again, only using different words. How many believe we have “unrealized capacity or possibility”? Let me answer it for us, we all do! The more important question is do we believe it and are we seeking God to grasp it. It is with this mindset that I look at 2nd Peter 1:5-8, a text we covered in Sunday morning bible class.
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith…” (2nd Peter 1:5)
You might be saying, doesn’t he remember last week’s article on this very text? I do. But the perspective this week is our potential in Christ. Remember, potential is something that we have within us but has not been realized yet. So, Peter says that God “has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2nd Peter 1:3). All things! That is potential! He goes on to say that “through these you may be partakers of the divine nature” (2nd Peter 1:4). That is possibility! Everything is at our disposal through what God has given us through Christ. Our role in all this is to “do all you can to add to your life these things” (ETRV, 2nd Peter 1:5). When we seek to understand our full potential, we will pursue it with earnest. Salvation was never meant to be the finish line in this life, but rather, the starting line. Finding God opens the doorway to finding our true potential.
“For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2nd Peter 1:8)
I read the following this past week, “You must understand the tremendous potential you possess and commit yourself to maximizing it in your short lifetime.” I believe this is the point in this text. We ALL have potential, unrealized possibilities! But to realize them, we MUST seek, with God’s strength and guidance, those possibilities. The apostle Paul wrote, “I have learned the secret of being content…” (NIV, Philippians 4:12). He obtained this possibility by learning. And that learning opened the doorway for him to say, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (NIV, Philippians 4:13). Through Christ, he added to his faith many of those things listed in 2nd Peter 1:5-6). This deeper understanding would enable him, dare I say empower him, to be “neither barren nor unfruitful” in his knowledge of Christ. It would move him towards his fuller potential that was already inside of him, he simply needed God’s help to bring it out.
Consider this quote, “Unless you do something beyond what you have done, you will never grow or experience your full potential” (Unknown). Sadly, so many in Christ live like this. Content with where they are at, not realizing that within them are wonderful possibilities. Through Christ, we are invited, yes, exhorted, to grow in our daily walk with Christ (2nd Peter 3:18). Not to somehow gain something we do not already have; but rather, find and utilize what He has already given us (Matthew 25:29; Ephesians 1:3; Romans 12:6). He yearns for us to find our fullest potential (Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 3:23). And when we eagerly pursue this noble quest, we can become what He has always known we could be, effective tools in His kingdom (2nd Timothy 2:20-21).
Biddeford Church of Christ 