Shake You up to Wake You up

“This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder” (v1).

Are you a heavy sleeper? When you get your snooze on, do you dive deep into dreamland? I know I do. I’m a mouth-open-drool-on-the-pillow sleeper. When I’m catching some z’s, I’m NOT easy to wake. Saying something won’t do it. Touching me probably won’t work. Sometimes you just have to shake me up to wake me up. That’s what the Apostle Peter is doing in this letter. He’s writing to Jesus’ followers so they will open their eyes. And just to make sure they’re awake, he’s going to shake them up to wake them up.

This isn’t the first time Pete’s had to get rough with his readers and get them to open their eyes. This is his “second letter” (v1). In his prequel, the former fisherman wrote to believers “in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1Pet 1:1). You might have a little trouble finding those places in Google Maps. But they were locations in what we now know as Turkey. There’s a good chance that the apostle is writing from Rome (1Pet 5:14). He used his first note to encourage folks to hang tough during persecution and punishment. We must remember that God handpicked us to tell others about Him (1Pet 2:9). Jesus suffered and so why should we expect anything less (1Pet 2:21)? God won’t waste one ounce of our suffering for His sake (1Pet 4:19).

While the first letter is all about external pressure on the churches, this sequel focuses on the internal. Pete sounds the alarm to warn folks that a crew of con artists is cruising from town to town, spreading a destructive message that tears churches apart from the inside out (2:1-3). He devotes the second chapter of this second letter as a wanted poster for this team of false teachers. These hucksters are looking for an easy score. They want money (2:3, 14-15). They want sex (2:2, 10, 14, 18). The apostle tries his best to shake us up to wake us up from our spiritual siesta.

Are these believers really sound asleep? A better picture is that they’re sleepwalking. You know, going through life, heading to work, taking the kids to school. Hey, it happens to all of us. Life happens. Before we realize what’s going on, we’ve lost our focus on who Jesus is and what He’s done for us. That’s why the writer of Hebrews encourages us to be “looking to Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2). And that’s why Pete wants us to snap out of it. He uses the Greek verb diegeiro, which means to stir, to cause to wake up, and to rouse. Wake up and smell the coffee. But this is much more than the sound of your alarm clock cranking out a few classic rock tunes. There’s no snooze button here. There’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on. Pete’s old fishing buddy John uses this same word when he writes about a storm stirring up the Sea of Galilee (Jn 6:18). If he could, the apostle would grab us by our shoulders and get us to open our eyes to what’s going on. Earlier he writes that as long as he’s still breathing, he will “stir you up by way of reminder” (1:13). He’s done it before. He’ll do it again. Shake you up to wake you up.

We see that Pete’s writing this letter to Jesus’ followers. He’s waking up their “sincere mind” (v1). The original text contains the adjective heilikrine. It means uncontaminated, pure, unmixed, without hidden motives, or spotless. The term literally means “tested by sunlight.” They’ve been put under the bright light and found to be legit. He could well be talking about the persecution talked about in the first letter. Their “sincere mind” (v1) is in huge contrast to those devious con artists he’s been warning us about. Flip back to chapter two for a quick scouting report on these twisted teachers. Unlike the infiltrators, these believers have no have no hidden agenda. They just want to love Jesus and love others.

Once we’re wide awake, Pete doesn’t have breaking news to tell us. It’s “by way of reminder” (v1). He wants us to recall who Jesus is and what He has done. He wants us to remember who we are in Him. We’ve trusted in His perfect life that we’ve failed to live. We’ve trusted in His death for our sin that we should have died. We’ve trusted in His new life that we don’t deserve. The apostle encourages us to remember the truth we already knew. He reassures us that we’ve got the tools in the toolbox to handle what’s coming our way. We have the skills to not only sniff out spiritual snake oil salesmen but to refute everything they try to sell. All we need to do is remember what we already know. But first he must shake us up to wake us up.