Are we as we ought to be?
2 Peter 3:8-11
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and
a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to
us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away
with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are
therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all
holy conversation and godliness,
KJV
When reading these scripture there is no doubt that Peter is addressing the church and not the sinner.
There is no thing to be misunderstood about what he is talking about with the church. #1 don’t be
ignorant about the will of God. #2 the time span of God. #3 the eminent return of Jesus to take his
church from this world. And #4 the people we ought to be. This would include character and behavior
that becometh saints. As I look at this and think about what kind of person I ought to be I do not think of
it as a person needing to be born again. I think what kind of person ought I to be as a person that has
been born again. In doing so with my own person in mind I formed a list of seven things I ought to be. Of
course this list is not inclusive. So I call it my priority list.
#1 - I ought to be a person that loves God with all my heart, my strength, my mind and my soul.
Knowing this when I love God this way I love him to the point of obedience. It is possible to love God
heart and soul but not with mind and body. Thus we are not obedient to him. Thus we have not
completely loved him. Remember to love is to give yourself to whom you love. In doing so they will
become your strength or weakness. In this case God becomes our strength and we can obey him We
must love God as a whole man with all our strength in order to obey him with all our heart.
#2 - I ought to be filled with his spirit which I was at salvation. But then I ought to be baptized in his Spirit
by Jesus for Jesus is the baptizer. I will then have availability to be used of God in the gifts,
administrations and operations of the Holy Spirit as he wills. Allowing the will of God to be done in
supernatural manifestations benefiting believer as well as unbelievers so as they become born again.
# 3 - I ought to be led of the Holy Spirit. To be led Of the Holy Spirit is to ever be used of God to do his
will as well as being in his perfect will. To be led of the Spirit of life will save us from being led by the
spirit of death. Jesus was led by the spirit and ought we not be as he. It is only when we are led into the
wilderness by the Spirit that we come out of the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we do
live in a wilderness world.
# 4 - I ought to be an imitator of Jesus Christ as a dear little child. If you know one thing about a child
you will know this whom they are imitating they love and they love the imitating. They are never half
hearted and they are bold with their imitation. We can’t do this by wearing a robe, sandals and long
hair. But we can do this with our love, obedience, deeds and thought. Just asking ourselves the
question what would Jesus do or say could help to imitate him and as always we imitate him in the
power of the Holy Ghost.
# 5 - I ought to be holy as God is Holy for with out holiness no man shall see God. The early church
called this sanctification. This is a subject not often taught or demonstrated in most of our churches. It
is called old fashion. But in reality it is the style of the cross. It is separation from the world and its way
of doing and being wrong to Gods way of doing and being right. There was a day by appearance,
action, and speech you could tell the church from the world, but those days are fast disappearing.
Sanctification or Holiness should be a daily work done by the teaching of the word of God and the work
of the Holy Spirit. And the Lord said be ye holy as I am Holy.
# 6 - This is going to be a one liner. I ought to love my neighbor as myself. If we did, that would put
Government support controlled agencies out of business and the Church back in the powerful work of
God's business. Sorry three lines.
# 7 - Like I said this is just my priority list. Not an inclusive list. I ought to be a person after God's heart.
And just how do you capture the heart of God? Jesus gave us the answer in the eighth chapter of John.
These things I do always that please the Father. You will find that when you are pleasing God you are
also a person of faith. And you know that faith works every time or at least it did for Jesus. And faith
works when we please God. Some say that faith did not work for them. Or was it because they did not
know the will of God and how to please him that faith did not work.
There are many points concerning faith that can be argued here. But the fact remains. Jesus always
had his father’s heart because he pleased him and faith never failed for him. So for me I ought to be a
person after Gods heart.
When Peter said what kind of person ought we to be? It seems to imply that we may not be that person
yet. But we can and should know what we know. Make your own list in the light of these scriptures and
see what kind of person you become as we ought to be. Works for me and by the grace of God I am
becoming what I ought to be.