Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. (2 Peter 3:1, NIV)
A few days ago I was listening to a radio interview with a young professional baseball player. He was asked whether there were any big league players who had inspired him as a kid or whom he was trying to emulate now. He said no.
The interviewer seemed as surprised as I was, because he pressed the young man, who insisted that no, he was only trying to do things his own way.
Was their thinking progressing as a part of their overall growth in Christ?I truly can’t imagine a golfer saying this. While we all must find our way “in the dirt,” as Ben Hogan alluded, we wouldn’t know where to begin without watching others. Our examples range from the smooth swinger on the range to the dominant players on television. They all have their styles, and from them we draw our own.
The same can be true for writers, of which I am one. And I will heartily profess to you that the purpose of Peter in today’s passage is my own. I think, too, it is the purpose of every writer who contributes to this daily platform. We want you to stimulate you to better thinking. Not better in the sense of more logical or intellectual, necessarily. Better in the sense of wholesomeness, righteousness, holiness. For in thinking this way, we are more apt to live this way. We position ourselves mentally to follow Christ actively.
I hope at this point you are curious as to just what is meant by “wholesome thinking.” And I’ll gladly report that the Greek is illuminative here—almost literally!
The Greek word from which the NIV snatches “wholesome,” the KJV derives “pure,” and the ESV chooses “sincere” is eilikrinēs. In its fullest sense, it means that something is found pure when it is exposed to sunlight. That is, when we peel back the outer shell and expose what’s inside under the brightest light, we still cannot find a flaw in it.
One day we will stand in such a light. It is the unveiling light of Christ’s judgment. What will he find in these minds of ours?
That question fed Peter’s concern for his readers. Was their thinking progressing as a part of their overall growth in Christ (their sanctification)?
Each day we sit down for our time in the Scriptures, we can pray that the Lord will do his grand work in our hearts and in our minds. We can ask him to help us think differently—according to his own mind (1 Corinthians 2:16). And we can ask that the wholesome thoughts he plants in us lead us to wholesomeness in all things.
—
Jeff Hopper
November 13, 2017
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.