“Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you“
Yes, I think it is right
“I think” is an accounting term. It originally referred to leading, to lead the way, to preside. Later it came to mean to consider or to lead before the mind, account (Philippians 2:3,6,25; 3:7,8; 2 Thessalonians 3:15; 1 Timothy 1:12; 6:1; Hebrews 10:29; 11:11; James 1:2; 2 Peter 3:9). This word came to mean to think in principles. “Yes, I think it is right to think in principles.” “Think” then means to lead principles out before the mind. Character forms from what we think about God’s Word.
“Right” means “fitting” here. Peter is thinking in terms of a right principle. It means to do the right thing. “It is fitting that I write to remind you because I am about to die.” Peter developed a sense of responsibility to give Asia Minor Christians vital truth before he died.
Principle:
Character comes from the application of the principles of God’s Word to our experience.
Application:
When young people grow up in homes where they are not taught principle, they grow up lacking responsibility. Responsibility does not come through discipline. Discipline gives training as to what is wrong. All children need this. However, a parent must go beyond discipline since discipline merely keeps children in line.
The only way a parent can endow a child with a sense of responsibility is to communicate principles to them. Young people die for their country, not because of discipline, but because they know the principles for which their country stands. They understand the principle of fighting for freedom.
The philosophy of liberalism does not teach principle. It teaches freedom. Freedom without principle is vacuous. Liberalism promotes lack of initiative. It teaches dependence on the state, not upon operating principles that transcend the state. This philosophy has helped produce a generation without a sense of responsibility because it does not operate on principle.
We cannot have a true sense of responsibility without operating principles in deep within our person. These principles need to be taught and derived from the Word of God.
A man has a woman out on a date. They may be in some secluded place. There is just the two of them. If he has a sense of responsibility developed from principle, he will hold back. If he is simply looking to fulfil his own pleasure, he is devoid of principle. He will pursue the lusts of the flesh. Taboos will not prevent them from having sex.
In marriage, he will carry that same sense of responsibility. He will be true to his wife. She will have security because she knows he carries principles with him that will not yield to temptation. He has a sense of responsibility both to himself and to his wife.
A girl goes to college and faces the choice of joining a sorority. She thinks she can have an adequate social life without a sorority. A Christian, who thinks in terms of principles, can live independent from the idea they need friends or social life structured for them. People who join an organization like this live a life without character, without principle. Character does not come from what we do; it comes from what we think in terms of principles.
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