“…that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior…”
Peter’s readers were to specifically remember the words spoken by Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles (2 Pe 1:20-21). Authority does not reside in the individual or experience but in the inspired Word of God.
which were spoken before by the holy prophet
The “holy prophet” was an Old Testament prophet whose writings the Holy Spirit inspired as the Word of God.
The Bible will do us little good if we do not come to it with a reverent mind. It is a holy (set apart) book delivered by “holy prophets,” or prophets that God specially set apart to write the Bible. The Bible will do us good if we hold it in reverence. Your attitude towards the Word will determine whether you apply it to your life.
and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior
A “commandment” is an injunction, charge, or precept. These commands are precepts of the authors of the New Testament. The “apostles of the Lord and Savior” are the authors of the New Testament. Peter linked Old and New Testament writers of the Scriptures, showing the unity of both testaments. The unity of Scripture has a pattern — “the Lord and Savior.”
It is essential to distinguish between the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles of the church. The term “apostle” literally means sent one. Apostles of the church are missionaries; they do not carry the authority of an apostle of Christ. Apostles of Christ had special authority to write Scripture and found the new economy of the church following the dispensation of Israel. They also carried special powers such as miracles to authenticate their writing of Scripture (2 Co 12:12). Those powers of an apostle of Christ ended with the age of those designated as His apostles and the closing of the canon of Scripture (He 2:3-4). Peter affirmed the continuity and congruity of the New Testament with the Old Testament. Authentication behind all preaching is from prophets and apostles.
The way we determine whether a given Bible book belongs in the canon (the books that belong in the Bible) is whether it was prophetic. Propheticity determined canonicity. The prophet declared what God disclosed to him. Only prophetic writing is canonic. God “built the church on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph 2:20). Every writer of the New Testament was either an apostle or a prophet.
Some translations have “your apostles.” If that is the right translation, the apostles, in that case would be those who evangelized the people to whom Peter is writing.
PRINCIPLE:
Saturate your mind with Scripture.
APPLICATION:
We never outgrow the tendency to sin until God promotes us to glory. As the hymn says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.” However, when we put the Bible in our minds, it deters sin from controlling us. We will not be sinless, but we will sin less.
Ps 119:11, “Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You!”
Unless we are one hundred percent sold on the Bible as the infallible, inerrant, unalterable Word from the living God, it will be of little use to us. We will not use it effectively in our lives. Nothing will come out if we have not previously programmed our minds with the Word; we cannot use what we do not have. Some people wonder why Christianity does not work for them. No wonder! They do not apply the Bible as God intended.
God gives us the mental furniture to think thoughts after Him. Innumerable benefits come to us when we believe God’s thoughts. The good is often the enemy of the best. We clutter our minds with things that are good but not the best. We litter our minds with the mediocre. These things are neither vulgar nor coarse but are not the most satisfactory. The very best is to know God by the Word of God. The most significant deterrent to falling into sin is the knowledge of the principles of the Word and the application of them to experience. This is God’s mode for safeguarding His own from sliding into sin.
It is not enough to know God’s principles; we must apply them to our hearts.
De 6:6, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.”
De 11:18, “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”
Je 15:16, “Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.”
Je 20:9, “But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.”
Meditate on God’s Word.
Jos 1:8, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Ps 1:2, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.”
Let the Word “abide” in you.
Jn 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Co 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
1 Jn 2:14, “I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.”
