Orthodoxy and Heresy: 2 Peter 1:1,2

I recently was in a meeting about a governance approach the organization I belong to is trying to promote. We were talking about different approaches to governance and about not including one of the hallmarks of the particular system we endorse. One guy said, “Well that would just be heresy. We have our orthodoxy and anything that departs from the key values of our system is simply outside the pale of orthodoxy.”

Every system of thought or behavior, every position on truth, has an accepted standard and has its heresies, its departures from that truth. Christianity certainly does. Jesus anticipated this when he chose twelve men from among his disciples to pour into in greater depth. There needed to be clarity on his message, and an authoritative source for what was orthodox and what wasn’t. Peter was one of those twelve who was dubbed, with them, as apostles.

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter 1:1-2, ESV)

Peter’s second letter (2 Peter 3:1) to mostly Gentile-believer-filled churches (1 Peter 1:1) is dealing with the threat of false teachers infiltrating the church. Consequently he identifies himself here as a “servant and apostle of Jesus Christ” to at once identify with every believer he is addressing as a fellow servant and as one with unique authority to speak on the gospel and who Jesus is.

Peter describes a faith “of equal standing” with his, a belief (both doctrine and trust) that has equal honor before God, whether you are Jewish or not, an apostle or not. And this faith is obtained by gift from God, as though He cast lots to see who would receive the faith and it fell to us (the same word is used to describe Zechariah being chosen by lot to serve in the temple, Luke 1:9). It was a faith given us because of the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He had paid by his sacrifice on the cross for the right to give us a share in his kingdom.

This designation of Jesus as “our God and Savior” is equivalent to John’s designation of Jesus as God in John 1:1 and Paul’s designation of him as God in Titus 2:13. And that is made equally plain in Peter’s wish that grace and peace might be multiplied to his readers through “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,” something only possible if the two are equal. So the faith that Peter is seeking to protect and exclaim includes the deity of Messiah Jesus. He is not a man only but also God. And He has communicated this faith through his apostles.

If we want to have a faith of equal standing with the apostle Peter we must adhere to his teaching of this faith. He is Jesus’ chosen representative, along with the other apostles, of Jesus’ teachings. This is why Jesus spent so much time with the apostles whom he chose, training them to take his message around the world. So this letter becomes an exhortation to us, as well as the original readers, as to how we should beware of false teaching.