FAITH, LIFE, AND DEATH
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Father, this Christmas Day, I am humbled again by the story of your Son who submitted himself for sinners like me. Thank you for your great gift; help me honor him in everything I do.
Read 2 PETER 1:12–18
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Prophecy of Scripture
12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
Reflect
In what ways do you rely on God’s promises and his power to fulfill them?
God instructed Joshua to have memorial stones laid after the Israelites crossed the Jordan, before they entered the Promised Land.1 These stones were to serve as a tangible reminder of what God had done for the Israelites for many generations to come. Today, we may agree with and consider ourselves settled in ‘the truth’ (v. 12). Yet, Peter insists on reminding his readers that God’s ‘divine power’ and ‘his very great and precious promises’ (1:3, 4) exist to refresh us in our faith (vv. 12–15). Peter wants us actively to remember these things (v 15). Reminders—whether they are sticky notes or pop-up notifications on our computers or smartphones—do not disappear until we act on them.
Why is Peter so insistent? He knows that reminding ourselves of the gospel and God’s larger purposes for us and in us through Jesus is a matter of life and death. Hence his sense of urgency: Peter knows he is going to die sometime soon. His priority is to ensure that his hearers stay focused and attentive to that which really matters, that which will last into eternity.
Peter has the authority to say these things because he was a personal witness of the transfiguration (vv. 16–18). Peter walked with Jesus for over three years and saw Moses and Elijah physically, but this was not the basis of his confidence. It merely underlined to him (and his readers) that the miraculous must defer to that which is solid and reliable: the prophetic Word of God passed on for all of us in the Scriptures. That Word is born to us today.
Apply
To what degree do the Scriptures direct your decisions and values?
Closing prayer
Father in Heaven, today as I celebrate the birth of your Son, help me to, in new ways, take in the wonder of your gift. Help me to see his greatness in ways that build my faith and spur me on to point others to him.
1 Josh 4:1–7.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2026 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Encounter with God is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.