Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, July 11, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This passage is grim. If you read the whole thing, it talks about God consigning angels to “hell” and “chains of deepest darkness” until the day of judgment, about God wiping the “ungodly” off the face of the earth in the flood, and utterly destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Of course, God spared Noah and Lot, and therefore “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial.”
This is, frankly, terrifying, if you have to somehow prove your “godliness” in order to be spared. Because here’s the thing. I don’t know about you, but I fall short on the daily. I’m like Paul, who does the thing I don’t want to do and fails to do the thing I want to do. Anyone else relate?
The good news is that whatever the writer of 2 Peter says, God has made us all godly—holy, sanctified, forgiven, saved, fill-in-your-favorite-word-here. We don’t have to do or be anything to know that we are not subject to any sort of divine trial that could wind up sending us to hell (with or without a handbasket).
Do I ever find myself worried that I’m not good enough for God’s love?
