Day 1090 · Year 3 · The Great Tradition
Baxter on living with the end in view
A Puritan pastor taught Christians to meditate on heaven.
Today's passage
2 Peter 3:11-13
11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness
12as you anticipate and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.
13But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
Richard Baxter wrote a book called The Saints' Everlasting Rest because he believed Christians do not last well if they never lift their eyes to where they are going. Peter does the same. Knowing 'all these things are thus to be dissolved,' he asks: 'what sort of people ought you to be?' Heaven is not escapism; it is calibration. It changes what you build today, what you let go of, what you suffer for. Take ten minutes today to lift your eyes toward the new heavens and new earth.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
Richard Baxter · Puritans & Post-Reformation · 17th c. · England
Richard Baxter pressed the church to think regularly about heaven, convinced that meditation on the believer's coming rest is one of the most practical disciplines for faithfulness in the present.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- Given what Peter says will pass away, what kind of people should we be?
- What are we waiting for, according to verse 13?
- How might ten minutes a day looking toward that future change today?
A prayer to pray
Lift your eyes to the new heavens and the new earth. Ask God to let that horizon shape what you do today.