2 Peter 1:10

By doing these things, you will never sin. He speaks of greater sins, which anyone who commits will not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, and from which everyone who devotes himself to the aforementioned virtues remains immune before the Lord. …

To make your calling and election firm - God hath called you by his word and his Spirit; he hath elected you, separated you from the world, through sanctification of the Spirit. O cast not away these inestimable benefits! If ye are thus diligent to make your election firm, ye shall never finally fall.

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence,....

The great doctrines of the gospel, that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, that those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, and all that believe in God must be careful to maintain good works --these are truths the apostles insisted on in their day; these are faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation in every age of the Christian church.

Nowhere else does he so address them, which makes his calling them so here the more emphatical. give diligence--The Greek aorist implies one lifelong effect [ALFORD]. to make--Greek middle voice; to make so far as it depends on you; to do your part towards making.

IT is exceedingly desirable that in the hours of worship and in the house of prayer our minds should be as much as possible divested of every worldly thought. Although the business of the week will very naturally struggle with us to encroach upon the Sabbath, it is our business to guard the Sabbath from the intrusion of our worldly cares, as we would guard an oasis from the overwhelming irruption of the sand.

IT is exceedingly desirable that in the hours of worship and in the house of prayer our minds should be as much as possible divested of every worldly thought. Although the business of the week will very naturally struggle with us to encroach upon the Sabbath, it is our business to guard the Sabbath from the intrusion of our worldly cares, as we would guard an oasis from the overwhelming irruption of the sand. I have felt, however, that to-day we should be surrounded with circumstances of peculiar difficulty in endeavouring to bring our minds to spiritual maters; for that depends upon mental abstraction, election times are the worst. So important in the minds of most men are political matters, that very naturally after the hurry of the week, combined with the engrossing pursuit of elections, we are apt to bring the same thoughts and the same feelings into the house of prayer, and speculate, perhaps, even in the place of worship, whether a conservative or a liberal shall be returned for our borough, or whether for the City of London there shall be returned Lord John Russell, Baron Rothschild, or Mr. Currie. I thought, this morning, Well, it is no use my trying to stop this great train in its progress. People are just now going on at an express rate on these matters; I think I will be wise, and instead of endeavouring to turn them off the line, I will turn the points, so that they may still continue their pursuits with the same swiftness as ever, but in a new direction. It shall be the same line; they shall still be travelling in earnest towards election, but perhaps I may have some skill to turn the points, so that they shall be enabled to consider election in a rather different manner. When Mr.

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence - 2Pe 1:5. “In view of these things, give the greater diligence to secure your salvation.” The considerations on which Peter based this appeal seem to have been the fact that such promises are made to us, and such hopes held out before us; the degree of uncertainty thrown over the whole matter of our personal salvation by low attainments in the divine life, and the dreadful condemnation which will ensue if in the end it shall be found that we are destitute of all real piety. The general thought is, that religion is of sufficient importance to claim our highest diligence, and to arouse us to the most earnest efforts to obtain the assurance of salvation. To make your calling and election sure - On the meaning of the word “calling,” see the notes at Eph 4:1. On the meaning of the word “election,” see the Rom 9:11 note; 1Th 1:4 note. Compare Eph 1:5. The word rendered “election” here, (ἐκλογήν eklogēn,) occurs only in this place and in Act 9:15; Rom 9:11; Rom 11:5, Rom 11:7,Rom 11:28; 1Th 1:4; though corresponding words from the same root denoting “the elect, to elect, to choose,” frequently occur. The word here used means “election,” referring to the act of God, by which those who are saved are “chosen” to eternal life. As the word “calling” must refer to the act of God, so the word “election” must; for it is God who both “calls” and “chooses” those who shall be saved. […]