How can you know for sure that you are a true believer? How can you have certainty about your eternal home? These are key questions, and the answers focus on your spiritual growth. Here’s what Peter says in today’s passage. 

2 Peter 1:10-11 (NIV)
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election.  For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Peter begins his second letter by addressing the believer’s desire to grow spiritually. God has given us everything we need for spiritual development (1:3-4), and we should strive to be effective and productive followers of Christ by adding essential virtues to our gift of faith (1:5-9). In the section today, Peter says that we should be diligent “to confirm [our] calling and election.”

The word “make” (2 Peter 1:5; 1:10) is in the middle voice and carries the meaning “make for oneself.” Being certain of your salvation is something only you can do. Salvation begins with the gift of faith. The first question is: Have you trusted in Christ as the One who paid the penalty for your sins? The second question is: Are you in the process of adding to your faith the essential Christian virtues? (See 2 Peter 1:5-7). This question does not deal with earning your right to stay in God’s family but with evaluating your demonstration of that faith. When we are alive in Christ, there will be signs of spiritual life.

Father, help us know that we are your children by seeing the signs of life that you desire each of us to have. In Jesus’ name. Amen.