“To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1).
I hold the Apostle Peter in high esteem. If I ever got the opportunity to meet him on the street, I would probably be tongue-tied. Likely I’d just stand and stare. This is a guy who was one of Jesus’ closest men. Peter knew Jesus intimately. His shadow touched people and they were healed. This isn’t like your one friend who is a total knucklehead. I know he made some big mistakes, but that was pre-Pentecost. The fact is that Peter is one of the guys on whose shoulders we now stand. His testimony and his words inspire us nearly 2000 years after he went on to glory. I would consider my life to be of great value if I could inspire people in even a small fraction of the way Peter did. He was a hero of gigantic proportions.
That’s why I find this statement that he wrote to be so fascinating. He’s saying that our faith – yours and mine – is of equal standing with his. We aren’t second-class. We’re not the also-rans. There are no top-notch folks and then the rest of us. Our faith is of equal standing with Peter and the gang.
Part of the reason that we don’t generally see ourselves like that is because we compare our mess-ups with other people’s highlight reels. But God doesn’t see us like that. And it’s not because we’re intrinsically good. No, in fact we’re really, really bad. But we’re redeemed, and that’s the point. Simply because of Christ’s sacrifice, we have obtained a faith of equal standing with Peter.
To Make You Think 
That’s such an encouraging reminder. So often we compare our faith and life with other believers but that’s missing the point. The comparison is the life we had before Christ and the life we now have in Christ. Pre- Christ our righteousness was as filthy rags now for every Christian the life of Christ is our righteousness. How could there be more or less righteousness when we’re talking about the power of Christ? But we do that so often don’t we, compare ourselves with others. I know I’m guilty of it!
Thank you! I’ve heard too many “dumb Peter” sermons. He was one of my favorite disciples.
I think it’s so important for us to not compare ourselves to others—if we do we only look at their weaknesses and our strengths or vice-versa. And that’s not the way we should behave. We need to take our eyes off ourselves and put them on Jesus–“in Him we live and move and have our being.”