This content was excerpted from The Forge Bible Study week one.
If I could sit down and have a conversation with my younger self, what would I want to make sure that he or she knew? How we answer that question can teach us a lot about ourselves. Hindsight is certainly 20/20. At times, we all wish we could go back and tell ourselves what we know now—share words of warning and instruction, or perhaps even encouragement and hope. In some ways, the mentors in our lives are messages from the future. What they share with and speak over us are lessons they’ve learned and things they likely would have wanted to know and hear when they were in our shoes. Knowing people further along in life’s journey who will share the wisdom of their experience matters.
Peter was more than a personal spiritual mentor in the life of the early church. Although he had close companions he discipled personally, he also mentored the masses through his letters. Consider today the writings of theological giants like Charles Spurgeon or Timothy Keller and even living contemporaries like David Platt or Tony Evans. These and so many more have a wide reach when it comes to investing in others. Peter’s writings have spurred people closer to Jesus for over two thousand years. In this passage, the aging apostle wrote to dispersed, even exiled believers who had faced great challenges to their faith in Jesus. In a very real way, Peter saw the end of the story: He knew the difficulty early believers were facing and would continue to endure, and he saw a gloriously preferred future. Throughout the rest of his letter, we can see that he also knew what it would take for his readers to persist in faith. Each of the characters in The Forge walked through internal struggles and faced powerful external pressures. They needed the Word of God, timeless gospel truths, and the community of faith in order to see and follow Jesus. So do we.
Proverbs 13:20 serves as a lifelong reminder that when people walk with the wise, they become wise. When they walk with fools, however, they suffer consequences. Walking with the wise often provides us the opportunity to learn from someone else’s mistakes rather than repeating those same mistakes ourselves. When it comes to living out the character of Christ, humble generosity takes center stage. God humbles the proud and exalts the humble (Luke 14:11) and since Jesus humbled Himself more than anyone, God exalted Him above everyone (Philippians 2:5-9). Selfless, sacrificial love communicates Jesus in a way words alone cannot.