I think you’re leaving out those who really DID follow Christ faithfully – THEN fell away into false teaching.
Well, yes, because Peter himself is doing that. As for those who did (and who do) "really did follow Christ faithfully," because salvific faith itself is the gift of God (as Paul is crystal clear in enunciating in Ephesians 2:8), then those who truly fall away from the faith ~ "go out" from the people of God because they are themselves "not of" the people of God, as, again, John puts it (John's actual wording in quotes here) ~ then yes, the group of folks you are talking about are purposely excluded by Peter in what he says in 2 Peter 2, and I am merely following suit.
He is presupposing that they are followers.
Well, rather than 'presupposing,' I would actually say
singling out,. This is not a huge distinction, but it is what Peter is doing in this entire passage in 2 Peter 2 ~ singling out those who are
with true followers for a time... and even suppose themselves to
be fellow true followers, but then subsequently, again, go out
from the true followers because they are
not true followers, even proving themselves not to be of the true followers to the true followers themselves. So, not of them, not possessing the same God-given faith, which, as I'm sure you know, is the assurance from God the Father and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, which is what we read in Hebrews 11: 1, that
"faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
“You are salt and light” is aimed at His followers, not everyone in general.
I agree in principle, BOL, with the "not everyone in general" part... :) But again, in everything He says in His Olivet discourse, Jesus is proclaiming the Gospel open to everyone, and not just to ethnic Jews only ~ everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is
eligible to receive His Good News. Yes, not everyone will actually be His salt and light; not everyone is given to Him by the Father and thus are not His sheep and do not hear His voice (John 10), but that is not His point in the sermon on the Mount of Olives. Universal eligibility is His point... people of any tongue, tribe, and nation.
You posted Phil. 1:6 as “proof” that God will sustain us no matter what – but you left OUT the preceding verse that has the CONDITION:
Phil. 1:5-6
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
In EVERY case of a promise – there is a condition.
Okay, no offense, BOL, but you are misreading that. :) Paul, in Philippians 1:5-6, says
he is sure... confident... that God has begun a good work in them and that He will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus ~ because of their partnership in the gospel with him ('him' being Paul himself). This is in no way a condition of God's promise, but merely the reason for Paul's confidence that they have the same God-given faith that he does, and as such are as much in Christ as he himself, and as such are as secure in Christ as he is. What he's saying here is very much parallel to what he says at the end of Romans 8, that
"we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us..." and that he is
"sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
How anyone, Catholic, Protestant (because many Protestants, primarily western Protestants, believe this), or otherwise Christian can somehow suppose that we who are truly born again of the Spirit are not secure in our salvation is... Well, again, not to offend anyone or in any way pronounce them unintelligent, but that is a terrible misunderstanding of what God has said. It doesn't make them somehow "less Christian" ~ those who are in Christ are in Christ ~ or to be "looked down on" in any way, but it is... well, it is a
heartbreaking misunderstanding, to be quite honest. God gives us this assurance, and the Holy Spirit convicts us, among other things so that we will be assured of our security, that we will no longer wonder if God loves us or not.
Once again, cooperation with God’s grace is the key.
No, but it's an
inevitability, if God's particular salvific grace has been bestowed on the individual, because of the Spirit's initial work of faith and subsequent ongoing work of sanctification in us. The key is God's grace itself. :) It depends on Him and His mercy and compassion, which is given to some and not to others, and not on man's willing or working, as Paul says in Romans 9:14-18, where, again, Paul writes:
"Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, Who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharoah, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' So then He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills."
Finally – our good works were planned ahead for us. HE created them,. We’re just the instruments that finish them.
I agree! But BOL, you're actually contradicting yourself in a way... you're saying He created them, which I wholeheartedly agree with (especially because that's what Paul says in Ephesians 2... :)), but really in saying that our works are a condition of God's promise, that "our works are created" by ourselves and not God, which is directly opposite of what Paul says in that Ephesians 2 passage.
Again, though, I agree with this statement of yours here as it stands, but
it is because of His ongoing work in us, which, again, is precisely what Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13. To flesh that out with explanatory interjections:
We are to "work out your (our) own salvation with fear and trembling..." ~ this is our responsibility and the outward evidence of our God-given faith and resulting love for the triune Jehovah
"..., for it is God who works in you (us)..." ~ 'for' emphasized (also 'because'), so what follows is the impetus, the direct cause, of the preceding working out of our own salvation
"...both to will and to work for his good pleasure." ~ the modifier of those two infinitives, 'to will' and 'to work' is 'you/us'... we do the willing and working, but again, it is because of God's work in us.
Grace and peace to you, BreadOfLife.
