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Jumpstarter 6 of 10

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Question 6

Peter’s “We have left everything” is read as leaving not just property but “old mental possessions and soul diseases”; what “mental possessions” or “soul diseases” do you suspect the chapter is targeting, and how would a group like ours recognize whether we’ve actually left them?

Another way to ask: When Peter says, “We have left everything,” what “mental possessions” or “soul diseases” does the chapter seem to mean? How could our group tell whether we’ve truly left them behind?

Direct Answer The chapter targets inner attachments and disorders—“materialistic desires,” “fleshly desires,” and the internal “lusts… pleasures… earthly hopes” that grasp for more and finally produce contempt for God. A group would recognize whether we’ve left them by examining what still conquers us, what we cling to over Christ, and whether our lives are being arranged to reflect “the mirror of Christ’s perfection.”

Support from Transcript:

Peter’s statement is reinterpreted: not mere property (“less than one drachma”) but leaving “old mental possessions and soul diseases.”
The disciples feared because they had not “fully renounced their materialistic desires.”
Internal persecution describes the “diseases”: “irreverent lusts, diverse pleasures, earthly hopes, and destructive dreams… always grasping for more.”
These passions can lead to “give up hope for eternal life” and “contempt for God.”
True following is defined: “to aim at sinless and his perfection… adorn… the soul before the mirror of Christ’s perfection… arrange everything in our lives to reflect that image.”
A wealthy person free from the disease is “unconquered and unharmed by wealth… lives free of his disease.”

Discussion Follow-ups What regular questions could we ask each other to expose “earthly hopes” and “destructive dreams”? In what areas is it hardest to tell whether we’ve truly left something or just renamed it?

Jumpstarter 6 of 10