2 Peter 1:2-9 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

How I came to these verses was by searching out an understanding as to the Nicolaitans of Revelations 2. A stern warning is always best to be understood properly, so as not to fall to the same fate. What I discovered rather surprised me as to the source.

Acts 6:3,5 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:

Here at the end of Acts 6:5 we find Nicolas who was a pagan, became a Jew and then became a Christian. Whether fair or unjustified, this Nicolas is credited with a practice which led to a following, which was found in those Revelation 2 warnings.

Would the practices of 2 Peter 1:2-9 have prevented that sequence of errors?

Exodus 4:15 And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.

When did this practice stop?

We are so smart, so educated, and so popular that somehow we stopped allowing God to speak thru us. Or perhaps we stopped emphasizing the deep abiding relationship with God that allowed men to trust in God enough to let go of self.

1 Peter 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

Pride is the obstacle to submission. How can we teach submission if we have not learned it ourselves. Being subject to one another is not agreeing with men that are older just because of age. Men who have a deep abiding relationship with God are the ones we need to be in submission with.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Prove yourself by knowing He is in you and that your relationship with Him has to come first before any other.

I fear we spend more time trying to prove ourselves to others that we neglected that first love.

Revelation 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

He would not have said it, if it were not true.