Add to Your Faith…
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. (2Peter 1:5-9)
DOES IT SEEM STRANGE THAT WE SHOULD ADD SOMETHING TO OUR FAITH? When I first read these verses about sixty years ago, it sounded a bit…strange. I had taken for granted that faith would be the most of everything important. But here, this rough old fisherman tells us to give all diligence to adding to our faith. Don’t let it coast. Don’t take it for granted.
McGEE PUTS IT THIS WAY: “The Christian life is a very serious business. However, we have made it sort of an extracurricular activity. The present-day thinking is that it is not something to be taken into the business world or the schoolroom or into social life. Rather, it is something sort of like your Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes which you wear only at certain times. However, Peter said that it is something to which we are to give "all diligence." (McGee)
TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS SPACE, I’m going to borrow what Wiersbe so masterfully wrote on adding to our faith. He does it so well.
“WHEN HE SINNER BELIEVES ON JESUS CHRIST, the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to impart the life and nature of God within. A baby shares the nature of its parents, and a person born of God shares the divine nature of God. The lost sinner is dead, but the Christian is alive because he shares the divine nature. The lost sinner is decaying because of his corrupt nature, but the Christian can experience a dynamic life of godliness because he has God’s divine nature within. Mankind is under the bondage of corruption (Romans 8:21), but the believer shares the freedom and growth that is a part of possessing the divine nature.
“NATURE DETERMINES APPETITE. The pig wants slop and the dog will even eat its own vomit (2Peter 2:22), but the sheep desires green pastures. Nature also determines behavior. An eagle flies because it has an eagle’s nature and a dolphin swims because that is the nature of the dolphin. Nature determines environment: squirrels climb trees, moles burrow underground, and trout swim in the water. Nature also determines association: lions travel in prides, sheep in flocks, and fish in schools.
IF NATURE DETERMINES APPETITE, and we have God’s nature within, then we ought to have an appetite for that which is pure and holy. Our behavior ought to be like that of the Father, and we ought to live in the kind of “spiritual environment” that is suited to our nature. We ought to associate with that which is true to our nature (see 2Corinthiams 6:14). The only normal, fruit-bearing life for the child of God is a godly life.
BECAUSE WE POSSESS THIS DIVINE NATURE, we have “completely escaped” the defilement and decay in this present evil world. If we feed the new nature the nourishment of the Word, then we will have little interest in the garbage of the world. But if we “make provision for the flesh” (Romans 13:14), our sinful nature will lust after the “old sins” (2Peter 1:9) and we will disobey God. Godly living is the result of cultivating the new nature within.
FAITH RESULTS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH (2Peter 1:5-7)
WHERE THERE IS LIFE, THERE MUST BE GROWTH. The new birth is not the end; it is the beginning. God gives His children all that they need to live godly lives, but His children must apply themselves and be diligent to use the “means of grace” He has provided. Spiritual growth is not automatic. It requires cooperation with God and the application of spiritual diligence and discipline. “Work out your own salvation. . . . For it is God which worketh in you” (Philippians 2:12-13).
PETER LISTED SEVEN CHARACTERISTICS of the godly life, but we must not think of them as seven beads on a string or even seven stages of development. The word translated “add” really means “to supply generously.” In other words, we develop one quality as we exercise another quality.
hese graces relate to each other the way the branch relates to the trunk and the twigs to the branch. Like the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galations 5:22-23), these qualities grow out of life and out of a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not enough for the Christian to “let go and let God,” as though spiritual growth were God’s work alone. Literally, Peter wrote, “Make every effort to bring alongside.” The Father and the child must work together.” (Wiersbe)
Read Through the Bible in a Year
MAY 7, 2018 – MONDAY
A.M. 1Kings 14-15 P.M. John 1:1-29
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
May 4-5, 2018 – FRIDAY – SATURDAY
A.M. 1Kings 8-11 P.M. Luke 23:39—24:1-35
(A lady told me they go to Morning Minute and let the man read to them while they eat breakfast.)
A GOOD MEMORY VERSE
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)
Song for Today:
Standing on The Promises (1:49) – (1st & 2nd Grades Calvary Memorial School – Sou.Pines, NC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOhhrDxc0HI
Note: You may need to turn off the song when finished to avoid something else you do not want to hear.
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