Week 47: Keeping our Faith Alive and Growing

This week's Bible reading unfolds as follows:

* Sunday (Epistles): 2 Peter
* Monday (The Law): Deuteronomy 16-19
* Tuesday (History): Ezra 6-10
* Wednesday (Psalms): Psalms 134-136
* Thursday (Poetry): Ecclesiastes 9-10
* Friday (Prophecy): Zechariah 8-14
* Saturday (Gospels): Acts 17-18

We cover a lot of great biblical material this week, from 2 Peter to Acts...and many good readings in between! There are a few verses in the first chapter of 2 Peter, however, that capture the essence of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It's one of those precious texts that causes one to say, "If I could only get my life to line up with this passage, I would have it made as a follower of Jesus Christ!"

Scripture: 2 Peter 1:5-8
"In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

"The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins."

Observation:
The first observation to make is that faith (or belief) was never intended to exist by itself. It is "supplemented" with a rich set of virtues: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, patient endurance, godliness, brotherly (and sisterly) affection, and love for everyone. Our faith is fortified and deepened when we take up these attitudes and actions.

It is also interesting to note that Peter lists seven virtues - a number in Scripture that signifies the wholeness and completeness of the created order. As members of Christ's "new creation," we become whole and complete when we make these virtues a part of our lives.

Another takeaway from this passage is the concept of ongoing spiritual growth. "The more you grow like this," Peter says, "the more productive and useful you will be...." Our growth, productivity, and usefulness are givens. In fact, when a Christ-follower isn't becoming more productive and useful in his or her knowledge of Jesus Christ, it signals a problem - namely, spiritual shortsightedness or even blindness, which keeps them from remembering their cleansing from past sins. It is essential to remember that we are a forgiven people, because that is what instills gratitude...and gratitude inspires our desire to practice these virtues...which in turn deepens our faith and keeps us growing spiritually.

It's all connected!

Application:
Applying this passage begins with a spiritual gut check. Are we growing in Christ the way we should be? If not, why not? We can start by asking ourselves whether it may be due to shortsightedness (or, at worst, blindness) regarding the forgiveness of our former sins. When we forget that we are the recipients of God's unconditional love and forgiveness, it's easy to become spiritually indifferent, pallid.

There are two ways to reverse this condition: (1) by practicing the discipline of remembrance and (2) by engaging the seven virtues that Peter lists in this passage.

Refocusing on that wondrous moment when we first realized that God had forgiven all our past sins inspires deep gratitude and reorients us to God's economy of grace. Everything we do in the Christian life is an outgrowth of grace. We do not work for our salvation, for it was freely given to us at the outset of our lives in Christ.

Now on to the seven virtues...

We do not acquire the virtue of moral excellence in one fell swoop. It comes through a lifetime of good choices. And while no human being except Jesus will ever get through life making perfect moral choices all the time, we build moral fiber by every upright choice we make. When we opt to tell the truth instead of "a white lie," or dismiss lustful thoughts when they enter our consciousness, or make complete stops at stop signs, or use words that build up rather than tear down, we enrich our moral character.

Knowledge as well comes piece by piece. The point is we never stop learning. And it matters what we choose to study. The knowledge that Scripture envisions is the knowledge of relationship. It's not a matter of learning facts. It's about knowing a person...in this case, God. We come to know God better through prayer, Bible reading, fellowship with other believers, and sound teaching.

"Self-control" is the only real control we have. We cannot control our circumstances...and we cannot control what other people do. We can only control how we respond to the outside world. Viktor Frankl, in his famous book, Man's Search for Meaning, reflected on the prisoners of Germany's concentration camps. He noted a fundamental difference between those who survived those torturous circumstances and those who did not: the attitude they chose to have. He wrote, “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.” That, in a word, is self-control! And one key byproduct is the next virtue: patient endurance.

Moral excellence, knowledge of God, self-control, and patient endurance yield, collectively, the fifth virtue on the list - namely, godliness. Godly people are known precisely by their patience, self-control, knowledge, and moral excellence! And the more God-like we are, the easier it is to love both Christians and non-Christians, hence practicing virtues six and seven!

Prayer:
O Lord, please keep us ever mindful of the cleansing of our past sins, which keeps our gratitude, and thus our faith, alive. And by your grace, enable us to keep growing in productivity and usefulness, as we pursue the virtues that characterize your new creation: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, patient endurance, godliness, brotherly love, and love for everyone. For Jesus' sake. Amen!

Have a great week!

Faithfully,
Chuck