Faith & Fruitfulness

2 Pet 1:5-9

Please read the above verses. These verses cover great qualities which are to be in the life of the believer. To get the full value of them they must be studied and heeded time and again. The Christian is to give all diligence, to add “these things” (2 Pet 1:8, 9 10, 12, 15) to his/her faith and life, to strengthen our faith. Let us act now to add them; we’re not to wait, but in a business like fashion we should mix these additives into our faith. And so, before going further, let’s read them again –

The Apostle Peter would encourage us to add these seven things to our faith:

Add “virtue” i.e. - moral excellence and goodness of character.  It means being an excellent person in life, a real man or a real woman, living life just like one should, in the most excellent way.

2. Add “knowledge. It means knowing what to do in different situations and knowing how to handle them. It is the sort of knowledge and wisdom that Solomon asked for as a special gift from God (1 Kings 3:7, 9, 12.). Such knowledge knows what is good, but also what is better, and can grow and develop. It knows what the will of God is in order that it might do it. We should help each other to increase in the knowledge of God. Remember the charge: we must add knowledge to our faith.

3. Add “temperance”. It means self-control, the master of desire, appetite and passion, especially sensual urges and cravings. It includes matters of food, drink, and exercise for our bodies. It means to be strong and controlled and restrained. It means to stand against the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-16). It is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23).

4. Add “patience”, endurance, steadfastness, perseverance. The word is active. It is not the spirit that just sits back and puts up with the trials of life, taking whatever may come. Rather it is the spirit that stands up and faces life’s trials, that actively goes about conquering and overcoming them. When trials confront a believer, he/she is stirred to face the trials head on, setting out to conquer and overcome them. He/she knows that God is allowing the trials in order to teach him/her more and more patience. Real Christians do not quit but go on. Our faith is tested to see if it is real, and even though a cross might lie along the pathway, it can endure (Heb 12:1-2).

5. Add “godliness”. Godliness is being “God-like”, being a godly person. The word “godliness” actually means to live in the reverence and awe of God; to be so conscious of God’s presence that one lives just as God would live if He were walking upon earth. It means to live seeking to be like God; to seek to possess the very character, and nature of God.

6. Then add “brotherly kindness”, the very special love that exists between brothers and sisters within a loving family, who truly cherish one another, who look after the welfare of each other. The Greek word  for  “brotherly kindness”  is philadelphia, and is made up of two Greek words, phileo (meaning “I love”) and adelphos (meaning “brother”). We might ask how we can possibly love one another when we are not true blood brothers and sisters.  The answer is that there is a family tie that is stronger in the spiritual than in the natural. We are brothers and sisters, because we have been born again by the same Spirit of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, i.e. we have come from the same source, we have the same Father.

7. Add “love”. It is the agape love of God, not restricted to our brothers and sisters but an unlimited and deep love, that loves regardless of feelings—whether a person feels like loving or not, that loves a person even if the person does not deserve to be loved, that actually loves the person who is utterly unworthy of being loved.

If these things are in us and abound, then we will not be idle and unfruitful, but failure to add into our faith these seven qualities can be disastrous. We would be described as being “blind” (v.9).