Keep Growing

“For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” - 2 Peter 1:5-7

This is a lengthy, and important list of qualities. Go ahead and keep reading through verse 11, and let’s talk about it…

Did you read it? 

Good!

We know that salvation is a gift freely given by God’s grace through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So let me be abundantly clear: we do not work for our salvation. 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10

However, we do work from our salvation. Peter makes this point abundantly clear in this letter to the early church. 

He opens the chapter with a reminder of the riches of God that we inherit as believers, both now and in eternity. Then follows the “for this reason,” in the verses 5-7 above. The gift is so good that there has to be a response! Peter is instructing us on that response. 

Putting this list of values into practice does a few things for us, and prevents some stuff we don’t want to experience too. 

Let’s start with what it prevents:

1. Ineffectiveness and unfruitfulness

Without intentional growth, we become ineffective Christians. You’ll know this is the case if you’re not seeing any fruit in your life. This is when your faith becomes dead (go checkout Natalie’s blog from a few weeks back for more on this!)

2. Falling away

Though our temptations might look different than those of Peter’s time, it’s not a new thing for believers to fall away from the faith. From the beginning it has been made clear that without pursuing these qualities, you run a high risk of falling to the ways of the world or to your own sinful desires.

In verse 8 Peter specifies that these qualities must always be increasing in order to see the fruit of them. That means we’re never not growing. If that sounds daunting or exhausting to you, I invite you to look through a different set of lenses.

No matter how close we get to God, there’s always more and better! Just when you think you’ve “arrived” He will show you something even better, sweeter, more fulfilling, and more exciting. Growth isn’t a chore - it’s an exciting adventure!

And as we grow in virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, affection, and love, this is what Peter tells us we can look forward to:

1. Deeper certainty of our salvation

No, we don’t earn our salvation through the practice of these things - we’ve already determined that it was a gift. But, if you’ve been a believer for any amount of time, you probably know that the enemy loves to try to make us doubt it. We start to wonder if it really “stuck” or if it was just an emotional experience that didn’t mean what we thought. Without practicing our faith and working it, we won’t see it grow, and we won’t see fruit. But when you do work it and you see and taste that fruit, you take away the enemy’s foothold to plant doubt in your mind. It gives you evidence of your salvation and reminds you of the gift God gave you and the work He has done and is doing in you. It helps you to stay confident in your salvation even in the midst of the battle. 

2. Confirmation of our calling and election

Similar, but different. Practicing these qualities further confirms your calling and election. These are things that we could never produce or accomplish by our own willpower. We have to have the Holy Spirit working in us. So, when we put them to practice and see what it does in our lives and the lives of people around us, it confirms for our hearts the truth that God chose you and called you to a specific purpose.

3. Entrance into the kingdom of God

Scripture tells us that the way into the Kingdom of God is narrow and few will find it (Matthew 7:13-14). By pursuing growth in these areas, we keep our feet on that narrow path. When we stop pursuing these, it’s all to easy to get distracted and wander off that path. 

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” - Matthew 7:13-14

Keep growing in your faith. Don’t become complacent. 

I’ll leave you with this exhortation from Hebrews chapter 12.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God.” - Hebrews 12:1-2