GROWING IN GRACE - BUILDING WITH POWER TOOLS
2 Peter 1:5-11
Text
Author’s Translation
5. For this very reason, by making every effort, furnish in your faith moral excellence, to moral excellence, knowledge; 6. to knowledge, self-control; to self-control, steadfastness; to steadfastness, godliness; 7. to godliness, brotherly affection; to brotherly affection, unselfish love. 8. For if you can claim ownership of these virtues in progressively increasing amounts, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately, 9. for to the one for whom these things are not present – he is blind. That is to say, he is nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins. 10. Therefore, fellow Christians, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. For by doing thee things you will never be ruined by sin. 11. For thus an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided for you.
INTRODUCTION
I have noticed over the years that companies often have personalities as distinct as people do. This was true of one company in particular that I used to have as a client. It had a rather crass and vile personality actually; which is why they are no longer a client of mine. I was always amazed at the things the people who worked there said and did. I remember one day sitting in their warehouse, working on a problem workstation, listening to the men and women brag about their latest exploits. For me, I found the conversation to be sad and degrading for those involved. One of the main participants in the conversation was a man I will call Jon.
Last Sunday we saw in 2 Peter 1:1-4 that God's divine power has been given to all who have obtained faith in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ; and that this divine power becomes effective through the knowledge that God has called us to his glory and excellence. Or to put it another way, when we hold God's promises in front of our eyes we have power to resist the temptations of evil and are lured on in paths of justice and love unto eternal life. The main thought last week was: To live a godly life with eternal hope, we need a gospel that is more than just fire insurance. We need a gospel that is for every believer, is full of power, and is based on promises. Peter says that our goal is life and godliness, the source of strength to become godly is divine power and the activating connection between the goal of godliness and the source of divine power is knowing and trusting the promises of God. We are the light bulbs of our neighborhoods; God is the distant generator of electricity; and the cables that carry the power are God's promises.
This Sunday we are going to continue on in that passage and look at verses 5-11. We are going to look at what we are to do since we have been given this divine power. To look at how we build with the power tools of His promises.
Aristotle, the Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.) sensed the shallowness of the philosophy of his contemporary Socrates who said, "No one willingly rejects the best course once he sees it." Aristotle replied, with a most accurate assessment, that men willingly and willfully sin and become captives of their own lust. Though, he had no answer to the problem of human wickedness. All Aristotle could do was examine it and discuss it; solutions failed him.
Yet, Peter here gives us a picture into the wisdom of God where the wisdom of man fails. He shows us how to build a godly life using the power tools that God provides.
God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Therefore, effective pursuit of godliness requires three things. First it requires . . .
BODY
I. Our Effort
Let’s begin by looking at verses 5-7 which I will read from the ESV:
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.
Last week we saw that God needed to supply us everything that we needed for life and godliness (v. 3), yet here we are talking about my works and my effort. Am I holy because Christ has declared me holy or because I work to be holy? If I am to depend completely on Christ’s work, then where does my effort fit in to the picture?
To answer this question I think every believer needs to have the term "means of grace" as part of their spiritual vocabulary. I can’t think of a better way of describing how God's decisive work relates to our dependent work. Or, to be specific in this case: how God's sovereign governing of all things relates to human effort. If God runs the world according to his own holy and inscrutable wisdom and He is the one who decisively chooses those who will be saved, and He is the one who keeps us unto salvation, why do I need to work at godliness?
Probably the most important thing to notice here in verses 5-7 is that this command is based on verses 3 and 4 which are not a command at all but are description of what God has done for us. God's divine power has given us all things that lead to godliness (v.3); "for this very reason" make every effort yourself to be godly. Don't miss the connection. Since God has given power for godliness, strive to become godly! This is the heart of New Testament ethics. We labor for virtue because God has already labored for us and is at work in us. Don't ever reverse the order, lest you believe and follow another gospel. Never say, "I will work out my salvation in order that God might work in me." But say with the apostle Paul, "I work out my salvation for it is God who works in me to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). Never say, "I press on to make it my own in order that Christ might make me his own." But say with Paul, "I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own" (Phil. 3:12).
Now if Peter’s aim is eternal life and godliness (v. 3); moral and spiritual transformation now and hope for life in the age to come, then this passage is dealing with perseverance – it's about how to fight the good fight and take hold of eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12), and how to finish the race and keep the faith (1 Timothy 4:8), and how to endure to the end and so be saved (Mark 13:13). And verses 5-7 say: that this perseverance is something you do. You have to “make every effort.”
Now stick with me. This is an important concept to grasp. Over and over in the Bible we see this: God's action is decisive; our action is dependent. Yet, both actions are essential. So I urge you again to resist the mindset that cynically says, "If God is the decisive keeper of my soul for eternal life (vv. 1-4), then I don't need to make every effort'" (v. 5); or says, “I don’t need to worry about that area of my life, because God just hasn’t made me want to give up that sin yet.” According to John Piper that would be like saying since God is the decisive giver of life, then I don't need to breathe.
Breathing is the means that God uses to sustain life. So the command to breathe is the command to fall in with the purposes and patterns of God to give and sustain life. This is what I mean by the term, "means of grace." "Grace" is the free power of God to sustain our spiritual and moral transformation that leads to eternal life and everlasting joy. The "means of grace" is our "Making every effort." God's "very great and precious promises" motivates and sustains our "effort." His power and work is decisive and our effort is dependent on his.
So don't ever think, Since God is the decisive worker in salvation, and I am eternally secure (Which is true! Romans 8:30; John 10:29; Philippians 1:6), therefore I don't need to work hard at my sanctification. To once again use Piper’s words; that would be like saying, since God is the decisive giver and sustainer of life, I don't need to breathe. I can spend as much time underwater as above water and it won't make any difference. Yes it will. God's means of sustaining life is not only the gift of life, but the gift of breath to sustain it (Acts 17:25).
So don't think, since God is the decisive author of my sanctification, I can spend as much time sinning as in serving, and it won't make any difference. Yes it will. This is the thinking that Paul addresses in Romans 6 where he asks the question; “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1, ESV) The decisive work of God does not remove from us the responsibility for our dependant work. God's means of keeping your soul is not only the gift of life, but also the gift of effort/work to sustain it. As Paul says in Philippians, “So work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (2:12b-13, ESV). If you don't make every effort in your faith, there is little reason to think that you receive and cherish the gift of life. Just as if you don't treasure the gift of breath, you don't cherish the gift of life.
We need to trust in God’s power and promises, and let them motivate our efforts. There is a world of difference in a marriage where the husband doubts the love of his wife and labors to earn it, and a marriage where the husband rests in the certainty of his wife's love and takes joyfully works to live worthy of it. Peter's point is: God is for us with divine power. Of that we may be sure. Now, in the confidence of that power, make effort to live worthily of his love.
Verses 5-7 describe how we should live. There are eight things he mentions: faith, virtue (or moral excellence), knowledge, self-control, steadfastness (or patience), godliness, brotherly affection, and love. The list begins with faith and ends with love. That agrees with the rest of the New Testament: confidence in God's promises is the way we plug into God's power, and love is the goal and sum of life, the light of the world that shows others the way into the kingdom.
Between faith and love are six other qualities we should have. I don't think Peter means, though, that they are added to our character always in just this sequence. There is a lot of overlapping among these qualities. For example, love is already present in patience (1 Cor. 13:4). It is not strictly added on. Therefore, I think what Peter is saying in verses 5-7 is this: true Christians do not stop pursuing growth in grace ( 3:18). They go on. They advance. They apply themselves with diligence to increase in these things as verse 8 says. Peter is calling us to a holy dissatisfaction with our present attainments.
The literal translation of verses 5-7 does not say, "add to your faith virtue" and so on; it says, "furnish in your faith virtue" and so on. There is a forward motion to the text, like a snowball rolling down a hill, it grows.
You get the same feel from Peter if we render this passage something like this: "as you have obtained faith in Christ and stand in it, now apply yourself diligently to advance in moral excellence, and as you stand in that do not be satisfied but press on to increase your knowledge of God's will, and as you stand in that do not be satisfied but be diligent to enlarge your capacities of self-control and mastery of your passions, and as you stand in that don't be satisfied but cultivate every form of patience and serenity, and in that let devoutness and piety and sweet love to God flourish, and in that strive to kindle your affection for other believers, and in and through it all grow in love to all men." In other words: Push it! A little harder! Press On! A little more!
I heard someone illustrate this once by using the story of Glenda and Robert Lennon ( Glenda's Long Swim in "The Incredible Series"). Glenda and Robert Lennon were four miles off the coast of Florida fishing alone from their yacht. Glenda decided to take a swim and soon found the current had carried her too far out from the boat. Her husband, hearing her cries, without thinking dove in and swam to her, but then realized they were both being carried out. He was a champion swimmer but not she. They made a plan which seemed good at the time. He would swim against the tide to keep the boat in view until the tide ceased and he could reach the boat. She should save her strength and just float with the tide and he would come and get her. He fought the tide for six hours and just as the boat was about to disappear on the horizon the tide turned and his strokes carried him to the boat exhausted. The sun had set. His searching was futile; he could not find his wife. The next day on one last effort was mounted to search for his wife. When they found his wife she was twenty miles out but amazingly still alive. Because she had made no effort against the pull of the tied, she was almost lost, sixteen miles from her starting point.
The point is this: Christians who just float never stay in the same place. Christians who disobey verses 5-7 and do not apply themselves with diligence to bear the fruit of faith drift into great peril. We must strive even to stand still, the tide of temptation is so strong.
The effort towards virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly affection and love is not dispensable icing on the cake of faith. If Robert had not swum with all his might the yacht would have gone out of sight and he and his wife would have drowned. As Christian’s we must not judge a person’s genuineness by how close he is to heaven but by how hard he is swimming against the tide. The evidence that God's power has been given to you by faith is that you are now making every effort (as v. 5 says) to advance in the qualities of Christ.
God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Therefore, effective pursuit of godliness requires . . .
II. His Word and Spirit
There is a practical question we need to ask: How do we make every effort? If as we saw last week, we do not have with in ourselves any resources to bring to bear to produce life and godliness, how do we make every effort? I think the answer is two fold. We need His Spirit and we need His Word. This is the way human life is, since God is sovereign and we are responsible. We act. We are responsible to act. But God is the decisive actor. Our action is dependent. So when we are told to "walk" (Galatians 5:16), or fight sin (Romans 8:16), or confess the Lordship of Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:3), or worship (Philippians 3:3), or pray (Jude 1:20), we are told to do it "in the Holy Spirit." You do it so that it is the Holy Spirit who is doing it in and through you. Giving you the desire, and the ability to act (Philippians 2:13).
A. Need for the Spirit.
When we take our stand on the cross of Christ, which purchased for us all divine help (v. 3), and trust God for his power by the Spirit. In other words, when you admit that without the help of the Spirit you cannot fight sin as you ought, and then you consciously depend on the Spirit to help you fight. So this is the first answer to the question; How? By trusting God’s promise to give you the Holy Spirit to help you live.
That the activity of the Christian life is done through the work of the Spirit can be see through out the New Testament in several ways (see, for example, Galatians 3:1-5; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). One is that in Philippians 3:3 it says, "We worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh." Here, worshipping "in the Spirit of God" is explained by "put no confidence in the flesh." I think that means, instead we put confidence in the Spirit, that is, in God's blood-bought mercy to help us worship as we ought by his Spirit. So I take it that the way to "make every effort" is the same as the way to worship, namely, by not putting any confidence in what we can do in our own nature, but instead looking away from our own resources and trusting in the mercy of God to help us in our pursuit of godliness.
B. Need for the Word.
The other answer to the question of how to "make every effort" is to bring your life into conformity to the Word of God which the Spirit inspired (2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Right here is where God's call to be in the Word every day is a vital aspect to effective growth in godliness. If you live in the Word of God, meditating on it day and night by reading it every day and memorizing portions to carry with you all day and savoring them hour by hour, then you are armed to battle temptation. Your thinking will be shaped by the Spirit. We will be effective in the pursuit of godliness when we bank on the Spirit's help and live in the Spirit's word in the Bible. Stay in the Bible and stay in prayer, and look away continually from our own resources to the infinite and merciful resources of God in Christ.
This is the picture of a godly life we see in Psalm 1. The one, who meditates on the word of God day and night, has access to the flow of God’s grace. They will grow and produce fruit like a tree planted by streams of water. In order for us to “make every effort” we need to be in God’s word. We can not apply the promises of scripture to the struggles of our life unless we know them. Just like it is hard to know if your face is clean if you never look in a mirror, so too scripture is the mirror for our soul if we never look we do not see what needs to change.
Verse 8 makes explicit the warning I have sounded: "For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Remember from verse 2 that it is in "the knowledge" of Christ where grace and peace are found, where divine power is accessed. Yet, Peter says here that there can be a barren and fruitless knowledge of Christ. It is possible to make a start in the Christian life but then to become indifferent and unfeeling and careless in using the means of grace, and to drift into destruction. 2 Peter 2:20 says, “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.” If the knowledge of God's glorious promises does not motivate us on to strive against the tide, then we will be barren and fruitless and drift to our destruction.
In verse 9, Peter goes on to describe what has happened in the person who quits swimming and is not pressing forward in Christ's qualities. “For whoever lacks these qualities (in verse 5-7) is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” The problem with the person who does not strive toward all the fruit of faith is that he is blind in two directions. When he looks to the future it's all a haze and the promises of God are swallowed up in a blur of worldly longings. I think that is what it means by shortsighted. And when he looks to the past the forgiveness that made him so excited at first is well-nigh forgotten, and all he sees is an empty prayer and a meaningless ritual of baptism. In other words, just as in verse 3 the power for godliness flows through knowledge of God, so in verse 9 blindness to the past and future work of God blocks that power and leaves us limp in the water, drifting toward destruction.
We can never take our eyes off of the decisive work of God. We can only be sanctified if we have first been justified. It is through Christ that we can overcome sin. If we loose sight of this we will struggle with sin from our own resources and fail. Discouragement and doubt then lay in wait to devour you. We need to remember that we can only overcome the sin that Jesus died for. Here is a quote from John Bunyan I heard used by John Piper in a sermon on prayer that really stuck with me.
“Run, John, run the law demands but gives us neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings it bids us fly and gives us wings.”
God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Therefore, effective pursuit of godliness requires . . .
III. His Calling
In verse 10 Peter states: “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure.” The danger described in verses 8 and 9 is not the danger of slipping into the kingdom with no rewards. It is the danger of not being saved at all. If the means of grace is not present in our lives it points the possible lack of the decisive work. So how can we have confidence in our faith? If it is not a measurement of how much I have accomplished, but a measure of growth. One way is to be sure of our calling.
The Apostle is saying we need to “Make certain about His calling and choosing you.” The assumption is that the whole world lies under the righteous judgment of God because of sin. But because of his great mercy, God ordained that a people for his own be saved by grace for his own glory. These are his elect. According to Romans 8, they are His chosen whom he has predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. God predestined those whom he elected that they should be holy and blameless before him in love (Eph. 1:4). Then God "called" those whom he had foreknown, elected and predestined them unto himself. He called out to people who were "dead in their trespasses and sins," and then provided them with power to respond to his call. The apostle Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians,
But we ought to thank God always for you brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and faith in the truth. He called you to this salvation through our gospel, so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, Authors Translation)
If we are a part of God’s elect, He wants us to know that we are. He wants us to have joyful assurance, for out of that assurance flows tremendous power for sacrificial service that gives him glory.
Therefore Peter says, "Confirm your election! Make sure of it!" How? By standing in your faith and pressing on to virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly affection and love. John said, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers” (1 John 3:14a, ESV). The confirmation of your election is your progress in sanctification. God predestined all the elect to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). Therefore, the reassuring evidence of our election is growth in Christ-likeness. So are you engaged in the battle with sin?
Verse 11 ends with; "If you do these things (referring back to vv. 5-7) you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly affection, love -- these are not the wages that we pay to earn entrance into the eternal kingdom, but they are the necessary evidence that our trust in God's promise is genuine and in that way they are the confirmation of our call and election.
CONCLUSION
So what does this mean for us and our growing in grace? Peter is saying here that we should earnestly confirm our call and election (v. 10) by making every effort to advance in the qualities of Christ (vv. 5-7). So here's the question we all need to ask ourselves: “Are you making every effort towards moral excellence? Are you making every effort to increase your knowledge of God's character and his will? Are you making every effort to strengthen your power of self-control? Are you making every effort to enlarge your capacity for patience? Are you making every effort to cultivate godliness to develop a heart for God? Are you making every effort to grow warm in your affection for your fellow believers? And are you making every effort to stir up love in your will for the person you dislike the most?” If these things are in you and increasing, you will be fruitful (v.8), you will never stumble (v. 10), and you will enter the eternal kingdom of Christ (v. 11). But if these things are not your earnest concern then it is because you have shut your eyes to the beauty of God's promises and have forgotten the humble exhilaration of being forgiven.
God’s Word warns us against being lazy in our faith and drifting away from Jesus Christ our only hope. It also encourages us to fight the good fight of faith and take hold on eternal life (1 Tim. 6:12,19); to lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and run with perseverance the race before us (Heb. 12:1); to press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14); to advance and grow and go forward in virtue and knowledge and self-control and patience and godliness and brotherly affection and love (2 Peter 1:5-7), to stir each other up in these things (Hebrews 10:24), and in this way to reassure our hearts and make our confidence firm that we are indeed called to share in God's glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:10,3).
God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Therefore, effective pursuit of godliness requires . . .
- Our effort
- His word and Spirit
- His calling
BENEDICTION
Jude 1:24-25 ESV
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever, Amen!
© Copyright 2006 Derek Perdue
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