ADD TO YOUR FAITH... (A Call to Growth)

For the next few weeks we will be looking at essential virtues we should develop as believers in our walk with God.

A close study of 2 Peter chapter 1 will be very instructive.

5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.

6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness.

7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

8 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.

9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

10 For if you pos­sess these qual­i­ties in INCREASING MEASURE, they will keep you from be­ing in­ef­fec­tive and un­pro­duc­tive in your knowl­edge of our Lord Jesus Christ. NIV

Faith marks the beginning of the Christian life. Through genuine faith, God grants eternal life to a spiritually dead person.

Now, the instruction to "add" to our faith is a call both to build and complement.

It demands input on our part? Yes it does.

The same virtues the Lord is calling us to add to our faith is the same qualities of Christ Jesus that attract others to Him. It it Christ's character.

How do we claim we are Christ's but does not resemble Him in character (deed and truth)? This is the greatest undoing of the present day Church.

Look at how The Living Bible renders our lead scripture...

...But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do. Next, learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you. This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply.

Self-control means mastering one's emotions rather than being controlled by them. The false teachers whose view Peter was exposing believed that knowledge freed people from the need to control their passions.

It is pathetic to note that these erroneous teachings are spreading exponentially. And young people love to hear what their itching ears desires...

Oh may we not raise a group of believers that speak in tongues but are lacking in virtues and who does not look like Christ! Amen.