04/17/2008
3For His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 4By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires. 5For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.
The majority of people who win huge lotteries or other large sums of money, often lose their fortunes within a short period of time. In some cases, they are worse off after the winning. The reason is, they lack the discipline to deal with such financial resources. Although their financial position changed briefly, there was no change in their character and they soon return to their former state.
Unlike these people who placed their futures in the hands of fate, we, as Christians, have made conscious decisions to take on a new character—to become something new. Through this transformation, God has given us everything we need to complete this change. Goodness is how you treat people around you. Do your best to treat everyone with fairness, gentleness and kindness.
We should seek knowledge of God’s word so that we come to understand His character more fully. As we do, we will gain understanding and depth into how we should live. Self-control, of course, speaks about discipline. Those actions that were once natural to us like reacting harshly to criticism, running with people we shouldn’t, and so forth; these actions we need to conquer. Our hearts must govern our bodies, and not let our bodies govern our hearts.
With endurance, we learn to have patience with this life. I believe that impatience is a great and underestimated influence in our lives. When things we believe we deserve do not come as quickly as we think they should, we lose heart, or turn away from the hope we had. Endurance also refers to the pressing on in our faith—that is, doing the things we know we should even though the rewards are not visible.
Godliness is what our character should reflect to others. People should be able to look at your life and see something grater than yourself—something that causes them to ponder your faith. Brotherly affection is how we should treat everyone we meet, particularly strangers. Think how the world would be if everyone reacted to strangers as if they were a beloved bother?
And finally, love. To love others means that you are genuinely concerned not only with others’ immediate needs, but their long-term needs and desires.
These things should govern your actions and thoughts. Peter says that the Christian who does not observe these things has forgotten the great gift of forgiveness that they have received. We are obliged, through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, to pursue His character daily.
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2008 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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