Fruitful Growth in the Faith
2 Peter 1:3-8 NKJV
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Fruitful Growth in the Faith
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This past Sunday (12/29/24) at church my pastor asked “What are you asking God for” in the new year. A couple of things came to my mind during the service but as I’ve had a couple of extra days to think about it, my mind has changed and the one thing I am asking God for is that I can grow closer to HIM. I’m talking about the kind of relationship where the first person I turn to in any situation is HIM.
I don’t know about you but when things are going on around me I can’t say that I always turn and ask God what I should do? I want that to change this year. In the passage above I noticed a couple of things I want to both point out and remember for myself.
In Verse 3, the scripture says that “His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” So God has already supplied me with everything that I need to live the kind of life I want to live but it’s through the knowledge of Him, in verse 4 it goes onto say that he has given us “exceedingly great and precious promises” and that through those promises I can be a partaker of the divine nature because of salvation by Christ Jesus.
Verses 5-8 give us a pipeline to growing our faith, it calls for us to be diligent and then add to our faith virtue. The word virtue according to Strongs G703:
STRONGS G703:
ἀρετή, -ῆς, ἡ, [see ἄρα at the beginning], a word of very wide signification in Greek writings; any excellence of a person (in body or mind) or of a thing, an eminent endowment, property or quality. Used of the human mind and in an ethical sense, it denotes:
1. a virtuous course of thought, feeling and action; virtue, moral goodness (Wis. 4:1; Wis. 5:13; often in 4 Macc. and in Greek writings): 2 Peter 1:5 [others take it here specifically, namely moral vigor; cf. next entry].
2. any particular moral excellence, as modesty, purity; hence (plural αἱ ἀρεταί, Wis. 8:7; often in 4 Macc. and in the Greek philosophers) τὶς ἀρετή, Philippians 4:8. Used of God, it denotes
a. his power: 2 Peter 1:3.
b. in the plural his excellences, perfections, ‘which shine forth in our gratuitous calling and in the whole work of our salvation’ (John Gerhard): 1 Peter 2:9. (In the Sept. for הוד splendor, glory, Habakkuk 3:3, of God; Zechariah 6:13, of the Messiah; in plural for תְּהִלּות praises, of God, Isaiah 43:21; Isaiah 42:12; Isaiah 63:7.)
After adding virtue to our faith we are to add knowledge, for me, it is the knowledge that comes from seeking God in the word of God. Then we are to add self-control and self-control perseverance which is persevering after the knowledge that comes from seeking God in the word. The passage continues telling us to add godliness to perseverance and then brotherly kindness followed by love. If we we keep seeking after these things and the fruit of them abound in us then we will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
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