Add to Your Faith: Part 2

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 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. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 2:5-11

     As promised, here is part 2 of “Add to Your Faith”. I will go over the final 3 characteristics Peter says we are to add.

Godliness

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

-1 Timothy 4:8

   Godliness is the next characteristic Peter says we are to have. We are to be more like God. And no, that does not mean we are expected to be exactly like Him. Though that is what we should strive for; to be a reflection of Christ in everything we say and do. You know that phrase “What Would Jesus do?” How many of us are actually willing to stop and ask ourselves that? And then to not only ask that, but to actually follow through and do it? For a lot of people, we are the only representation of Christ they may ever see. If somebody knew you were a Christian, and they watched you, what would they think about God?

“O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee!”

Mutual Affection

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.

-1 John 5:1

  Next is Mutual Affection, or Brotherly Kindness. We are to be kind and loving to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to encourage, help, pray with, and fellowship with one another. If you are a child of God, that makes you my brother or sister. We are a family. If you saw a family member in need, what would you do? Would you just ignore them, or would you help them out?

Love

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

-John 13:34

   I don’t know how much I really need to say about this last one: Love. It’s that simple, yet that difficult. Love one another. God commands us to love many many times in the Bible. “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another” (1 John 3:11). If God is love, and we are to be like God, then we are to be love, too. I believe to love is the most important of all the characteristics. We can have all the others, but if we do not love, we have nothing. I won’t go over it now, but if you have not read it, I encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 13.

  

   So there are all 7 characteristics or traits that we are to add to our faith. If we do these, and continue to grow in them, we will be fruitful in our Christian walk. I won’t lie to you, this can’t be easy. But if we do these things we will gain a rich welcome into the Kingdom of God. If that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is.