Faith with a Plus

2 Peter 1:5–9 KJV 1900

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.

In Peter’s second epistle he calls to our attention the all important matter of faith. Without faith it is impossible to be saved (John 3:18). Victory over the world is an impossibility apart from faith (1 John 5:4). Without faith it is impossible to pray (James 1:6). Without faith it is impossible to have any real joy (1 Peter 1:8). Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). From Romans 14:23 we learn “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

When we walk with the Lord faith is not just the first step, it is every step. From start to finish the Christian life is totally dependent on it. However, faith is not all there is to it. Faith does not stand alone. It counts only as it ought to count when we put the plus marks after it. This is the emphasis of 2 Peter 1:5–7, where we are told to add to our faith.

The word add has an interesting background. It means “one who provides supplies.” It refers to the leader of a chorus, who furnishes a choir at his own expense. The production of Greek plays required large choruses and, as a result, were very expensive. When a writer completed his play he asked the mayor of the city to grant a chorus for it. The mayor then appealed to a wealthy citizen called a “choragus,” who collected a choir, hired a trainer, and in time rendered the writer’s work to the delight of the audience and to the glory of the gods of Greece. All this was paid for out of his own pocket.

Peter takes this word to talk about God’s gift and our responsibility. In verses 2–4 he sets before us the composition of God, the Sacred Score, the expression of the life and love of God for us. He tells us that faith is the leader of a chorus: a choir composed of virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity. With faith as their leader we are to sing the praises of Christ from an obedient and loving heart. Faith is the clef which gives the key in which these seven notes of the perfect scale are sounded. Faith makes a place for, organizes and trains each one to blend in perfect harmony with the others. If one member is not there faith seems ineffective and the soul is out of tune.

Faith without works is dead, being alone. Therefore we must add to our faith. It is much like a foundation. A foundation is essential, but of little value unless something is built on it. “Add to your faith.” Provide a choir of works at your own expense, with faith as its leader.

The word which Peter uses for add carries the thought of generosity. In that day the one who supplied the chorus for a Greek play spared no expense in order to put on a good performance. In like manner let us generously and lavishly supply faith with all its needs to perfectly produce God’s Sacred Score on the stage of our lives.

What Peter asks us to do is nothing unusual because faith is

I. ACQUAINTED WITH ADDITIONS

“Add to your faith” (v. 5c)

A faith that knows nothing about additions is stunted and stagnant. Activity and increase are essential to faith. Fill a room with the purest air, shut it up tight for a month, and when it is opened the air will not be fit to breath. The same is true of water. No matter how pure it is to begin with, when it becomes still for a time it becomes stagnant.

When faith is still it gets stale. Faith does not stop when one is born again. God’s work for us and in us does not excuse us from our own. His gift does not make our effort unnecessary, but rather demands it as its completion and consequence. God operates, but we must cooperate. Faith is the chorus-leader, but without others to help it is useless. Alone it cannot render God’s composition. If symphonies of great artists cannot be played with one instrument, certainly God’s work cannot be set forth by faith alone. The faith Peter is talking about is one acquainted with additions. Consider now

A. The Qualities Which We Ought to Add

“Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (vv. 5c–7)

The first quality we ought to add to faith is virtue. The idea expressed here is “In (italics mine) your faith add virtue.” The addition Peter mentions is like the growth of a plant, in which each cell gives birth to another and communicates its own qualities to it. Virtue is used sparingly in the New Testament. It gets its name from the Roman god of war and carries with it the idea of manly courage. It denotes force, energy and power.

Our faith ought to be accompanied with power. A weak or lazy Christian is a contradiction in terms. Manly courage is a necessity for our Christian course. It is not easy to say “no” when everybody else is saying “yes.” It is not easy to deny ourselves and take up the cross when so few are doing it. It is not easy to live right when so much is wrong. It is necessary then, in our faith, to add a holy courage for the cause of Christ.

The second quality we ought to add is knowledge. This word is used more than thirty times in the New Testament with various shades of meaning. Peter tells us not to be afraid of the truth, and in our manliness seek after knowledge. This knowledge should begin with an insight into heavenly things: the truth made known in the gospel. It should continue with a practical discernment about spiritual matters.

There should be a keen insight into what is right and wrong in life, and what Christian people ought to do about it. It should also include the knowledge that comes from experience and observation. We ought to grow wiser as we grow older. Each day ought to be a correction of the one before it. We should gain strength from our weaknesses and firmness from our falls.

The third quality we need to add to our faith is temperance. The word temperance means “to rule with a strong hand.” The attacks of Satan, the attraction of sin, the allurement of the world and the appeal of the flesh make regulation and restraint a requirement. Every gate of the soul must be guarded against the approach of the enemy.

The story is told of an old man who complained because he was always so tired. When a friend asked him the cause of his complaints the old man said, “It is because I have so much work to do every day. I have two falcons to tame, two rabbits to keep from running away, two hawks to manage, a serpent to confine, a lion to keep caged, and a sick man to tend and wait on.” His friend looked at him in disbelief until the old man explained the nature of his work.

“The two falcons are my eyes, which I must guard lest they look at something which would distract me from the service of Christ. The two rabbits are my feet, which I must constantly restrain lest they run after evil objects or walk in the ways of sin. The two hawks are my hands, which I must continually keep at work to provide for myself and for my brethren in need. The serpent is my tongue, which I must always watch lest it should speak what it ought not. The lion is my heart, with which I must continually struggle lest it be filled with vanity and hinder the operation of God’s grace in me. The sick man is my body which is ever in need for my watchfulness and care. All this is a continual drain on me.” Self-control is hard work. The secret to it is being filled with the Holy Spirit.

The fourth quality we need to add to our faith is patience. The literal meaning of this word is “remaining behind.” It carries the idea of constancy, stability, steadfastness, and endurance. As fruit slowly ripens on the tree Christian character must slowly ripen by patience. Patience is so slow and goes about its work so quietly that it is often overlooked and underestimated.

It is easier to work than to wait, but it is in being still that we know God. When we wait on the Lord we renew our strength. One can afford to wait when he knows God is on His throne, that He is at work in His world and that He is presently working all things together for good to all who love Him.

Patience does not come naturally or overnight. It has to be learned. It is a protracted and painful process. A suffering Christian, who had to remain bed-fast for many months, was asked the secret of her calm endurance. She answered, “I know God has some purpose in it, and besides, I only have to lie here one day at a time.”

The fifth quality we need to add to our faith is godliness. This is Christlikeness. It is to have the same mind in you which was in Christ Jesus. It is to have the attitude Jesus did about things, seeing everything from the divine viewpoint. It means to live our inner lives in the light of His presence as we live our outer lives in the light of the sun.

The sixth quality we need to add to our faith is brotherly kindness. Godliness is not solitary, but social. He who loves God must love his brother also. Brotherly kindness refers to the fellowship of love with other Christians. We wrong God if we mistreat one another. God is love. If we are like Him, we will love those He loves. Godliness is proved by brotherly-kindness. Nearness to Christ as the head of the church will also mean nearness to each other as members of His body. The muscles which bind the members of the body to the head also bind them to each other.

The seventh quality which we need to add is charity. Brotherly kindness has reference to love for members of the body of Christ. Charity means love for all people of all classes everywhere. This is the heartbeat of faith. It is the knot that ties together and holds all the rest.

Peter not only talks about the qualities we ought to add, but also

B. The Quickness with Which We Ought to Act

“Giving all diligence” (v. 5a)

The word translated diligence is “haste.” This word is used to tell of the eager swiftness with which Mary went to tell Elizabeth the good news of the Christ-child she bore. It describes the murderous hurry of Herodias in asking for the head of John the Baptist. Paul uses this same word in his word to Timothy, asking him to “make haste” to come to him before winter.

The idea of the word is to crowd every minute with continuous effort, letting nothing hinder us in the cause of Christ. The days given us are too few and precious to let them slip by unused to the best advantage.

Faith is not only acquainted with additions, but also

II. ATTESTED WHEN THEY ABOUND

“For if these things he in you, and abound, they shall make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 8)

The word abound means “increase.” This verse suggests if in any real sense these qualities mentioned before are in you, they will be increasingly in you. The word barren is “idle.” If these qualities are in us we will not be idle or unfruitful in the work of the Lord. When these qualities abound they attest the reality of our faith with much fruit to the praise and honor of our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, faith is

III. AILING IF THEY ARE ABSENT

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

Whatsoever we lack we must not lack these things. These things are the qualities mentioned in vv. 5, 6. Whoever fails to add to his faith is blinded and cannot see afar off. He has spiritual myopia. For him the far off glories have faded, and be blinks and squints at the very little he sees around him. He is not as blind as the unregenerate man, but he sees very little of the largeness of his own destiny.

He is not only short-sighted, his memory is short. He easily forgets what the Lord has done for him. Chrysostom said, “Nothing more helps us forward in a good course than frequent recognition of our sins.”

Failure to add to our faith results in forgetting that we have been purged from our old sins. This is not to say that once saved we can be lost again. A man can be purged from his old sins and still be far from what he ought to be. This speaks of an arrested spiritual development. You have seen a man with the puny arms of childhood, or a plant, which you cannot say is dead, but is not able to flower or fruit. We become like this if we fail to add to our faith.

If Christianity is worth anything it is worth everything. Let us give it all we have and make these additions. Let our lives be marked with their abundance so that our faith will not be marred by their absence.