Character for Life
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Introduction
Introduction
All of this week we have been talking about Character. By now you should remember that we defined Character as:
—The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.
—Character is the sum total of what you think and believe.
We began our look at character by seeing how our character is effected by the people around us! We talked about how we can become desensitized to sin because of the company we keep.
Then Tuesday, we saw that our Character is more important than our charisma. We looked at how incredibly important our character is to the message we share.
On Wednesday night we discovered that Character is built upon the foundation of truth, truth that comes from God. We also saw that God’s Truth requires our faithful obedience to the commands of Jesus.
Then last night we learned that trials—problems, are part of life. And we saw that Christians are not exempt from problems in this world, just because we know Jesus. Yet, we saw how the trials cause us to grow and become mature and complete!
In our last session together, I want us to see how we need to continue developing our Godly character throughout our life!
If you have your Bibles I want to encourage you to turn with me to the book of 1 Peter.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
It’s All About Jesus
It’s All About Jesus
When we talk about a life filled with godly character, I want you to know that it is something that you work on, but it is NOT dependent on you.
2 Peter 1:3—tells us the divine power of Jesus has given us EVERYTHING we need:
Everything we need for life—spiritually vital living.
Everything we need for godliness—living a godly life.
All of this comes through Jesus divine power—which is that Greek word dynameos, from which we get our English word dynamite.
A companion passage is found in Philippians 2:13. I like it in the Living Bible.
For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants.
When Peter says Jesus gives us everything we need he’s right, and Paul tells us God first gives us the desire to obey Him, and then He gives us the ability to obey Him.
The thing is to access this divine power we need to get to know Jesus. Notice that verse 3 says, “through our knowledge of him who called us. . .” So to experience the divine power, we need to do our part which is get to know more and more about Jesus!
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Through these—through His divine nature, and through our knowledge of Him:
We receive very great and precious promises. Do you know the great and precious promises of God?
I will never leave you or forsake you.
I am coming again so that where I am you may be also.
Lo I am with you even to the end of the age.
You are my friend if you do what I’ve commanded you.
These are a small sampling of the great and precious promises that Jesus has given us. And the thing is there are countless more promises.
Now He gave us His promises so that we can actually participate in His divine nature—that’s what godliness really is all about. We are a new creation!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Not only do we become a new creation, but we also we can escape the moral decay (the corruption) that’s caused by evil desires!
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, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
Peter assumes the reader has faith in Jesus Christ, because that is what separates us from the world. Our faith is what makes us different from the world!
So we have faith and to our faith—which becomes the foundation of our character—so to our faith we are working to some characteristics to our character. Like:
Goodness—moral excellence or virtue.
Knowledge—this is spiritual knowledge that comes through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Self-Control—to keep your passions under control (used only three times, Acts 24:25; Gal 5:23, and here).
Perseverance—endurance, steadfastness, patience. It is the ability to keep on keeping on! We talked about this last night—that trials help produce this in our lives.
Godliness—this refers to man’s obligation to reverence God. We are to revere God.
Brotherly Kindness—this comes from the Greek word, phileto and come from philadelphia and it means caring for the physical needs of others.
Love—the Greek word, agape which is unconditional in nature and it is desiring the greatest good of others!
The first 5 characteristics are inward expressions. The last two are outward expressions. This reminds me that my character has more to do with my relationship with the Lord, which then should overflow into a care and compassion for others.
Now don’t miss verse 8!
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.
Notice the conditional word, “if”. Notice that the more I have these qualities, the more effective and productive I will be in my spiritual life.
The more these qualities: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love; are in my life the more effective I will be in my spiritual life. And the more spiritually productive I will be.
Now, the very next word in the text is but which undoes what was just said. Look at verse 9:
But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
When we don’t show these 7 characteristics in my life, we become spiritually blind, and we lose sight of all God has done for us! And we especially forget how the Lord cleansed us of our sins!
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Peter tells us that we need to make a life-long commitment to building our spiritual lives!
I can tell you from experience that it is NEVER a one-and-done. It is something that I have to work on EVERY SINGLE Day!
Peter tells us to “be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure”. We need to be confident in our understanding and assurance of our position with God! We are His child!
Doing these things (building these characteristics in our lives) will keep us from falling! We will never get tripped up!
And we’ll receive a rich welcome from Jesus when we enter the eternal Kingdom of God!
So What?
So What?
We should walk away from this passage with a number of facts:
The Christian life is not something that we have to do on our own. The Christian life is done using Jesus’ divine power!
Every Christian participates in the divine nature of Jesus.
And every Christian escapes the corruption that is in this world.
We start our relationship with Jesus through faith! But that’s not where it stops. We need to keep growing by:
Adding goodness.
Adding knowledge.
Adding self-control.
Adding perseverance.
Adding godliness.
Adding brotherly kindness.
Adding love.
Adding these qualities will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive for Jesus!
Failure to build these qualities in our lives means were are nearsighted and blind, and we’ve forgotten about all that He has done for us.
We need to be assured of our position with Jesus—our salvation is secure.
But continuing to grow in Jesus will keep us from falling!
And continuing to grow in Jesus will help us receive a rich welcome when we come into the kingdom!