The Growth of Faith

Where there is life, there must be growth.

The new birth is not the end; it is the beginning.

God gives His children all that they need to live godly lives, but His children must apply themselves and be diligent to use the “means of grace” He has provided.

Spiritual growth is not automatic.

It requires cooperation with God and the application of spiritual diligence and discipline.

“Work out your own salvation … For it is God which worketh in you” (Phil. 2:12–13).

Literally, Peter wrote, “Make every effort to bring alongside.” The Father and the child must work together.

Peter listed seven characteristics of the godly life.

2 Peter 1:5–7 NASB 2020

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Moral excellence (virtue)

To the Greek philosophers, it meant “the fulfillment of a thing.”

When anything in nature fulfills its purpose, that is “virtue—moral excellence.”

The land that produces crops is “excellent” because it is fulfilling its purpose.

The tool that works correctly is “excellent” because it is doing what a tool is supposed to do.

A Christian is supposed to glorify God because he has God’s nature within; so, when he does this, he shows “excellence” because he is fulfilling his purpose in life.

Knowledge

The word translated “knowledge” in 2 Peter 1:2–3 means “full knowledge” or “knowledge that is growing.”

The word used here suggests practical knowledge or discernment.

It refers to the ability to handle life successfully.

It is the opposite of being “so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good!”

This kind of knowledge does not come automatically. It comes from obedience to the will of God.

John 7:17 NASB 2020

17 If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God, or I am speaking from Myself.

In the Christian life, you must not separate the heart and the mind, character and knowledge.

Self Control

Self control, not specifially in your actions, that more the fruit of self control, but here more with your emotions.

Proverbs 16:32 NASB 2020

32 One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And one who rules his spirit, than one who captures a city.

Proverbs 25:28 NASB 2020

28 Like a city that is broken into and without walls So is a person who has no self-control over his spirit.

Paul in his letters often compared the Christian to an athlete who must exercise and discipline himself if he ever hopes to win the prize.

Perserverance

Patience is the ability to endure when circumstances are difficult.

Self-control has to do with handling the pleasures of life, while patience relates primarily to the pressures and problems of life. (The ability to endure problem people is “long-suffering.”)

Patience is not something that develops automatically; we must work at it. James 1:2–8 gives us the right approach.

James 1:2–8 NASB 2020

2 Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

We must expect trials to come, because without trials we could never learn patience.

We must, by faith, let our trials work for us and not against us, because we know that God is at work in our trials.

Godliness

Godliness simply means “God-likeness.”

In the original Greek, this word meant “to worship well.”

It described the man who was right in his relationship with God and with his fellowman.

It is that quality of character that makes a person distinctive. He lives above the petty things of life, the passions and pressures that control the lives of others.

He seeks to do the will of God and, as he does, he seeks the welfare of others.

We must never get the idea that godliness is an impractical thing, because it is intensely practical.

The godly person makes the kinds of decisions that are right and noble.

He does not take an easy path simply to avoid either pain or trial.

He does what is right because it is right and because it is the will of God.

Brotherly Kindness

Brotherly kindness is a virtue that Peter must have acquired the hard way, for the disciples of our Lord often debated and disagreed with one another.

If we love Jesus Christ, we must also love the brethren.

1 John 4:20 NASB 2020

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

Love

The kind of love spoken of in 2 Peter 1:7 is agape love, the kind of love that God shows toward lost sinners.

This is the love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13, the love that the Holy Spirit produces in our hearts as we walk in the Spirit.

When we have brotherly love, we love because of our likenesses to others; but with agape love, we love in spite of the differences we have.

Conclusion:

It is impossible for fallen human nature to manufacture these seven qualities of Christian character.

They must be produced by the Spirit of God.

To be sure, there are unsaved people who possess amazing self-control and endurance, but these virtues point to them and not to the Lord.

They get the glory. When God produces the beautiful nature of His Son in a Christian, it is God who receives the praise and glory.