COMMENTS
I love what
Peter does in this section of scripture.
In my early years as a believer, I was given a lot of truth and
information about who I should be and how I should act; but I wasn’t told how
to accomplish those things. Here, Peter
moves into the “how-to”. Let’s see what
he says….
NOTES
Two phrases
jumped out at me as I read this passage:
“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.” (2 Peter 1:8)
Some people
love knowledge for knowledge’s sake—they just love to know things. Sometimes, I can be like that. I love to watch the TV show “Jeopardy”
because I love learning new things. There’s
nothing wrong with that. But our
knowledge of our God must not be like that!
He desires that knowledge to accomplish something. With that knowledge, we must be effective and
productive, not “ineffective and unproductive” (v. 8).
So, how do I
become effective and productive? By
developing godly qualities “in increasing measure” (v. 8). I cannot stay stagnant. None of us ever reach perfection, so we never
“arrive”, as we used to say. Life,
including our Christian walk, is a journey.
My goal is to look more like Jesus when I go to bed tonight than I did
when I got up this morning, to be more successful at “escaping the corruption
in the world” (v.4) today than I was yesterday.
So, Peter
tells me how I can do that. He knows
that, as a believer, I have faith.
However, I must “make every effort” (v. 5) to add goodness to my faith. Then, to the goodness, I add knowledge. To knowledge, I add self-control. To self-control, I add perseverance. To perseverance, I add godliness. To godliness, I add brotherly kindness. To brotherly kindness, I must add love.
Look at that
list! Will I ever have all of those qualities
all the time? Not in this life! But as I know Him better and love Him more—as
I “make every effort” in the power of the Spirit—I’ll have more of them more
often.
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