Submitting to God’s sanctifying work within
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 2 Peter 1:5-7 CSB
When believers participate in Christ’s divine nature, believers are transformed as long as they are willing to obey God’s commands with the help of the Holy Spirit. That is why Peter says here to “make every effort.” There is a call to action. Following are a list of attributes that are supplemented to “your faith,” meaning that these characteristics are only available after being transformed by accepting Christ as your Savior and the result of salvation. Christ who initiates the transformation by giving us salvation but our part is to allow Him through the Holy Spirit to affect His work by submitting to His will and direction. We ought to reflect the character of God. First, we have goodness, meaning moral excellence or virtuous. Our daily conduct should be a demonstration of moral excellence. Faith and excellence support one another. Second, we have knowledge, being able to discern the truth according to God’s Word, knowing what is right and what is wrong, all being applied to daily living. Knowledge and faith go together. The more we grow in our knowledge of who God is, the more we trust in Him. Third, self-control meaning having the ability to control one’s desires and wishes. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, believers can withstand going back to previous sinful behaviors that used to lay claim in their lives that were corrupting (2 Peter 1:4). Self-control is achieved when we trust God completely. Fourth, endurance, or perseverance, being able to endure through the difficulties and trials of life and push forward, a key theme we focused on throughout 1 Peter. Fifth, godliness, what we saw in verse 3, focusing on obedience and worship to the Lord. Sixth, brotherly affection, translated from the Greek word, “philadelphia,” loving one another in a familial way as believers are all united as a family through Christ. Finally, love, or in the Greek here, agape, the highest form of love, meaning self-sacrificing love, as best demonstrated by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for all us sinners. As believers are transformed by the gift of salvation provided, in turn, through continued obedience, the process of sanctification is enacted, and these characteristics act as markers within the believer’s life.
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
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