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2 Peter 1:5-9,  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, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 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. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

Today, we start Peter’s second letter to the churches to whom he ministered in Asia Minor (now modern-day Turkey).  It appears that very soon after Peter wrote the first letter, he felt compelled to send another.  Why?  Because there were reports of false teachers in their community, as well as dissension among the believers themselves.  This had the potential for unraveling the young church.  In order to combat both these destructive elements, Peter urges the believers to grow deeper in their faith, becoming more spiritually mature, by leaning on God’s Word. 

Today’s focus verses are part of the letter’s opening sermon.  Normally, this part of the letter would include some kind of thanksgiving but Peter neglects adding that.  He seems to want to grab the attention of the readers by getting right to the meat of the subject. Thus, we can see right away that it isn’t a typical letter.  Our focus verses themselves are a call to virtue.  Because of what Jesus has done for us (Peter outlines this in the beginning of the chapter), we are called to live a certain way, to develop specific virtues that set us apart from the unbelieving world.  In verse 5, Peter begins what’s called a virtue chain.  Add to your faith goodness, add to goodness knowledge, add to knowledge self-control, add to self-control perseverance, add to perseverance godliness, add to godliness mutual affection, and add to mutual affection love. 

This is similar to virtue chains in Romans 5 and Galatians 5.  The order of the virtues is not that important (and vary in each case) but developing these virtues is of utmost importance.  It’s in developing these virtues that we can be useful to the Kingdom.  We aren’t useful to the Kingdom if we are negative, conflictual, and critical.  We DO NOT honor Jesus if we are negative.  We DO NOT honor Jesus and provide a good witness to the faith if we foster conflict.  We DO NOT honor Jesus and provide a good witness to the faith if we are critical.  But if we live out goodness, knowledge (I’ll add Godly knowledge), self-control, perseverance in the faith, Godliness, mutual affection and care for others, and love, THEN we demonstrate who and whose we are.  We show the world Jesus through our actions and behavior. 

Spiritual maturity is not demonstrated by judgmentalism, critical spirits, or seeing the world through a negative lens.  That actually seems spiritually immature.  Plus, the enemy rejoices when we become fixated on those things.  But, wow, what could we do for Jesus if we very intentionally, very deliberately worked on living into these virtues?  The outside world might stop and take notice and say “There is something different about her.  I want to be like her.  I want what she has.”  And we have this beautiful opportunity to share the source of our hope.

Let’s pray…Lord Jesus, Show us which virtues we are lacking.  Open our heart so we can see where and how we need to grow spiritually.  Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart that is open to you.  In Your name, Amen.