Strategic Christian

Yes, you too can be a guaranteed success! Just follow this proven, can’t-fail formula, and your dreams and goals are just waiting for you!

Well, that sounds cheap–not something you’d expect about being a Christian with impact on the world, is it? Amazingly, though, in terms that are (ahem) a bit less breathless, there’s a promise just like this in the Bible. You can be guaranteed effectiveness, fruitfulness, never stumbling, and a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of God.

It sounds too commercial to be credible–and of course, I admit I overplayed that aspect quite a bit. But does that mean it’s too good to be true? No, it’s right there in 2 Peter 1:5-11. The steps to get there, though, are hardly an instant shortcut formula:

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We’re picking up in the middle of a passage here. “This very reason” has to do with what Peter has just said about God’s very great and precious promises provided to us. We who believe in Christ may be partakers of his divine nature, having been freed from the corruption in the world through lust, and we have, from him, everything that pertains to life and godliness. The initiative and the power come only from God; this is not a self-help plan. What follows must rest on God and his work. It is a work of faith.

There is work in it, though: it says, “giving all diligence;” or in the ESV, “make every effort.” We can’t just slide our way into sure-fire guaranteed success! Peter calls us to grow in:

• Faith
• Virtue
• Knowledge
• Self-Control
• Perseverance
• Godliness
• Brotherly Kindness
• Love

Some commentators have tried to put this list into a logical/chronological sequence. Peter does seem to suggest that with his language of “adding to.” I can’t seem to make that work consistently throughout the list, though, and it’s unnecessary to conclude that Peter really meant it that way; there could well have been something figurative about it. He was saying, don’t be content with just some of this; bring all of it into your effort. It indicates, too, that this is a process, something we grow in over time. It would be silly to suggest that we finish with faith and then move on to virtue; we are to remain diligent in all of them.

Still, we can’t ignore that it starts with faith. We have to begin at the entry point of relationship with God and the foundation for our continuing walk with him (Colossians 2:6). It culminates with love, the highest virtue (1 Corinthians 13:13). In between we are encouraged to follow virtue, to grow in knowledge, to be self-controlled and to persevere, to live godly lives with brotherly kindness.

Just a brief comment on two of those words. Perseverance in the New Testament often refers to staying in the faith even under hardship and persecution; and given the context of both Peter’s letters, that’s certainly a primary meaning here. It follow self-control here, though, which I’ve often regretted, in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. You see, I find it very easy to be self-controlled for literally moments at a time. It’s persevering with it thats the challenge!

This list is not much different from the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Both passages describe the goal toward which we work; both emphasize that our working is by the power of God within us.

We can be effective, strategic Christians. We can rely on God’s guarantee of success. But we have to do it God’s way, which starts in our own hearts.

Posted by Tom Gilson under The Heart |