2 Peter 1: 5-7(NKJV)

5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.


These verses are a road map for Christian life. The are especially true for new Christians. If you follow these to the letter, you will be pleasing and acceptable to God…….

These verses start out by telling us that The Lord has given us EVERYTHING we need to live a Godly life. It is a step by step manual, condensed to 37 words, and yet, these 37 words give us everything we need to live how Christian should live. Rehab programs have their 12 steps, here we have our 8 steps to a Godly life:

Step 1- Give diligence to the promises of God. Check them out and see for yourself. Believe the promises of God. This is FAITH, and that is not only the first step, but is also the foundation.

Step 2- To your Faith, and VIRTUE. Virtue is laying aside the things that you once did. The things that kept you from having a full and complete relationship with God.

Step 3- To your virtue add KNOWLEDGE.  You add knowledge by reading and studying The Bible. You need to do this for yourself.  Listening to Preachers/Pastor/Teachers is a good thing, but it is no substitute for studying the Word Of God for yourself. Be like a sponge, soak up all the Bible that you possibly can

Step 4- To knowledge add SELF CONTROL (Temperance). By absorbing and applying to your life what is found in scripture, you will learn how to have self control. That still small voice that is The Holy Spirit will speak to you about things that need to be put aside, all you have to do is listen.

Step 5- To self-control add PERSEVERANCE (Patience).  A lot of people (especially early on in your walk with the lord) get stuck on step 5. Once you have self control, and you stop doing certain things, you will face some ridicule from those people you know. Even your family may not understand how you can be one person one day, and a totally new person the next, but by having patience with them (and yourself), they will come to accept that you are a different person and that what you have found is not just some passing phase.

Step 6- To perseverance add GODLINESS. Some misguided Pastors expect you to have godliness as soon as you accept Jesus into your heart. They don’t mean any harm, but as we can see from the verses above, coming to live a full and complete Christian life is a process. Of course you are a changed person and a new creation the moment you  accept Jesus, but just as a physical newborn goes through steps to come into being an adult, so must the spiritual newborn. Nobody would even think of handing a baby a steak and saying “here is your dinner”, so why then would we expect a newborn Christian to be able to eat (let alone digest) everything that is needed to be a mature Christian.

Step 7- To Godliness add BROTHERLY KINDNESS. Ok, things are getting harder… Do you see why you cant skip from step 1 to step 7? Brotherly kindness is showing kindness and love to other Christians (yes, even those you may not agree with). Even within your own Church there will be people who we just “clash” with. This is a fact of life. But by following step 7 we can show them love and kindness because as Christians, we are all Children of the same God, and heirs to the same throne. You may not agree with me on everything, and I may not agree with you, but we are still family, and just like our earthly family, there may be those who we wouldn’t want to live with, but that doesn’t mean we don’t show them love and affection or give them help when they need it.

Step 8- To Brotherly kindness add LOVE. That’s the biggie, and is one of the hardest to do. That is why it is the last step. You have to have a foundation of all the other steps to be able to effectively have this one. The love that is written here is a deep and profound love for all mankind. Even your enemies!! Anyone can love a person who loves us back, but it takes a firmly rooted Christian to love those who do not love us, those who disagree with us, those who mock us for our faith, even those who would do us physical harm for our faith. This is the type of love that Jesus had when he was hanging on the cross. Even after everything they had done to him, he prayed “Father forgive them, for the know not what they do”.  Make no mistake, He had it in his power to stop the crucifixion at any time. With just one word to God, 12 Legions (in the neighborhood of 24 to 36 THOUSAND) of angels would have been sent to Him, but even though he had it in His power to kill them all, He chose the path of love.

To borrow a phrase from recovery programs, if you “work” these steps, you will come in to the fullness of God, and live your life victorious in Him.

Prayer

Lord help us today to follow these steps. Wherever we are in our walk with You, help us to be faithful to these steps and continue to follow them so that we can move into the fullness of life that You have for us.

Further Reading

2 Peter 1: 5-8- Tells you what will come if you follow these steps.