For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure …
Summary: Talking blind is like walking blind, only with your mouth. When we talk about spiritual things, we are talking about the unseen. If we are not quoting the Bible, which is our only source of accurate information about spiritual things, then we are making things up.
Peter addresses his letter to, “those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours” (2 Peter 1:1). So he begins with a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ.
His next point is that those who have been given this faith can “participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). It is this “divine nature” that gives us “everything we need for a godly life” (2 Peter 1:3) through knowing Jesus.
Immediately after this, he tells us to add things to our faith.
Stop and think about that for a minute.
Isn’t faith enough?
There is a great deal of confusion on this matter. Luther would argue that we live by “faith alone” (“Sola Fide” in Latin). The problem is that all biblical doctrine originates from God, that is from the spiritual realm. All human theology is … well, human. We humans exist in the physical realm here on earth.
When we who are born in the flesh speak about spiritual matters, we are talking blind. We cannot “see” into heaven from our side of the wall that exists between the spiritual and the flesh. Heaven can see us, but in a way that the worldly cannot comprehend.
When we who are of the world talk about things of heaven, we are talking blind. We do not know, and we cannot know of what we speak. Our only clues to heaven are revealed to us by God’s Word.
When Luther established the concept of “faith alone” he was reacting to a church environment that had wandered from Biblical teaching. The church was doing many things that offended Luther’s sensibilities (and probably God’s as well) but the one that tipped the scales for him was indulgences. It was as if the church had surveyed out heaven and was selling building lots for people to buy. Pay your money to the church, do certain things to establish your piety bonafide, and “presto!” you are guaranteed a place in heaven.
Luther correctly argued that the church had no business selling access to heaven. His response to this was that we are saved by “faith alone.” “Works” have no place in the body of Christ. I believe that the Apostle Paul would agree if you define “works” as a religious activity engaged in to earn God’s favor. But there is another kind of “works.”
Just as God appointed works for Jesus to do (John 9:4), Jesus has work for the believer to do:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)
James, the brother of Jesus, famously writes, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds” (James 2: 18).
Faith in God is expressed not just in the words we say, but in the things we do (Joshua 1:8). Those who see through worldly eyes want to claim a ticket to heaven with words of faith, but live according to the desires of their flesh. Those who see through spiritual eyes understand that the call of Jesus is not for lip service, but for the entirety of who we are.
The things, or “qualities,” that Peter has told us to add to our faith are in keeping with the will of our Lord Jesus. We will do well to follow Peter’s lead.
Application: Add to your faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly love, and godly love.
Food for Thought: How do you explain our spiritual nature to people?
I think it is important to communicate that without spiritual birth we are spiritually dead – as Jesus told Nicodemus – we must be born again (John 3: 3). Without Christ we are physically alive, but spiritually dead (Ephesians 2: 1 – 9; Romans 6: 23). Good works do not save, but saved people are designed for good works (Ephesians 2: 10).
It is important for all people to see their spiritual need and understand their need for Christ. This is the Holy Spirit’s work, but He will use us as His messenger to call people to reconciliation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 14 – 21). To explain our spiritual nature is to explain our spiritual need for Christ.
09-19-2021, 2 Peter 1:8a, How do you explain our spiritual nature to people?
We are eternal spiritual beings temporarily confined in decaying physical bodies.
Only those sent to us by God will be ready for and receptive to the truths of God. While we wait, we let His light shine through us so they will see and be drawn to the Light.
John 16:8-13
The strength of our spirit’s obedience to the Holy Spirit is directly related to what we choose to focus on. Those who focus on God’s word begin to see things from His perspective, and respond in ways that please God. Focusing on this world, it’s philosophy, will distort our judgment and cause us to hold onto the desires of the flesh.
Jesus teaches, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
He later told Nicodemus, Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. A person can be alive physically in the body of flesh but dead spiritually. A person who has been born again by God’s Spirit is made alive spiritually.
John 3:6, John 6:63, Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13,
Paul writes, You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
Once the spirit of a person has been raised to life by the Spirit of God, the old desires of the flesh will not disappear. There is a battle that will now on. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not able to do whatever you want.
Romans 8:9, Galatians 5:16-17
The person who has received spiritual life from the Holy Spirit will want to please God. But the pull of this decaying world, which feeds our physical needs and pleasures are still present. As a Spirit filled believer, we must feed on spiritual food as we moment by moment yield to God’s Spirit each day. Feeding our spirit and yielding to the Spirit are done by reading, studying, and obeying God’s Word, and seeking additional nourishment through prayer and fellowship. The more one gets into the Word, the more he or she will desire what God desires.
Colossians 3:1-2, Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.