Humility

This is another study that came from one of Pastor David Brock's messages, and it covers 1 Pet 5:5-11.  The book of 1 Peter is written to those who are going through trials; in other words, us!  We all know that if we are faithful to God, if we have accepted the Lord, Jesus Christ as our savior, Satan will do his best to bring us down.
In Chapter 5 of 1 Peter, he is telling the elders of the church to teach the children of God to practice humility toward others.  The reason for this is covered in the end of verse 5:

          "God opposes the proud
           but shows favor to the humble" (NIV).

In other words, God gives His sufficiency to the humble.

In verse 6, we are to humble ourselves before God and He will exalt, or lift us up in due time.  Again, He will bless us if we are humble.  For instance, if we feel slighted in a situation with another, instead of being offended, show humility.  Verse 7 tells us how to handle these situations.  "Cast all your anxiety on Him..." (NIV).  This is often called "let go and let God".  When we refuse to cast our troubles on Him, we are ultimately saying that we do not trust God to handle our lives.  Do we honestly think that we can handle our lives better than our creator?  How proud is that?!!

Verse 8 tells us to be alert for Satan and his bag of tricks.  We need to be God-controlled and not tempted by Satan's worldly sins, which come at us daily.  He will use anything to ruin our walk with the Lord, including the things that prove to be our worst temptations; (mine is the amount of time I spend watching the TV or on the computer), our relationships, our thought-processes, what we think are our rights, etc.  Think for a moment about the things that are your temptations.  Get them in line...talk to the Lord about them, and ask for His help with them.  It is silly pride when we say, "I am mature enough to handle this.  I know when to stop.  I do not need God's help."  As soon as we say this, watch out!  That is the first step down the slippery slope, and off the path to God.  Put up barriers to block these temptations.

Then, as verse 9 an 10 tell us, we are to stand firm in the faith and know that we are not alone.  God's grace will bring stability in our lives.  Grace is God's sufficiency in our insufficiency.  God restores, or fixes, that which is broken; then He us makes strong externally and firm internally.  Finally, He makes us steadfast, or unshakable.  Only God does this.  Our stability is found in God. God is glorified when we are weak and God's strength restores us for all to see.  We reveal who God is!

God Has Done His Part...

This lesson will cover, in part, 2 Pet 1:5.  We need to take this slow and easy, so we will break it up into phrases, then pull the phrases apart.  Because it has a lot of "meat" to it, we will study 2 Pet 1:5 over a number of days.  First, you need to make yourself acquainted with what we have just covered in 2 Pet 1:1-4 (covered on April 11, 2013).

So, let's begin.  The first phrase is "And beside this".  Peter is saying, "Because of the prior statement in 2 Pet 1:1-4, in which he states that we all were given five gifts when we accepted Jesus as our Savior, the following is true.  It is a natural cause and effect situation.

The second phrase is "giving all diligence".  In the original Greek, diligence here means to have an eagerness for or to get excited about.  In other words, "using all that you have eagerly".

The third phrase is "add to your faith".  This phrase coupled with the previous phrase, is telling us that we need immediate growth to our faith, stressing immediate.  Peter is tell us that we can never stop growing, not even for one day.  If we do, we give decay a foothold in our faith and, eventually, our walk with the Lord.  We cannot have spiritual decay and be Christ-like, which is our goal in this life.  Peter tells us that our faith, which is a gift from God (2 Pet 1:3), is the foundation of our spiritual growth so, naturally, we add to that.  This faith, in the original Greek, means a "firm conviction".

The last phrase (or word) that we are looking at today, is "virtue"; which, here, means worth; excellence; integrity; above-average moral character; and worthy of praise.  It is not the same virtue that we find in the fruit of the spirit, as that virtue is acts.  Let me explain.  This virtue in 2 Pet 1:5, is internal, or cause; whereas, the virtue found in fruit of the spirit is external, or effect.  In other words, if we have this virtue, it will cause the virtue found in the fruit of the spirit, which others will see in our actions.

So, Peter is saying that, when we accept Jesus, God gives us five gifts, of which faith is one.  Then our job starts.  We make our heart clean and holy.  We are starting anew.  First, like any building, we need a foundation.  We have a firm foundation, which is faith.  We need to add to this, seven layers of spiritual growth, beginning with virtue, which is a condition of the heart.  By starting fresh, and building with "new materials", we will have a pure place for the Holy Spirit to reside in our heart.