2 Pet 1:5 ~ Part Three

Today is the third, and final, lesson of 2 Pet 1:5.  This verse is dependent on the first four verses of this chapter, which tell us about the five gifts that God gives to us when we open or hearts to Jesus.  In verse five, Peter tells us to build our spiritual life by adding to the God-given gift of faith, these seven elements: virtue - to make up one's mind and strive for excellence; knowledge - knowledge about Jesus; temperance - to crucify the flesh...in other words to have willpower; patience - endurance.  These four elements are internal and are not necessarily obvious to others.  However, without these, one cannot have the other three elements, which are external and show in one's testimony. 

The first of these external elements is godliness.  This element shows others how our testimony is like Jesus, which is our goal in life. 

That brings us to brotherly kindness, which obviously means, how we treat each other.

The last element is charity, or love.  This love is not romantic, but a mental decision to serve; to focus on what we can do for others and do it.

This verse, 2 Pet 1:5, is a summary of the entire Christian dynamic.  When we fellowship with other Christians, Peter tells us to remember these things and allow them to "stir [us] up" (2 Pet 1:13).

2 Pet 1:5 ~ Part Two

We are going through a lesson that deals with building our spiritual life.  When we accept Jesus as our Savior, God immediately gave to us five precious gifts, one of which was faith (2 Pet 1:1-4, lesson on 4/11/13).  Saturday, we studied the first part of  2 Pet 1:5 , in which we learned that faith was the foundation of our spiritual life.  Peter is telling us that, in order to grow in our walk with the Lord, we need to add to that gift of faith.  He is also saying that we need to be diligent, or eager, in our growth.  In other words, do not let one day go by without being in the Word; if we do, decay will likely set into our spiritual life.
With that being said, the first "element" to add to faith is virtue, which is excellence or above average moral character (lesson on 4/13/13).
To the first element, we add knowledge.  This is what we know about Jesus, which is always growing, as we are always, or should always be,  thirsting for more.
To virtue and knowledge, we add temperance.  Now temperance means to crucify or deny the flesh.  That is easier said than done, I know, but we must do this for the Holy Spirit, which lives within us.
The last element that we are going to add today is patience, which is endurance.  Endurance means simply, "do not quit...EVER!"

Please come back tomorrow for our third and final lesson on 2 Pet 1:5.  God bless!