CBTS Logo

Growth in Grace 6 — Knowledge Must Be Supplied in Moral Excellence

by | Sep 10, 2014 | Soteriology

Doctrine!  Theology!  These are not words calculated to inspire interest or rapt attention among modern Americans or even American Christians.  If we did the word-association game, the associations of these words would probably be negative.  Once more in this matter we need to have our attitudes and perspectives re-molded by the Word of God.  For, as I hope to show you, the Bible tells us that every Christian must know doctrine—must become a theologian!  2 Peter 1:5-7 is my text and the key phrase for this blog is found in verse 5:  “supply … in your moral excellence knowledge.”

The fascinating thing about Peter’s exhortation to growth in grace is its detailed, systematic, and orderly character.  Yet this very order and system raises many questions in a thinking Christians mind.  In this series so far I have set before you a number of propositions intended to answer these questions and unlock the true significance this order for you.  Let me review briefly.

First, there is a rationale for the orderly or consecutive listing of graces that you see here in Peter’s exhortation.  It is no accident, and it can be no accident, that faith comes first or that love comes last in this list.  The rest of the New Testament so speaks of faith and love that no one aware of its teaching can possibly think that it is accidental that faith comes first and love comes last in this list.

Second, and nevertheless, Peter does not teach the Lego or building-block view of sanctification here in these verses.  It is easy to read this list and conclude that Peter thinks that you can just stack one grace on top of another as you grow in grace.  It would be easy to conclude that Peter thinks that you can work on moral excellence, finish that project, and then work on knowledge, etc.  This Lego-block view of sanctification cannot, however, possibly be intended by Peter.  Leaving aside other problems with it that might be mentioned, consider two problems.  One problem is that no faith that is unaccompanied by and un-supplied with moral excellence is true faith.  If you really had a faith that was by itself and not permeated with moral excellence, it would mean that you were not a true Christian.  Faith without works is dead (James 2:17).  Another problem is that a Christian without love is a contradiction in terms.  We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren (1 John 3:14).  The Lego-block view of faith implies, however, that at some stage in the Christian life, you can have faith without having any moral excellence or any love.  This is a patently wrong view of growing in grace.

Third, the key idea that enables us to unlock Peter’s meaning and the true significance of this orderly listing of graces is the idea of completion.  Faith is first because it is not the completion of any previous grace.  There is no grace goes before faith.  Love is last because it needs no completion by another grace.  Love according to Colossians 3:14 is the bond of completeness, the perfect bond of unity.  Thus, it needs no completing by a further grace.  Moral excellence follows faith and must be supplied in faith because “faith without works is dead being by itself” (Jam. 2:17).  Faith must be completed by moral excellence.

Now I realize that this idea of one grace completing another may seem abstract or difficult to some of you.  Let me illustrate it.  The man was made first according to the Bible.  Just so faith is the first of the graces.  The man is the head of the woman.  Even so faith is the leading grace.  The man, however, is not independent of the woman.  He needs a suitable helper.  He needs to be completed by the woman.  Without the woman he could never be or become what God wanted.  Even so faith is not independent of moral excellence.  It needs to be completed by moral excellence.  Without moral excellence faith could never be or become what God wanted.  As the woman completes the man and makes him what he should be, so moral excellence completes faith and makes it what it should be.

But moral excellence is also not complete in itself.  And as I have said, only love needs no completion.  All other graces are incomplete and defective if they are not supplied with a crucial addition.  In this blog and the next I want to consider Supplying Moral Excellence with Knowledge.  I want to open up this point by asking and answering four questions.

Why must moral excellence be supplied with knowledge?

Another way to put this same question is to ask, How is moral excellence defective or incomplete without knowledge?  Now we might wonder, How can anything as fine and as wonderful as moral excellence be defective at all?  Here is this zealous Christian.  He labors tirelessly in Christian activity.  He works and works for Jesus.  He feeds the poor.  He sacrifices for God.  He witnesses to others about Jesus.  He spends every night doing something at church.  How could anything as fine as this be defective or incomplete in any way?  Any pastor would be overjoyed to have someone like this in his church, you would think.

Yet Peter plainly says that such moral excellence must be supplied with knowledge.  Why?  What could be possibly be wrong with such moral excellence, such zeal?  Let me tell you.  Moral excellence must be supplied with knowledge because moral excellence without knowledge can degenerate into blind zeal and useless activity.  There is the danger of blind zeal and useless activity in moral excellence by itself and left alone un-supplied with knowledge.  Is this not the plain teaching of the Bible?  Let me show you that it is.  Romans 10:1-3 reads:

Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

Paul actually says of the Jews that they had a zeal for God.  There was an energetic concern for the cause of God.  Yet, all of this zeal and all of this energy was utterly useless and worse than useless.  It was carried on, you see, in ignorance of God’s Word.  They thought they were serving God.  They told themselves they were serving God.  Yet they were actually with all their zeal, with all their moral excellence opposing the gospel of God.

Does all of this remind you of another Scripture?  Please turn to John 16:2.

John 16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

Here are Christians being excommunicated from synagogues by people who thought that in doing so they were serving God.  What an amazing proof that moral excellence—zeal—must be supplied with knowledge!

But there is another text that must be considered here.  Please turn to Matthew 23:15.

Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Here we see that evangelistic activity—missionary activity (!)—can be misguided and actually end up doing people harm rather than good.  Notice that the amount of activity or the fact that there was great energy and great zeal shown is no proof that zeal is genuine moral excellence–that moral excellence is not defective.  These people traversed sea and land under the strenuous travel conditions of the first century.  There were no jets and no trains and no SUV’s with padded seats and all sorts of comfort.  It was a sacrifice to travel.  It was terribly worse even than the sacrifice it is for missionaries in third world countries.  Yet all of this religious activity in the name of God was not just useless, but worse than useless in God’s eyes.

Now let me urge you not to lightly dismiss this.  Do not say to yourself, Well, they were Jews.  They were deceived by a false religion.  We are Christians.  We engage in our zealous and energetic activities in the name of Christ.  But aren’t you missing the point in saying that?  Remember that Judaism until the time of Christ was the right religion.  Remember that Judaism was supposed to lead men to accept the Christ when he came.  The real problem with these Jews is that they had turned Judaism into something it was not.  And it is just as possible for professing Christians to turn Christianity into something it is not.  Merely using the name of Christ no more protects men from blind zeal than naming the name of God!  Both for professing Jews and for professing Christians the difference between blind zeal and true zeal is the knowledge stressed by Paul in Romans 10 and Peter in our passage.

Growth in Grace 5 — Moral Excellence Must Be Added to Faith

by | Sep 8, 2014 | Soteriology

Contrary to popular opinion, God does not save people simply to keep them from going to hell.  Of course, our compassionate God does desire to keep people from going to hell, but God’s ultimate purpose involves the Christian’s growth in grace.  This is because God’s ultimate purpose is to glorify His Son by re-making those whom He saves into the image of His Son.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren (Romans 8:29).  This involves growing in grace.  The most detailed and systematic statement of growth in grace in the entire Bible is 2 Peter 1:5-7.  In this blog post we come to the second grace in Peter’s list and the one that must be supplied into faith.  The NASB translates this grace with the words, moral excellence.  My goal is to answer two questions about moral excellence.  The first is this:

What is moral excellence?

The best way to understand the meaning of a word is not by turning first to the dictionary definitions, but by listening to how it is used in the New Testament.  The word translated, moral excellence, is used three other places in the New Testament.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

2 Peter 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

Clearly, in the New Testament the word describes something that is excellent, morally virtuous, or praiseworthy.  God is excellent, virtuous, and praiseworthy.  His people are to so live that they show in their lives the excellent, virtuous, and praiseworthy nature of God.  Two parallel texts come to mind.

Isaiah 43:21 “The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.” (The LXX translates praise by the Greek word used in our text.)

Matt. 5:16,  “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven.”

The moral excellence of which our text is speaking is not the moral excellence of God, but the reflection of His moral excellence in our lives.  What we are to add to our faith, then, is moral excellence, praiseworthiness, or virtue.

There is an emphasis in this word that needs illustrating.  Suppose I told one of my children that I expected them to get excellent grades in school.  Further suppose that they brought home a report full of D’s and C’s with an occasional B-.  Do you suppose I would consider such grades excellent and praiseworthy?  Of course not!  Do you suppose I would be appeased if they objected to my unhappiness by saying,  Dad, why are you so upset?  I did better than a lot of kids.  I did alright.  It’s good enough.  What’s wrong with my grades?  At least I didn’t flunk any classes.  Again, the answer is “of course not.”  D’s and C’s are simply not excellent grades.  Whatever they are, even if they are not as bad they could be, they are not excellent or praiseworthy.

Of course, if a young person is simply not capable of getting A’s, we should be satisfied.  But every Christian because of the indwelling Spirit is capable of moral excellence.  God calls for nothing less than moral excellence in His sons and daughters.  God is not satisfied with conduct that is the moral equivalent of D’s and C’s.  God is not satisfied by moral standards just a little bit better than the world’s standards.

We must supply moral excellence in our faith because our faith deserves nothing less.  Our faith is what we believe.  It is the truth we believe (2 Pet. 1:1).  The Christian faith is the greatest truth in the world and deserves to be adorned by the greatest lives in the world.  If you are a member of this church, I hope it has a great deal to do with its particular understanding of the Christian faith—its doctrines!  What Peter says here about moral excellence is very similar to what Paul says in Titus 2:10.  There Paul calls on Christians to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.”  Children, do you know what it means to adorn something?  You girls know!  It means to make something look pretty or attractive!  This is what you are to for the doctrine of God’s grace.  You are to make it attractive.  Because of a recent wedding in our family, I can bear personal witness to the expense, time, and effort which went into making certain ladies look attractive.  It is such expense, time, and effort for which Peter calls here in order that the doctrine of God our Savior might look attractive.

Why is moral excellence next?

One of the most obvious features of our text is the specific order in which Peter mentions these graces.  How do we explain this order?  Why does Peter say that this specific grace must be supplied in that other, specific, previous grace? Why is it moral excellence and not knowledge or self-control that is mentioned next after faith and which must be supplied into it?

There are a number of patently false ideas that must be avoided in answering these questions.   We must not conclude that these verses reveal a step-by-step chronological order in time by which we are to grow in grace.  We must not be tempted to think that they teach that a man can have faith, but utterly lack the seven qualities mentioned in Peter’s list of graces.  We must not think that true faith can be devoid or empty of the seven graces which follow it.  Peter is not giving to us a kind of chronological map of growth in grace.  He is not advocating a building block view of growth in grace.  He is not saying that we are to stack one block of grace on top of the previous.  He is not advocating some sort of sanctification-made-easy formula.  But, then, what is he doing?  I will answer this question by giving you—first—a general explanation for the order as a whole and—second—a specific reason for the order of faith and then moral excellence in particular.

The General Explanation for the Order as a Whole

In a previous post I made the point that there is a logical reason for the order of the graces listed here.  I spent a long time showing why faith had to be the first grace in the list.  Faith must be first because no grace precedes it in the Christian life.

Now I want to point out that it is no accident that love is the last grace in the list.  This is entirely appropriate. Since love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), the greatest of the Christian graces (1 Cor. 13:13), and the fulfillment of the whole law (Rom. 13:8, 10), it is not surprising that love is given the climactic place in Peter’s list.

But there is another reason why love had to be given the climactic place in this list. Love concludes the list because it alone of all the Christian graces does not need to be completed by another grace.  All the other graces require something else to be supplied in them.  Faith must have supplied in it moral excellence.  Moral excellence must be completed with knowledge.  Love culminates the list because it alone is (in the words of Col. 3:14) “the perfect bond of unity”.  The NIV of Col. 3:14 says,  “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  Literally, the Greek of Col. 3:14 says that love is the bond of completeness.  Faith is first because nothing can precede it.  Love is last because nothing can complete it.  It is necessarily the completing grace, just as faith is necessarily the beginning grace.

Peter’s order has to do with the idea of completing.  Faith is first because it completes no other previous grace.  Love is last because it needs no completing.  The key idea, then, is that each Christian grace by itself is incomplete and defective if to it is not added the grace that completes it.  Faith, then, is defective if to it is not added moral excellence!

The Specific Reason for the Order of Faith and Moral Excellence in Particular

Faith must be completed by moral excellence because without it faith is defective and incomplete.  That reminds us James 2:14-26.  Notice particularly the question of James 2:14:  “Can that faith save him?” The implied answer is:  Of course not!  Notice also verses  17, 22, and 24.

James 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself

James 2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;

James 2:24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Faith is first.  Faith is crucial.  Faith is justifying.  But if it is not a faith completed by works, it is nothing.  If it is not a faith perfected by moral excellence, it is dead.  Such a kind of faith is not saving and is not justifying.  It is the wrong kind of faith.

People have thought that Paul and James were on different pages in the matter of justification.  They are simply wrong.  Remember what Paul said in Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”  Only the kind of faith that works through love is saving faith.  Thus, Peter, James, and Paul all teach that faith must be supplied with good works or completed with love.  Faith that is not completed or supplied with moral excellence is not true, saving, or justifying faith.  No supposed grace standing by itself, naked and alone, is the genuine article.  Only love needs no such completion because it completes all other graces.

It is a wonderful truth of the Word of God that we are justified by faith alone.  Ah! But we are not justified or saved by a lonely faith!  Our Confession epitomizes this important distinction when it says at 11:2: “Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification;  yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.”

Here is my concern.  There are a lot of people in our day who have sat in church under defective teaching on this subject.  They think they have saving faith.  But this saving faith has never resulted in moral excellence, has not made them adorn the gospel with good works in their lives.  According to the Apostles Peter and Paul, they are deceived and still on their way to hell with their defective faith.  I do not want any of you to be among them that deceived multitude who when they come to the day of judgment with their defective faith hear the horrible words, Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!  Cf. Matthew 7:19-23.

Growth in Grace 4 — Effort Is Necessary! Practical Conclusions

by | Sep 3, 2014 | Soteriology

In 2 Peter 1:5 Peter quadruplely emphasizes that effort is necessary in the Christian life.  He says:  “… applying … all … diligence … supply …”  Now I take up some of the practical conclusions which follow from this emphasis which runs quite counter to a lot of popular teaching on sanctification in our day!

(1)     God does not just command men in general or Christians to do these things in order to show us our inability.  He commands us to do these things, because we can as redeemed men and women, and because if we do not, the process of ongoing sanctification will not take place.  The religion which dislikes all human activity and thinks of all human activity as of the flesh, as dutyism, as legalism, or as Arminianism is not the religion of the Bible.

(2)     Effort is not contrary to faith.  I have said that faith is first and effort is necessary, but there must be faith in our working.  The two things required in growth in grace are faith resting and faith working.  Faith must rest in the promises of God, but then faith must work out of the resources of the grace of God.

Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

This is why we should avoid saying that we are sanctified by faith alone.  Although it might be technically be true in some sense, it is misleading because in justification “faith alone” means faith receiving and resting on Christ alone for justification.  In sanctification “faith alone” includes “faith working.”

(3)     Our whole redeemed humanity is and must be intensively involved in the great work of ongoing sanctification.  This involvement, as the passage implies, must cost us something.  As it costs a miler something to run a mile in the track meet, as it costs the person who is starting or running a business, as it costs to raise a family right, so too the Christian life, growth in grace, requires and demands the cost of hard work and sweat.  The believer most active and energetic in growing in grace will be the most sanctified believer.  The lazy believer will be the least sanctified.

(4)     We must not think that all effort in the Christian life is “of the flesh.”  Isn’t this what we hear all the time?  I don’t want to be guilty of doing something in the flesh.  I want to pray, but I don’t want to do it in the flesh.  I want to be pure, but I don’t want to do it in the flesh.  I want to talk to that person about the Lord, but I don’t want to do it in the flesh. I would like to be faithful to my wife, but I don’t want to do it in the flesh.

OK, I am being a little sarcastic.  I am aware that it is possible to do the outward things we should do, but without the right spirit or motivation and so do them in the flesh.  So how can you be sure that you are doing the duties of the Christian life in the flesh?  How may you avoid doing your duties in the flesh?  Let me give you a few tips on how to avoid doing things in the flesh.

  • Never try to add to your faith moral excellence without confessing your sins.
  • Never do it without a washed-in-the-blood-of-Jesus’ conscience.
  • Never do it without prayerful dependence on God.
  • Never do it without renouncing self-sufficiency.
  • Never do it without confessing your tendency to pride and self-righteousness and asking to be delivered from seeking your own glory.
  • But when you are all done, you must not associate doing something in the Spirit with having a certain feeling.  You must not associate doing something in the flesh with the absence of a certain feeling.

Even if you add to your faith moral excellence, in cold blood, you must still do it—even if you have to confess your coldness of heart while you do it.  A fear of doing what is right because you might do it in the flesh produces a paralysis which is also sinful.

(5)     What kinds of effort are necessary in the Christian life and growth in grace?  The Bible teaches that many different kinds of effort and activity are necessary to grow in grace.

Romans 13:14b implies the necessity of foresight, planning to avoid the occasions of sin:  “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

Romans 12:1, 2 indicates the importance of learning, reading, listening, and studying:  “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Hebrews 10:25 shows the necessity of gathering with God’s people in the assemblies of the church:  “not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.”

Matthew 26:41 instructs us in the importance of watching (staying awake) and praying:  “Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Titus 2:12 teaches us the importance of saying no to ourselves and self-denial: “instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”

1 Timothy 4:7 informs us of the necessity of self-discipline:  “But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”

I am certain that many other kinds of effort could be gleaned from a diligent study of the Bible.

(6)     There is a direct connection between our effort, our diligence, and our sanctification.  God has decreed that the way in which He will sanctify His people and cause them to grow in grace is by making them diligent in supplying in their faith all the things Peter mentions.  Thus, He has decreed that when we are diligent, we will make progress.  This passage refutes the idea that a Christian can work his head off in growing in grace and make no progress.  Peter tells us to supply in our faith moral excellence, because by the grace of God working in us we can.  God is sovereign, but He shows His sovereignty by giving us diligence, not by making our diligence pointless and futile.  There is a direct connection between our supplying and our progress in grace.

(7)     We must make time and energy available to grow in grace.  Many of us are at very busy times in our lives.  At such a time we must guard against being so stressed and tired that we have no energy left to commit to growing in grace.  Time must be set aside for prayer, Bible study, godly concerns, and focusing on the concerns of our souls.  Energy must be reserved to grow in grace, because, dear brethren, it does take energy.  This fact may necessitate a serious and painful review of our family priorities.

(8)     Peter’s emphasis on “applying all diligence supply” ministers a serious rebuke to spiritual laziness.  Talk is cheap, right?  Let us not be those who talk about holiness, but who never do anything about it.

Proverbs 21:25 The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, For his hands refuse to work;

Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, But the soul of the diligent is made fat.

Proverbs 22:13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!”

Sluggards may want holiness and talk about holiness, but they won’t do anything to get it.  When you offer them good counsel about it and how to get it, they always have an excuse.  Don’t be the spiritual sluggard!  Applying all diligence supply in your faith moral excellence!

(9)     Growth in grace because it requires effort, because it requires “applying all diligence … supplying.”  But it is a work that only God can enable you to do.  It is a work of divine power.  You must beseech Him for the strength you need!  You must give Him all the glory if you are to be successful in any measure at growing in grace!

2 Peter 1:5-7 says,  “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,  and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,  and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.”  Adding these graces to your faith is clearly to be a priority to you.  You have nothing to do that is more important.  Adding these graces involves effort.  It involves doing something.  So what are you going to do?

Should you spend tomorrow praying and fasting about that problem are in your life?  You have that problem area.  It grieves you.  You are frustrated, but have you ever given yourself to prayer and fasting about it?  What are you going to do?

Should you sit down with your wife today and re-structure your lives so that you both have to read the Bible and pray daily or so that you have time to have family worship?  What are you going to do?

Should you make yourself accountable to someone and report to them regularly about that area in which you struggle?  What are you going to do?

Do you need to write that letter or make that phone call or have that conversation you have been putting off and do it today or tomorrow?  What are you going to do?

This is the question that Peter’s words require me to ask you.  It is the question you must ask yourself.  The question is not carnal or fleshly or legalistic.  The question is, So what are you going to do?

Growth in Grace 3 — Effort Is Necessary!

by | Sep 1, 2014 | Soteriology

It is important to realize that there are many ways teach the Scriptures expositorily.  One can take long passages at a time, or one can take very short passages and bring the expository microscope to bear on a single word as I did in last two blog posts.  In this post I will place the expository microscope over four words in 2 Peter 1:5, The Bible’s Most Systematic and Detailed Exhortation to Growth in Grace.

In my last two posts I dealt with faith, and as you can see, the second grace mentioned by Peter is moral excellence.  But it is crucial to put the discussion of growth in this grace in the context of the gift of faith that we discussed last week.  It is also crucial that we not proceed until we have put the issue of growth in grace in the context of the matter of effort emphasized by Peter in verse 5.  Four crucial words in 2 Peter 1:5 quadruplely emphasize this matter of effort:  “applying … all … diligence … supply.”

Why is it crucial to put the matter of growth in grace in the context of both the gift of faith and the importance of effort as it is here in 2 Peter 1:5-7?  When I was a young Christian, I often felt that the teaching I received about growing in grace, being sanctified, and being a Spirit-filled Christian was somehow deficient.  I did not feel that it answered the practical question, How do I do this?  Now there is a danger that we fall into a superficial how-to mentality in the Christian life with five easy steps for everything.  I am not going to give you five easy steps for growing in grace in this series.  There is nothing easy about it!  Nevertheless, I do believe that Peter makes clear in verse 5 that there are two basic activities involved in growing in grace.  In growth in grace, faith is first, but effort is necessary.  Having dealt with faith already, I come to the second of these major activities emphasized by Peter.

The problem with much of the popular teaching on sanctification and growing in grace in our day is not a lack of emphasis on faith.  Its problem is that it teaches that all you have to do to grow in grace is rest in the promises of God.  Many of us were raised with its mottoes.  Rely and relax.  Let go and let God.  Let Christ live His life through you.  We are the glove Christ is the hand in the glove.

Even today voices have returned which seem to say that we may be sanctified by faith alone and that in order to grow in grace it is merely necessary to meditate on our justification by faith alone.  These voices are simply different ways of emphasizing the necessity of faith resting in the promises and power of God in the Christian life.  The problem with them is not that they are wholly wrong.  The problem is that they are imbalanced and one-sided.  They seem to affirm that there is nothing to be done in the Christian life except rely and let go and let Christ and rejoice in our justification.  This is where the Bible and Peter part company with much of the popular teaching on the Christian life that prevails in our day.

Peter teaches that effort is necessary!  And he does not do it softly, but loudly!  Notice the emphasis Peter places on this point in verse 5 by means of four words:  “applying … all … diligence…supply.”  Each of these four words emphasize and re-emphasize how crucial it that labor and effort be put forth in growing in grace.

First Word:  Applying

The verb, “applying”, (translated “make an effort” by the ESV) means according to BAG, “apply, bring to bear, make an effort.”  The root of this word is used in twice Luke 5:18, 19.  Look at what that passage says.

Luke 5:18 And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.  19 But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.

The men were trying to “bring in” to Jesus through the crowd the paralyzed man they were carrying on his bed.  Clearly, that activity involved strenuous effort—especially when they carried him up to the roof and began to tear the roof of the house off in order to let him down to Jesus.

Second Word:  Diligence

But Peter is not satisfied just to say “apply” or “make an effort.”  They must not just “bring to bear,” or “make an effort.”  They must “bring to bear” “diligence.”  BAG says that this word means,  “1. haste, speed, … 2. eagerness, earnestness, diligence, also zeal in matters of religion…make every effort to add 2 Pt. 1:5.”  Verbs related to this noun occur in 2 Pet. 1:10, 15; 3:12, 14.  This word, therefore, means diligence, the kind of diligence manifested for instance when people make haste or speed.

The picture conjured up is not one of a Sunday afternoon stroll, but of the kind of walking you do for exercise.  The Sunday afternoon stroll does not convey “diligence,”  but the tread-mill ‘walker’ does.  This is not the bicycle ride with your children around the neighborhood.  This is the 20 mile ride you take as part of your exercise regime.

Third Word: All

But Peter is not even satisfied with saying, “applying diligence.”  He adds the word, all or every, and says, “applying all diligence.”  It is not just some diligence.  It is all diligence.  It is all kinds of diligence, multi-faceted effort.  It is being “fully engaged.”  It is working with both hands.  This is not playing in the sandbox with your children.  This is digging that hole at work on a hot, summer day.  This is all diligence.

Fourth Word: Supply

But Peter is not even yet satisfied with his emphasis on effort in the Christian life.  He adds that word, supply. The word translated, add or supply, presents like many other of the words used by Peter a vivid picture.  Lloyd-Jones provides this description of the use and origin of this term.

This word is interesting; it was a word that was used for fitting out the chorus in connection with Greek plays.  It was a word that was used to describe the action of one who paid the cost of supplying, or fully furnishing with everything that was necessary, the chorus, which was always such a vital part of a Greek play.  So it is rightly translated by the words ‘furnish’ or ‘supply abundantly.’ (p. 25)

Rightly to supply for a play means great expense and a whole lot of work.  Ask any one in charge of putting on a play about this.  There are many, distracting, and expensive tasks.  The meaning of the Greek term is not just to supply, but frequently includes the ideas of supplying at one’s own expense and supplying lavishly or abundantly.

There are crucial lessons from this study on the necessity of effort in the Christian life.  I will take them up in my next post.

Pin It on Pinterest