For This Very Reason

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”  2 Peter 1:5-7

For many decades of my life I endeavoured to read the bible through each year using different translations and various reading plans. More recently I have found myself more methodically working my way through books, often camping on a particular passage, sometimes for days at a time, meditating and prayerfully contemplating what the Holy Spirit is saying to me through the ancient writer. Such is the case with our captioned verse today which has attracted my attention for several days and even several times in a day. Then I noticed something. Contained within these verses is the journey of a disciple-maker. 

The first step to being a disciple of Jesus is to put our faith in him. Once we have done that we begin to experience a change in our attitudes and actions and goodness becomes a characteristic of our life, replacing old habits and self-centeredness. Through attending church, participating in a small group, personal bible reading, prayer, and having discussions with other Jesus followers our knowledge begins to grow. Where we were once impatient or expressed ourselves inappropriately self-control begins to develop because it is built on a base of faith, goodness and knowledge. Throughout our journey as a disciple there will be times when we face attacks by the enemy, temptations to do wrong, or other challenges. When these things come our way it takes perseverance to get through to victory.  In the deepest challenges, when sometimes it seems there will be no end, God meets us and uses these opportunities to develop us and thus godliness begins to surface in our lives. We find resonance with other disciples and appreciate the comradery, like mindedness, and respect which develops leading to a mutual affection for other disciples on the journey with us. 

Finally we get to a place where, to some measure, we begin to love like Jesus loved. We begin to see people like Jesus sees them - sheep without a shepherd - souls choosing the wrong path on the journey of life - in captivity to sinful behaviours etc. But rather than condemn them we find ourselves drawn to them and desiring that they become disciples of Jesus. And as we are successful in redirecting a person to take a step of faith we have the wonderful privilege of working in partnership with the Holy Spirit to see this cycle of growth repeated over and over again. 

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”