Get Smart - 2 Peter 1:5 Series

2 Peter 1:5 For this very reason, having made every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.

Introduction: Is Christian Growth Hard?

Is the Christian life supposed to be hard? Is it supposed to be work, or is it supposed to be easy? Suppose you were struggling in your walk with the Lord and you spoke to two counselors. The first one told you, “You need to try harder, work harder—put your back into it.” The other one told you, “No—that’s bad advice. It should come naturally—like a tree bearing fruit. You never see an apple tree working up a sweat trying to push out apples. There should be no strain involved in the Christian life.”

Make Every Effort

Christian Living Is Hard Work

Which one of those has the ring of truth in your ears? Peter gives us his answer to that question in very clear terms in today’s passage.

2 Peter 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort ….

It’s three words in the Greek: The first one means to apply or bring to bear. The second one means all or every. And the third word, the key word, is spoude, which means effort, haste, or diligence, or earnestness. So apply or bring to bear every effort and all haste and urgency.

Should the Christian life be hard work? Yes. Should it feel burdensome? No. Should it feel oppressive or onerous? No. But hard work? Absolutely.

It’s a love relationship. There is no healthy relationship where one of the parties is passive. The better the relationship, the more energetic both parties are.

The people who say you need to be passive in your spiritual growth think that glorifies God, because it gives God all the credit for your growth. But in a love relationship, you don’t honor the person you’re in love with by being passive. You honor them by the level of enthusiasm and effort you put into loving them.

So do people who love each other put effort into loving each other? Yes. However, the stronger your love, the less all that work feels like work. It’s just what you want to do. So the Christian life should be vigorous, energetic, hard work that doesn’t feel like work. If making every effort to be godly starts to feel burdensome, then you need to make every effort to rekindle your love for God. But whether your emotions are where they should be or not, a love relationship always demands energetic input from both sides.

The Reason

So Peter says, “Make every effort. Every effort to do what? Before telling us what, Peter wants to tells us why. This is one of those cases where you need to know the reason for the command before you even hear what the command is because knowing the reason behind it will help you obey it.

So verse 5 begins, “For this very reason make every effort …” What’s the reason? What did he say in the previous verses?

What he did was show us how incredibly important it is to God that you live a godly life. It really, really matters a lot to God how you live.

In v.3, God opened the floodgates of his divine power to provide everything you need for life and godliness. Why would God do that? I’m going to go way out on a limb and hypothesize that God unleashed his divine power to give you everything you need for life and godliness because he wants you to live a godly life.

In v.4, he gave countless great and precious promises that enable you to escape moral corruption and share in God’s nature and moral excellence. In v.1, God gave you precious, grade-A, high octane faith—the same kind of faith he gave to the spiritual giants of the past. In v.2, God gave you access to abundant grace and abundant peace.

To suggest that it matters to God that you live a holy life is an understatement. He says it from every angle and provides mind-boggling resources to make sure you can do it.