Add To Your Faith

2 Peter 1:5-10 KJV

[5] And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

[6] And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

[7] And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

[8] For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[9] But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

[10] Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

"For if these things be in you, (What things: Faith, Virtue, Knowledge, Temperance, Patience, Godliness, Kindness, and Love, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

This easily leads me to believe that these several things work together, and if any of them are missing, we are considered as blind. Verse 8 tells us if we have these things, then we shall not be:

* Unfruitful

* Barren

Unfruitful:

1. Not producing fruit; barren; as an unfruitful tree.

2. Not producing off-spring; not prolific; barren; as an unfruitful female.

3. Not producing good effects or works; as an unfruitful life.

4. Unproductive; not fertile; as an unfruitful soil.

Tying this in with the fruit verses in Galatians, there is a way for us to bear fruit, adding one thing to another and possessing and abounding in the combination of these things.

Galatians 5:22-23 KJV

(22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

(23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23 Amplified

(22)But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness.

(23) Gentleness (meekness, humility), self control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge against you].

Genesis 2:9 KJV

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Now there is a direct correlation between the fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh and the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I am not over spiritualizing. It is in the BOOK.

Jesus said: Matthew 7:16-18 KJV

[16] Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

[17] Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

[18] A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

In the mathematics of heaven, in order to be fruitful we must do some heavenly addition:

faith + virtue + knowledge + temperance + patience + godliness + brotherly kindness + charity = Fruitful

This equation requires all of these things in order for it to work. If we are to bare fruit, we must, as 2 Peter 1:5 in our text says: giving all diligence.

Diligence means we have to work at it, PERIOD. We have to try. We have to pay attention to it. We have give forth an effort.

If you know your bible, and I’m hoping that you do, someone right now is thinking, “You’re saying works, we aren't saved by works, we are saved by grace through faith, Hello!”

Ok, let me explain.

Fruit comes forth as a result of the Holy Ghost in our lives. if the work of God inside us bring forth the fruit of God, It is not I that bring it, but the Holy Ghost . We do not make the fruit grow.

Lets think of a tree. Apple tree. How does an Apple tree make apples? First of all, the apple tree did not decide to be an apple tree. Its genetic makeup makes it an apple tree. That makeup says when fruit is hanging from it, it will be an apple.

The tree has some things it must do:

· The tree absorbs water and nutrients from the soil,

· sunlight synthesizes the water and carbon dioxide to form sugar and oxygen (tree-food)

· The process is further impacted by a grower who tends to the tree and prunes it to make more apples grow.

· Now the tree has to absorb water and it has to absorb sunlight, otherwise, not only will there be no apples, the tree will die.