Have we ever said these words? “I know my life doesn’t look like a Christian’s life should look, but I do believe in God.”[1]
People who say those words are what Pastor Craig Groeschel called Christian atheists or “people [who] believe in God but live as if he doesn’t exist.”[2] Are we honest enough to admit that our lives don’t look like the way it should look like? Basically, being a Christian atheist is saying one thing and doing another. I believe we all struggle with that. Even Groeschel candidly confessed to this struggle: “Several years ago, I increasingly recognized inconsistencies between what I claimed to believe and the way I actually lived. I preached that people without Christ go to hell, but my life showed I wasn’t equally passionate to reach those people. Though I believed God wanted my life to be different, I found comparing myself to others easier than measuring my life against Christ’s. I preached that prayer is critical. But my prayer life was virtually nonexistent… If I truly belonged to Christ, I should surrender my whole life to him. I just gave him parts instead, and took them back whenever he didn’t do what I wanted. I called myself a Christian, but I lived like an atheist.”[3] Can we be as honest as Groeschel?
The bad news is the Bible calls that hypocrisy. Believe me when I say that there are topics that I myself am not comfortable to discuss because I could feel my own finger pointing back at me. I admit I also struggle with hypocrisy time and again. But I would not shy away from such topics just because it could boomerang on me. I won’t soften the Word just because it comes down hard on me, too. I would still let the Bible speak. The good news is that we don’t have to live that way. There is really a better way to live. God empowered us so that our words and works would match. To put it in a popular cliché, God made it possible for us to walk the talk and talk the walk.
Last Sunday we studied the first part of 2 Peter 1:5. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith…”[4] We saw that our pursuit for our spiritual growth calls for cooperation with God, commitment to grow and constancy in the process of growth. This morning we will look at the second part of verse 5: “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue”. That’s our main point. Add to your faith virtue. Let us pray first…
Let us look at the big picture first.[5] It’s like a map. I just came from a youth camp in La Trinidad, Benguet as part of my summer internship in seminary. Last Friday, we had free time so I decided to give my team a tour of Baguio City, which is just 30 minutes away from where we were. It’s their first time in Baguio. I’ve been there many times but I’m not really familiar with the ins and outs of the city. I just know that there are great tourist spots there. But, since I don’t have a map, I would make a wrong turn here and a wrong turn there. Every time I commit a blooper, I just told them, “Here’s another view of the city.” Whenever I would make a wrong turn, I was tempted to tell them, “We are not lost. We just don’t know where we are.” It’s just a good thing that the main city proper is just small. That’s why it’s important to have a map to have a big picture or perspective. So, let us read 2 Peter 1:5-7. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”
First, note that making every effort to supplement our faith is a command for believers only. Faith is the foundation. It does not say “make every effort to add faith.” It says “make every effort to add to your faith”.[6] We build upon our faith. If you haven’t put your trust in the Lord Jesus alone as your Savior, you cannot really fulfill this command because “these qualities grow out of life and out of a vital relationship with Jesus Christ.”[7] Even if you would want to, you could not if you are not yet a believer. Growth is building upon faith. One commentary tells us, “Our faith, if its genuine, sets up a chain of deep, internal, and experiential changes that will meet our hunger for God’s reality.”[8] Real faith leads to real changes. Peter has pointed out that our faith is in no way inferior to the faith of the early Christians. He wrote that we “have obtained a faith of equal standing with [them]”.[9] In a sense, Peter assured us, “If we can grow, you can grow, too. Your faith and my faith are just one and the same.”
Second, making every effort to supplement our faith is a command to become like Christ. Someone pointed out, “The character qualities we are to pursue are also the character traits of God.”[10] Verse 4 tells us that God “has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature”. Though the first on the list is virtue or goodness and the last is love, it doesn’t mean that these qualities are sequential or in chronological order. “Rather than thinking of Peter moving logically from step to step in this list, it might be better to think of him drawing a rounded description of a Christian character. None of the Christian virtues is logically dependent on its place in the chain to exist, so we cannot say, ‘You must not expect me to persevere, because I have not yet achieved self-control.’ Instead, Peter would say that a Christian without perseverance is missing a vital ingredient.”[11] We have different areas of concern but we all have faith as the same starting point.
Third, making every effort to supplement our faith is a command that God has already empowered us to do. I already told you that the spiritual life is not really difficult. It is actually impossible. But God made it possible for us to live the impossible. Since “We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God”,[12] we must “make every effort to supplement [our] faith”. He gave us everything. Therefore we must do everything for Him. Let me make it clear. We are not trying to become what we are not. We are. Therefore, we become. God already made us godly. Therefore we can really live godly lives.
With that map in mind, with that big picture, let us zoom in on verse 5. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue”. In the Greek, the word “virtue” can be translated “excellence.” But it does not mean excellence as in giving your best effort or coming up with the best result. It refers to moral excellence or “the fulfillment of a thing”.[13] That’s why it’s translated “goodness” in other Bible versions. According to the Bible Exposition Commentary, “When anything in nature fulfills its purpose, that is ‘virtue—moral excellence.’ …The land that produces crops is ‘excellent’ because it is fulfilling its purpose. The tool that works correctly is ‘excellent’ because it is doing what a tool is supposed to do. A Christian is supposed to glorify God because he has God’s nature within; so, when he does this, he shows ‘excellence’ because he is fulfilling his purpose in life.” Are we morally excellent? Are we fulfilling God’s purposes in life for us?
During Peter’s time, false teachers have infiltrated the early church. He warned us, “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.”[14] The Good News Bible goes like this, “Even so, many will follow their immoral ways; and because of what they do, others will speak evil of the Way of truth.” They were not morally excellent. “They talked a great deal about faith, but exhibited in their lives none of that practical goodness which is indispensable to genuine Christian discipleship.”[15] In short, they say one thing but they do another. They claim they believe in God but they lived as if He doesn’t exist. Hypocrisy is their lifestyle. What about us? Do we exhibit in our lives that practical goodness?
1 Peter 2:9 tell us, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The word “excellencies” here in 1 Peter 2:9 is the same Greek word for “virtue” in 2 Peter 1:5. We are morally excellent when we reflect the goodness of Christ in our lives.
I really like the combination of the words “moral” and “excellence.” We are to do our best in obeying the Lord. As I’ve told you, the problem is we just do enough just to get by in our spiritual lives. “Masabi lang na sumusunod.”[16] We just do what is enough just so we will appear good Christians. We are more concerned with making a good impression. But our lives are not really a good expression of God’s goodness. Titus 1:16 warns us against such kind of lives: “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” Their works denied their words. The Contemporary English Version goes like this: “Such people claim to know God, but their actions prove that they really don’t. They are disgusting. They won’t obey God, and they are too worthless to do anything good.” Are we giving our best in obeying the Lord? Titus 3:8 tells us, “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.” I pray that our devotion would match our declaration… that our works would match our words.
I started with talking about Pastor Craig Groeschel’s confession about his struggle with Christian atheism or, simply, hypocrisy. How did he overcome it? “The more honest I became, the more I hated living faithlessly, and the more I craved intimacy with God. ‘Whatever it takes’ became my heart’s cry. Whatever it takes to know him. Whatever it takes to live like I truly love God. Whatever it takes to love eternity more than this world.” That’s the key. Whatever it takes to add virtue to our faith, we must do it. Whatever it takes. If there’s a sin that is keeping us from drawing closer to God, we must do whatever it takes to deal with that sin. If a relationship is hindering our obedience to Christ, we must do whatever it takes to remove that hindrance even if it hurts. If prayer draws us closer in intimacy with the Lord, we must do whatever it takes to pray. Pastor Arnel Tan of Davao Chinese Baptist Church shared that one unbeliever started attending their worship services when he noticed that the members of the church started paying their long overdue debts to him. He was so impressed when he saw their authentic obedience to Christ. What about us? If a course of action would bring a good testimony about the Lord to the world, we must do whatever it takes.
Brothers and sisters, let us make every effort to add to our faith moral excellence. Whatever it takes. Let us pray…
[1]Craig Groeschel, “The Christian Atheist”
[2]Ibid.
[3]Ibid.
[4]All Bible verses are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.
[5]I found Bob Deffinbaugh’s “The Pursuit of Christian Character (2 Peter 1:5-7)” very helpful in this portion. Available online through http://bible.org/seriespage/pursuit-christian-character-2-peter-15-7.
[6]2 Peter 1:5a, The NET Bible.
[7]Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. 2 Pe 1:5.
[8]Lucas, Dick and Christopher Green, “The Message of 2 Peter and Jude” (The Bible Speaks Today).
[9]2 Peter 1:1
[10]Deffinbaugh.
[11]Lucas.
[12]2 Peter 1:3, CEV
[13]Wiersbe.
[14]2 Peter 2:2.
[15]Lucas.
[16]In English, “We do just enough so people would say we obey.”
