SEVEN SUPPLEMENTS FOR A HOLY LIFE
2 Peter 1 :5-8
A fouryear-old girl asked her mother, "Mom, how long is it until my birthday?" The mother responded, "Not very long, dear." To which the child responded, "Is it time for me to start being a good girl?" The little girl was being charmingly real, but she did not yet have a proper understanding of goodness. She sought to please her parents in order to receive presents. Christians should want goodness as a natural response of gratitude because of blessings received from God. Yet the little girl was right in a sense. It was time for her to start being good. If you are a Christian, it is time now for you to live a holy life. How can you start? Growth in holiness is helped by an intentional effort. We need a game plan to guide us in holy living.
The holy life is neither automatic nor instantaneous. It would be shortsighted for us to make no plan for growing in godly living. Second Peter 1:5-8 offers seven supplements for the Christian life. We are told here how to be holy. Think of these elements as a supplement a day, one for each day of the week. Peter portrayed the Christian life as both a gift (v. 3) and a demand (v. 5). Do your very best, he urged. Make every effort. Peter has unapologetically engaged our participation in the process. The admonition to supplement or add to your faith suggests furnishing qualities that will enhance faith.
Here are the seven supplements Peter named:
Goodness
Knowledge
Self-control
Endurance
Godliness
Brotherly affection
Love
During these hot and hectic weeks of summer take a supplement a day. Each day of the week focus on one of these seven qualities. You may decide to keep a spiritual notebook on each of the seven supplements and write out reflections and reactions from your daily life. Develop a personal plan and be intentional.
1. Live a holy life by adding goodness. According to the New Testament, goodness is the attitude which the Christian is to maintain in all circumstances. It means exhibiting good behavior at all times. The practical issue of goodness is the kind of person you are becoming in character and conduct. Christians know this has much to do with the human heart; a good person brings good out of the treasure of good things in his or her heart; a bad person brings bad out of his or her treasure of bad things.
2. Live a holy life by adding knowledge.
Before explorers challenged the idea that the world was flat, certain coins of Mediterranean countries carried a picture of the Pillars of Hercules (at the east end of the Strait of Gibraltar) along with the inscription Ne plus ultra-"There is nothing beyond." After the discovery that the earth is round and that new worlds existed, the coins read: Plus ultra-"There is more beyond." Holy living is living with the certainty that there is more beyond more knowledge and understanding.
The knowledge of which Peter spoke is the knowledge of God. Growing in knowledge requires cultivating the capacity to distinguish between good and evil (see Heb. 5:14). To grow in Christian knowledge also requires discerning thewill of God. In Ephesians 5: 17 we find a challenge to understand what is the will of the Lord. Christians are challenged to stretch and expand their knowledge not only through study, but through learning from daily experience distinctions and discernments.
3. Live a holy life by developing selfcontrol.
This means controlling the desires rather than being controlled by them. Human beings can be mastered by their own lusts and passions. Then they become merely pawns of their appetites.
A running back for the Minnesota Vikings or a doctor of medicine or an accomplished pianist knows the value of self-discipline. For the Christian, self-control comes from submission to the control of the indwelling Christ. Peter forthrightly noted the necessity to restrain our sinful impulses and wayward thoughts that interrupt spiritual progress. There are powerful impulses to overeating, to drunkenness, to overwork that a Christian can and should resist through the grace of God. Indeed, at times the choice obviously or subtly turns on self-control or self-destruction.
4. Live a holy life by means of the supplement of endurance.
Perseverance in the face of trial and disappointment packs power. After all, life is not a single battle but a long campaign, not a short sprint to the finish line but a marathon. Holy living means patiently keeping on in the service of Christ regardless of what life may bring our way.
The political career of Abraham Lincoln was filled with setbacks. Twice he failed in business. He was defeated for the legislature. A sweetheart died. He had a nervous breakdown. He was defeated for Congress. He was defeated for the Senate. Then he lost in a campaign for the vice presidency. Finally, he was elected presi dent of the United States. What a testimony to the value of perseverance!
In your twenties, you need to be devoted to Christ. When you are in your thirties, you should keep on trucking. When you have an empty nest, keep on growing. When you retire, stay steady. The more you continue in the Christian life, the more holiness happens.
5. Another quality that supplements faith is godliness.
Godliness implies devoutness, piety, fear of God. It involves reverence and awe of God. It is related to the experience of worship.
The prophet Isaiah, worshiping in the Temple, experienced a vision of the greatness of God and a consciousness of his own sin (Isa. 6). Faithful attendance in church and attentiveness to the holiness of God can inspire a growing godliness.
6. Live a holy life by developing brotherly affection.
One supplement for holiness is definitely the love of fellow Christians. John the apostle saw it as a sign of holiness: "We have left death and come over into life; we know it because we love our brothers" (I John 3:14). Do you feel so close to other believers that you think of them as sisters and brothers? That is what they are, you know. You may develop a brotherly fondness for a new Christian or feel deep respect and love for one who is your big brother or big sister in the faith. You may become concerned about a backsliding Christian brother or sister.
7. Learn to be holy by adding love.
Christian love has a universal scope. Paul the apostle prayed meaningfully, "May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow more and more and become as great as our love for you" (I Thess. 3: 12). Christian love includes love of neighbor and even love of enemy (see Matt. 5:43-48).
Jesus perfectly exemplified what itmeans to love others, even those who are enemies. Think of how He died. Crucifixion was a dreadful and painful form of capital punishment. Roman soldiers hammered Jesus to a wooden instrument of torture. Often the condemned victim, thrashing and struggling at such a cruel moment, threatened the executioners, cursed them, and spit in their faces. Jesus said a prayer for His executioners: "Forgive them, Father! They don’t know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). It was one thing to teach His disciples to love their enemies, but in the moment of truth when He Himself was surrounded by executioners, He prayed for His enemies. The beauty of His holiness shines through the loving prayer.
Stephen also demonstrated holiness when an angry mob pelted him with stones, and he prayed for these cruel enemies (Acts 7:60). He serves as a model to us.
A ten-year-old boy had Hodgkin’s disease. During the last two years of his life he was in and out of the hospital many times. He would try to make up the work he missed at school by writing about what he did in the hospital. Several weeks after Scott died, his mother found a paper entitled, "How I Would Show Love." It said, "How I would show love is by being thoughtful and caring, helping in any way I could. Hugging and kissing would be a nice way too. Laughing and smiling when someone you love is happy, and being re-assuring, and extra, extra kind when the one you love is sad. When you are very sick, it helps to have someone hold your hand, letting the glowing warmth of his love for you trickle into you." Love is the crowning supplement in the life progressing in holiness.
Look back over this lesson. Review again the four factors and the seven supplements. Try these supplements one a day for a week. Center on them and discover not a haphazard kind of growth but a definite and purposeful movement in the direction of holiness.
God bless!
