2 Peter 1:5

2 Peter 1:5

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,

Now that we have heard all of this amazing truth about what the divine nature that is granted to us does for us as believers we must jump into the arena of application. The next few verses deal with what our practical response to God’s magnificent promises should be. Do not forget that these are a response to what God has done for us and that this is only possible through the grace that God has given to us. From verse four we see that we have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Peter does not say we will escape the corruption but we have escaped already. And for this reason we must apply all diligence. What diligence is Peter talking about? And does this fall into the area of works? The diligence that Peter is talking about is our devotion to the true knowledge of God which we know through the word of God. Often times it is so easy for a Christian to convince himself that it is better to not read the Bible out of duty than to read it with a poor spirit. I disagree because even if we read the word just to read it the Bible says in Isaiah 55:11 So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. It is our responsibility to be diligent in our spiritual disciplines. Keep it simple, I don’t care if you want to pray or not do it anyways! God’s nature is divine and it can and does overwhelm our own nature. So even if you approach the Bible or a time of prayer with poor intentions God has the ability to work on your heart because even though you do not want to you are being obedient. Be diligent!
And after you are done gritting your teething and setting good habits of being in the word you will find the next step something that can be accomplished instead of an insurmountable task! Peter tells us that in our faith we need to supply moral excellence. So often we want our Christian lives to be all about what God can do for us. We have turned the Christian life into a self-help exorcize. We walk up and down the Christian Inspiration isle of bookstores looking for the next Sanctification for Dummies book telling us formulas on how to be better Christians and how God wants our lives to be easy and happy. We are responsible through faith, through God’s divine nature for our moral excellence. We are already pure and holy in God’s sight as Christians that is what salvation is about! So we need to start acting like God sees us. This just popped into my head and I have not done any research on the Bible to know if this truly is a Biblical idea or not but the more we sin we are in essence making God out to be a liar! God has declared us righteous so every time we sin we contradict that statement! If our moral excellence is lacking think about our testimony to non-Christians. But how do we supply moral excellence, why is it so hard to do? It is hard because we fail at being diligent and we fail at being diligent because we fail to acknowledge the divine nature that has been given to us. Another reason I truly think we fail at supplying moral excellence is because we try to obtain excellence for ourselves. What is our motive for purity and sanctification? As I said earlier I think Christians are so preoccupied with personal sanctification as a means of personal fulfillment that they miss out on the point of being a Christian. If God was truly concerned with sanctification for our personal benefit He would remove it from the equation! We are left on this earth for other people as a witness and testimony of God’s love. It is our progressive sanctification that lets people see God! So the motive we need to have as we supply moral excellence is for the benefit of other people. It is this act of selflessness that enables us to be morally pure because we are not focusing on our selfish desires!
After we provide moral excellence we need to strive for more knowledge! As we become more morally pure we can engage the Bible on a greater level. We can dive deeper into what God is saying to us. Our moral excellence refines us and refines the lens and our focus as we read the word. But how do we supply moral excellence? We do it through being others focused so now we can read the Bible focusing on others instead of ourselves! Just Imagine what our Christian fellowship would be like if everyone is searching the Bible to learn things to share with others?

My charge to you is to put others before yourself this week. Instead of praying for yourself pray for others this week. Ask your friends what you can pray for!