A lot of times people struggle over the details of Christianity.  At the core people usually just want an answer to the question – “How am I supposed to live, day by day, as a Christian”.  So for those of us who get lost in the “Christianese” language spoken by theological minds, today’s message of encouragement should be helpful.  Let me first give a plug to Peter, the apostle of Christ, part of Christ’s “inner circle” amongst the disciples, consisting of Peter, James, and John.   I love Peter because he speaks simply.  He’s easy to follow, and if you slow down to meditate on what is actually being said, he is actually quite theologically rich.  So whenever I get lost in some discussion over a nuanced question of theology, I like to remind myself of the following message from God to us found in 2 Peter:

 ³His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I think it’s important to desire to know God deeply from His Word.  I believe that it is importation because our affections for God are only right and good in as much as they conform to what we know of Him in scripture.  Yet, the Bible is not the full revelation of God.  We are told in 1 Corinthians 13:12 – “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”   Just as God Himself is eternal, and neverending, what could be said and known of Him is infinite.  This should not discourage us, however.  What God wants us to see and have a peace about, is that everything that we need to know in this life has been given to us.  God has granted us Himself, as the Holy Spirit, to dwell in us and reveal Himself to us.  Likewise, in His Word, God has revealed enough of Himself for us to live in accordance with His will, in godliness.

So then, how are we to live as Christians?  Peter tells us how.  Your faith is the beginning.  As a believer, you trust that Christ came to reconcile you to God, and by His shed blood on the cross, he purchased for you grace, whereby you are a new creation of God.  On the cross, your sin was put on Christ, His righteousness has been credited to you, and you are now a new creation, holy as He is holy.    For many people, they take this for granted, but let me pause here to pose the question – Does your faith, extend to your own identity?  If your faith is merely in the accomplished work of Christ, but you do not personally trust that through Him, you are a new creation, set apart to reflect the glory of God, every other step from here on will only be works of legalism to you.  If for you, your faith is all head, and not heartfelt love for God rooted in your identity in Christ, prayerfully as God to grant you greater faith, to believe.

For believers, to our faith, we add virtue.  The same moral excellence we see in Christ, is the same virtues of selflessness, love, and righteousness that through faith we believe has been credited to us, and we now hold out as our own.  If you are someone who is at peace with a mindset that is apathetic towards sin, let me assure you – you are not struggling with a sin issue, you are struggling with a faith issue.  If you believe that Christ redeemed you on the cross, you are believing that He died for your sin, has made you a new creation, righteous, to be conformed into His image.  Now we should live in the righteousness and virtues of Christ that we claim belongs to us through our faith in the gospel.  What does your mindset look like?  Do you claim Christ as your own through faith?  Do you seek to see Christ’s righteousness and virtues manifested in your own life?

To our virtue we add knowledge.  God does not call us to be holy-thinkers, merely, but doers.  With applied virtue, comes knowledge.  We grow in our knowledge of God, and learn how best to act, through our earnest attempts to manifest the righteousness of God in our life.  It’s amazing to hear the stories of martyrs and those who have suffered for Christ physically.  Each one of them will tell a story that will be amazing to most of the world, but shouldn’t really surprise us as Christians – they would say of their suffering that if they could do it all again, they would, and even now there is a piece of them that wishes they were back where they were, suffering for Christ, loving those who cause them to suffer.  Why?  Because when they were suffering, they gained a knowledge of Christ, and saw the beauty of the cross, in piercing clarity, in a way they can only be gained through knowledge of actual circumstance.  How is your knowledge of God growing through applied righteousness and virtue?

To our knowledge we add self-control.  Living is more than just living out our righteousness.  We know that we live in a world that is at enmity with God, that we will be tempted with sin.  Some days God is as much glorified in what we do not do, as what we do.  Each of us will struggle as a believer, so how are we seeking to add self-control to our life?  What sin are you struggling with most?  How have you turned that over to God, and sought His strengthening?  Is their a greater level of self-control towards sin in your life today than there was 6 months ago?  What needs to change to help you grow?

To our self-control we add steadfastness.  Admittedly, one of my own struggles as I seemingly “have victory” over a sin, is that I tend to rest up a bit.  There is a measure of pride in considering a sin struggle “conquered”.  Going back to our faith, we know that we are dependent upon the grace of God in everything, thus we should consider all sin in our life to never be “conquered”, but rejoice that in Christ, we are able to live in godliness, and are putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit (Rom 8:13).  So then, our efforts at self control, by grace should continue, and even increase over time.  Is there a sin area that you have had a measure of success over for a while, that continually creeps back into your life?  What things contributed to your success originally?  Are you maintaining steadfast vigilance in those things?

To our steadfastness we add godliness.  Christ didn’t die so that we could conquer the sin of gossip, or pornography, or adultery, or any other sin.  God has fully redeemed us, and called us to fully reflect his divine nature.  We don’t merely have Christ’s righteousness in one area, but we have his righteousness fully, Christ Himself dwells in us as the Holy Spirit.  In the same manner then, we ought to continue to pursue a life, in keeping with the image of God we see in Jesus Christ.  When was the last time you looked at your life, and prayerfully sought God to expose sin in your heart/life, so that it would be put to death for His glory?  When was the last time you asked someone else to openly look into your life and see if there is any sinful way about you, that needs to be dealt with?  Do you have good accountability?  Does the idea of being vulnerable scare you?  The heart of a believer trusts that their righteousness is not based on their current sin struggles, but in the righteousness of Christ.  This again, is not a works issue, this is a faith in the gospel issue.  These are things that are meant to encourage someone towards godliness, for their joy.  Accountability is not a means (of the church) to beat someone up over their sin, but a means of grace – ordained by God for us to grow closer to Him.  I know each of us has a back story of a “Christian” that gossiped about your sin struggle, or did not encourage you as you struggled well.  It could be there was a misunderstanding, it could be that the other person is a sinner as well, or very likely it could be that the other person probably wasn’t a Christian themselves.  It really doesn’t matter – what I would say is that if being vulnerable before God and others is an ongoing issue for you today, then my question is – do you really believe the gospel?  Do you believe that you can’t earn God’s favor, but His righteousness must be granted to you first, before you can live it out?  Eagerly pursue those things that will draw you closer to God, no matter the awkwardness, no matter the risk, it’s fruit will far outweigh any temporary uncomfortableness.

To godliness we add brotherly affection.  There are no lone ranger Christians.  Look at how much ground we’ve covered already.  We know that this is a daily, ongoing battle, and God meant for us to be encouraged by other believers.  So as partakers of Christ, we should love those whom Christ loved, we should encourage one another, and earnestly seek to see each other grow closer to God.  God did not ransom individuals (despite popular Christian songs), God ransomed a people unto Himself.  Life is more than just what’s going on in your life, it is about God’s work at redeeming a bride – the body of believers called – the Church.  If someone looked at how you spent a week, would they be able to see how you love your Christian brothers and sisters?  Would they be able to see how you are earnestly desiring that they would grow closer to God?  How do you spend your time and money?  Is it only on yourself, or are there Kingdom building activities that you are actively supporting.  If this is a weak point for you, my encouragement is to ask yourself what you are passionate about, and find a ministry area you can support.  Then support it not just with money, but with your time.  Everyone should have 1 or 2 people at least that they are pouring the knowledge of God into weekly, and loving well, as they pursue God.

To brotherly affection we add love.  Do you know what love is?  Romans 5:8 tells us that Christ demonstrated his love for us in that He died for us while we were yet sinners.  Love isn’t “liking” someone and feeling good when you’re around them.  Love is dying to yourself, so that others would grow close to God.  Do you care more about what someone thinks about you, than about whether they grow closer to God?  That isn’t love, that’s selfish pride.  Are you willing to sacrifice financially so that your Christian brothers and sisters do not have any lack in their lives?  Are you willing to put down the remote, forget your plans, and spend time to encourage your Christian brothers and sisters?  This is the love with which God loved us, who although he despised the shame of the cross, endured it for the joy set before Him.  Part of that joy set before Him, as seeing the glory of God reflected in us who had been redeemed.  Shouldn’t we also have that same joy in us?  Our love for others, must be rooted in dying to ourselves, just as Christ did on the cross.  We should constantly love others, by putting their good ahead of our comfort.  If we do that, we will find ourselves constantly growing, and living life as Christians, within God’s will.

This is about as close to a formula for Christian living  as you can get.  My encouragement then, is to start at the beginning.  What are you doing to grow in your faith?  How are you growing in your knowledge of God from His Word, so that your faith could be strengthened?  I would spend at least half of my time and effort as a Christian on this first step, because it is foundational to everything else.  Then with my remaining time and effort, I would push through this list at some regular interval (weekly, monthly, quarterly), and ask yourself some tough questions.  Know that positionally, we are redeemed by God through the shed blood of Christ, yet God has given us a great calling – to be His ambassadors on earth in a ministry of reconciliation – extending the gospel to others.  This lesson is all about that, how we can have joy in being fruitful workers for God, and life in such a way that when we see Jesus Christ, face to face, we would have no regrets at lost opportunity.  Peter doesn’t care about your eschatology (end times theology), he doesn’t care about paedo/credo baptism (infant baptism or believers baptism), he doesn’t answer the question on the origin of evil, he encourages us to know that we know everything we need for life and godliness through Jesus Christ.  May we all have fruitful joyful ministries through Him.

Grace and Peace,
Adam