“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
II Peter 1:6-8
There are three parts of salvation. The first part is confessing our sin and accepting the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ as payment for our sin. This places us into God’s family as one of His children. The second part is sanctification. This is when we grow from “new born babes” to spiritual maturity. In this phase we transform our minds to God’s way of thinking and become increasingly made into the image of His Son. (We will never fully arrive at this goal.) This phase lasts from our salvation to our physical death The last phase is glorification. At the rapture we will be given a new and perfect body that will exist in heaven with God and our Lord for all of eternity. Many people think the second phase, sanctification, is something that just happens as we live out our lives. Peter writes to tell us that is not true. In 2 Peter 1:4 we learn that sanctification is the way we “participate in the divine nature” while we live our lives on earth. Then in 2 Peter 1:6-8 Peter describes the process of spiritual maturity – how we can become more Christ-like and bear great fruit on this earth that pleases God. Before we leave this phrase, meditate on it. God’s great love for
mankind is seen in this phrase. He could have saved us and left us outside His family, forgiven but forgotten,. Yet He loves us so much that He makes us partakers of His divine nature. It is a relationship we do not deserve but which is given to us freely. Yet the sad truth is many never consider the value of what God wants us to experience. That is where Peter starts his discussion.
But also for this very reason Peter refers us back to the amazing gift God has given us. Salvation provides forgiveness of sin and escape from God’s wrath but there is so much more. We are adopted into God’s family and treated as His sons. Additionally we are partakers (mutually share in and have fellowship) with the divine nature of the Creator God of the Universe.
Giving all diligence Peter tells us what are response ought to be to this great gift of God The word Peter uses is only found here. It refers to personal involvement. This strongly suggests the believer’s participates with God in achieving this result.
All Diligence All indicates every kind of. In other words we are to be involved in this process in every way possible. Diligence implies full effort. It suggests urgency and haste in getting the task underway. Strong’s Concordance says for the believer this means “quickly obeying what the Lord reveals is His priority” This elevates the
better over the good – the important over the mundane – and it does so with earnest swiftness (intensity).” In other words we set our priorities so that this is the most important thing we can do. Paul shares the same sense of urgency with us in Romans 12:11. “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”
What Can we Learn? After a long life walking with the Lord on this earth and then serving Him, Peter wants to share how we are to become more like our Savior. It is a priority of the highest
magnitude for it leads to the greatest reward in all eternity “well done faithful servant!”