“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue…” II Peter 1:6
Once again God stuns us. We are not prepared for what Peter says is the very first characteristic produced in a believer after they come to a saving faith in Christ.
Virtue Peter uses the Greek word “arete” which is translates as excellence, moral excellence, and praise. This word is used 5 times in the New Testament. In Philippians 4:8, Paul says “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things
are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any
virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these
things.” Peter usea this word in this same chapter just a few verses earlier. “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue…” Here the word refers to the moral excellencies of God – His intrinsic holiness. In 2 Peter 1:4 he tells us we are “partakers of the divine nature”. In other words the very first aspect of spiritual growth is that we, like God, love holiness and hate sin. Thus we see that the very first lesson we learn of our God and that
we demonstrate in our lives is His hatred of and separation from sin. If a person claims to accept Christ as Savior and yet can go back and live in the same sin he claims Christ saved him from, he must question whether his salvation is real. The first evidence of genuine salvation is hated of sin and love of righteousness.
As we think about this first characteristic that Peter mentions, we can see God’s wisdom. Believers war against the world, the flesh and the devil. We like to think of the devil as our greatest enemy but in reality it is our own flesh. We love the things of this world. We constantly battle our own desires for things that are sinful. Therefore the first thing God begins to transform is our flesh – our mind and what we want. That is the essence of Philippians 4:8 where we are told to meditate on virtuous things. What does God look at? Not the externals but the heart. This should not surprise us. God adopts us out of the slave market of sin. We belong to Him and He begins to clean us up so that He can transform us into all He has designed us to be.
What can we learn? This is an unbelievably convicting message for the age we live in. The Laodicean “lukewarm” age pressures us to get along, tolerate, accept, don’t condemn. Satan wants us to allow evil into our lives and homes; he assure us it won’t hurt us at all. The movies we watch, the webpages we view, the apps we use are from the world. Billboards assault our eyes with images we should not see; tv commercials make us laugh at things God calls sin. We
live in a world that wants to pollute us; it wants our time and in return it deposits little nest eggs of poison – thoughts and desires we should not tolerate are left for us to savor and meditate on. Now here comes Peter. He tells us that if we want to grow spiritually that the first step to maturity is our purity – our holiness – our separation from the world. In this age separation is hard because evil pervades
society. It takes moral courage to discern what is evil and turn away from it quickly. We must purpose not to allow evil into our lives which gives Satan a stronghold to attack us. It takes a real desire to make it a priority to please God and to purpose in our hearts, like Daniel, that we will not defile ourselves with sin. It takes commitment to walk the walk of a Godly life which shows the world around us of what Jesus is like. Peter makes it clear that spiritual maturity is not possible if a person is not concerned with personal holiness. When we separate from the world we cannot leave a vacuum.
As we separate from the world we must move toward God. One action without the other produces no fruit. Godly separation moves away from the love of the world and fills that void with loving God with all our hearts.