Last week we began a new series called Faith Supplements. We are going through the 7 spiritual ingredients listed out in 2 Peter 1 that help form a godly life. Whether it be vitamins, minerals, herbs, etc, supplements are so important. They help maintain or even increase our overall nutrition in areas we might be lacking.Supplements help provide a boost to our overall health.
Our spiritual health is just as important. Like vitamins, there are spiritual supplements that we can take everyday to help boost our faith, spiritual walk. Last week we discussed the responsibility we have to maintain our relationship with God.
Therefore, we maintain our relationship with Jesus by growing in our knowledge of Him through His Word and by taking Hold of the promises that have been made available to us. This is the every day walk we take in order to get closer to Jesus. These are the basics! Now we get to verse 5.
2 Peter 1:5
“5 For this very reason, make every effort…”
Peter says to make every effort. In other translations it says “with all diligence.” It means to move quickly, to make haste. It means to be eager and willing. It means to make something your own interest. It is quickly obeying the Lord and making what interests Him your own.
To make every effort means to make the necessary adjustments in order to accomplish what is at hand. It means to do everything you can to do what is needed.
Peter is telling us to make every effort, do everything you can, to…
“to supplement your faith…”
That is, to add to your faith; to make it better. By adding these things to our life, we become more spiritually healthy. These are the natural growth of our faith. These are things we ought to see growing in our life. If we don’t see these things, then we add them to our daily life like supplements.
So what must we add to our life? Let’s take a look at the first one listed…
“supplement your faith with virtue…”
What is virtue?
Virtue is moral excellence. What does that mean?
Excellence is doing your best in every situation. If we give our best only some of the times, then we are not displaying excellence. Therefore, moral excellence is doing what is right in every circumstance.
Virtue = The courage to do the right thing in every situation
To understand virtue, we must first understand what the “right thing” is.
We live in a world where the right thing is many times the wrong thing.
Some people would say that the right thing is to tell others that it is okay to believe what they want to believe (it doesn’t matter); cheat on their income taxes, encourage someone to get an abortion, etc.
There are things that are celebrated in our culture that go against God’s Word. The world calls them virtuous while the Bible calls it sin.
In other words, we cannot look to society and culture to define for us what is right.
God establishes our moral compass, not society. God has already established what is up and what is down, what is north and what is south, what is right and what is wrong.
The right thing is that which God has commanded in His Word.
Therefore, being virtuous is doing the right thing, according His Word, even when nobody else is. Doing the right thing in every situation.
At the end of the day, we live by our convictions.
Without convictions, we can be talked into doing anything.
The question is, what convictions are we living by?
We need godly convictions, which come from the God’s Word.
Godly convictions give us the courage to do what is right in all situations.
Daniel is a great example of this
Daniel was morally courageous. Daniel had godly convictions. It wasn’t just something he did because everyone else did it. It was something he believed and stuck to even when things got difficult.
Let us be like Daniel and seek to be morally courageous. Let us stand by our godly convictions and do the right thing even when it is difficult.
As Christians, we must add this ingredient to our life. We need virtue. We need more believers doing what is right, not in order to get a pat on the back, but simply because it is right; in order to please God.
Titus 2:11-12
“11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age”
Let us as Christians live upright and godly lives. Let us be a light to the world around us. Let us not be Christians with no standards. Let us supplement our faith with virtue.
Takeaways:
