We are continuing our 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 and even increase our overall nutrition in areas we might be lacking. Supplements help provide a boost to our overall health.
Similarly, 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. In part one, we
discussed the responsibility we have to maintain our relationship with God.
- God has given us everything we need in order to build
a godly life
- Godly Life = to be pleased with God and to be pleasing
to God
- God gives us the desire and the ability to do what
pleases Him
- Everything we need to build a godly life is found in
His Word
- They are His great and precious promises given to us
- By which we have access to the divine nature
- And help us escape corruption from our evil desires
Virtue
- Peter says to make every effort = make the necessary
adjustments
- Supplement your faith = add to your faith
- Virtue = The courage to do the right thing in
every situation
- Culture and society do not determine the “right
thing.”
- The right thing is that which God has commanded in His
Word
- Only God establishes truth
- Virtue is doing the right thing, according to His
Word, even when nobody else is
- We all need convictions. Without convictions, we can be talked
into doing anything.
- We need godly convictions- they give us the courage to
do what is right in all situations
- Like Daniel, we must have godly convictions so that we
too can have the courage to do what is right even when it gets difficult.
That leads us to our spiritual supplement for today, knowledge.
There are times in our life when we can lose some of our mental sharpness. We’ll begin to forget simple tasks along with our thoughts being scattered; lack of focus. It can feel like a brain fog of some sorts. This can be a common occurrence as we age throughout life.
It is good to know that there are supplements for that! Vitamin D, Omega-3, and Magnesium are all great supplements for brain health. In fact, studies show that being deficient in any or all of these areas can lead to loss in our overall mental health. Studies also show that by taking these specific vitamins daily, our mental sharpness and brain focus can be restored and even boosted. Pretty cool!
Similarly, there are times in life when we can lose focus spiritually. At the onset, we don’t always notice right away. However, down the line we can begin to disregard and even forget the things that matter most.
It’s a good thing that we are told in 2 Peter that there is a supplement for this very thing; one that is needed to help strengthen our mind on a spiritual level. That spiritual supplement is knowledge.
2 Peter 1:5 ESV
“Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge”
Knowledge = Truth acquired from God’s Word; spiritual wisdom
Peter says that along with virtue, we must add knowledge. Peter was saying that along with having the courage to do what is right, we also must know what is right. We can want to do what is right all day long. However, without the truth, we can have the right intentions but be walking in circles the entire time. Spiritual knowledge/ wisdom gives us the ability to discern between right and wrong.
This was the Jewish Christians who Peter was writing to. No doubt they wanted to do what was right. However, they were listening to the wrong voices. There were false teachers among them. They didn’t realize they were being led astray by them. They were not able to discern what was right and what was wrong.
Peter knew what was happening. He knew what was going on. He knew they were being taken advantage of by these false teachers. Therefore, he encouraged them to add knowledge to their faith. In fact, he mentions the word knowledge 15 times in this letter. This clearly was something that was important. Peter did not want them to be ignorant of the truth, he did not want them to be unaware of God’s will.
We live in a culture today that does not care about Jesus and wants to see Him canceled; not much different from the one these Jewish Christians were living in. Yet, they want to establish what good is, what is right, what is wrong, etc. If we are not adding knowledge, we will be misled and swept away by what we are hearing around us.
We must remember, only God establishes truth. Only God establishes what is right. Therefore, in order for us to do what is right in every situation, we must know what is right; we must know truth.
We need knowledge of the truth. Having knowledge of the truth is no small thing. It is a big deal. In fact, it is everything!
Why?
Because we are in a spiritual battle. Our enemy, the devil, is trying to do everything he can to deceive us from the truth. Knowledge of the truth is the very thing that God is trying to get in the hands of every person and every believer. Why? Because if you know the truth, the truth will set you free (from deception).
The devil knows that if he can keep us from knowing and living out the truth, then we will be ineffective Christians and are no threat to his schemes.
We need truth!
We must know the truth.
Knowledge of the truth allows us to do what is right, according to God, in every circumstance.
Colossians 1:9-10
ESV
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”
Paul’s prayer for the Colossians was the same thing, that they would be filled with knowledge.
However, it wasn’t just any knowledge, but spiritual. That means that opinions don’t matter, cultural here-say doesn’t matter, political platforms don’t matter, when it comes to truth.
There was one purpose for this knowledge…
v10 - “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord…”
In other words, so that we may do what is right. We need knowledge of the truth in our life so that we can live rightly before the Lord.
It says that doing so makes us fully pleasing to Him. That is true godliness, that we are pleased with God and that we are pleasing to God. He is enough. His approval is enough. His will is enough.
“…Bearing fruit
in every good work…”
That means to be fruitful, to be effective. Our desire is to be effective believers, not according to ourselves but according to God. Knowing the truth allows us to be effective, in every good work.
There is work that is more fruitful than others. Knowing the truth gives us perspective on what truly matters. These are the things that are important to God. What is that? Souls.
“…Increasing in
the knowledge of God.”
There are a lot of things we can grow our knowledge in. None are more important than growing in the knowledge of God. While we must grow our knowledge in different areas of our life, like education, finances, career path, etc, We must be careful not to allow them to take the place of increasing in the knowledge of God.
The Holy Spirit longs for us to grow in the knowledge of Him. However, it is not for the purpose of impressing others. Instead, it is for the purpose of impressing God. God is pleased when we grow in our knowledge of Him and then begin to apply it.
Therefore, we must grow in the knowledge of God. How do we do that?
We do so by getting into His Word.
It is more than just reading the Bible in order to check it off our list of to-dos. Instead, it is reading in order to gain something. Reading with the specific intent of God speaking to us that we may know the truth.
You may not know the entirety of the Bible, you may not fully understand every little thing we read. Nevertheless, your knowledge of the Word begins to stack on top of each other. Next thing you know, you begin to know and understand the truth. That comes through a continual reading of the scriptures.
There is a difference between knowing something up top versus knowing something inside. Just because you know something up top doesn’t mean you are living it out. However, you cannot live something out unless you believe it on the inside first.
Let us grow in our knowledge of God’s Word. Not just for information sake, but to live rightly before the Lord.
Takeaways
1. Knowledge informs us of what is right
2.
Knowledge
informs us of what truly matters
3.
Knowledge
of the truth is worth investing in
