Adding to Your Faith

"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins."
2 Peter 1:5-9

It is one thing to be a participant in a sporting event, such as a football game. It is entirely another to be a spectator from the sideline. From the youngest player in a youth football league, to the oldest player in the NFL, everyone understands this fact: no one wants to go home with their uniform clean. Why? Because that means that they didn't get into the game. They didn't play. In the Christian realm, it is the same thing. You don't want to go home with a clean uniform. That means you didn't get into the game. Translated into the spiritual world, it means that you just came to church on Sunday (maybe not even every Sunday), and you just listened and went home. You might have even sang a few songs, but probably you just listened. You don't read your Bible, because it is there on the shelf, gathering dust. You might have prayed for Jesus to save your soul, but you are a spectator.

The Christian walk is not a spectator sport. We must be active in our daily walk. And Peter is telling us that today. He says to us that we must add to our faith. Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17), so that means that to have faith, we must be reading our Bibles and spending time with God in His Word. That is not a passive thing. And then, Peter tells us, that to be partakers of the divine nature, we must be actively adding to our faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. These are qualities that don't just come "by osmosis," but rather, by spending time in the Word of God, and being obedient to what we read there (the key). All of that is not passive. Last night in our Old Testament study, in the last two chapters of 1 Chronicles, we saw David telling, rather charging, his son Solomon, in front of the entire assembled nation of Israel, to keep the commandments of the Lord, but also to seek the commandments of the Lord. Both of those words have nothing passive about them. Not only are we to be keepers of the Word, but we are to be seekers of a closer walk with God.

Someone once said, that we are as close to God as we want to be. How true this is. God wants to have a very very close relationship with you. The question is, how close do you want to be with Him? The Christian walk is not a spectator sport. So, beloved, get in the game. Get your uniform dirty. Your fellow Christians need you, your encouragement and your presence. Your church needs you. Your pastor needs you. And remember, God not only loves you, He likes you, too. So go out there today and engage your world with the love of Christ. Shalom.