Jump Start # 1089

2 Peter 1:6 “and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self– control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness”

  Our verse today comes from what is commonly called the “Christian virtues.” It is a section of Scripture which defines what the heart and character of a Christian ought to be like. Peter begins with faith. This is where all things begin. Without faith, nothing else will happen. Any religious activity that is missing faith, is just a sham. Starting with faith, Peter tells us to add. Add to faith. Faith isn’t it. Faith isn’t the end of the journey. You have faith? Great. Now add to it. That’s what Peter says. That’s what God wants.

To faith is added virtue or moral excellence. Arete is the Greek word. It is that noble quality of doing right. Moral excellence. Morals that excel. Morals that are above board. No teasing where we shouldn’t be teasing. No under the table deals. No fudging numbers. Excellence. It doesn’t end there. Something must be added to moral excellence.

To that is added knowledge. Implied is knowledge of God’s word. The context is spiritual. The knowledge will be spiritual. Peter ends this book with the plea to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hit the books. Read. Think. Study. Faith…morals that excel…knowledge—these feed off of each other. The more of one you have the more of the others you’ll have. When you are lacking in one, it will affect the others. It doesn’t end with knowledge.

To knowledge is added, self-control. This is where our verse is today. The control of self. The control of your attitude, mouth, passions, anger. A car that is out of control will crash. A person who is out of control will crash. Paul preached to Felix. He mentioned three things: righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come. Interesting how those three fit together. The out of control person is rarely righteous. The out of control person, who is not righteous will fear the coming judgment. He won’t make it. He’s not right with God.

Peter adds more. To self-control comes perseverance. This is similar to patience, but more. It involves enduring hardships. Putting up with trying times. Hanging in there when the bad guys seem to be winning. Waiting on God to bring justice about. It’s easy to be a Christian in the sunshine. A Christian sitting in a church building full of fellow believers can seem very confident. Alone, under attack, under scrutiny, standing where Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego stood is hard. Standing and not participating when everyone around you is bowing and going along with what is wrong—that’s real hard. Standing when fingers are pointing at you-that’s hard. Standing when ordered to bow– that’s hard. Perseverance. This is not waiting on a stop light to turn. This is not standing in line at the check out. This is hanging in with your faith when it is so hard. It is refusing to wave the white flag. It is not giving up.

Following perseverance is godliness. How obvious that is. It is because of faith that you persevere. It makes sense that an attachment to God, godliness comes next.

My preacher Zack once said in a sermon, “Your choices in life are determined by your view of life’s length.” If this is it, our choices will reflect that. Our choices will tend to be selfish, self centered, and shallow. Those choices will be based more upon feelings and striving for happiness rather than what is right. If we have a view of the eternal in our hearts, our choices will reflect that. Self-control and perseverance become regular attributes of our life. We wait, knowing the best is yet to come. We remain true, knowing that God is upon the throne and in time, all things will be right.

Our times is not given to much self-control. Stats indicate this. Just looking around illustrates this. People say things and post things that they never should. Why? They lack self-control. They fail to see the big picture. There is a huge majority that has sexual relations before marriage. The numbers are enormous. Why? No self-control. No reason to wait. The problems of massive personal debt is connected to a lack of self control. Why wait? Why save up and pay cash? Charge. Dig the debt hole deeper and deeper.

Our times reflect a growing lack of interest in controlling self. No one wants to. There is an effect to all of this. The lack of self-control leads to folks quitting on Jesus because they have no perseverance. They cannot endure. Hard times means hit the road. Far too many are quitting. It’s too hard. It’s no longer any fun. It’s not what all my friends are into. So they quit. All of this drains the next word: godliness. Less godliness because less perseverance and less self control. Ungodly church members are the headache of every church. Folks sit in pews on Sunday with hearts and behavior like the unsaved and lost. Their interest in Jesus is little. They come to get a “feel good” pill, a pat on the back, and a free ticket to Heaven. Godliness—acting like God, comes from the inside out. It is all that we are. It affects everything that we do. A person can’t fake godliness. Either he is or he isn’t. Why is godliness on the way out? Self-control is gone and perseverance doesn’t exist.

Peter’s words are stair steps. They are connected and lead to each other. Missing one, collapses the rest. So how do I get that self-control back in my life? What comes before that? Knowledge. This is how I learn self-control. What’s before knowledge? Moral excellence. Morals that are right. Right choices. What’s before that? Faith. That’s the connection. That’s how you get it. More faith. More morals. More knowledge. Then more self-control. Start thinking before you say things. Consider how you are going to look to others before you fly off the handle. See the big picture. See God. This brings you to godliness once again.

It’s time we got our families under control. It’s time we got our congregations under control. More than that, it’s time we got our hearts under control. Controlled by Christ. Fill your heart with the word of God. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. That word brings knowledge. Here we go again. Knowledge will lead to self-control. Then perseverance. Then godliness.

Live your life as someone who is under control. Jesus ought to be at the helm of your heart. That makes all the difference.

Roger