Read 2 Peter 1:5-7
Yesterday we started identifying and explaining the spiritual qualities that need to be grown and harvested in our lives. We continue working our way through the list.
Godliness simply means “God-likeness.” In the original Greek, this word meant “to worship well.” It described the man who was right in his relationship with God and with his fellowman. Perhaps the words reverence and piety come closer to defining this term. It is that quality of character that makes a person distinctive. He lives above the petty things of life, the passions and pressures that control the lives of others. He seeks to do the will of God and, as he does, he seeks the welfare of others. We must never get the idea that godliness is an impractical thing, because it is intensely practical. The godly person makes the kind of decisions that are right and noble. He does not take an easy path simply to avoid either pain or trial. He does what is right because it is right and because it is the will of God.
Brotherly kindness (philadelphia in the Greek) is a virtue that Peter must have acquired the hard way, for the disciples of our Lord often debated and disagreed with one another. If we love Jesus Christ, we must also love the brethren. We should practice an “unfeigned [sincere] love of the brethren” (1 Peter 1:22) and not just pretend that we love them. “Let brotherly love continue” (Hebrews 13:1). “Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love” (Romans 12:10). The fact that we love our brothers and sisters in Christ is
One evidence that we have been born of God (1John5:1-2).
But there is more to Christian growth than brotherly love; we must also have the sacrificial love that our Lord displayed when He went to he cross. The kind of love (“Charity”) spoken of in 2 Peter 1:7 is agape love, the kind of love that God shows toward lost sinners. This is the love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13, the love that the Holy Spirit produces in our hearts, as we walk in the Spirit (Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22). When we have brotherly love, we love because of our likenesses to others; but with agape love, we love in spite of the differences we have.
It is impossible for fallen nature to manufacture these seven qualities of Christian character. They must be produced by the Spirit of God. To be sure, there are unsaved people, who possess amazing self-control and endurance, but these virtues point to them and not to the Lord. They get the glory. When God produces the beautiful nature of His Son in A Christian, it is God who receives the praise and glory. Because we have the divine nature, we can grow spiritually and develop this kind so Christian character. It is through the power of God and the precious promises of God that this growth takes place. The divine “genetic structure” is already there: God wants us to be “conformed to the image of His Son” Romans 8:29). The life within will reproduce that image if we but diligently cooperate with God and use the means He has lavishly given us.
And the amazing thing is this: as the image of Christ is reproduced in us, the process does not destroy our own personalities. We still remain uniquely ourselves!
Prayer:-
V Pray for pastor James Musa Rike with the recent passing of his wife Dune and 13 year old daughter Sum in a Islamic extremist attack
V Pray for the victims of the Islamic Extremist attack on churches in Cairo, Egypt
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