Last weekend I led a Bible study through the first part of 2 Peter. We spent time digging into Peter’s last words to the church and, as we read, two things that kept being highlighted were Peter’s roadmap to Christian maturity and his warning on spiritual amnesia.

Here’s the deal: Peter was about to die and he knew it. Which is why he had to encourage the church, leaving them a solid roadmap to the Christian life, and warn them about spiritual blindness and false teachers/prophets infiltrating the church.

Today I want to share both of these vital things with you. Let’s begin with Peter’s roadmap to Christian maturity.

Roadmap to Christian Maturity

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 2 Peter 1:5-8, NIV

Peter presents what is needed to grow in our faith and become productive Christians in a “step-ladder” way. Each element builds upon the previous one and leads to a full, well-rounded spiritual life.

Faith

Peter begins with faith. Faith is the foundation of our lives as Christians. It is through faith by which we are saved. It is through faith by which we receive God’s grace. Faith is what makes the impossible possible and what brings Heaven to earth. Faith is what brings salvation, healing, provision, and freedom. I love what my teachers in ministry school used to say: “Faith is the currency of Heaven.” Faith, the very first step, is the ground on which we build our Christian life. Faith is belief and full confidence that God is who He says He is and that He does what He says He will do.

Goodness

Once faith is present in our lives, we have to add goodness to it. Not because we need works to be saved, but rather because faith produces good works as proof that it exists in us. Goodness is the very essence of God. Therefore, by producing goodness in our lives as Christians we are reflecting God’s character and we are becoming more Christlike. Other translations use the word virtue here. Goodness, therefore, looks like what is just, pure, and upstanding. God calls us not only to belief in Him, but to display that belief through our conduct in every aspect of our private and public life.

Knowledge

To goodness or virtue we must add knowledge. God longs for children who know Him and His word. Here’s the thing: God hasn’t just called us to believe in Him and be content to leave the knowledge to someone else. No. In fact, He calls each and every one of us to know Him deeply and personally. To our faith and virtue we must add knowledge, because we are called not only to be saved, but to know God deeply and intimately. Therefore we must learn through reading His word, through loving God and experiencing Him, and through surrounding ourselves with people who long to know Him just as deeply.

Self-Control

Self-control is the ability to rule over ourselves and do the right thing, regardless of our feelings or circumstances. I love that Peter adds this after knowledge. Why? Because many times pursuing God requires self-control. It requires that we remain faithful and focused even when we don’t feel like it or even when life gets rough or busy. Self-control is essential to the Christian life. Without it, we will be easily moved and shaken up by external opinion, difficulties, or circumstances. The Christian life is intentional, and self-control is essential. The best part is that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Perseverance

To self-control we must add perseverance. And this is perfect because remaining faithful to the tasks God has given us can be frustrating and hard. It can sometimes feel hopeless and like it is going nowhere. It can feel like no matter how much we do, we can’t seem to get there. And yet, God has given us the ability to persevere. Peter knew firsthand what it was like to persevere after failing (literally denying Jesus) and after enduring persecution for the Gospel. And yet he persevered. He kept going because he knew that the reward at the end of the road was worth it. Like him, we must keep going forward even when we can’t immediately see the results. At the end, it will be worth it. It is better to keep going knowing a reward is waiting for us than to quit halfway through and always wonder what life would have been like if we had pressed on.

Godliness

Next, Peter calls us higher. After having faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, and perseverance, he urges us to live like Christ Himself and add godliness to our Christian life. Godliness is to be God-like. It is to reflect Jesus in our thoughts, words, and actions. It is being like God on the inside and not just on the outside. It is being like God on the outside because we are like Him on the inside. You may believe this is impossible. But to quote Peter just a few verses earlier, “He has given us all we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us of His own glory and goodness.” (vs. 3) Don’t know how to live a godly life? God already made all provision for you! Go back a few steps. Remember faith, knowledge, and goodness? The more we come to know God, the more we become like Him. The more we experience Him, the more God-like (or Christlike) we become.

Mutual Affection

Peter continues on to say that we must add mutual affection to all the previous steps. Why? Because the Christian life is more than just about loving God well; it is also about loving people well. If you love God but cannot love your friends, do you really know how to love God well? Loving others with excellence and to the best of our ability is a way to love God and give of ourselves to Him. The mature Christian will love others well, not based on their merit but based on the love and grace that God has shown us and others.

Love

Finally, to mutual affection we must add love. Interesting, right? I believe this thought echoes 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, or the famous love chapter. Without love, we are nothing. And love here isn’t just a feeling or a license to do as I please. Love here is agape love. First, Peter urges us to mutual affection, which in the original Greek means brotherly love. But then Peter urges us to something higher: agape love. Agape love is the highest form of love presented in the Bible and it is modeled after God’s love for humanity. Therefore, Peter ends his ladder of Christian life by saying that we must have the same love that God has. The unconditional, never-ending, ridiculously extravagant love that God holds for each and every one of us. The Christian life is to lead us to loving like God loves. To loving like Christ loved. In such a way that we seek the good of others above our own and are willing to forgive the unimaginable. God is calling us higher and perfecting us step by step into becoming just like Him so that we can accurately represent Him as the church and body of Christ.

Fruitful

Peter ends his roadmap to the Christian life by saying that if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Want to be a productive Christian? Do these things. Want to be an effective follower of Christ? Do these things. Want to be the kind of disciple that Jesus is looking for? Do these things.

But take care. Peter adds an important warning.

Final Warning

“But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.” – 2 Peter 1:9, NIV

Peter ends his roadmap with a warning. And interesting enough, this warning is three-fold. It is a progressive decline. Whoever neglects these essential components to the Christian life runs the following risks:

Nearsightedness – This is when you see the truth, but decide to make it blurry. It’s when you blur the lines between right and wrong, godly and ungodly, and begin to compromise a little bit here and a little bit there. In and of itself it may not be extremely serious, but if left unchecked it leads to the next thing.

Blindness – This is the point where you ignored the Holy Spirit so continuously in your life that you are no longer just nearsighted in your faith; you’ve become blind. You shut out the voice of God in your life, you blurred the lines, you compromised, you ignored the Holy Spirit’s gentle rebukes and separated yourself from godly community. Finally, you made yourself blind to God and His kingdom.

Forgetfulness – The final step is when you made yourself so ignorant of the voice of God and the spiritual world that you eventually make yourself forget. You forget your experiences with God. You forget the sound of His voice. You forget who He made you to be. You forget what He saved you from and you return to your old life, completely forgetting your very own identity as a son or daughter of God.

Peter cautions that ignoring the roadmap to a mature Christian life is dangerous. He warns that the drifting away is progressive and slow. Before he dies, Peter wants every believer to know the importance of holding fast and standing strong.

But what if you’ve already become nearsighted? Turn back to Jesus and ask Him to clear your vision. What if you’re blind? Good news! Jesus heals the blind. What if you’ve forgotten who you are? The prodigal son forgot who he was. He had to reach rock bottom to even remember he had a father. But like the famous hymn says: I once was lost, but now am found. Jesus can find anyone. In fact, He will go after the forgetful and the lost. He still remembers those who forgot Him. You are never too far away.

And if you haven’t strayed, then stay the course. Fix your eyes on Jesus, hold fast to His promises, and keep walking. Jesus has given you all you need for a godly life. Persevere and keep going!

Until next time,
Anna

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