Before I move further in this list, I want to make two points that deal with the last post:
1) Moral excellence versus self-control
In my last post, I did not do a good job of distinguishing between moral excellence and self-control. They are similar, but definitely have distinct meanings. The meaning of moral excellence is pretty intuitive. It could be said as, "moral superiority." I think this word is primarily used in the outward sense. The morally excellent person is such that their conduct is superior to those around them.
Two major possible downfalls for the morally excellent person are pride and license. If we are more moral than the immoral around us, then we may consider our standard to be very high, when in terms of absolute standards, they might in fact be quite low. So we continue in our puddle of sin, and think we are morally excellent, simply because people around us are swimming in a lake if sin. We are proud of our superior, yet licentious state. I think this is why Peter makes sure that we supply our moral excellence with knowledge. We must have knowledge of the standard of moral excellence compared to God, not compared to those around us. For "God opposes the proud" (James 4:6), and "Strive ... for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." Knowledge of what our standard of moral excellence should be guards us from pride and from license.
The self-controlled person has a form of mastery over their sinful nature. The difference between these moral excellence and self-control is that moral excellence is more a comparative standard, and self-control is more of an absolute standard. With moral excellence, even if it is the light of Scripture, I think our tendency is to look around and compare ourselves with others. Self-control looks inward and seeks to eradicate the sinful nature, independent of how holy or immoral the people around us are.
A possible snare of self-control is despair. Even people who have been faithfully cultivating self-control still have a sinful nature, and they will stumble. That is why I think Peter says for our self-control to have perseverance, which is a guard against despair.
2) A pattern in addition to the sequence....
We have seen that there is a certain kind of faith that Peter wants the readers to have. At this point, what we have seen is a faith that has moral excellence, moral excellence which is in accordance with knowledge, knowledge that is governed by self-control, and self-control that is patiently persevering through trails of various kinds, eagerly waiting for the return of Christ, and thereby for freedom from sin. This is the sequence, but I think there is also a pattern.
There were a couple of reasons why I wrote the previous section about moral excellence and self-control. One was to show that Peter is not using redundant terms; each word used in this list is purposeful and specific. The other was to help us see a pattern in what he is writing. I think that this will help us see even more clearly the logical sequence of these verses:
i) Moral excellence: outward, interpersonal, failure tends toward pride and/or license
ii) Knowledge: [well-rounded Biblical knowledge] guards against pride and license
iii) Self-control: inward, failure tends toward despair or depression
iv) Perseverance: [patiently persevering until Christ's return] guards against despair
It is important to see that our mortification of sin, our self-control, is even more important and more central than our morality. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34) Self-control results in outward morality, but the reverse is not necessarily true.
Reverting to my closing question from the last post, is this "Faith... supplied with self-control" now enough? Peter is asking us to see what kind of faith we have, and he is probing deeper and deeper into our souls. The answer is no, it is not enough.
Moving on to perseverance... supplied with godliness
The Greek word translated "godliness" in this verse is eusebeia. The simple definition is "piety; holiness." However, there is an interesting implication with this word that leads Strong's Concordance to add to the definition: "piety; specially, the gospel scheme:"1 and another source: " Eusebeia relates to real, true, vital, and spiritual relation with God."2 I tried to find where these ideas came from.
The word eusebeia appears more in the book of 1 Timothy than in the rest of the NT combined, so I thought that would be a good place to learn about what it means. An interesting thing about the word "godliness" is that twice Paul uses it in connection with setting the mind on heavenly, rather than earthly things:
"train yourself for godliness; 8for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." (1 Tim. 4:7-8)
"quarrels about words... produce... constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 6Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world." (1 Tim. 6:4a, 5-7)
The connection between godliness becomes a little clearer with these verses. Perseverance is the steadfastness that comes from waiting for our coming union with Christ, and godliness is the present manifestation of that hope.
Another thing I found was that the word "godliness" is often connected with the Gospel. This is clearest in 1 Timothy 3:16:
16Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery [something before unknown, but now revealed] of godliness [eusebeia]:1 Timothy 3:16 shows us that Biblical godliness is a Gospel-oriented godliness.
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.
As moving from moral excellence to self-control brought us from external to internal action, so moving from self-control to godliness moves from internal action to internal orientation.
Our moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, and perseverance, are all to be oriented around (i.e. founded on) the Gospel, in which we receive the power for holiness. We must have self-control, etc. founded on Christ's blood shed to be the propitiation for our sin (1 John 4:10). We must have them founded on the fact that Christ is the vine, and we are the branches (John 15). We must have them founded on the fact Spirit is the one who enables us to do these things (Romans 8:13). Total dependence on Christ's righteousness, and on the Spirit's sanctifying work in our lives is the orientation and foundation out of which all hope for holiness comes.
Godliness... supplied with brotherly kindness
(The Greek word for "brotherly kindness" here is philadelphia, which really means "brotherly love," but since "love" (agape) is the next item on the list, it would be confusing in English to say "supply brotherly love with love..." )
A possible point of error, even in having faith... supplied with godliness, is the tendency to try to grow in personal godliness without sharing in the lives of others. The Bible is clear that our growth in godliness is to be pursued both individually and corporately. "...not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." (Heb. 10:25) Hear how important the unity of the body of Christ is:
19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Eph. 2:19-22)
and again,
15but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Eph. 4:15-16)
Let us not forget that our pursuit of godliness is to be done in such a way that the whole body of Christ is built up.
Brotherly kindness... supplied with love
Even philadelphia has its limitations in verifying our faith. There is a stronger word for love in the Greek, a word that appears in no other literature than the New Testament. At the core of this list is love (agape). Let's look back again at the list that Peter gives, only this time, let's see the result of supplying our faith with these things:
...applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8(NASB)
Jesus said that " 1I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away... he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit... If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up" (John 15)
What I think Peter is saying in verse 9 is that if we have these qualities, and they are increasing, we can be assured that we will bear fruit, that we are in Christ, and that our faith is indeed real. So Peter is saying that faith... supplied with love (agape) is a sure confirmation of the genuineness of our faith. This is said in other places in Scripture, both in reference to love for God and love for others.
1) Love for God: "2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments." (1 John 5:2)
2) Love for others: "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35), and "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death." (1 John 3:14)
From this passage, we can see that if we have "faith acting through love" (Gal 5:6), and if it is increasing, we can be assured that we know God. Let us not forget the moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, and brotherly kindness; but though all the components of this list are important for the Christian to neither be useless nor unfruitful, in the end, the Spirit testifying through our hearts and our lives that we have love for God and for others is the surest way to know that our faith is genuine.
If this love is so important, I think it would be wise to spend some time considering what agape or "Christian love" is, and what it is not. This will be the topic for my next post!
1 http://www.eliyah.com/cgi-bin/strongs.cgi?file=greeklexicon&isindex=2150
2 Greattreasures.org
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