THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL ADDITION (PART 4)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Over the first three messages in this series, we have seen the Word of God implore all believers to supplement their faith with a progressive list of qualities in response to the unfailing promises of the Lord.

First Christians are to establish moral excellence before adding knowledge to it. Self control was the next train to add followed by perseverance and godliness. Finally, mutual or brotherly affection and then love were to close out the extra spiritual attitudes commanded by the scriptures.

As we turn to verse 8 of 2 Peter, chapter 1, we find the end result of this spiritual addition, the sum result of putting all expectations into practice. Look again at these words here:

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

First, note here that the power found in the required spiritual addition comes largely through the growth it brings to the Christian believer.

The more you grow like this...

This lends to the truth that we, as Jesus followers, are always works in progress. None of us are without flaw and therein is the good news for since we’ll never reach absolute faultlessness, we can always be a better Christian today than we were yesterday and indeed we should be striving to be so. This process applies all the way until we will draw our last breath in this world before moving onto our assured forever home in the Kingdom of Heaven, made new and perfected in glory.

So what is the end reward for our continual dedication to spiritual growth through a consistent commitment to add and improve the qualities we’ve been commanded to pursue in this first chapter of 2 Peter?

We find it in our verse for today.

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To be a Christian is to be Christ-like. It’s really as fundamental as that.

And to be Christ-like, you need to know Him and how He lived, not just so you can live likewise but so you can tell others how to do it too. By supplementing your faith with moral excellence, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, mutual/brotherly affection, and love, you’ll be doing just that for in Jesus, we find the personal manifestation of every one of these and then some.

Our Savior Jesus calls His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit while teaching them to obey all He has commanded (Matthew 28:19-20a). We will be most productive in getting this done when we seek daily to grow spiritually by the power of adding spiritual qualities found in Christ Himself.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.