Cultivating Your Life

2 Peter 1

By Jared Saavedra

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” 2 Peter 1:5-7.

The above passage is one of many “lists” in the Bible. You know, like genealogies, lists of sacrifices in the Old Testament, lists of sins found in the New Testament, and passages we sometimes tend to skim over. But remember that all scripture is inspired by God, and the things we tend to skim are some of the most important guidelines for a Christian.

In fact, Peter put so much value on this list that he said later, “I intend always to remind you of these qualities” (2 Peter 1:12). The reason? He gives it in the verses before: because we have been delivered from our former sins! It shouldn’t be of compulsion. Our behavior should be the automatic reaction from seeing our old sinful life.

But even greater is the product of these attributes. If you have these, Peter says that “they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8). No one wants to waste their life; we want what we do to matter. This is how our faith becomes effective, like cultivating a garden. But we should be even more active because we have knowledge of Jesus Christ. As he said earlier, this changes everything, and we shouldn’t let this experience just go to waste.

Exhortation: Peter says to “make every effort” to do these things. How much effort do you put in your faith? Many times we consider faith to be something we just “have”—the category we fit ourselves into. No. Faith and works go with each other (James 2). Don’t just settle for a name. Be effective in God’s kingdom.