“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;” (2Peter 1:5)
This is the beginning of a list of eight things we need to have, should have and should have them in abundance in order to be fruitful. And without these eight things one is blind and forgets that the Lord has purged us from our old sins. “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” (2Pe 1:8-9)
There is one thing, one objective that this is talking about here. It’s to be fruitful. That’s what we all want. We want to bear fruit. That’s what Jesus wants us to do. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you.” (John 15:16) That’s proof that we’re His disciples. “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.” (John 15:8)
Christians are running to and fro trying to produce this fruit, but they can’t. What they produce is not holy fruit because it comes from human effort. Only fruit that grows naturally by being connected to the Lord is holy. It’s so easy to produce this fake fruit. But it’s not holy. It can’t be sustained. And it’s not eternal. Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5) We cannot do anything to bear fruit. And we cannot produce it. Peter tells us how this fruit is produced. It’s abounding in those eight things he mentioned.
In 2Peter 1:5 he begins. “...giving all diligence...” add virtue to faith. Diligence is careful effort. Here is the purposeful effort on our part. So carefully with effort we are to add virtue to our faith. We have faith. We believe in Jesus. We trust Him. He is our Lord. Now we are to add virtue to it. And that virtue is excellence. This excellence comes from our most inner desire of knowledge and awareness of our Lord. This can’t be manufactured. You either desire to know and be aware of our Lord or you don’t and are flippant about Him. And if you earnestly desire from the deepest part of you to know Him and to be aware of Him add knowledge. Isn’t that what happens to us when we love something. Out of our inner self comes this energy to know all about it, whatever it is, fashion, cooking, gardening, mechanic, music. Whatever it is will drive you to know more about it. And you will have that inner energy and drive to seek more about it. That is what Peter is talking about here! Do we have that inner energy and drive to know more of our Lord? That is what is needed to bear fruit. And that is just the beginning. There are a total of eight things needed to bear holy and eternal fruit. (1Peter 1:5-8) But it starts with adding virtue to our faith.
How do you do that? May I ask, are you reading the Bible every day without fail? Is it your first and most important priority every day? Therein is your answer. Virtue would drive you to read and seek God every day. I am in tears now because I know the volume of people who are so comfortable being saved, they lack that drive that virtue. They are flippant about their salvation. They are flippant about their time with the Lord. They don’t know Him. And they don’t want to be bothered with knowing Him. And these are brethren!! Someone told me when I was discussing something similar to this. Their response was, “Life is hard.” Yes, it is. And it’s harder without Him. I’m not speaking about not being saved. These are Christians who believe in Jesus, who are saved, but who live life in their own efforts and without His manifest presence until disaster hits. Then they go into prayer. And the Lord is always there. Praise God for His mercy and patience, His love for His children and the faithfulness of His Word.
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