Many are familiar with the words of the apostle Peter in saying, “…[G]iving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love (2 Peter 1:5-7). His words are a challenge to remember that much of Christianity is about increasing in our faith in Him. There are numerous reasons why we should be doing these things, but we often ignore the immediate context of the passage where Peter tells us his reason why. Peter prefaces this list by saying, “…[F]or this very reason…add to your faith” (2 Peter 1:5). In other words, he is drawing a conclusion—we should “add to our faith,” because of what he said in the previous verses. So, what reasons does Peter give to be growing?
After his introduction, he says of “Jesus our Lord” that “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4). In short, we might say that Peter’s intent is to draw our eyes to the magnificence of the work of Jesus Christ, and then show us the appropriate response—”add to your faith.”
The writer to the Hebrews did the same thing on a larger scale. In Hebrews 1, Jesus is declared to be “the express image of [God]” and “so much better than the angels” (Hebrews 1:3-4), i.e. God. In Hebrews 2, Jesus is pictured as “a little lower than the angels” (2:9) and a “[partaker] of flesh and blood” (2:14), i.e. man. He was both 100% God and 100% Man; He is “the Man Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 2:5). The Hebrews writer concludes his presentation of the glorious work of Jesus with the following plea: “Therefore…consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus…” (Hebrews 3:1).
It would do each of us well to take some time out of our busy days and simply meditate on the incomparable love and work of Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 3:17-19). According to Peter, the only logical thing to do when considering all that our Lord has done for us is to give diligence to do more for Him. May God grant us the wisdom to arrive with Paul at his conclusion, in simplicity and eloquence: “For the love of Christ leaves us no choice, when once we have reached the conclusion that one man died for all…” (2 Corinthians 5:14). Have you taken time to consider Jesus? Is there another choice?
