Tuesday March 14th, 2023
Meditate on: 1 Corinthians 12:31 NKJV
« But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way »
Read: 2 Peter 1:1-11
1This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,
6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness,
7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away.
11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Understand
When we talk of Christian perfection as demanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, many may think the demand is a ‘mission impossible.’
This is not true, especially when we consider the ‘grace factor’ which is exclusive to those who are born by the Spirit of God (John 3:3-5).
Now, what are the ingredients of perfection? The first is grace according to our text.
It is grace that imparts on us the divine nature and power (1 John 2:15-17). Peter entreats us to add virtue to our faith.
Virtue is the behavior that exhibits excellence.
Virtue also must be accompanied by knowledge or else your good intention may be evil spoken of.
To knowledge we are encouraged to add temperance if we are not going to be guilty of being arrogant because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 8:1 CW:
« …. knowledge without self control puffed up, but love strengthens others. »
You must be patient with others – dealing with them with understanding.
However, chief among these ingredients is charity which in modern language is love Matthew 22:39
« 8 If you have these qualities and they are increasing, it demonstrates that your knowledge about our Lord Jesus Christ is living and productive. 9 If these qualities aren’t present in your life, you’re shortsighted and have forgotten that you were cleansed from your past sins. » 2 Peter 1:8-9 GW
We can see in the above scripture that, indeed, perfection has ingredients which, when present in our lives as Christians, bring us to the level of perfection as required by the law of liberty (James 1:25). Here we see the need to be well-grounded in the word of God.
The problem with modern-day soul winners is that they do not do due diligence in feeding converts with the sincere milk of the word- precept by precept, line upon line according to Isaiah, the prophet (Isaiah 28:9-10).
« Beloved, we must be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48CW. »
Prayer point: Father, please make me perfect by your grace.
Author: Pst Enoch. A. Adeboye.
Edited by Naomie
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