Having tried the carnivore diet, I relearned that my body requires a variety of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to be healthy. I can’t live off bread alone, or steak alone, or any one food alone. God designed our bodies to reflect His infinite wisdom, power, and creativity; and our dependency and vulnerability.
Turns out our spiritual nature is not that different. For us to be spiritually healthy, Peter writes that we must add to our faith 7 qualities that will help us walk with God and benefit from His “great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4–7). He makes the point that growing in Christ requires more than faith.
Then he offers two more ideas for the church to learn from: growing in Christ takes lots of practice, and growing in Christ needs constant reminders (2 Peter 1:8–15).
Why lots of practice and constant reminders?
Starting in verse 8, we notice how we must “possess these qualities in increasing measure.” These Christian qualities are not one-and-done items that can be checked off or completed. We must practice them over time for them to increase in our lives. Otherwise, Peter tells us that we will be “useless or unfruitful.”
In verses 9–11, we learn that if you don’t practice these things constantly, you will end up choosing and practicing sin. A lack of practice will cloud your judgment and you won’t see that you are going back to a life that’s contrary to God—“blind, shortsighted, and has forgotten the cleansing from past sins.”
This is why Peter keeps reminding them of these 7 faith supplements: “Therefore I will always remind you about these things...to wake you up with a reminder...and I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things...”
Taking Peter’s example, we can set up reminders for ourselves so that we will not only apply them but pass them on to others so that they recall them after we are gone. This is what it means to be a disciple that makes disciples.
It’s no accident that Peter’s focus was the continuation of these Christian qualities throughout all generations of the church. Disciple-making was God’s plan from the beginning.
My prayer for myself and those I love (you’re included in that list) is that we will evaluate our lives to see how we are growing in these 7 qualities. We choose whether we practice them in greater ways. Only we can remind ourselves and one another to apply them and not lose sight of what’s important. This way our intimacy with Christ will prove useful and fruitful.
I’m looking forward to the Kids’ Christmas program on Sunday and getting to preach on what it means that Jesus is the light of the world. See you then!
Grace, mercy, and peace,
Pastor Jack