DGen Lesson: Adding and Increasing [Part 3]

[…continued from this post; part three of this series…]


...and to self-control, perseverance;...
+ Perseverance – related to endurance, patience and long-suffering – comes after one learns (and continuously receives grace) to exercise restraint in several, if not all areas of life. That should be the case because it takes a lot of discipline to endure hardship, continue in the midst of trials, and move forward when everything in life pounces on you and screams at you to quit.

Perseverance entails consistency, constancy and commitment. All other characteristics in Peter’s list will amount to nothing if perseverance is not combined with faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. This ingredient is important in the recipe of making every effort to grow. All will become useless if we lose perseverance and give up pursuing God.

...and to perseverance, godliness;...
+ Josiah pointed out that the addition of godliness in Peter’s list serves as a goal, an end that the character of perseverance aims for. We need to persevere toward godliness. But I added that we also need godliness in order to persevere… toward godliness [yes. It is paradoxical but I believe that’s how it works].

The pursuit of godliness in our lives gives us focus on what is really important – knowing God and being conformed to the image of His Son. Godliness is the vertical component of our life, relating to God, spirit to spirit.

...and to godliness, brotherly kindness;...
+ Of course, loving God should not just be manifested in our personal relationship with Him. Peter puts brotherly kindness in the mix so that the overflow of our love relationship with the Father is evidenced by our love for our fellow man. Brotherly kindness – when we relate to those around us the way the Lord would have us do – is the horizontal component of our life.

In the same way that godliness should not be a stand-alone character in a Christian, brotherly kindness should not be a separate trait in those who profess to follow Christ. Living totally for the Lord without the benefit of receiving and giving love to others would be incomplete if we don’t live for others and love others out of our love for God.

I found it funny, nay amusing, that on one of my one-on-one sessions a particular Famoso Guerrero was caught speechless, rather tight-lipped, when we discussed this part of the passage. In fact, his silence said more than what little he spoke at the time. But I continued to tell him that brotherly love should not be limited to those who are biologically connected to us (our siblings) but also to rest of mankind, who are our brothers and sisters in God's huge family.

Perhaps Guerrero was getting some insights from the Lord at that time about a particular brotherly (or sisterly???) relationship. I'll never know. He wouldn't tell me... even to this day.


… to be continued …

DGen Lesson: Adding and Increasing [Part 2]

[...continued from this post...]


...and to knowledge, [add] self-control;...
+ You know the Spider-Man adage that goes, "with great power, comes great responsibility"? Well, if knowledge is power, then one needs to exercise great responsibility in the form of self-control when handling knowledge.

As with any other form of power, knowledge -- the acquisition and application of it -- can be abused and misused. It can give a person a puffed up ego [1 Corinthians 8:1]. It can be a source of pride and can therefore lead to one's downfall.

The exertion of self-control over our accumulated information, facts and learning is intended to keep us sober in our estimation of ourselves. We are not the source of knowledge after all but merely conduits of it. And it is God who gives us the ability to receive wisdom, understanding and knowledge.

I believe Peter also urges us to practice self-control in other areas of our lives, not just in handling knowledge. There is a serious need to practice self-control in our speech, in our conduct, in our thoughts, in the way we filter what comes into our minds and what goes out of mouths. Without self-control there is no order in one's life.

As Christians -- as followers of Christ -- we can't just do whatever pleases us and still represent Jesus. If we truly want to let our light shine, we have to have control or exercise control of what little darkness there is left within us. God's word helps us stretch our self-control muscles. The Bible shows us how to do that.

We need to read the Bible -- everyday -- to have the knowledge needed to control our wayward human nature.

This is why adding self-control to knowledge keeps us from abusing what we know, and adding knowledge to self-control makes us better at keeping the bad stuff at bay.


...to be continued...

DGen Lesson: Adding and Increasing [Part 1]

I had a wonderful time discussing 2 Peter 1:3-13 during my one on one sessions with the guys under me in the cell group, and my co-cell leader. It's amazing how such a few verses can bring out such rich revelation from the Lord. Here are some of the things I was able to discuss with the guys...

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness...
+ All that we need for our physical life and spiritual life has been given by God. Everything. There is no lack.

...through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness...
+ Our availment of all the things God gave to us for life and godliness is limited by how much we know Him. If we only have a 10% knowledge of God, we can only avail of that much of the things He has given us. We are limited in how much we received from God by what we know of Him. If we don't know Him as Jehovah Rophe, our Healer, we will never be able to avail of His provision for healing. If we don't know Him as Jehovah Shalom, our Peace, we will never get to know His peace that passes all understanding.

We have to know Him more so we can know what else is included in the all-the-things-He-has-given-us-for-life-and-godliness package, and know how to avail of them and use them. Josiah used the analogy of a medicine kit -- everything is already in there but we have to know what it has in there and know how to use those.

...Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises,...
+ This is part of package. This is part of everything we need for life and godliness. And the more we increase in our knowledge of God, the more we will increase in our knowledge of the promises He has made to us. Promises which He will definitely keep. Promises like "I will never leave you nor forsake you [Joshua 1:5]." Promises like "I know the plans I have for you; plan to prosper you, not to harm you; plans to give you a hope and a future [Jeremiah 29:11]." Promises like "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you [John 15:7]."

...so that through them you may participate in the divine nature...
+ The package God gave us, our increasing knowledge of Him, and the certainty of the promises He made to us, are there to help us partake and share His divine nature -- that of holiness, love, compassion, graciousness, etc. He has promised to sanctify us and make us holy... it enables us to participate in His nature of holiness. He has promised to make grace abound in our lives... it enables us to partake in His nature of graciousness and be gracious to others. He has promised to change us from glory to glory... it enables us to grow and radiate in the fullness of His glory.

...and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires...
+ Those very same promises also enable us to avoid the evil in the world by the killing off of our selfish, carnal and wicked desires. When we receive His promise of sanctifying us [making us holy] through the Holy Spirit, it also enables us to avoid the unholy things that we have the natural tendency to do. His promise of providing a way out of every temptation enables us to escape the corruption in the world. It means that our resilience against the world, the devil and the flesh exponentially grows when we grow in our knowledge of Him -- we are helped in our flight from evil. And there are many more promises in the Word that give us authority and power to overcome the world's corruption.

...For this very reason, make every effort...
+There is a reason why Peter includes this statement. The Christian life is not a passive life. We are not supposed to be sitting down and let God do everything. He already did everything, but God's Word always urges Christians to action with words like "fight", "run", "take", "go". "Make every effort" is no different.

Although God is in control of everything, and Jesus is the the Author and Finisher of our faith, and the Holy Spirit is the One who brings spiritual growth, every citizen of the Kingdom is still required to do their part in getting to spiritual maturity. This is a choice every Christian must make. No one can do this for you -- not your father; not your mother; not your pastor or cell group leader, not even the Lord. This is about choice. We either decide to make every effort to grow or don't make an effort at all. No one can make this effort for you.

...to add to your faith goodness;...
+ We all have a measure of faith given to us when we receive Jesus' Lordship in our lives. The more we feed our spirit, the better that faith grows. But why add goodness to it? Well, the guys spoke to said that goodness is the way we show our faith. The Bible does say that faith without works is dead. Faith is useless if it is kept within with no manifestation outside. That's why we need to let our invisible faith translate into visible actions -- more appropriately, through good works.

...and to goodness, knowledge;...
+ Josiah pointed out that we need knowledge in order to know what good thing to do and how to do that good thing. Ronnie, on the other hand, said that the way we know God affects the way we do good things, which to me means either you don't know God and the good things you do become religious acts, or you do know God and the good things you do become an act of worship to Him.

Knowledge gives goodness focus. Knowledge gives goodness direction. Knowledge gives goodness purpose.

. . . to be continued