Virtue

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-8

Here in Second Peter we see seven virtues that Christians are to pursue to supplement their faith (faith is assumed as Peter is talking to Christians). Christians receive deliverance from the power of sin when they receive Christ by faith. Thereafter, God promises that we will no longer have enslaving power over us (Romans 6:14); He will give us a way of escape in temptation (I Cor. 10:13); and that he will give us the desire to obey Him (Phil. 1:6). Faith alone saves us but we have a responsibility to cultivate our own Christian growth by appropriating God’s power as outlined in the virtues to pursue above. Louis Barbieri illustrated it this way – “The Christian life is like power steering on a car. The engine provides the power for the steering, but the driver must actually turn the wheel. So the Lord provides the power to run our lives, but we must ‘turn the wheel.’ To a great extent the Christian determines the course of his life.”

The first virtue to pursue to supplement faith is goodness or virtue. In the original this relates to moral excellence or purity. This Greek word describes anything that fulfills its purpose of function properly and is therefore “excellent”. Darby described moral excellence as “moral courage which overcomes difficulties.” We are to fulfill our calling as Christians and live a moral life before God and the world by consistently walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). A Christian is supposed to glorify God in this way because he has God’s nature within; so, when he does this, he shows “excellence” because he is fulfilling his purpose in life.

God’s divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Now, we have the responsibility to take this power and pursue the virtues that will allow us to fulfill our calling to moral excellence; which confirms our calling (2 Peter 1:10); and allows us to have our entry into the eternal kingdom richly provided (2 Peter 1:11).