Even Our Faith: Part 4-Everything We Need…
June 4, 2023
This is episode 4 of our series “EVEN OUR FAITH” working to discover exactly what it means to live an LIFE of OVERCOMING VICTORY…
And as we’ve done for the previous few episodes of the series, let’s read together…
:: 1 John 5:1-4 (NIV) :: 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. PPT 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. ::
RECAP:
The Apostle, John the Beloved is now an old man, writing to young Christians… “little children”, “my children”, “dear children”... a young church that finds itself feeling ALIENATED, SIDELINED and being considered OUT OF TOUCH with the world around them on every issue…they’re not woke enough for the world around them but they’re not legalistic enough, or following Jewish culture enough for the Jewish leaders of the day… Right here at the beginning of June… I think it’s appropriate to address this dualistic world we live in as a Bible believing Christian Church… because while we absolutely love ALL people no matter what life they come from, I feel according to Scripture that we have to draw the line and call ALL sin for what it is & we can’t leave people in the life they came from & we can’t encourage or participate in the glorification of sin. This is the DUALISTIC WORLD we live in… Just like the Church John was writing too…
The WAY OUT OF THIS “mundo dualista” is not to fight the people who disagree with us nor to give in to it and become just like the world… but that IT IS OUR FAITH that OVERCOMES it…This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
And earlier in our series we talked about the fact that we can’t just SAY we believe in Jesus without OBEYING Him & LISTENING to His words… this includes whatever He calls sin, we call sin & whenever He says we have to turn away from Sin & be holy, we need to do that… otherwise we really don’t believe Him
This led us into the differences between ‘Faith’ and ‘Belief’ or ‘Believing’ and the ultimate conclusion that we came to is that FAITH is something you HAVE and BELIEVING is what you DO.
If BELIEVING has an implied ACTION step then… You DO what you BELIEVE…
“But wait, Chad, I thought you told us that that ‘Belief is Subjective…based on our feelings…always changing’?!”
That’s correct… Faith is OBJECTIVE, concrete, steadfast… BELIEF is SUBJECTIVE, changing, feelings based… so if you find yourself DOING what is contrary to the Word of God or the FAITH that you say you have…there’s a disconnect in your BELIEF SYSTEM that ACTIVATES your faith to DO what you BELIEVE…
ILLUSTRATION: Yesterday, Carlos and the boys were driving back from Colo Spgs … they got to go meet Russel Wilson, learn some cool things about passing a football… but on their way home, something went wrong in the van. When we tried to jump it & get it going again, it wouldn’t stay running & it had an error message on the dash that said “Charging System Failure” … The ENGINE had all the power but it that power wasn’t ACTIVATED or able to be KEPT ALIVE because the alternator was toast. Carlos could only USE the POWER if it’s KEPT ALIVE by the ‘charging system’...the alternator!
Just like that… you could have all the “FAITH” in the world but if it’s not KEPT ALIVE by your BELIEF system, it’s not usable! Jesus said in Matthew 21:21 “If you believe and doubt not…you can say to this mountain ‘be removed & cast into the sea’.” ::
In other words, if you ACTIVATE your faith by believing and then KEEP YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM running… your faith can move mountains… You ONLY DO WHAT YOU BELIEVE…
Let’s have a fun game real quick with our faith/belief chart to help solidify these truths in our hearts & minds…
FAITH is something that’s OBJECTIVE, concrete, steadfast :: BELIEF is SUBJECTIVE, changing, feelings based.
FAITH is supernatural (superpower) ability :: BELIEF is mental assent / agreement
FAITH is a spiritual force :: BELIEF is a personal choice
FAITH is GOD’s POWER at work through His word :: BELIEF is our RESPONSE to that power.
FAITH is active because the Word Is ALIVE :: BELIEF is activated when we RESPOND.
Faith IS power :: BELIEF = NO power in itself
Now let’s turn to 2 Peter 1 and learn even more about what it means to LIVE in faith and DO what we believe… We’ll read a few words & talk a bit… till we read from vs 1-vs 9.
2 Peter 1 (NIV)::
1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: … Simon Peter wrote this letter… and he ADDRESSES it to “those who have received faith as precious as ours”…other versions say “like faith” or “the same kind of faith” … so this honestly reiterates the truth we’ve been saying all along…that we RECEIVE Faith because it’s is SUPERNATURAL from God… “faith comes…by the hearing of the Word…” and if you’ve RECEIVED this precious faith just like ‘we’ have…this letter is for you…
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. … So here he says that because of this POWER…FAITH…we’ve received “EVERYTHING we need for a godly life…” it says “he has given us VERY GREAT & PRECIOUS PROMISES…” and that through them, we can “ESCAPE the corruption in the world caused by evil desires”...other versions say “caused by lust”... now to ME, that sounds an awful lot like 1 John 1:4 that says, “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith…”… We have been GIVEN power…through FAITH… so that we can…look what it says… participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
…Now… this ability to .. doesn’t mean that we become (little ‘g’)gods… as some religions teach but that by living at the intersection of this ‘gift of faith’ and our ‘belief in Jesus’ as Savior, we have the ability to live Holy, Godly lives… filled with the ‘divine nature’ of the Holy Spirit and get to participate in ‘Christ’s nature’… of goodness and holiness… and if we’re living according to ‘Christ’s nature’, we have then ‘escaped the corruption in the World caused by evil desires…” … He’s going to explain more in just a moment but for now… just let him set up the premise… that
BY FAITH God has given us everything we need for a godly life… that allows us to live according to Christ’s GODLY nature instead of our own FALLEN nature…and that’s how we ESCAPE the corruption of this world…
It’s not something that we EARN the ability to live according to Christ’s nature but that God has PROMISED it to us that we HAVE it through faith… and then Peter gets into our ACTION part of this transaction… He’s going to give a growing LIST of our activity & effort that WE are called to DO to show what we BELIEVE…
1 Peter 1: 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. ::
So… here’s the list…
Add to Faith -> Goodness (Virtue)
Add to Virtue -> Knowledge
Add to Knowledge -> Self-control
Add to Self-control -> Perseverance
Add to Perseverance -> Godliness
Add to Godliness -> Mutual affection (brotherly kindness)
Add to Brotherly kindness -> Love (agapē)
Each one of these items on the list after “Faith” is OUR RESPONSE… OUR ACTION… something that we’re learning to DO & BECOME… not just as a lightning bolt on-time change but BECOMING in “increasing measure”.
So FAITH is the initial Gift… salvation through Jesus… and that faith gives us all the provision necessary to BUILD a life of godliness & escape the corruption of the world.
Our RESPONSE to that gift is to GROW (‘increasing measure’) through our action in a way that builds a life of godliness that culminates in a life of AGAPE LOVE.
Really quickly… agapē love… there are several words for love in the Greek language…4 of them are referenced broadly in scripture…2 of the words are used specifically…
Eros : is physical passion (sexual passion): word doesn’t appear in NT but the idea is there…
Storge : familial love… word doesn’t appear in NT but the idea is there…
Philia : Brotherly love… appears often in NT…
Agapē : absolute love… the kind of love God has for mankind & mankind should have for God.
This last one, is what is used here in 2 Peter that is the culmination of a life of faith that’s ACTED out… again, the GIFT of Faith… acted out through all these virtues… and culminating in ABSOLUTE, GOD-kind of love.
Let’s quickly run through these…
add to your faith goodness (virtue) :: “Virtue” or goodness is honestly a hard one to start with because it seems so vague… What is virtue? What is it to be “good”? We tell our little kids, “Be good.” But do they really have any idea what “good” means? When I was the director fort Trin’s 11th grade HS class… we spent an ENTIRE SEMESTER, 1 hr or more per week, discussing Socrates’ Meno … “what is virtue and can it be taught?”... I don’t want to get TOO far into the weeds on this but let’s play for a sec… try to answer: “what is virtue and can it be taught?”.
Discussion… Q/A
Scriptural possibilities: Philippians 4:8 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
And also :: Romans 2:14-15 (MSG) - 14-16 When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong.
So overall, goodness is somewhat hard to pin down to a specific set of rules based on where you grew up, what your culture said… but overall, scriptures says that something deep within us echoes GOD’s version of right & wrong… I believe that THAT is what Peter is talking about… continuing to ask God, “What are the attitudes & behaviors that you want to continually tweak in me?” it’s the constant determination to not rest in our current behavior but become more like Christ.
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and to goodness, knowledge; :: If we’re going to admit that we’ve never arrived at “ultimate good” then we also need to admit that we’re not not “ultimately smart”... have arrived at as much knowledge as we need… we need to live in the humility of knowing that we don’t know it all…there’s always more to learn.
2 Timothy 3:16 :: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. There’s always more to ‘be trained’ and ‘corrected’ about… this is ultimate knowledge… I can’t know it all!
Colossians 3:16 :: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,... again, we’ve always got more to learn, greater knowledge to attain.
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6 and to knowledge, self-control; One of the greatest pieces of wisdom I think I’ve ever heard & will continually mess up is, “it’s better to be silent thought a fool than open your mouth & remove all doubt.” … meaning that when we’ve added a lot of knowledge to our lives… we HAVE to use self-control to avoid becoming the annoying know-it-all that no-one wants to hear talking.
I’ve told my kids this many times but I remember being in a Pastor’s meeting many years ago when I was really just starting out as a pastor. One of the pastors, “DR BOYD” spoke about a topic. He had his doctorate of divinity & really had a lot of great info and after the talk, I asked him some questions about his topic … What I didn’t know was that he had a reputation for just being an annoying know-it-all… and when I mentioned to one of the other Older pastors there that I’d talked to him, he kinda rolled his eyes & said, “did he tell you just how smart he is?” meaning… that this older pastor had not heard ONE WORD of Dr Boyd’s ‘wisdom’ because of his lack of self-control regarding his knowledge… he had the reputation of continually declaring just how smart he was & how much everyone needed to listen to his wise counsel…
Peter is warning us here that as we GROW in KNOWLEDGE…we also have to GROW in SELF-CONTROL so we don’t get the same reputation… we may be the smartest guy in the room… but everybody doesn’t need to hear US say that!
and to self-control, perseverance; Once we’re working towards virtue, knowledge & self-control… we need to KEEP working at them… what good does it do to work hard to drive the ball down field, only to drop the ball before we cross the line at the end-zone!??!
and to perseverance, godliness; This is the “ongoing” (perseverance) work to become more like Christ… Goodness/virtue is the perpetual realization that we haven’t arrived at perfection yet… but Godliness is the actual work of becoming like Christ.
7 and to godliness, mutual affection; ::
Remember when I told you that one of the words for love was “philia” … THIS IS THAT WORD… it’s literally the word “Philadelphia” (just like the city)… and it means that when we are working to become like Christ, we’ll love our fellow man more…
:: (Romans 12:10 ESV) :: Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
:: (1 Peter 3:8, ESV) :: Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
And finally… and to mutual affection, love.
This is where “brotherly” love becomes “God’s kind” of love… absolute love… the kind of love that means you’d lay down your life for a brother/sister…
So now that we’re at the end of the list, we can see how this ‘Gift of Faith’ that God has given us can give us “everything we need for a godly life”
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. ::
