The Christian life requires a certain amount of nurture and cultivation. Otherwise, it will not grow in grace and truth but dry up and die instead. The secret of growing in the Christian Life has been clearly defined in the Bible. It has been there a long time for us to read. As Christians, we have been too blind to see it. Man has often attempted to define the meaning of life in his own feeble ways. And these man-made formulas for a full life have never fully passed the test of the ages.
For Ralph Waldo Emerson, life was a series of surprises and was not worth taking or keeping if it were anything else.
For James Russell Lowell, life was but another womb wherein we would be shaped to be born into the next life.
Martin Luther King viewed life as pursuing a cause he was willing to die for. Our Lord Jesus linked the quest for life directly with himself. For He said, “Follow me, because I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Today, we find that every medium is directed toward confusing young minds with worldly definitions of life. Now, in contrast to all this, the Apostle Peter gives us tried and true guidelines for growing in a life that is eternally worthwhile. These guidelines were communicated to humanity directly from God.
Peter was a man of practical action. He was an activist. Whether fishing or mending nets, professing his loyalty to Jesus, or raising a sword to defend his master in the garden, Peter was always up and doing. He possessed a zest for living. In his activism, Peter transmits the first secret of the good life: to keep busy and to be actively engaged in the work of the Lord.
Now, according to Peter, Diligence is the first thing suggested for growth in the Christian life. Diligence means carefulness or tending to business. It is taking advantage of present opportunities that will eventually lead to meaningful fulfillment. It is adding those elements that will make life creative and viable, such as alertness, promptness, boldness, and persistence.
Now, if we are to continue to grow, we must have faith. It is impossible to please God without faith. For Peter, faith is more than an intellectual assent to a doctrinal truth or a historical fact. It is, first of all, an act of loving devotion to God; it is faith in Jesus Christ. It tells of what you and I can become.
We must have a restless faith that is never satisfied with marginal living and mediocrity, a faith that sets its sights on the mountaintop and having reached it, hears another voice from a higher mountain saying, “Come on up a little higher.”
We must be careful and watch that we are not deceived by those who contend that our Christianity is obsolete and irrelevant. We do not need to join another church or a popular cult, nor do we need a new God, but rather a new faith in the same God–the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Now, the golden virtues mentioned in the Bible are charity, chastity, continence, courage, excellence, faith, hope, justice, prudence, and fortitude.
But complete virtue must have in it a supply of knowledge. Knowledge means insight and understanding. It means wide acquaintance with the truth. It means a well-informed and well-instructed mind. It means getting all the education you can and then getting some more.
But we must always remember that all our knowledge must relate to God, our neighbors, and ourselves. Knowledge of all three of these is essential to our Christian growth.
Furthermore, if we are to grow, we must add to knowledge and temperance. The best meaning of temperance is self-control, the grace of abstaining from all kinds of evil to which we are tempted. It is holding back when lust urges us to go forward.
Then, to temperance, add patience. Now, this means that we should learn to stand still when we desire to go forward. Temperance is the grace of holding back, and patience is the grace of holding on. Patience with life. Patience with other people. Moreover, patience is steadfastness in the work of the Lord. And you and I both know that a patient person is very rare and hard to find.
Job has been called the most patient of men, but even ,…
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