My dear friend, Gordon Gower, preaching in Colorado
Nothing hurts more than to have a “pretend friend.” Often we don’t know who our true friends are until trouble comes our way. My dear friend, Gordon Gower, recently reminded me, “Your REAL friends are coming in the door while the others are going out.”
Today let’s look at taking the 7th step up Peter’s Eight Rung Ladder:
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 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, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love, (2 Peter 1:3-7).
In this passage of Scripture, Peter tells us to take the next step up from godliness to “brotherly affection.” Many English Bibles read “brotherly love” here. So what does “love” mean to you? I love apple pie. I love my grandmother. I make love to my wife and I love my Lord. Hopefully each of those loves has a different meaning, but they are actually related to each other. The love that we learn from our mother and father teaches us to love our friends and the love of our friends teaches us to love unselfishly. Here is another series of stepping stones!
I like to think about 2 Peter 1:3-7 as an eight rung ladder. Each step leads to the next. We began this series with the step of faith which led to excellence (virtue) and excellence led to understanding (knowledge) which led us to self-control and endurance (steadfastness), then godliness and now we begin to learn to love. Here Peter starts with friendship (brotherly love) which will teach us in our last lesson about the greatest love, agape.
As has been said many times, there are several Greek words that are translated “love” in English. There is a word for the love of possessions and there is a word for the love of family, but the two that are most often used in the New Testament can be translated “friendship” (“brotherly affection” in the English Standard Version) and a powerful, transcendent, godly love, Agape. In learning to love, we need to begin with friendship. From there we can climb the last step of our eight rung ladder and learn to love like God loves.
Paul told the Romans, “Love one another with brotherly affection,” (Romans 12:10). This too is an interesting progression for he begins with the word for “family love”* and then moves to “brotherly love.” Notice the Holman Christian Standard Version: “Show family affection to one another with brotherly love.” This is the only place in the New Testament where this word translated “family love/affection” is used. It is the kind of love we find mothers having for their children and then children having this love for their parents and siblings. In this sense, it is the most natural love. The ancients believed it was possessed even by animals. When family love is absent from a person, it is an anomaly – even a tragedy – but its presence is nothing extraordinary, so Paul moves on to describe a higher love that should be present in the Christian family: brotherly love.
One of the greatest losses of our modern age is the loss of friendship. Unfortunately, friendship is no longer necessary for survival. It is nice to have friends, but it is not necessary. C.S. Lewis once observed, “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”
Do you remember a time in your life when you had a buddy or a best friend? For most us of, we’ll need to go back to grade school or to our time in the military to remember when we had one. Paul said the Thessalonians were masters of the art of friendship: “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia,” (1 Thessalonians 4:9, 10). The Hebrew writer says brotherly love is a characteristic of all Christians (Hebrews 13:1), but it is in our current context of 1 Peter that we are given the key to learning this virtue:
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, (1 Peter 1:22).
Spend some time meditating on this text for a moment. Let the Holy Spirit instruct you. What do you see?
Brotherly love must be “sincere.” Literally, it is not-hypocritical. Friendship can be faked. It happens all the time, but it must not be so with Christians! In Christ we become authentic – especially so in our friendships.
The true source of brotherly love must be from a “purified” soul. In days gone by, that required cultic cleansing in the Temple (John 11:55; Acts 21:24, 26; 24:18). Today, figuratively we can cleanse our hearts (James 4:8) and our souls (1 Peter 1:22).
Cleansing comes through “obedience to the truth.” That comes by drawing near to God (James 4:8).
Isn’t that interesting? We become genuine friends by becoming genuine Christians! As we learn to live under God’s rule, we become authentic Christians and thus we can become true friends. By cleansing our hearts and our hands, we rid ourselves of ulterior motives and so we elevate friendship through sincerity. Brotherly love means not seeking friends for what they can do for us, but simply because we sincerely want to be friends.
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
In front of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem
“Godliness” is a word we don’t hear much anymore, and that is a shame because godliness sets a standard of excellence for us. Like all good goals, this one will always be out of our reach, but rather than discouraging us, the standard of godliness should cause us to always keep stretching, keep growing, keep reaching.
In this series, I’ve pointed out that each virtue builds on the previous one. First comes faith, but faith requires action which leads us to excellence (virtue). Excellence in turn produces understanding (knowledge) and understanding results in self-control. The goal is always growth and that requires endurance (steadfastness), but how does endurance lead us to godliness?
Our usual picture of godliness is a little cherub with folded hands looking towards heaven, but let me suggest this virtue is made of grittier stuff than that. It’s a manly quality. The Apostle Paul told Timothy to “train yourself for godliness,” (1 Timothy 4:7). He compares this spiritual discipline to working out in the gym: “for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
So what is “godliness”? One lexicon describes it as the “awesome respect accorded to God.”[1] Notice: this respect comes from the heart. It’s not just a matter of appearing to be pious. Again, Paul told Timothy there are people who have “the appearance of godliness, but deny its power. Avoid such people,” (2 Timothy 3:5). Did you catch that? Genuine godliness is a source of power. The early Christian Clement understood this when he admonished the Christians in Corinth: “Therefore let us unite with those who devoutly [our word] practice peace, and not with those who hypocritically wish for peace.”[2]
Many people think of godliness as synonymous with performing godly acts, but it is imperative we recognize godliness is more than that. In Peter’s last letter he asks, “what sort of people ought you to be as you live your lives of holiness and godliness?” [my translation] We shouldn’t think, “Today I’ll do something godly.” Rather, we must pray that we will be godly every day because a life colored with the awe of God is a life of focus and power.
What does godliness look like? Is a man wearing a cross and carrying a study Bible godly? Maybe, but to really see a godly person, we need to “look under the hood.” Godliness doesn’t consist of actions and deeds. It is something deep within the heart of the believer. Do you remember when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai after seeing God? (Exodus 34:29 ff.) He had the two tablets with the Ten Commandments in his arms and, although he didn’t realize it, “the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” So it should be with people who have “awesome respect” for God. It comes shining through in their lives and their actions. There is something different about the people who know God. For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their godliness resulted in incredible boldness and courage when faced with the fiery furnace. For the quiet, little widow who gave the Lord everything she had, it was serene trust that God would provide. For Isaiah standing forgiven in the throne room of God (Isaiah 6), it was an eagerness to do (and be) anything God required. Like the blood that flows through our veins, godliness animates everything we do and everything we are.
So how can we become godly? W.D. Mounce observes:
The chief means of training oneself in godliness is sound instruction (1 Tim. 6:3) and knowledge of the truth (Tit 1:1), especially knowledge of God (2 Pet. 1:3). While eusebeia leads to a life of contentment and gain (1 Tim. 6:6), it is an end in itself, not a means.[3]
Finally, godliness is not a means to an end. It is an end in itself. We might practice the spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting to become more spiritual, but godliness is something we are not something we do. Thus, as we climb the eight rung ladder, faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control and endurance create godliness within us and the exciting part of this process is what comes next. Becoming godly allows us to love as God loves and learning to love describes the last two steps on Peter’s eight rung ladder.
[1] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 412). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[2] Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers: Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed., p. 45). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
[3] Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 298). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
There are two words often translated “patience” in the New Testament. The first is makrothumia – often translated “long-suffering” as in the classic King James Version. Sometimes all God expects us to do under trial is hang on. As Winston Churchill admonished, “Never, never, never, never, never, never, never give up!” Like sitting in the dentist’s chair, all we are expected to do is endure for the hour. But the word that is used in 2 Peter is different. Rather than just hanging on, hypomone, encourages us to thrive in the face of adversity. A sponge works best when it is squeezed and Christians are at their best when times are rough.
Think about it. When do we grow the most? It’s not when times are good. Where is the incentive to change? We grow when we are challenged; when times are tough! For a kite to fly the wind must blow. Paul, Peter and James all recognize this principle:
“the testing of your faith produces steadfastness [our word]. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing,” James, James 1:3, 4.
“make every effort to supplement … self-control with steadfastness [our word], and steadfastness with godliness … For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful,” Peter, 2 Peter 1:6, 8.
In fact, Jesus goes so far as to say, “by your endurance you will be saved,” Luke 21:19.
We all experience tough times. People may disappoint us. Circumstances may conspire to ruin us. Relationships sometimes fail despite our best efforts, but what counts for the Christian is how we deal with those tough times. Sometimes we can only hang on, but for those climbing the eight rung ladder, tough times are an opportunity to thrive and grow and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Perhaps there is no virtue harder to practice than “self-control.” Sometimes it seems like our very bodies conspire against us (Romans 7:14 ff.). Who doesn’t wrestle with cravings? “Just one more cookie” has been the downfall of many diets. From a more serious perspective, drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling are all very real addictions that war against us. We desperately need to learn self-control so let’s open God’s Word and find some help as we reach for the fourth rung of Peter’s Eight Rung Ladder (2 Peter 1:5-7).
There are many Greek words in our New Testament that are translated “self-control,” but the specific word Peter choses to use in 2 Peter 1:6 is relatively rare. Paul used it in Galatians to describe part of the “Fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22, 23) and Peter uses it here to describe the fourth step:
“5 make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love,” (2 Peter 1:5-7).
The final place we find this word in the New Testament is in Paul’s sermon to the Roman Governor Felix:
Acts 24:24 After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” 26 At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him.”
If there was one virtue Felix lacked, it was self-control! Felix had been a slave in Rome, but was freed by the Emperor Claudius and was actually appointed to serve the Empire as Proconsul of Judea. He was a man of appetites. A Roman historian, Tacitus, observed, “Antonius Felix practiced every kind of cruelty and lust, wielding the power of a king with the instincts of a slave” (Histories, 5.9). He was married three times. Felix divorced his second wife and seduced the Jewish princess Drusilla, from Azizus, king of Emesa, when she was only sixteen years old. He needed to hear Paul’s bold sermon on “righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment.”
So how do we gain control of our emotions and appetites? Peter gives us the answer in our text. Each of the eight virtues mentioned builds on the previous virtue. We begin with faith: what we believe, and put our faith into action with virtue: moral excellence – what we do. From this we gain understanding: “knowledge” and knowledge helps us learn self-control. Peter says, “if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful” (v. 8). “For if you practice these qualities you will never fall,” (v. 10). Spiritual growth isn’t easy, but it is essential! Let’s keep climbing.
As we climb the “Eight Rung Ladder” of virtues in 2 Peter 1:5-7, the third step is supplementing “virtue with knowledge.” The Greek Christians in Peter’s day would have immediately connected this step with their common proverb “virtue is knowledge.” We’ve already seen how growth begins with “faith” – what we believe – and continues with “virtue” – what we do. Now, as we practice our faith, our understanding grows. We truly begin to “get it.”
Let’s look at our text again as the Apostle Peter encourages us to “5 make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love,” (2 Peter 1:5-7).
What is this knowledge Peter is talking about?
Men are funny. When we get together we talk about “guy stuff.” We bat around terms that we have absolutely no idea what they mean. For example, in talking about old cars, guys might talk about “turning the rotors” on the brakes, “adjusting the venturiis” in the carburetor (we’re talking old cars) or “adjusting the bands” in the transmission. I have used those phrases, but I have absolutely no idea what they mean. I’m not alone. You probably do too. Who really knows what the “cloud” is? How broad is “broadband”? Where is the on-ramp to the “information superhighway”? So we may have a great deal of information and facts, but we’re still clueless.
Now let’s return to Peter’s instructions as we climb the eight rung ladder. The third phrase the apostle uses in this text primarily refers to “understanding,” the very word the Contemporary English Version uses in its translation of gnosis. The Greek lexicon defines gnosis as “comprehension or intellectual grasp of something, knowledge.[1]” This meaning is more clearly illustrated later in 2 Peter where the apostle will encourage husbands to “live with your wives in an understanding way,” (2 Peter 3:7).
It will not do for us to just fill our minds with Bible facts. To have true knowledge, to truly understand, we must apply those facts. It is what we do with our knowledge that truly matters!
[1] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 203). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
The Apostle Peter’s last letter is especially concerned with spiritual growth. He encourages us to “5 make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love,” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Last week we looked at “faith,” and this week we look at a word that almost defies definition, arete (ἀρετή).
A quick survey of the different English translations shows the breadth of meanings. The earliest English Bibles used “virtue” to translate arete (Wycliffe, Geneva) and more recent translations (RSV, NKJV) have revived that meaning. God’s Word uses “integrity” while the International Standard Version has “moral character.” Arete has been the focus of many recent business books on “Excellence” and the New English Translation uses that word. The Lexham English Bible narrows the focus a bit with “excellence of character” as does the New American Standard Bible and New Living Translation, “moral excellence.” Most of the recent translations (CJB, CEV, GNB, HCSB, NCV, NIV, NRSV, TNIV) simply read “goodness,” but I don’t think that adequately describes the virtue Peter is describing here.
The ancient Greek, Homer, uses arete to describe “consummate ‘excellence’ or ‘merit’” primarily in a military context, but later the term is used of “distinction for other personal qualities and associated performance that enhance the common interest[1].” Stoic philosophers observed, “all excellence lies in uprightness, and a good person is one who is upright.”
Lexicons define this virtue as “uncommon character worthy of praise.” It is such an uncommon virtue that it must be a “manifestation of divine power, miracle.[2]” In other words, we begin climbing the eight rung ladder by taking the first step of faith. As we grow in faith, God develops within us the uncommon virtue of moral excellence. This in turn provides the foundation for continuing spiritual growth. I like the description, arete is “performance that elicits praise.”
While the first step on the eight rung ladder, faith, is what we believe, the second step, arete, is defined by what we do. Christians influence the world by the excellence of our lives.
[1] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 130). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
Peter promises us in the next verse, “if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, if you want to be an effective, fruitful Christian, we need to garner these eight virtues. Think of them as an eight rung ladder. In the weeks to come, in this column, we’ll spend some time focusing on each of them.
Faith
The first step to take on the path to discipleship is faith. The word “faith” simply means “belief” and we need to be very careful because there are many different things to believe in and many different expressions of belief. For example, James says, “Even the demons believe – and shudder!” Their faith doesn’t do them any good at all! Why? Because their belief doesn’t lead to proper action.
So what kinds of belief are there? In Rubel Shelly’s wonderful book, Prepare to Answer, he describes some of them:
A credulous belief has little to commend it. Some people believe the earth is flat, but that seems silly to most of us.
Mere belief rests on flimsy evidence. As much as I hate to admit it, belief that the Padres will win the World Series seems like a mere belief.
A substantive belief would take strong contrary evidence to change what we believe. “I believe George Washington was the first president of the United States” seems substantive. My belief rests on strong evidence.
Of course there are mistaken beliefs. I’ve walked up to red Jeeps in the parking lot and put my key in the door only to discover, it wasn’t my car. I was mistaken.
Finally, there are statements of personal faith. “I believe in Jan.” That statement is based on years of personal experience and trust.
So when you say, “I believe in Jesus” is that just wishful thinking (1 or 2)? Is it just a statement of fact as in “I believe Jesus really lived 2,000 years ago” (3)? Could it be a statement of misplaced faith (4)? No, Paul calls this the “Good Confession” (1 Timothy 6:12, 13). It is the realization that God has reached out to us in love and that belief opens a whole new world to us.
Faith is the first step. Let’s keep climbing the ladder together in the weeks to come.
