03/03/2023 - IDLE AND BARREN

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For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1.8

Today, people do not see the manifestations of the Lord’s power in their lives, because they lack fundamental attitudes that they don’t even think are important. Many, when they read the Scriptures, overlook the verses that deal with virtues to be added to their faith. Such skills are necessary to live according to God’s will. Below, we will make a quick study of each of them. Take hold of them!

Peter declares that the covering we have received from God, through the work of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.8), has given us everything concerning life and godliness (2 Peter 1.3). Next, he reveals that everything is given to us through the knowledge of the One who has called us by His glory and virtue. Then he discusses the very great promises that make us partakers of the nature of the Most High and deliver us from the corruption that comes through unbridled desires (v. 4).

We must put all diligence into what we have just understood, for it is important in order to enjoy the divine promises. Without it, we are nothing but religious people, begging for blessings and never receiving them. The apostle also wrote that we must add to our faith the power received in the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and to virtue, knowledge (v. 5). Believe, for all is ours!

We must join knowledge (the knowledge of what is written) with temperance, which is moderation, or sobriety, in our actions. To temperance Peter recommends adding patience (resistance during temptations) and to this, piety (compassion for the suffering of others). These virtues are of immense value for those who add them to their faith (v. 6). The Christian must be faithful!

After respect in the form of compassion for the suffering, which must also be added to our faith, we must have brotherly love – for our brothers and sisters in the faith and the afflicted. Next to this must be the love of the Lord, which causes us to lay down our lives for the lost and leads us to give up our dreams in order to be useful in God’s hands (v. 7). Believe and live!

In the text being study, Peter opens his heart, showing the importance of being useful in the divine work, saying that if we have the mentioned virtues in us, and increase them, we will be blessings for the society, who doesn’t know who God is. It makes no difference whether you live among the compassionate or the compassionless. The secret is the accumulation of the qualities that come from God, to be united with our faith. Then we will be instruments of the heavenly Father!

In churches, we find wonderful people who show great love for the unsaved. However, they are barren in the knowledge of Christ. Now, whoever fulfills this list of virtues cited by the apostle will be a true and faithful disciple of the Master. The Lord will use such a servant!

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares