We live in an instant world. We have instant noodles and instant coffee. Whenever we needed something, we can now have it delivered. We want to have what we want right here right now.
That instant mentality is carried over even in our Christian life. We want instant growth. We want instant maturity. But it doesn’t work that way. Spiritual growth is not automatic. Instead, it is a pursuit.
Let us read 2 Peter 1:5-7. “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.”[1] This morning we will talk about “Our Pursuit for Our Growth.” Let us pray…
The story is told about a Christian who formed the words “LET GOD” using index cards, one index card per letter. Then, the wind blew away the letter “D.” So, now it reads, “LET GO.” The believer thought that he discovered the secret to the spiritual life: “Let go and let God.” It is true. But it is only half of the story. Yes, we need to surrender to God. But we must also seek to obey Him.
I have already mentioned to you that one of the best lessons in life that I learned is that we cannot do what God can do. But God will not do what we must do. We are in a partnership with God. The key is to discern which aspect of our Christian life is God’s part and which aspect is our part. God’s part and our part are like the two sides of the coin. They go together. But we cannot do God’s part and He will not do our part. The problem is when we try to do God’s part and fail to do our part. Keep in mind that God will do His part and we must do our part.
For example, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:20-21 that God equips us: “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” But the Bible also tells us that the role of the pastor-teacher is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”.[2] So, God equips us as we submit to the equipping of our church leaders.
We also see the interplay of God’s part and our part in Philippians 2:12-13: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Let me clarify first that this verse does not teach that we are saved by our good works. I heard Rick Warren explain it this way, “We don’t work for our body. We work out the body we already have.” So, here we are not told to work for our salvation. We are told that now that when we have accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we are now to work out our salvation. Now that we are saved, we are to live in obedience to God. Our part is to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling”. God’s part is to work in us “both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” I like how the Contemporary English Version translated verse 13: “God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey him.” Since God is working in us so we can obey, we must now obey.
That is also the main flow of our passage. Let us read 2 Peter 1:5-7 again. “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.”
Note the words “For this very reason”. It points us back to verses 3 and 4: “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.” Those verses described what God had already done for us. God already gave us the resources for our pursuit for growth. God did His part. Therefore, verse 5 tells us, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith”. We must now do our part.
Our pursuit for our growth calls for COOPERATION. We must now take responsibility for our pursuit of growth. John Piper wrote, “Since God has given power for godliness, strive to become godly! This is the heart of New Testament ethics. We labor for virtue because God has already labored for us and is at work in us. Don’t ever reverse the order, lest you believe another gospel (which is no gospel).”[3]
Verse 5 commands us: “make every effort to supplement your faith”. The Message version goes like this, “So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given”. We must spare no effort. We must give growth our best shot. Our pursuit for our growth calls for COMMITMENT. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Where there is life, there must be growth. The new birth is not the end; it is the beginning. God gives His children all that they need to live godly lives, but His children must apply themselves and be diligent to use the ‘means of grace’ He has provided. Spiritual growth is not automatic. It requires cooperation with God and the application of spiritual diligence and discipline.”[4]
We must give growth our best effort. The problem is we just do enough just to get by in our spiritual lives. “Masabi lang na sumusunod.”[5] We just go for the minimum and we don’t really aim for the maximum. We must “make every effort to supplement [our] faith”. The word “supplement” in the Greek “came to be used of one who provides for or supports others or supplies something for them in abundance. In ancient Greece the state established a chorus but the director paid the expenses for training the chorus.”[6] The idea is “to provide more than was expected or could be demanded.”[7] We must be lavish or generous in our efforts to grow in our faith. We must not hold back. If there’s a sin that hinders, we will deal with it. If there’s an issue in our lives that needs to be confronted, we will face it squarely. We will not back down. We must be relentless. We must make the commitment that whatever it takes to grow, we will take it.
So, our pursuit for our growth calls for cooperation, commitment and, lastly, CONSTANCY. There’s no such thing as instant growth. Let us read verses 5-7 again: “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.” We will look at these qualities in our future messages. I would just like to clarify that they are not necessarily sequential or in chronological order. “We must not think of them as seven beads on a string or even seven stages of development… we develop one quality as we exercise another quality.”[8] The point is we must be constantly or consistently growing.
In a marathon, the key is not the speed but the endurance. It is the same way in our spiritual growth. That’s why my word picture for growth is pursuit. We must persevere. We must pursue slowly but surely. It is okay to be slow as long as we make sure steps towards growth. When we try to implement those qualities all at once we would really feel so overwhelmed. What we should do is to start with one quality and from there grow in the other qualities.
Brothers and sisters, our pursuit for our spiritual growth calls for cooperation with God, commitment to grow and constancy in the process of growth. God takes this pursuit seriously.
So, we must take it seriously. Allow me to show you a video about God working in and through us so that we would grow in our relationship with Him.
[Show the “God’s Chisel” video][9]
What a great prayer! “Do whatever it takes to make me what you want me to be.” I pray we would make that our prayer and that we would cooperate with God as He works to transform us.
Let us pray…
[1]All Bible verses are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.
[2]Ephesians 4:12.
[3]“Confirm Your Election” (Available through http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByScripture/29/344_Confirm_Your_Election/)
[4]Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. 2 Pe 1:5
[5]In English, “We do just enough so people would say we obey.”
[6]Walvoord, John F. ; Zuck, Roy B. ; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:865-866
[7]The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament.
[8]Wiersbe.
[9]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXut0HxncvY
