2 Peter 1:5-8
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, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, 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.
Make every effort to add to your faith…
• This ’make every effort’ is found in a number of places in the NT.
Rom 14:19 - Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
Heb 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
2 Pet 3:14 - So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
Growth will come, but it comes through conscious efforts.
• We will grow to be like Christ – "in increasing measure"
• We have the qualities, and these qualities can grow in increasing measure.
• But it will come through efforts of some kind.
There is no ’quick fix’ for our human condition.
• The process of growing to be like Christ and be able to live a life that truly glorifies God requires time and efforts.
• But we don’t like to hear this. I prefer to be changed for good and minus all the disciplines.
• "Just make me a good Christian, minus the QT, the prayer time, the fellowship..."
• "Give me the shortcut to becoming a saint!"
It won’t happen. When we look at great spiritual Christians, we have this impression that God just changed them overnight.
• We failed to see the many years of challenges that they’ve endured.
• We know we are a new creation in Christ and God can do wonders, but there isn’t any shortcut to holiness.
• I like the way Francis de Sales describes it: "The angels upon Jacob’s ladder had wings; yet they flew not, but ascended and descended in order from one step to another. The soul that rises from sin to devotion may be compared to the dawning of the day, which at its approach does not expel the darkness instantaneously but only little by little."
(cf. Gen 28:12)
Dr William C. De Vries – the doctor who installed the first artificial heart in a human body – said he had practiced such an installation in animals many times.
• He explains, "The reason you practice so much is so that you will do things automatically the same way every time."
• Did you notice that you do some things ’automatically’, without thinking? Just like typing.
• Those who drive probably understands. You shift gears and do some actions instinctively. Typing too. You don’t really "think" where the alphabets are.
• Why? You’ve been doing it so often until it becomes part of you.
We can think and act like Christ, to the extent that it is so part of us we did it "automatically".
• We behave like Him almost unconsciously.
• I believe that’s why it is possible for Jesus to say, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt 5:48)
Look at how Jesus responded in two incidents.
• One in Matt 17 a boy was possessed and the disciples failed to deliver him.
• Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy immediately.
• Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn’t we drive it out?" (Matt 17:19)
• 21["But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."] NAS
The 2nd incident is Jesus’ last night with the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.
• The disciples were full of good intentions but they failed to stay awake to pray.
• Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” (Matt 26:41)
The plain meaning of these comments is that by engaging in a certain type of action – fasting and praying, watching and praying – they would be able to attain a level of spiritual alertness or power.
• If they HAD watched and prayed, they would have the required power to stand firm when it was needed.
• Without these disciplines, they would not be able to experience that strength to overcome the devil or temptations.
These disciplines help us to act right when ‘put on a spot’.
• They enable us to be like Christ and act like Christ. That’s the goal of spiritual disciplines.
• It has nothing to do with your spirituality – it has to do with your FRUIT.
• John Ortberg describes it well. Our goal is to be able to “do the right thing at the right time in the right way with the right spirit.”
It has nothing to do with spirituality.
• The Pharisees and the scribes may have many good disciplines – fasting, praying, and studying – but they are not like Christ at all.
• It’s a folly to think that having these disciplines means you are spiritual – the Pharisees missed the point altogether. The fact that they need regular habits like that is an indication of man’s weakness, not our strength.
• Jesus tells the disciple – “You need to fast and pray, else you will be weak.”
• It is precisely because we are weak and vulnerable spiritually, that’s why we need the disciplines.
Don’t end up thinking that this discipline thing means keeping a list of many Do’s and Don’ts.
• Helmut Thielicke: “The Christian stands, not under the dictatorship of a legalistic ‘You ought’, but in the magnetic field of Christian freedom, under the empowering of the ‘You may.’”
This is the greatest fulfillment of the human life – to follow Christ.
• Dallas Willard says it is life on the highest plane.
• John Ortberg says, “Following Jesus simply means learning from Him how to arrange my life around activities that enable me to live in the fruit of the Spirit.”
• Actually, Willard says the hindrance to true spiritual growth is NOT unwillingness. We WANT TO BE LIKE CHRIST – just like the disciples, spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
• We need supporting tools – reminders, encouragement, practices… church ministries.
This is a basic principle of life.
• Look at our government leaders – they are busy and loaded with commitments.
• Yet we know many of them keep to an exercise routine, some daily, some weekly.
• It is these daily or weekly routines that enable them to go the long haul.
What are some activities that I can be involved in?
• No exhaustive list. John Ortberg’s book The Life You’ve Always Wanted listed a few good suggestions - like celebration, ‘slowing’, prayer, serving others, confession, etc.
• He suggested 3 steps – the answer comes from thinking backward:
1. What it means to living in the Kingdom of God – look at Jesus’ attitudes, deeds.
2. What barriers keep us from this kind of life?
3. Discover what practices, experiences or relationship can help us overcome these barriers.
You need to consider your own barriers, things that are obstructing your growth.
• It does not mean everyone must fast; that’s the way to grow.
• We have our own temperament and needs. We are at different stages of our life.
• Dallas Willard says there are 2 categories of spiritual disciplines – disciplines of engagement (worship, study, fellowship), and disciplines of abstinence (fasting, solitude, silence).
• The principle is this – if you have a problem not-doing something – not loving people or caring or serving, then you need practices that involves more doing. If your problem is doing something – always boasting, then you need to practice more solitude or silence.
John Ortberg says your answer can be as simple as getting more sleep.
• You cannot worship well or pray when you lack sleep.
• Before Elijah was to spend a prolonged time in solitude and prayer at Mount Horeb, the angel of the Lord had him take not one but TWO long naps.
• He was physically tired, and that affected him spiritually. He was so depressed he wanted to die.
Or you can keep a journal or a spiritual diary. Or a prayer journal (I did that when I was in Chicago for one year.)
Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines has these disciplines of abstinence:
• Solitude (Ortberg calls it ‘slowing’) – to break away from social pattern. Goes hand in hand with silence – to close off our soul from sounds, so that we can hear God’s voice. The practice of not speaking helps us to listen, to observe, to pay attention to people.
• Fasting – affirms our utter dependence on God, that He is the source of sustenance beyond food. We pray and acknowledge that we are totally dependent on Him.
• Frugality – don’t spend on yourself in such a way that merely gratify your desires or hunger for status, glamour or luxury.
• Chastity – guarding our relationship with the opposite gender, our dressing, the way we hold ourselves.
• Secrecy (mentioned by Dallas Willard and John Ortberg) – we abstain from causing our good deeds or qualities be known. It helps us lose the desire for fame, justification or the mere attention of others. It arrests pride or self-centeredness. Matt 6:2-4 2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
• Sacrifice (Ortberg calls it suffering) – abstain from clinging on to possessions, not to worry over our livelihood, developing a trust in God’s provision.
Disciplines of Engagement:
Study, worship, celebration (enjoy ourselves, our life, our world, because of His goodness), service, prayer, fellowship, confession and submission (to God, to those in authority).
