In this sermon, Pastor Babij continues in 2 Peter 1:5 by focusing on the development of moral excellence, the first of two foundational qualities Christians need for holy living. Pastor Babij explains that Christians can only obtain this high state of mind through constant practice.
Full Transcript
Okay let’s take our Bibles and turn to 2 Peter 1. We’re looking at the believer’s responsibility for godly living. Let me read 2 Peter 1:1-5:
Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. ;For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of ;the ;divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. ;Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge.
Let’s pray. Lord, thank You this morning for another opportunity to be in the Word of God. Teach us how to live the Christian life and thank You that we are not left in the dark about what to do. It’s clear what we ought to do and who we ought to believe. Teach us and remind us about these things often so we do not forget that. Make us believers who are fruitful and active. And Lord, bless us as we desire to live for You each day. In Christ I pray, Amen.
So last week I was saying that Christian participation in the divine nature gives believers a new ability to resist sin through the union with Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. The desire of the flesh is weakened and the desire to obey the Holy Spirit and please Christ becomes a stronger desire that we have in our hearts because we want to pursue holiness as a pattern of our lifestyles.
Christians, as they grow in holiness, see their need to separate themselves from the moral corruption that is so much a part of our fallen world. God restores us in salvation and makes us spiritually alive. He recreates us after the image of the perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this Lord’s Day, we want to continue the admonition to use the awesome power that is available to us to grow in godliness.
We saw from 2 Peter 1:3-4 what God has done. These things, in other words, have already been done for us by God. It’s already been said that along with Christ’s righteousness that He gives us as believers, He also gives us a practical, ethical righteousness that we can live out every day of our lives. That means that believers’ nature is transformed so that he or she will manifest the character of God. As we do that, as we grow in Christ, we cannot forget that the Scripture says that we have everything that we need for life and godliness. Our source of divine power is from Jesus and it is to live a godly life and that we don’t do it alone. The power of the Spirit of God is to help us replace sinful habits with godly habits and that it is not just human effort I’m talking about. It is grace-motivated effort. We could never do these things apart from the Holy Spirit. So it is an effort in cooperation with the Holy Spirit to become godly and holy.
As we continue in 2 Peter, we are specifically looking at verse 5 today. Scripture emphasizes as I said last week, the human side of salvation. Just to remind you that is not to suggest a works-based salvation. Everything has been done for us in salvation to be saved. We don’t have to add anything to it. However, faith must lead to works. If it has no works, as James says, faith is dead by being by itself.
Works comes after initial salvation. Works are the fruit of salvation. There are two responsibilities that we started with last week. The first one was to have a diligent attitude towards growth as it says in 2 Peter 1:5:
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge.
So we are not to sit back, but we are to engage in an intense work as believers to live a godly life. We cannot be lackadaisical in our attitude towards godliness. If we do, we are going to be unfruitful and unusable by God. It may even bring into question whether we’re really believers or not. So we cannot miss the importance of the phrase all diligence in verse 5. As I mentioned last week, we are to bring every effort and exert ourselves completely before the work of growing in godliness. So Christians are to take the human side of salvation very seriously by putting strenuous effort into our spiritual development. That is always the Christian’s goal. We don’t just sit there in the stands with our hands folded. We are in the game and God’s in the stands watching.
I said last week that discipline is the secret of godliness. There really is no other way to obtain godliness. Discipline is the path of godliness. God intends His children to be godly. That is His goal that we are not only saved to be right with Him but also holy. God is going to do that as part of His work. But we need to cooperate with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. That means that a godly person still has circumstances and people to deal with. We still have to learn the truth of the gospel and more of who God is. We are to do this as Christians. A godly person is really growing in their desire to please God in their being, thinking, speaking, doing, and feeling.
Biblical discipline includes three elements. The first one is the element of self evaluation. This means to be aware of your own life and patterns. All of our life patterns are different. Take our life patterns and evaluate them by the Word of God. We must determine whether our patterns of living are according to the old sinful ways, or according to godliness. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just zap instant holiness in us apart from learning God’s Word and the Scriptures.
The second thing is that we need to discipline ourselves to include crucifixion. Now that we see are our sin, the Bible says in Romans 8:13:
If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
It’s our responsibility to put to death the deeds of the body after we identify them. Of course in God’s power, we are given everything to live a godly life. Every day by the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit, we are crucifying the old sinful ways. We are saying no to that old rebel voice inside us and that involves denying ourselves. Jesus says in the gospel of Luke that we must deny ourselves and daily follow Him. The denial of self is the denial of the self within. By self He meant old ways, practices, and patterns, that we acquired before conversion. Before we got saved, we brought a lot of baggage into our Christian lives. You’re on a ship and the water is getting into the boat because of your sin and you have to start throwing over the old baggage and sin.
That’s kind of like a good picture of what it means to be a good Christian. Taking up your Cross means putting the old man and patterns to death. We cannot take off the old without putting on new clothing. This is spiritual clothing which is righteousness. You’re saying no to yourself all the time, that you’re not going to hang out with those people or do those things anymore. This is because Christ doesn’t want you to. It’s not beneficial or good for your Christian walk and it doesn’t produce godliness. Godliness is always the road to joy and happiness. The world says to gratify your flesh but the Bible says to put it to death.
God replaces it with something better, a desire for Him and a view of life that actually produces joy. The Holy Spirit enables a believer to put off the old man and put on the new man. That of course led to a third discipline which involves practice. The Bible says in Hebrews 5:14:
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
Continual daily effort is an essential element of the Christian discipline, until godlike behavior changes are no longer something you have to do but what you become. In other words, if you practice something long enough, it becomes just a habit which is good for you as a believer. The led to the second responsibility of a believer which is also in verse 5. This is that believers are to have a determined action to add to their faith. It says again:
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge.
In some translations it says add to or give something in addition to. The word translated supply is a strong word that is a command and we are commanded as believers to supplement our faith and to add to it. It means that our faith is not just a dormant faith but an active one. Another way to think of this command is to bring alongside what He has already done, every ounce of determination we can muster to bring these qualities into our Christian lives. Christians are called to express in action the nature of God that is created in us. I left you last time with the illustration Martin Lloyd Jones gave of the farm we are given by God’s grace. We are given all the tools that are necessary and we are given the seed that is necessary and we are called to farm that land. It makes no sense telling a person to farm if they don’t have a farm or if they don’t have any land or tools or seed. But God says He has given us all those things and to go on and farm in the life God has given.
In other words, we must add to what God has given us and we must increase in it. Diligence plus addition to faith equals spiritual growth and godliness. Add to your faith seven qualities. Let’s look at 2 Peter 1:5-7:
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in ;your ;moral excellence, knowledge, ;and in ;your ;knowledge, self-control, and in ;your ;self-control, perseverance, and in ;your ;perseverance, godliness, ;and in ;your ;godliness, brotherly kindness, and in ;your ;brotherly kindness, love.
Here is the ethical list of virtues to be lived out by the Christian which constitutes a godly life. This is a godly life right here and what it entails. This is what Christians are enabled and to discipline themselves to do. Believers are to supplement their faith. This means trust in all that God says and does that it is true and to be obeyed. It says in your faith supply moral excellence and knowledge.
In ancient times, the term supply was actually used in the context of outfitting a chorus. At the end, a person would give an outpouring of everything that was needed to have a noble and excellence performance. Christians are to supply to their faith all the virtues until it culminates in love. Our faith is an active, energetic faith, not a dormant one. We are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in adding to our faith. And just as Philippians 2:12 tells us:
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
So we are to work out what God has done inside us. If you notice in our passage that I just read in verse 5-7, we are not left to guess at what we are to add to our faith. We are given seven qualities what we are to add to every compartment in our lives. They are not worked one by one. It’s like we are growing in them all at the same time. Five of them appear to be characteristics that grow out of one’s relationship with God. Those are moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and godliness. The last two represent one’s relationship towards his or her fellow man like brotherly kindness and love.
The two starting qualities that we add to our faith are moral excellence and knowledge. They lay the foundation for all the rest of them. Faith is the root from which these virtues must grow. Of the seven qualities that we are to grow in, two are foundational qualities and two are directional qualities. So this Lord’s Day, let us look at the first of the two foundational qualities. Once I started looking at them, I saw it will takes more time. These are characteristics of God.
The first one in verse 5, in our faith we are to supply moral excellence. Some virtues say virtue or goodness. We are to supplement our faith with goodness. Nobody is born good or virtuous. Romans 3 is pretty clear on that: no one is righteous, none seek after God. There is no one who does good, not even one. That’s God’s view of man, that no one is good. So if no one is good, how can we be good? Because of sin, we cannot obtain the standard of goodness. For all have sinned.
However, as Christians and Believers, we have the divine nature that we are participating in. Believers in Christ can actually live out God’s goodness by His grace every day of our lives. This is the first one that is mentioned so it has to have some importance. The first communicable attribute really describes God and Christ. If you look back at 1 Peter 2:9, it says:
But you are a chose race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
We are to proclaim the goodness of God who calls us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Look back now in 2 Peter 1:3:
Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
It’s a moral characteristic of uprightness, righteousness and goodness. This quality of goddess is to be demonstrated in our living, good habits formed and fleshly desires discarded on a regular basis. We are to be people that have honorable behavior, not just the absence of bad habits, but a pursuit of what is morally right and helpful in our relationships with God and each other. Goodness goes along way in living in this world. Moral excellence is the state achieved whereby the soul operates on the level of goodness. The virtuous person would not be believed to have done an evil deed despite reports to the contrary.
Somebody will say that a person could not have done that because their character of goodness is so visible and so much in practice that it is highly unlikely that the person is the one guilty of that. That’s how God wants us to live, not that someone could bring a false accusation against you and make it stick. But just consider Joseph in the Old Testament and all the things brought against him that were hateful and not true. He maintained the virtue of goodness all through his life and God exalted him at the right time and at the right moment.
Many of these qualities that we are looking at here we must realize that Christians are able to live out this virtuous life, not because of our own efforts alone, but because of Christ’s life in us. That’s how we are able to do it. Many of these qualities we are asked to add to our faith come from the Holy Spirit, as it says in Galatians 5. We are to grow in them and they are to occupy every part of our life, and they are to be increasing in influencing our daily lives.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized it is not easy to define goodness. When I went to the New Webster’s Dictionary, I found that I was not alone in this. Webster had seventeen ways to use the word. Everybody has their own view of what goodness is, so we can’t go by that as the standard. From my recollection, I believe that Webster was a Christian and many of the definitions were for words from the Bible. So Webster listed seventeen ways to understand goodness. The universal definition is a general term of approval or commendation. The problem here is this can mean anything.
So I found that the closest meaning of the word defined goodness as this morally sound, excellent, virtuous, honest, just, pious, devout, kind, benevolent, generous, sympathetic, well-behaved, and dutiful. Those are all good words that describe what it means to be good. Parents can use all those words with their kids to see if they are being good or not.
Of course the opposite of good is evil. The Word of God speaks often of the goodness of God because that’s what we need to focus on. The only way we can get somewhat of a picture of what good is, is to look at the character of God in Scripture. The Word of God speaks often, as a matter of fact I was overwhelmed by the passages of Scripture that talk about the goodness of God. Even in the Hebrew, it is translated as loving kindness. The Word of God speaks often of the goodness of God, like in Psalm 119:68, which says:
You are good and do good; Teach me Your statutes.
Just think of that for a minute, that God is good and does good. It starts from your character then works out in doing something. In Scripture, we find that goodness is something that God wants us to have in our lives. This passage says that God is good and from the core of His being and from the absolute perfection of God, flows out the goodness of God.
It was one of the old Puritans, Thomas Manton who wrote this about God: “He is originally good, good of himself, which nothing else is; for all creatures are good only by participation and communication from God. He is essentially good; not only good, but goodness itself; the creature’s goodness is but a drop, but in God there is an infinite ocean and sea, or gathering together of goodness. He is eternally and immutably good for He cannot be less good than He is as there can be no additional made to Him or subtraction from Him.”
All emanates from God, His decrees, creation, laws, and providences cannot be otherwise than good. Also we see the goodness of God really come out in several areas in Scripture. Just keep your hand there in Psalms, but just think of how the goodness of God is first seen in creation. In Genesis 1:31, it says:
God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The second thing is that the goodness of God is seen in the highest of God’s creations, which is man Himself. In Psalm 139:14, it says:
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
Everything about our bodies shows God’s goodness. Just think about how our hands are uniquely designed for work. Our ears are uniquely designed to hear sounds that form meaning in order to understand and communicate, especially to hear the Word of God. The complex orbs called our eyes display images in which we can see things and navigate our world and understand our surroundings. Our eyes are so important, that God provides eyelids and brows for their protection.
See the Lord in His goodness even appoints sleep to refresh a weary body. The goodness of God in a third way is exercised towards all His creation. In Psalm 145:15-16, the Word of God says:
The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
This is all the goodness of God coming out to His whole creation. Whatever living thing there is, God’s abundant provision has supplied their every single need. Have you ever heard a sparrow begging for food? Or a squirrel lacking acorns? I’ll tell you what, they’re not lacking in East Millstone. We’ve got very large squirrels here, that’s all they do is eat.Whether it be birds of the air, or beasts of the field, or fish of the sea, they are supplied by the good hand of God. God is the One who feeds them. You don’t see them worry about that do you? We worry all the time even with things provided to us.
Psalm 136: 25-26 says this:
Who gives food to all flesh, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.
That word everlasting can be replaced by the word goodness. Even what it says in Psalm 33:5:
He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.
This Hebrew term kaddish, which is goodness and kindness. It is also translated as faithful care of loving kindness of God. All of them express the goodness of God. They’re found all over the earth and this world which is filled with sinful desires, and subject to decay because of moral corruption, when you look around you see the goodness of God. Just waking up this morning was God’s goodness to you. Remember when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and called Him good master, and Jesus says that only God is good. He put it right where it should be. Only God is good.
The goodness of God is also seen in the variety of natural pleasures, which He has provided for His creatures. Think about it for a moment. God did not give us food just to satisfy our hunger. He gave us a large variety of meats and vegetables and fruits with all kinds of flavors in order to satisfy us with food that tastes good. In America, we have the choice of pretty much anything you want at any time you want it. We’re given this, which is God supplying all our needs way beyond what we could ever ask.
He gave us a large amount of herbs and spices to further enhance the flavor of our food, so we could enjoy it and make it taste good. That reveals His goodness. It was the Lord who said in Matthew 5:44-45:
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on ;the ;evil and ;the ;good, and sends rain on ;the ;righteous and ;the ;unrighteous.
That reveals the common grace of God. The Lord did not have to give us beautiful, colorful flowers for our eyes to behold, along with the sweet smelling fragrance for our sense of smell to delight in it. Take the time to look around, and you may be overwhelmed by the abundance of God’s goodness, and we should be as Christians. We are saluted by the delightful music of sparrows in the morning, which should remind us not to worry or fear. The Lord says in Luke 12:6-7:
Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
The birds remind us that God is good. But are we listening and looking for it? I don’t think we always do, because we are so busy and we live by the watches on our wrists. We always have to be places and we rush to get everywhere. We are beat by the end of the day and our head hits the pillow right away to sleep. Not once sometimes in those days, do we actually notice the goodness of God and give Him praise for it.
Maybe we can be like the old saints, where in 2 Chronicles 6:41 it says:
Let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let Your godly ones rejoice in what is good.
The Psalms are filled with rejoicing and the attributes of God’s goodness. Look at Psalm 23:6:
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
While going through this world with all the warfare he was involved with, David did not take his eyes off the surety and foundation that he had in God’s goodness. I would not make it if it was not for the goodness of God. Then look at Psalm 145:4-9:
One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. The Lord ;is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord ;is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.
That is the goodness of God and you see that the goodness is seen in what He does and because of who He is. He wants us to do the same thing as believers. The goodness of God appeared most eminently when God the Father sent forth His Son to be the perfect, sinless sacrifice in order to die and shed His blood in the place of lost sinners where we see in Galatians 4:4-5:
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Maybe more than anything else, is not the gospel considered good news? Isn’t that what it means? The angels when they pronounced Jesus coming, what did they say? They said in Luke 2:10:
I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.
And the question John the Baptist asked when he was in prison was whether Jesus was the One or if he should look for someone else. This is what Jesus told the disciples to tell John the Baptist. He said in Luke 7:22:
Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the good news preached to them.
That’s all they needed because that’s exactly what the prophet said. And then of course the message of salvation is the message of good news. It’s recorded in Romans 10:15:
How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”
God is a good God, and even if He saved no one and left all to perish, it would have been no reflection on His goodness. Would God be good if He punished not those who misused His blessings, who abused His benevolence, who trampled His mercy beneath their feet as it says in Hebrews? No He would not. He is good in His justice and righteousness as well as in His daily activities. The prophet Nahum tells us in Nahum 1:7:
The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him.
So the nature of God is always the same. He is always good. When God’s people see that God’s hand is neither invisible or nonexistent, and that His providential care is a reality, then the response ought to flow out from their own soul thanking God for His goodness. We ought to recognize that the drop of morning dew gleams His glory and that every speck of dust bears His impression. Our great God is in within us, keeping our hearts in motion, and around us, giving us the air we need to breathe to sustain our life.
Christians are to add to their faith God’s goodness. How are we to do that? Let me point you to other passages of Scripture that tell us what we are to do once we are saved and now participating in the divine nature. I think of passages like Titus 3:8, where it says:
This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.
Hebrews 10:24:
Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.
Let us look at a couple of passages in Romans 12:21:
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
We’re called on to do that. In Romans 16:19, it says:
For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.
Believers are supposed to be like that. So according to Scripture, we are to provoke or excite each other to labors of love and good works. Love is the motive and good deeds is the practice of love. Doing good deeds adorn the gospel and glorifies the Father who is in Heaven. If you just think about good deeds for a moment, that’s exactly what God is asking us to do. He’s asking us to be vessels of good deeds and that means that we have to be cleansed and set apart. 2 Timothy 2:21 says:
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these ;things, ;he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
What should be the motive for doing good? Glorifying God! It says in Matthew 5:16:
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
The objects of good deeds should be that of all kinds of people. Let your light shine in a way that all would see your good works! The purpose of good deeds is to provide and meet needs like it says in Titus 3:14:
Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.
It seems like doing good deeds and being fruitful goes together. Not doing good deeds or not living out goodness in your life is unproductive and useless. The realm of good deeds is your own giftedness, how God made you. It says in Ephesians 2:10:
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
There’s the doing of what God has done in you, and there is the preparation of good works. It also says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
The direction of good deeds is fruit bearing and prayer. It says in Colossians 1:10:
So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please ;Him ;in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
You don’t have to wonder about what a good work is, it’s anything you do for the Lord. If you give a cup of cold water and do it unto the Lord, that is a good work. I like the passage of Scripture in 1 Timothy 5:10 where it talks about the general nature of good works by a woman:
[This woman] having a reputation for good works; ;and ;if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, ;and ;if she has devoted herself to every good work.
Washing the saints’ feet shows honor to them by washing off the dust from their feet. This is a good work. If we just considered that good works could be a care package, a letter to someone, an email or text, giving someone clothing or food, or even just companionship to talk with them. Or it could be mowing the lawn, clean their house, shovel their snow, or pray with them! Invite them to your home, bring them to your church, give them a ride to the doctor’s! All of that is included in what a Christian does to be good. The motive drives them to actually carry that goodness in their hearts.
God has shown us in Scripture where it says in Matthew 10:42:
And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.
The affirmation of good works is really a vital proof and the fruit of salvation. It proves that you have a living faith. It proves and affirms that you are a child of God. Virtue is the high state of mind, and moral ability perfected over years by walking with God. It’s practicing this every single day. You may not be good at it. Let’s face it, it’s hard to love people. You may love the ones you like, because they like you. But how about you love someone who is not like you? Who is contentions, rambunctious, a thorn in your side? How do you do good to them? That’s what we’re called to do because that’s what God has done with us. He’s been good to us.
See virtue, or moral excellence or goodness is a condition whereby day and night, we can be sure that a virtuous person is living a righteous life no matter what pressures may be placed upon them. They believe from Scripture that is what they’re supposed to do. That’s how they add to their faith. And the only place where empowerment for the virtue of goodness is found is at the Cross of Calvary. The Church of Jesus Christ, is to be the custodian for these precious qualities and commodities.
When we realize that and know this, every single person here can carry out the characteristics of God’s goodness in their life. It’s not beyond us and we are given help by the Holy Spirit to do that. We are to exert everything we have to make sure that we add to our faith moral excellence or goodness. This virtue is vital and it’s first in the list of communicating to the world the goodness of God.
I believe there’s a lot of people in the world who have never experienced goodness from another person. We can talk about someone being mean and degrading, and who blows people off. But a Christian is supposed to be good to people, and not only to those you like. If your enemies are hungry, we are to feed them. We need God’s help for that. Let’s pray.
Lord thank You again. Your Word is so convicting. Forgive us when we have not displayed goodness to people. Forgive us when we have been mean and condescending and when we have not considered our brethren and those around us. I pray, Lord, that we would be able to carry out the things set in Scripture, that this day we would be able to add to our faith diligently with great effort the characteristics of the goodness of God that flows in us and out through us. Let us practice this until we get good at it and it becomes a habit that we don’t even think about, and we just do it. I pray in Christ’s Name, Amen.