How To Effectuate Righteousness Pt 1

This post simply highlights the instructions given to us in 2 Peter chapter 1. I’ve created an illustration below to depict the building blocks for consistency in righteousness. It's so hard trying to stay on the course of righteousness, I always seemed to regress each time I made progress. I read this scripture and it stood out to me so I decided to meditate on it. Here's what I got from it.

1.   The foundation of this building is Faith – Faith is our complete trust and confidence in God. Many of us deviate from righteousness because we are double minded and unstable. One minute we believe we can do all things through Christ and the next we are as doubtful Thomas. One minute we believe that greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world and the next we feel as though we need to conform to the world. This unbelief and lack of trust leads us to rely on our own corrupt understanding which inevitably leads to sin. Though it’s understandable because we are merely human; if we are truly ready to take the next step in our walk with God, we must commit to spiritual growth. In order to strengthen the foundation of faith, we must engage the word of God. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17.  

2.   To Faith we must add Virtue - Virtue is defined as behavior showing high moral standards. Now that by Faith you’ve heard what constitutes righteousness, you must act righteously and live by the commandments and precepts of God. For example, thou shall love the Lord with all thine heart, thou shall not kill, thou shall not covet thy neighbor, Honor your mother and father and so on. Virtue put simply is following God’s instructions.

3.   Next is Knowledge: Knowledge is defined as facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It is through the practical application of faith by virtue that you come to understand the value of God’s laws. You realize for example that loving God with all your heart prevents idolatry, and idolatry leads to destruction. So, you are no longer just following instructions but instead you understand why you are, and the ramifications that follow when you don’t.

4.   Add to Knowledge Temperance: Temperance is defined as the quality of moderation or self-restraint. Through the application of faith by virtue and having knowledge of wrong and right you strengthen your ability to flee from sin. Ex: You wouldn’t knowingly go into deep waters if you cannot swim because you will drown. The knowledge of the danger of drowning, motivates you to restrain yourself from jumping in. A baby who lacks understanding is more likely to take that risk especially if unsupervised.  As you grow in knowledge you will likely grow in self-restraint which is temperance. Most people end up in unfavorable situation as a result of indulgence through ignorance. Not necessarily ignorance that their actions were wrong but ignorance of the ramifications of those actions, especially when weighed against the correct, corresponding godly course of action.

5.   Next up is Patience: Patience is defined as the quality of enduring difficult situations. Let’s go back to the pool analogy. You are at a pool party and all your friends are professional swimmers. They’re in the deep end having an amazing time playing pool volleyball and you want nothing more in that moment than to be a part of the fun. Now your temperance (your ability to practice self-restraint) is being tested, as you are now tempted to take the risk. This temptation adds a layer of difficulty because the right thing is usually easier in absence of pressure. Patience is temperance that endures difficulty. Take for example the commandment thou shall not steal. You’ve heard it, you practiced it your entire life, you understand the ramifications of it and even when opportunities present themselves to you, you decide not to indulge. But you just had a baby, you lost your job, and you have no money to feed your child, (God forbid and I declare in the name Jesus that will never be your portion) avoiding the temptation to steal in this instance becomes more difficult, but with patience you are able to overcome this difficulty. Each of these layers builds the structure you need to escape corruption and live a Godly life. I will go over the other layers in my next post, so I hope to see you then. Love you with the love of God!