We’re all a little biased towards our own pastors. I’m not above that and the message from this past weekend was pretty neat. As I am wont to do, I take notes to both keep myself focused, and also to refocus myself when little rabbit trails start in my own mind. A quick note about where my mind is wandering, and then I can stop thinking about it and come back to it later.
The message was about Christian virtue, and how we grow in it. Peter outlines it with the foundation of faith, then adds virtue, then knowledge. Once those are in place a Christian adds self-control, perseverance, and Godliness. After all of that, we are to add kindness and love.
Important to the whole message is that once we have faith, we are told God gives us all the tools we need to complete the transformation, or what more orthodox folk might refer to as sanctification. It is a process, however, and takes work.
During the message, one of the distracting thoughts I had was how so many find hypocrisy in the church, or among Christians, and use that as an excuse not to attend. I have personally been attacked for a view I hold or express with words like, “I thought you were a Christian,” or had my thoughts denigrated without even being addressed simply because I have “Christian” in my bio on social media. It isn’t fair, but growing accustomed to it, I try to use it as a moment to reflect on what I’m sharing and whether it really does reflect my beliefs.
I was recently asked if I know I’m saved. Some would just quote a passage of scripture and decide that means they are, or they cite a prayer they said years ago as all the proof that is needed. Having served with too many who ignore their oaths, I know the words are meaningless. I do know I’m saved, but not because I said a special prayer (I did), or because I participated in some specific rights of passage (I did), but because I know my faith is authentic.
I know that I have private moments of prayer, and that I often reflect on what the approach should be for a man of faith who knows and trusts God, and then try to incorporate that into my life. That doesn’t mean my faith has matured or that I have put on the entire armor of God in sanctification, but God promises to fill all of my shortfalls and correct all my failings because of my faith, not because I work hard.
Nothing else that I do will matter towards Christian virtue, if I do not first have faith. They will all be baseless or superficial acts of piety meant to sway others to think I believe. Worthless rags.
Adding virtue next seemed odd to me, but not if we separate the virtue of sanctification from the process of getting to Christian virtue, which is a culmination of the entire process. Another word that appropriately fills in for virtue, is moral standards. From faith, we can glean that God is the only standard of morality that matters. Incorporating God’s moral standard will shed light on even more of our shortfalls, but rather than discourage us, our faith allows us to boldly adopt these new standards as guideposts.
Then we add knowledge, which without faith and moral standards (virtue), is pointless. I can know an awful lot about fictional universes, and that knowledge might even help open doors for sharing my faith later on, but it is otherwise not very useful. Even more troubling would be knowledge about how to perform an abhorrent medical procedure, like abortion, which ignores faith in God as the arbiter of all things, and ignores the moral standards we derive from faith in God, which is that murder is wrong. However, knowledge about how to save lives or extending our ability to sustain live on both extremes, in the womb or end of life, should be embraced as good uses of knowledge.
More explicitly, in the Christian faith, knowledge comprises all of this, for moral purposes, but especially knowledge of God and the faith. It helps to define with heightening clarity the standards we adopt in our faith.
Self-control must then be added, as we quickly come to realize our greatest spiritual battle is within our own hearts. Our flesh is still there, and it takes a lot of learning and discipline to ignore our old self and to continue embracing faith, God’s moral standards, and knowledge attained. Many who come to faith will quickly let go of a sin that was dominating their life, but not all do. After adopting God’s moral standard, and learning more about God, they quickly learn of more sin and their own nature. This is when perseverance is added.
Perseverance is also required, because the previous steps are never completed at once. Perhaps I’m just unique, but I think I’ve repeated knowledge and self-control a lot. I have never lost faith or moral standards, and I don’t lost knowledge that I have attained, but I still struggle with self-control and that gets worse when I learn more, and cycle through those steps again.
This process is necessary to gain a sense of Godliness, though. Godliness is defined as piety, or being devoutly religious. Each repeated cycle of gaining knowledge, practicing self-control and persevering, on a foundation of true faith and moral standards, leads to piety. It does not all add in at once, though. It is a process of adding piety over time to gain this Godliness, and none will every complete this in this life.
After this are the additions of kindness and love. Just as with piousness, they are not ignored until we become pious, but they are built up over time. They must come from the foundation of faith, moral standards, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and piety, or they will be misguided.
I think this is where many churches bought into the political whims of the day, both right and left, have erred. I believe this is also where most outside of the church interpret some sort of hypocrisy which is not present. When churches embrace homosexuality as “alright with Jesus,” they have ignored their faith, and moral standards, and they then “love” what is unlovable in the eyes of God. When churches embrace patriotic fervor and celebrate war, they have forgotten those same moral standards and shamed whatever knowledge was available to them in scripture.
The attacks that I have fielded have come from both directions, and I have not always done well at responding in a Christ-like manner. I am still maturing. Though not an excuse, the process outlined above should help people understand why a person new to the faith doesn’t often lead Bible studies or immediately start casting out demons or healing the lame. It is also why I might occasionally post an inappropriate meme I found humor in, or find myself an extra beverage deep and handing the keys to my wife.
I’ve also known others who simply stop maturing in their faith. They seem perfectly content with their words spoken in a moment of emotional climax, and yet seem similarly content to not change another thing about their life or learn any more about the faith they just adopted. I remember that early excitement of faith, but I do not envy them their spiritual stagnation.
Have I grown through this process?
Those who have known me closest, the longest, would say that I have certainly matured in my faith. I have no doubt. That does not mean I have embodied what it means to be Christ-like. I do keep getting a little closer.
Fortunately for me, I’m pretty sure Pastor Dave doesn’t read my blog. If he did, he might not think I’m ignoring his sermon, but if he knew I’m sometimes coming up with a new blog topic he might not be any more receptive.
I guess I still have some maturing to do.
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