Get More God

Get More God: How the 7 Virtues Will Transform Your Life

Many of us want more of God, but don't know where to begin. We're dissatisfied with our prayer life, our worship, our Bible reading, our fellowship. But how do we change? How do we improve?

The Apostle Peter understood what it is like to need to grow in God. In his second letter, he lists seven virtues that, if we add them to our faith, will revolutionize the way we live.

Read 2 Peter 1:3-9, then click through the gallery to learn about each of the virtues.

Adapted by Mark Buchanan from his Hidden In Plain Sight: The Secret of More (Thomas Nelson, 2007).

Goodness: What You Are, Not What You Do

The first virtue is goodness. As Peter used the word in its original Greek form, it describes what we are, not what we do.

Of course, goodness also produces action. But bad people can do good things. The virtue Peter extols is good for nothing: good without needing reward, or prompting, or recognition.

Goodness, in a word, is Christ-likeness. Get it, and you'll have more of Christ in you.

Knowledge: Knowing Means Loving

Next, knowledge. Mere knowledge is as prone to make us foolish as to make us smart. The knowledge Peter has in mind is the knowledge of God and of Jesus. It is theological, but also worshipful, doctrinal, but also obedient, creedal, prayerful.

The knowledge Peter commends always leads to adoration and surrender.

Get knowledge, because to know God is to love God.

Self Control: Guard Your Treasure

The third virtue is self-control. In our world, self-control has been reduced to a behavioral technique for anger-management or weight-loss. Peter means something else: that which guards eternal treasures.

Read more of Peter's thoughts on self-control, and you'll see that it's more than you've imagined. Self-control helps us grasp the greatness of our salvation (1 Pt. 1:10-13), prepares us for the end of all things , and trains us to resist the devil (1 Pt. 5:8).

Perseverance: Submission, Not Strength

Midway is the virtue of perseverance. We tend to think of perseverance as a quality of willpower. But for Peter, perseverance is a military term that means, "Don't abandon your post. Obey your commanding officer." Perseverance is more about submission of will than strength of will.

Perseverance is refusing to quit because you're bored, endangered, or offended. It is completing the assignment God gave you.

Godliness: Unwavering Devotion

The fifth virtue is godliness. "Good devotion" is the literal translation. Godliness is a wholehearted and unwavering commitment to God's character and God's ways.

The enemy of godliness is worldliness, captivity to the world's values and habits and systems.

The man or woman who is godly consistently chooses that which exalts God and reveals Christ.

Brotherly Kindness: Loving Whom the Father Loves

The sixth virtue is brotherly kindness, or brotherly love. The original word (philadelphia) has a technical meaning: to love my father's sons. A man might have several sons from different mothers (think of King David). Those sons might lack deep natural affection one for another, but if they love the father, they'll love his sons.

The virtue of brotherly love means loving whom the Father loves for the Father's sake.

Love: Loving as the Father Loves

The seventh and last virtue is love (agape), which is to love as the Father loves. Agape is more than loving our brothers and sisters: it's also loving the least of these--losers--and the most of these--winners--and the worst of these--enemies. It's loving everyone.

To love everyone, we need God's love to flow in us and through us. We need to love as God loves.

Seek Jesus, Have Virtue

That's a whirlwind summary of Peter's seven virtues. But here's the rub: every one of these virtues is supremely evident in Jesus Christ.

All the effort you need make--and without which, all other efforts are doomed--is to seek Jesus, here, now, in season and out. Worship him. Learn of him. Love him. Abide in him.

Become like him. And you will bear much fruit.

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