2 Peter 1:5-7 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;… "Add to your faith virtue." "You have faith." This is assumed, you perceive. "Now," says the apostle, "let your faith be associated with virtue." The word is used in only three passages in the New Testament. It is a word derived from the name of the Greek god of war, and hence would give some countenance to those who would simply make it to mean fortitude, or courage. Others take it in another sense, by associating it with rectitude of conduct — everything that is "lovely and of good report," in conduct. For my part, I do not see how we can do without either meaning. The apostle speaks, in one of his passages, of our being "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, to show forth the virtues of Him who hath called us" that is, "to show forth the praises"; so to exhibit God in connection with our faith in His Son, that men may praise Him, seeing how His name and His law are magnified in the work of redeeming love. In another passage, in the Philippians, the Apostle Paul uses, in a more general sense, the same word: "If there be any virtue" — if there be anything at all commendable. Now, I think, we must look at the word as having both these senses. "See," the apostle says, "that your profession of faith is in connection with such conduct that the name of God may be magnified in you and by you." But, then, why should we exclude the idea of courage? Right conduct in the midst of evil men; consistency of conduct in the midst of a world lying in the wicked one; forgetting all distinctions of time, or country, or circumstances, to take God's mercy, and apply it to our own souls; to accept Christ as God's well-beloved Son; to look right into the grave, and think of the judgment-seat will require fortitude; and take the word, in whatever sense you please, fortitude and courage and rectitude of conduct must, says the apostle, be associated with your profession of faith in Christ Jesus. But then the apostle says we are to associate also "knowledge"; that is, he enjoins upon us to be intelligent professors of faith in Christ Jesus. God puts none of our faculties under ban; God does not ask any man whom He has endowed with faculties, by which He may be glorified by His creature, to keep them in abeyance, to leave them uncultivated. We are to have the soul filled with wisdom from above, and to seek all kinds of wisdom, that we may consecrate them to the service of God. And mark how necessary it is for the believer in Christ Jesus ever to be growing in intelligence. New errors creep into the Church; new forms of error are presented to the believer. He is not to be satisfied with the instruction which God blessed to the bringing him into living relationship with Christ Jesus. We ought, as a matter of conscience, and as a matter of duty, to seek to increase our intelligence, that we may be ready always to give an answer to every man, and a reason of a hope that is in us. And then the apostle enjoins "temperance" upon us. The simple meaning of the idea is self-government, or self-restraint, rather. This was one of the virtues which the Grecian philosophers laid great stress upon, in this general sense, not simply in eating and drinking, but in everything that referred to the passions of men. As the apostle says, "Be angry, and sin not." If there is just cause of anger, we are to be moderate in our anger. And the Apostle Paul speaks of persons who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God"; that is, they are not temperate in their pleasures. There is nothing contradictory between this temperance and earnestness. Now, a man may be earnest without intelligence; he may be zealously affected even in a bad cause; but temperance — prudence, that is, moderation in our views, and in the mode of carrying out our views — may be found in connection with great earnestness. But, then, to "temperance" we are to add "patience." Even when you regulate yourselves most, and have your spirits under the directing influences of the Spirit of God, you cannot possibly live and act for Christ without finding some difficulties. "But," says the apostle, "just quietly endure all things; just patiently persevere in all that concerns your Christian course." "And, then," says the apostle, "associate also with these things godliness." The word means certain acts of worship presented to God; but it means more than this, it means a reverential spirit, by which our acts of worship are regulated. Is it not remarkable how much our religious worship is dependent upon certain influences, certain associations, certain circumstances? You perceive a man who has associated early in life with persons who frequent the house of God, and he contracts a kind of habit, and it is a long while before he can shake off this habit. Now, just change a man's position in society; see what the increase of this world's goods will do for a man; you see him slackening his attendance at the house of God, and leaving certain acts of worship that he once regularly engaged in. I have seen men who rigidly observed certain outward acts of worship when they were at home. I have seen them give the lamentable proof that it was all a matter of external influence. And therefore the apostle says, "Associate with everything that is right, everything that is virtuous in conduct, godliness": that is, a devout and a reverential spirit, manifested in connection with your devotedness to Christ and Him crucified. But the apostle says, "Not simply towards God, but towards your fellow-men." Christ Himself enjoined upon His disciples love towards each other, by which they should manifest that they loved Him. (J. Sherlock.) Parallel Verses KJV: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; |
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