7 Qualities of Mature Believers

2 Peter 1:5-7

Subject: Spiritual Growth 

Theme: diligently apply yourself to sustain spiritual growth.

Introduction:

In order to sustain growth, we must apply serious, concentrated, and persistent effort (2Pet. 1:5-7). Verses 3 and 4 declare how God has given us everything necessary to experience Christ’s divine life. Because He has, we must be diligent in cultivating it. God does not make us holy against our will or without our involvement. There must be desire, determination, and discipline on our part.

Peter refers back to the divine nature by beginning this new paragraph with the words “And besides this” indicating the very reason we must pursue maturity in Christ. When he says, “giving all diligence” it summons our every effort—to apply zeal; it is bringing to bear our personal determination alongside the provisions and promises of God. You see, every bit of effort a Christian can muster is to be coupled with the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, to “escape the corruption that is in the world” caused by our evil desires (2 Peter 1:4). Yes, serious personal exertion is necessary to develop the seven qualities of mature believers. Lazy believers will never cultivate these characteristics in verses 5-7, but those that do so will become more like Christ as they experience more entirely God’s “divine nature.” This certainly is not an either or proposition!

Paul, the apostle, completely agrees writing, “work out your own salvation.... For it is God which worketh in you” (Phil. 2:12–13). Spiritual development requires God’s work and our work! Since we truly have life, we can know substantial growth. By saving us God began an incredible work in us, but this is merely the start of a journey of development. We have an obligation to apply ourselves. Spiritual growth is not automatic, and we cannot become holy in a hurry. It requires full cooperation with God and our application of spiritual diligence.

Lesson:

Make Every Effort to Develop the 7 Qualities of Mature Christian Character (2Pet. 1:5-7). So then…how can we know when we are all grown up? What character strengths should we focus our energies on? 

Faith

Since Peter is writing to those who have already exercised saving faith in the Lord Jesus, he does not tell them or us to furnish faith; he assumes we already have it. Faith actually connects us to God through Jesus Christ; spiritual life begins with faith in our Lord. It is not through our discipline, works, services, sacrifices, rituals, or church membership that we are made right with God.

We are instead challenged to supplement our faith with seven elements of holiness. The word “add,” means “to supply generously,” pointing to an imperative—what we must do. Note that this is not adding these traits one after another, but manifesting all the qualities all the time.

In addition, the word "add" indicates one who provides for or supports others or supplies something for them in abundance. As such we are to “furnish, supply, or support” our life with these qualities. You see, we develop one quality as we exercise another quality. They are related much like a tree to its branches, and branches to their twigs. Like the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22–23), these qualities, the fruit of divine life, grow out of life and out of a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not enough for the Christian to “let go and let God,” as though spiritual growth were God’s work alone. Literally, Peter is challenging us to bring our very best "A game" to ensure these qualities grow alongside our faith. The Father and the child must work together. (K. Gangel)

Virtue
The first characteristic is virtue (see 2 Peter 1:3). It basically means “excellence.” To the Greek philosophers, it meant “the fulfillment of a thing.” When anything in nature fulfills its purpose, that is “virtue—moral excellence.” The land that produces crops is “excellent” because it is fulfilling its purpose. The tool that works correctly is “excellent” because it is doing what a tool is supposed to do. (W. MacDonald)

A Christian is supposed to glorify God because he has God’s nature within; so, when he does this, he shows “excellence” because he is fulfilling his purpose in life. True virtue in the Christian life is not “polishing” human qualities, no matter how fine they may be, but producing divine qualities that make the person more like Jesus Christ. It may also be that virtue means spiritual courage before a hostile world, the strength to stand for what is right.  

Knowledge  

Virtuous courage is to be supplemented with knowledge, especially the knowledge of spiritual truth. Faith helps us develop virtue, and virtue helps us develop knowledge (2 Peter 1:5). The word “knowledge” in 2 Peter 1:2–3 means “full knowledge” or “knowledge that is growing.” The word used here suggests practical knowledge or discernment. It refers to the ability to handle life successfully. It is the opposite of being “so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good!” This kind of knowledge does not come automatically. It comes from obedience to the will of God as stated in the Word (John 7:17) and submission to the personal ministry of the Holy Spirit. In the Christian life, you must not separate the heart and the mind, character and knowledge.

Beloved, we are immediately impressed with the importance of studying the Word of God and obeying its sacred precepts. Through an experiential knowledge of the Bible we develop what Erdman calls “practical skills in the details of Christianity.” (W. MacDonald)      

Temperance 

God calls every Christian to a life of discipline (1:6); temperance means self-control. Someone has defined this as the controlling power of the will under the operation of the Spirit of God. There must be discipline in prayer, discipline in Bible study, discipline in the use of time, discipline in curbing bodily appetites, and discipline in sacrificial living. For a believer... enslavement to passions and pleasures will destroy their testimony. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Prov. 16:32). “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls” (Prov. 25:28).

Paul agrees and often compares the Christian to an athlete who must exercise and discipline himself if he ever hopes to win the prize (1 Cor. 9:24–27; Phil. 3:12–16; 1 Tim. 4:7–8). Because of the example of others, the urgent needs of a perishing world, the personal peril of wrecking our testimony, we should discipline ourselves so that Christ will have the best of our lives.

Patience 

Temperance should be supplemented with patience, that is, persevering endurance of persecution and adversity. Patience is the ability to endure when circumstances are difficult. Self-control has to do with handling the pleasures of life, while patience relates primarily to the pressures and problems of life. (The ability to endure problem people is “long-suffering.”) Often, the person who “gives in” to pleasures is not disciplined enough to handle pressures either, so he “gives up.”

Patience is not something that develops automatically; we must work at it. James 1:2–8 gives us the right approach. We must expect trials to come, because without trials we could never learn patience. We must, by faith, let our trials work for us and not against us, because we know that God is at work in our trials.

If we need wisdom in making decisions, God will grant that wisdom if we ask Him. Nobody enjoys trials, but we do enjoy the confidence we can have in trials that God is at work, causing everything to work together for our good and His glory. need to be constantly reminded that the Christian life is a challenge to endure. It is not enough to start off in a blaze of glory; we must persevere in spite of difficulties. The idea that Christianity is an unending round of mountaintop experiences is unrealistic. There is the daily routine, the menial task, the disappointing circumstance, the bitter grief, and the shattered plans. Perseverance is the art of bearing up and pressing on in the face of all that seems to be against us. (W. MacDonald)  

Godliness

The next virtue is godliness. This may mean piety, reverence, goodness of life, or a high degree of morality. Godliness is simply “God-likeness.” In the Greek language, this word meant “to worship well.” It described the man who was right in his relationship with God and with his fellowman. In an irreverent culture like ours this quality of character truly makes a believer stand out. We must live above the petty things of life, as well as the common passions and pressures that control the lives of others. Beloved, seek to do the will of God and, as we do so, seek the welfare of others.

We must never get the idea that godliness is an impractical thing, because it is intensely practical. The godly person makes the kinds of decisions that are right and noble. We must not take an easy path simply to avoid either pain or trial. We must consciously choose to do what is right because it is right and because it is the will of God.

Our lives should be like God, with all that means in the way of practical holiness. There should be such a supernatural quality in our conduct that others will know we are children of the heavenly Father; the family likeness should be unmistakable. Paul reminds us, “... godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). (W. Wiersbe)

Brotherly kindness 

Brotherly kindness (1:7) identifies us to the world as Christ’s disciples (John 13:35). Brotherly kindness is a virtue that Peter must have acquired the hard way, for the disciples of our Lord often debated and disagreed with one another.

If we love Jesus Christ, we must also love the brethren--desiring the highest good for them. We should practice an “unfeigned [sincere] love of the brethren” (1 Peter 1:22) and not just pretend that we love them. “Let brotherly love continue” (Heb. 13:1). “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love” (Rom. 12:10). The fact that we love our brothers and sisters in Christ is one evidence that we have been born of God (1 John 5:1–2).

Charity

Love of the brethren leads to charity for all mankind. There is more to Christian growth than brotherly love; we must also have the sacrificial love that our Lord displayed when He went to the cross. The kind of love (“charity”) spoken of in 2 Peter 1:7 is agape love, the kind of love that God shows toward lost sinners. This is the love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13, the love that the Holy Spirit produces in our hearts as we walk in the Spirit (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22). When we have brotherly love, we love because of our likenesses to others; but with agape love, we love in spite of the differences we have.

This is not primarily a matter of the emotions but of the will. Love manifests itself in giving. For instance, “God so loved the world, that He gave ... ” (John 3:16). “Christ also loved the church and gave ... ” (Eph. 5:25). We can show our love by giving our time, our talents, our treasures, and our lives for others.  (W. MacDonald)

These seven graces make for a full-orbed Christian character. It is impossible for fallen human nature to manufacture these seven qualities of Christian character. They must be produced by the Spirit of God. To be sure, there are unsaved people who possess amazing self-control and endurance, but these virtues point to them and not to the Lord. They get the glory. When God produces the beautiful nature of His Son in a Christian, it is God who receives the praise and glory.

Because we have the divine nature, we can grow spiritually and develop this kind of Christian character. It is through the power of God and the precious promises of God that this growth takes place. The divine “genetic structure” is already there: God wants us to be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). The life within will reproduce that image if we but diligently cooperate with God and use the means He has lavishly given us. (W. MacDonald)

And the amazing thing is this: as the image of Christ is reproduced in us, the process does not destroy our own personalities. We still remain uniquely ourselves! One of the dangers in the church today is imitation. People have a tendency to become like their pastor, or like a church leader, or perhaps like some “famous Christian.” As they do this, they destroy their own uniqueness while failing to become like Jesus Christ. They lose both ways! Just as each child in a family resembles his parents and yet is different, so each child in God’s family comes more and more to resemble Jesus Christ and yet is different. Parents don’t duplicate themselves, they reproduce themselves; and wise parents permit their children to be themselves. (W. Wiersbe)