5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
This verse pictures our spiritual life like a building with successive floors, each depending on the previous level for support and continued existence. All the floors are interconnected and interdependent. We must actively supply the raw goods to continue building the building and the first floor holds the key to what our building is. Our building is a building based on faith, through and through. Our continued faith enables the building of each floor. Goodness is what happens when a person has faith; their actions change in a way that reflects that they are a person of faith. Goodness is a manifestation of God’s power working in our lives. Our knowledge of God’s will must grow. As we mature we come to know more and more about our own sinful tendencies and actions, and about God’s desires for our lives. We must be in charge of our own actions. That is self-control. We have to stop blaming others for our sinful choices and make the choice to obey God’s will. We have to take control and yield to God. This takes perseverance, the ability to stick to it and not give up. It is hard work not yielding to sin. It takes effort to train ourselves to be holy. We can’t give up after the first failure. We must stick with it. When we do that our lives will reflect God’s character. That is godliness, our practice of obedience and our beliefs lived out in everyday life. If our lives are not pleasing to the Lord it is because our beliefs are out of whack. When our beliefs are out of step with God’s will then our lives will be plagued by misfires. Our personal relationships will be a mess. We won’t care for each other as family. And we definitely won’t have self-sacrificing commitment to each other, to God or to anything. A life worth living is worth living well. Is your life worth living? Would you want others to step into your shoes and live as you live? Would they pass your definition of a faithful believer?
The Arnold Journey 