“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge.”
giving all diligence
The phrase “giving all diligence” translates a double compound word: 1) along side 2) into 3) to bring. God wants us to bring something along side so that it enters our lives. This is a word of powerful application. We must be eager to bring along side and into our lives the seven virtues that follow. We need to give all our energies to bring these points of character into our lives. If we do, we will escape the corruption in the world (v.3).
“Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11).
“They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do” (Galatians 2:10).
“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).
“Diligence” conveys intense effort. “Diligence” means haste, speed, eagerness, earnestness. A diligent person makes every effort to do what God asks. This is a word of zeal. A person of diligence will give serious attention to what he is doing and exert great energy to get it done. The idea is to be eager to do something with the implication of readiness to expend energy and effort.
Principle:
God expects Christians to be dead earnest with their Christianity.
Application:
God expects us to make an all-out effort to apply truth to experience. He wants us to expend great motivation and effort to live for Him.
Do you leave no stone unturned to make character the passion of your life? Christians cannot look upon their Christianity as a hobby. If we devote the fringe area of our spare time to character, our character will be seen for what it is–weak. The Christian life is far more than a hobby like golfing. It is something to which we should devote our lives. Note how Paul makes Christianity his life,
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
As people low on the totem pole of an organization are brought up to work under the experience and influence of the President of the company, so Christians are to work under the influence of God’s disposition. Those Christians should then live their life with earnestness.
Earnestness requires exertion. We cannot enjoy our possessions unless we use them. The divine disposition is not an automatic machine that will produce Christian character regardless of the our engagement with it. Farmers do not directly grow their crops. They must do certain things to give their crops an environment for growth. Christians must do certain things to give their life an environment for growth. They must give all diligence to bring God’s promises along-side their life so they can grow. God has a role and Christians have a role. Only the Lord can ultimately give the increase.
New Christians usually show a first flush of enthusiasm and spiritual zeal. They can hardly wait to share their faith with their husbands or wives. Every time the church opens its doors, they are there. Somewhere along the line, their fire extinguishes. Some puncture-proof saint gets to them. They call out the bucket brigade and throw water on these new Christians because of their enthusiasm.
The zeal and dynamic of new Christians reveals apathetic Christians’ dead spiritual lives. They do not want their state of affairs revealed for what it is. They say, “What a minute, slow down, you can’t ….” New Christians waken sleeping saints. They rub their eyes, yawn, and say, “You lead someone to Christ? Quiet, you are disturbing my sleep. Don’t you see that I am worshipping?”
Where is the zeal you had when first you came to Christ? The subsequent virtues will do us no good if we do not deal with this first.
People who design airplanes proved “conclusively” that bumblebees cannot fly. “The fuselage is too large for its wing spread.” The bumblebee does not know that, so it goes ahead and flies. New Christians, do not know they cannot do this or that. They just go ahead and do it. They do not find this out until later when other Christians inform them they cannot do it. They go out and win ten people to Christ the first week they know Christ. They are not that concerned about making mistakes. They just mistake their way into winning a number of people to Christ!
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