“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge.”
to your faith
“Faith” in this context means that structure that gives bones to the body of the Christian life. Faith is the foundation of all the following virtues. Like lining up a group of numbers for adding, the believer is to line up a group of virtues that will advance his faith. These virtues are the seven building blocks of Christian character; all godly virtues spring from a believer’s faith.
Jude 20, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.”
Faith is the sub-structure to building character and is the basis of all subsequent characteristics listed in verses 5-7. The building of our character by the seven elements continues to rise until we crown our soul’s edifice with the sum of the seven.
PRINCIPLE:
Faith is the foundation of all character.
APPLICATION:
Now that we have come to Christ, we must add to our souls seven faith virtues. Peter does not say, “Pick and choose whichever characteristics that might interest you. Add one or two of these features.” No, God builds soundness in our souls when we add all these characteristics to our souls by faith.
No matter what our cultural heritage, with no concern for what personality, disposition, or temperament we might have, God will construct an edifice of His making if we apply truth to experience by faith.
