Add To Your Faith Virtue

Peter addresses the followers of our Lord Jesus (v. 1). He reminds us that our salvation has given us “exceeding great and precious promises” (v. 3). But after salvation, we are also expected to “grow in grace” (2 Pet 3:18). Peter told us “and beside this” or after what God has done for us, we became “partakers of the divine nature” (v. 4). Then he tells us what we must do after salvation.He listed seven character traits that we must give “all diligence” to add to our faith. We became “the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26), which is “the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).

 And “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb 11:6)! Faith is simply believing what God said in His word (Rom 10:17), and trusting Him to perform His word (Php 1:6). We have not seen Heaven yet, but “the substance of things hoped for” (Heb 11:1), is trusting Jesus to raise us up one day to meet Him “in the air” (1 Thes 4:17), and make “us sit together in heavenly places” (Eph 2:6). That’s faith! But there is more to our lives than faith – we are to add to our faith “virtue.” It is the demonstration of moral excellence and godliness in our Christian lives (Php 4:8).

The main sense of the word virtue is power. It is the quality of an entity by the effects it produces on other entities; such as the medicinal virtue of plants in healing. When the whole multitude sought to touch Jesus, “there went virtue out of Him, and healed them all” (Lk 6:19)! The context of the word “virtue” in our passage is moral goodness that comes by yielding “as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom 6:13). We therefore derive our spiritual strength from this virtue. When we live according to God’s word (Ps 119:9), then we will follow the pathway of moral purity in every aspect of our lives. It honors and glorifies our Saviour! God bless you!

- Pastor Melito Barrera