Quite a Challenge

   “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.   But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”   (2 Peter 1:5-9 NIV)

    “So don’t lose a minute on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others.  With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus.  Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful self has been wiped off the books.”  (2 Peter 1:5-9  MSG)

   Both translations say the same thing.  One of the reasons I like to read various translations is that sometimes a particular translation makes the passage more understandable to me, closer to my daily language.  I encourage you to read difficult passages in several translations.  It may help with the understanding.

   No matter what translation we use of the above passage of Scripture, the list is still long and imposing.  It’s easy to read over it and just pass on by, but God has a purpose for each quality listed.  It’s interesting that the list begins with faith and ends with love.  I believe that God arranged these qualities in a particular order that will grow us from faith to true love as shown by Jesus.  I pray that the Lord will help me fill in any gaps I may have in the sequence as I grow.

   It sounds like I will have an exciting life as I progress along the sequence with great rewards as I mature in these qualities.  Lord, I want to grow in each of these qualities, but I can’t do this by myself, so I put myself in your hands to be stretched  to the completion of the goal.