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
In II Peter, the Holy Spirit paints a beautiful picture of a life well-lived.
He begins, “Make every effort to add to your faith…”
In other words, receiving Jesus in faith is not the end of our journey with God, it is only the beginning.
God invites us to something more. He invites us to a brand new way of living and making our way in the world.
The passage in II Peter continues: “Add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control…”
Here is the full list of what we are to add to our faith:
Faith → goodness → knowledge → self-control → perseverance → godliness → affection → love.
It’s almost like Peter is giving us stepping stones across a river—leading us one intentional step at a time toward a life that looks more and more like Jesus.
And then he promises something wonderful:
If we grow in these qualities, we will be effective and productive in our faith.
What a promise… what a gift… and what a goal.
But Peter ends his list in an unexpected way:
“Whoever does not have these qualities is nearsighted and blind”—a challenging and sobering teaching for sure.
But Peter does not end there, leaving us despair.
He tells us exactly why we might be missing these qualities… or, in equal measure, how we can grow in them and become effective and productive at the same time.
The Holy Spirit writes that whoever does not have these qualities has “forgotten that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”
That phrase is worth focusing on today.
Because both the logic and the truth are important:
If forgetting that truth causes us to miss those qualities, then it would stand to reason:
Reminding ourselves of the gospel is the pathway to faith and goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and affection and love.
It is when we forget the precious truth that God sent His only Son to earth to become a man, live a perfect life, die on a blood-stained cross on our behalf, and then rise again victorious over sin and death… that we miss out on the qualities that make us effective, productive, and fruitful in our lives.
In other words,
When we forget we have been forgiven, we forget to forgive.
When we forget God’s goodness, we forget to be good.
When we forget God’s faithfulness, we forget to persevere.
When we forget God’s holiness, we forget to pursue godliness.
When we forget God’s love—a love so great He sacrificed His only Son—we forget to love.
So as we step into this Christmas season, let’s remember not only His birth in Bethlehem… but His sacrifice on Calvary.
Let’s remember, over and over again this month, that we have been cleansed from our sin.
And may that truth help us find the faith and goodness and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and affection and love to be effective not just in this season, but in every season.
Prayer
Father, thank You that I have been cleansed from my sin through Christ. Keep this truth fresh in my heart and mind today. May I never forget it—and may I become effective and productive because of it. Amen.