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My wife was a cheerleader in high school, so she taught me to appreciate some of the finer points of the integrated movements and stunts that the sideline cheerleaders performed at each game. But it wasn’t until our daughter moved from her first sideline cheer season to her first competitive cheer season that I really took notice. Competitive cheer is cheerleading on a whole different level—the stunts and tumbling runs, the coordinated movements, the precise way the words of the cheer are punctuated by the claps, stomps, and jumps of the cheerleaders is quite impressive!
In many ways, the relationship of the three Persons of the Godhead are much like a coordinated dance. Which part of the Trinity you may see at any one moment is based on your viewpoint, as you can quickly see the other Persons of the Trinity at the exact same moment. The Father revealing Himself in the Son; the Son sending the Holy Spirit to be in us; the Spirit drawing people to the Father through the Son. Each Person of the Godhead revealing and promoting and glorifying each Other!
It’s absolutely awesome! And yet what is even more astounding to me is that we are invited to participate in this Spiritual Dance (see John 7:33, 14:16-17, 16:14-15, 17:20-21).
(You can see all of the biblical passages in this post by clicking here.)
Peter says we are a part of this dance; actually he calls it more of a chorus. The word “add” in 2 Peter 1:5 is the Greek word epichorego. The root word (chorego) sounds like “chorus.” But it really means to be a chorus leader who supplies everything for the dance/chorus. As v. 3 tells us, “His diving power has given us everything we need” to participate in this Spiritual Dance.
As we have already seen, Jesus has provided everything we need except for our effort—our diligence to learn this dance and become more proficient in it. The idea of adding is really implied throughout these next verses. We could read vv. 5-7 like this—
“Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and [add] to [your] goodness, knowledge; and [add] to [your] knowledge, self-control; and [add] to [your] self-control, perseverance; and [add] to [your] perseverance, godliness; and [add] to [your] godliness, mutual affection; and [add] to [your] mutual affection, love.”
The supply of these virtues is not ours, but the “every effort” to ask, receive, and apply is ours. I cannot supply myself. But faith from God allows me to access the One full of grace (remember what we saw in John 1:16).
Our Father already knows what we have need of (Matthew 6:8), so we could ask something like, “Where is my goodness lacking?” And when the Holy Spirit reveals that to us, we can then ask our Savior—Who is full and overflowing with goodness—to impart to us what we need.
So my “every effort” is not supplying what I lack but asking to be supplied what I lack. The only thing keeping me less than full of any of these virtues is my lack of effort to ask and then apply what I am supplied.
The Holy Spirit imparts faith to us to believe for salvation. Then there is a faith we must “make every effort” to strengthen. This is the faith on full display in Hebrews 11.
Faith is:
- conviction of the truth revealed in the Bible
- believing that what God calls us to do, He will also empower us to do
- being convinced that Jesus is our Example
- trusting the Holy Spirit to conform us to this image of Jesus—to reveal Christlikeness in us
The first virtue Peter lists—the first virtue that our faith believes God to form in us—is goodness. This is moral excellence (NLT), good character (MSG), and virtue—excellence, resolution, Christian energy (AMPC).
Since Peter uses the same word to describe Jesus in v. 3 (His own glory and goodness), people around us should see our growth as Christian gentlemen or gentlewomen.
Remember that 2 Peter is written to saints about their interaction with other saints. Being around other faith-filled gentlemen and gentlewomen is an excellent training ground for all of us. It matters how we speak to each other. It matters that we treat each other chivalrously and with good manners. It matters that we are kind and polite to each other.
Because when we take this gentlemanly or gentlewomanly behavior into the world, it gets noticed. So make every effort to develop the goodness of Jesus in your life. Let this community of saints be the place where your training takes place.
Check out all of the other sermons in this series from 2 Peter by clicking here.
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