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Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. (1 John 2:6)
If I claim…
…I have fellowship with Jesus
…I know the truth
…I am done with sinning
…I live in the light
Then I must think, speak, and act like Jesus.
To prove my claims I must show that…
…I know the Truth and live in it
…I quickly confess and repent of sin
…I know His commands and obey them
…I know His love and I love others
There is no better proof for my claims than Christlikeness!
As Charles Spurgeon said,
“When we try to be, in every respect, what God’s Word tells us we ought to be, then may we know that we are in God; but if we walk carelessly, if we take no account of our actions, but do, after a random fashion, whatever comes into our foolish hearts, then have we no evidence at all that we are in God.”
The proof of our claims is self-evident. John uses the phrase “this is how we know” 8 times in this letter, and he uses the word “know” another 35 times!
It’s not enough for me to verbally make the claims, but people should hear the words of Jesus in my mouth, see His compassion in my actions, and know His love fills my heart and informs my mind.
I’ll say it again: There is no better proof for my claims than Christlikeness. I know it, everyone who sees or hears me knows it, and, most importantly, Jesus knows it.
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. (1 John 3:18-19 NLT)
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
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).
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.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I have been a longtime fan of John Maxwell. His ability to distill so many insights into accessible action steps is a true gift. High Road Leadership is no exception to this, and it is a timely read at this cultural moment.
I was recently talking with a friend about the stark divide in American politics today. I was recalling a time when a US President would nominate someone for a cabinet position or an opening on a judicial bench, and the vote in the Senate would be something like 89-8 in favor of the nominee. Now it is more likely that the vote will end in a 50-50 tie with the vice president stepping in to cast the tie-breaking vote. It’s become axiomatic that a senator’s vote has to be a “nay” if the president making the nomination was of a different political party.
As a pastor, I’ve even experienced people moving to a different church because someone else in the church is perceived to support something that they are against. It’s heartbreaking, to say the least!
This is why I said that Maxwell’s book is timely in this cultural moment.
As with all of his books, the focal point is leadership. More specifically, John Maxwell calls leaders to continue to grow in their ability to serve more people; with the emphasis on “serve.”
High Road Leadership challenges leaders on ways to take the high road. One illustration that encapsulates the ideas in this book comes from Maxwell’s observation on the well known story of the good Samaritan. The thieves took the low road by saying to the man they robbed, “What’s yours is mine.” The leaders who passed by the man who was injured took the middle road by exempting themselves from action by saying, “What’s mine is mine.” However, the good Samaritan who helped the injured man at his own expense took the high road in saying, “What’s mine is yours.”
High road leaders are always looking for ways to bring people together, to go above and beyond what would be culturally expected of them, to embrace those who are different, to find common ground that can unite disparate groups.
This is the consistent example and teaching of Jesus Christ Himself, but it is an attitude and lifestyle that is routinely ignored. Everyone seems to be waiting for “them” to go first, but high road leaders always take the Christ-like initiative of going first.
High Road Leadership is a practical guide to help all of us consistently operate on the high road.If you are ready to help heal what divides us, this book will become your go-to resource.
Is it okay to pray a prayer written by someone else? Sure! But let’s use those prayers merely as guides to help us form our own personalized prayers to our loving Heavenly Father. I shared a whole series on prayer that you may want to check out.
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
T.M. Moore wrote, “The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in believers with an agenda. His agenda is not ours, and unless we can put our agendas aside, we will never line up with His to realize more of the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God. The Spirit has not come to make us ecstatically happy. He has not come to fulfill our every wish. He comes to bring forth in us distinctly Kingdom values and virtues: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He comes to distribute among us spiritual gifts, God-given abilities to serve one another in caring and sharing ways. He comes to empower us as witnesses for Jesus, both in how we live and what we say. And He comes to build our churches up into Christlikeness by our unified and focused work.”
I am really enjoying these mini-biographies of key leaders in the Reformation presented by Desiring God. One that I found especially fascinating is about Menno Simons—“If you are familiar with the contemporary Mennonites, you may be surprised to learn that the group’s founder started as a Catholic priest who had never read the Bible.” Yet, near the end of his life, Menno wrote, “Although I resisted in former times Thy precious Word and Thy holy will with all my powers…nevertheless, Thy fatherly grace did not forsake me, a miserable sinner, but in love, received me…and taught me by the Holy Spirit until of my own choice I declared war upon the world, the flesh, and the devil…and willingly submitted to the heavy cross of my Lord Jesus Christ that I might inherit the promised kingdom.”
“What strikes me is that there’s a very fine line between success and failure. Just one ingredient can make the difference.” —Andrew Lloyd Webber
This past Sunday I spoke to my congregation about how Christians should behave biblically during an election season. Someone forwarded to me a related graphic from the Pentecostal Evangel magazine (a publication of the Assemblies of God) from 1984. I love these reminders for Christians!
Researchers unveiled the largest brain map ever completed. It was of a fruit fly, whose brain “includes nearly 140,000 neurons and captures more than 54.5 million synapses”! It took four years to complete this map. “All told, the researchers identified 8,453 types of neuron—much more than anyone had expected. Of these, 4,581 were newly discovered.” This level of complexity and order in a fruit fly is astounding to me. Can you imagine what it would take to map the much larger and more complex human brain?! Truly, David was right when he said that we are wonderfully made by our Creator!
“Freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire!” —Martin Luther
“Faith the mother of all good works justifieth us, before we can bring forth any good work: as the husband marryeth his wife before he can have any lawful children by her.” —William Tyndale
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Bruce Barton said, “When you’re through changing, you’re through!” I think the same thing could be said about a leader’s learning—when you think you’ve learned it all, your leadership is beginning to crumble.
I never want to get to the place where I think I have “arrived” as a leader, but I want to be humble enough to admit that there are so many things I have yet to learn. Jesus reminded us, “Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom” (Matthew 13:52 CEV).
“New and old treasures” tells me that there’s some good stuff we need to protect, and also some good stuff we haven’t yet learned.
A mark of a godly leader is his commitment to being a lifelong learner.
Here are three new things the Holy Spirit has recently taught me:
Acts 6:3 says, “Choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them.”
My lesson: The résumé for those that are to be placed in ministry leadership positions should include servant-heartedness, Christlike character, wise experience for the task, and reliance on the Holy Spirit.
“This Moses whom they disowned…is the one God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer” (Acts 7:35).
My lesson: When God calls someone His leader, it doesn’t matter if the world calls them disowned. It’s not about popularity with men, but faithfulness to God.
“Ministers should be persons of the same quiet, lamb-like spirit that Christ was of, the same spirit of submission to God’s will, and patience under afflictions, and meekness towards men; of the same calmness and composure of spirit under reproaches and sufferings from the malignity of evil men; of the same spirit of forgiveness of injuries; of the same spirit of charity, of fervent love and extensive benevolence; the same disposition to pity the miserable, to weep with those who weep, to help men under their calamities of both soul and body, to hear and grant the requests of the needy, and relieve the afflicted; the same spirit of condescension to the poor and mean, tenderness and gentleness towards the weak, and great and effectual love to enemies.” —Jonathan Edwards
“God has promised to supply all our needs. What we don’t have now, we don’t need now.” —Elizabeth Elliot
In my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter, I talk about how important it is for us to get a good night’s sleep to keep our leadership skills sharp. Sleep is also vitally important to help in the battle against overcoming temptations.
A groundbreaking paper was released this year that appears to debunk evolutionary theories once again. Check out this commentary from John Stonestreet’s podcast.
“There’s no such thing as a spiritual vacuum in the cosmos. Whatever of our time, attention, interest, or strength is not devoted to the Lord, and His Kingdom and glory, will become susceptible to being taken over by contrary interests. These often take the form of false teachers who appeal to our selfish interests and encourage us to make of the faith of Jesus Christ a kind of spiritual smorgasbord for whatever we think we need. We leave off the solid food of sound doctrine and dabble in the sweets and crunchies of mere self-interest—if we spend any time in the Word of God at all. Our mind enters a period of arrested development which will become permanent atrophy unless serious measures are engaged.” —T.M. Moore
“Always make your gratitude greater than your success.” —Dan Sullivan & Catherine Nomura
“Christ Jesus was the Man of men, the model Man, the manliest Man in all respects, and yet He was, of all men, the most fully subordinated to the divine law and the most obedient in all things to the Father’s will! See your calling, my brethren! You, too, are not to be common men, nor to belong to the herd that run foolishly after their own lusts, but you are to be model men, manly and brave yet always submissive to the great Father of your spirits. We are to be such men that those who look upon us may wish that they were such as we are.”
Fellas, check out this 4-minute challenge I gave to Christian men on Father’s Day by clicking on the media player below… ↓
To check out the messages I shared on Boaz and Ruth, please click here.
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Where is God in our trials? When we call, Jesus runs to our cry. He is able to help us because He knows exactly what our cries sound like. Aren’t you glad He does?!
While we are in these difficult times, you might find yourself asking a question I have asked, “Okay, God, I believe You are doing something, but what exactly are You doing?”
I can’t tell you specifically what God is doing in your life, because your story is unique and special. But I can tell you that during the hard, painful chapters of our lives, God is accomplishing at least five things in all of us.
God is opening our eyes to new paradigms
We will learn lessons in these fiery trials that we couldn’t possibly learn any other way.
God is building empathy in us which we didn’t have before
One dictionary definesempathy as “the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person’s feelings.” It’s only because of our trials that we no longer have to imagine what someone else is feeling, but instead we know exactly what they’re feeling and how we can help.
God is growing our patience
It’s been said that patience is the “mother of all other virtues.” Paul said that “these troubles produce patience” (Romans 5:3). As God grows your patience, He will also help you to grow all of the other Christlike virtues.
God is refining His character in us
Paul went on to add that not only does trouble produce patience, but “patience produces character” (Romans 5:4). During the times of difficulty and uncertainty, we become more aware of deficiencies in our character.
God is building in us an unshakable hope in His future grace
Hope is not wishful thinking; it’s well-founded believing!
I want to circle back to that word refining because I think that best sums up what God is doing in our painful times. Romans 8 tells us—The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our own spirit, assuring us that we are children of God. And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ—sharing His inheritance with Him; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory. But what of that? For I consider that the sufferings of this present time—this present life—are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred on us! (Romans 8:15-18)
So where’s God in this time of fire? He is overseeing our trial as a Perfect Refiner. Do you know how the silversmith knows he has purified the impurities from the silver ore? The silver is pure when he can see his own reflection in the silver!
In the heat of your trial, God is close to you. He knows the perfect temperature and the precise time that it will take to allow His face to be seen in you!
Sometimes you will see what God is doing through your furnace time, sometimes you won’t. But don’t ever bail out! God IS working! He is giving you a new perspective, a deeper empathy, more patience, an unshakable hope, and most of all—He is removing the impurities that will allow His face to be seen more clearly in you!
“In a word, spiritual maturity is Christlikeness.”
“Christ set the standard in everything. He was never petulant, always calm; never rebellious, always obedient; never fearful, always courageous; never vacillating, always resolute; never pessimistic, always cheerful; never subtle, always sincere; never grasping, always generous; never acting from expediency, always from principle. He is the pattern of spiritual maturity.”
“So then our spiritual maturity or immaturity is seen in the manner in which we react to the changing circumstances of life. … It has to be learned. Is it not striking that it is recorded of Christ that ‘though He were a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation’ (Hebrews 5:8-9)? He alone was fully mature. The rest of us are ‘going on to maturity.’ In all of us there are some expressions of our personality in which we react immaturely instead of as mature men of God.”
“The highest manifestation of spiritual maturity is love. We are only as mature as we are mature in love.”
“God forbid that we should ever cease to love the gospel in its simplicity, but we must not be content to stay there. We must go on to appreciate increasingly the gospel in its profundity.”
“There is a place for a constructive contending for the faith. The church has degenerated sadly since Pentecostal days and the servant of the Lord has an important part to play in its revival.”
“It is possible to get to heaven without living a consecrated life, but the journey there will be barren and disappointing, since consecration is the doorway to undreamed-of joy. Neglect it, fail to seek it, and life will be greatly impoverished. Welcome it, and life becomes inexpressibly enriched.”
“When we dedicate our lives to God, He consecrate us to His service. We dedicate our lives to Him that He may work His will in us. He consecrates us to Himself that He might make us holy.”
“It has been suggested that in consecration we bring our lives to God as a blank sheet of paper with our names signed at the bottom. Confident of His love, we invite Him to fill in the details as He will.”
“It is a life separated to the glory of God. Inherent in the word ‘consecration’ is the idea of separateness. There must of necessity be separation from sin if there is to be separation to God. … The consecrated Christian hates evil, but he has a passion for the right and for the glory of God and Christ. He tests all his actions by the one standard, ‘Is this for the glory of God?’ He will do anything, suffer anything, if only God is glorified. Nothing is too costly to give to the Master.”
Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. (1 John 2:6) 
The proof of our claims is self-evident. John uses the phrase “this is how we know” 8 times in this letter, and he uses the word “know” another 35 times! 
