2 Peter 1:5 “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;”

2 Peter 1:6 “And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;”

2 Peter 1:7 “And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”

Do you have a faith… THE faith… that adds up? I hope your walk with God that you claim to have truly adds up. And same for me! In fact, before I worry about yours, I should look at my own! And that’s what I’ve been doing. I have been looking at my profession of faith and wondering if it all adds up. Does my Christianity add up? Does what I say add up to what I do? Does what I profess add up to what I practice? Does what I believe add up to salvation and eternal life?

But that’s not really what this blog is about in terms of adding up! Because I’m more talking today about faith that adds up in terms of these questions that follow… which are… Have you added to your faith since you got saved? And do you have a faith that can and has added to those around you? I hope you do. I hope I do too! Because a faith that has been added to, and a faith that adds to others… is the faith that adds up!

Today we are going to consider this word “add”… obviously! you might say… and consider the “faith that adds up”. There’s only one faith that adds up, and it’s the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hopefully that is the faith you have. But the Bible teaches here in 2 Peter chapter 1 that there are things that we are meant to add to our faith, and if this was a Christian character checklist… well, may I be excused!? Because this is where we see how far short we are falling of the abundant life in Christ that God has for us!

I’ve been thinking about these verses in 2 Peter 1, not just today as I write this, but in the recent year, as I’ve looked at my own walk with God, and it’s been timely, particularly as a little later on in this chapter… we are commanded to do just exactly that! … In that we are meant to take a good honest look at what our faith really is worth and where we are at with God… and particularly in light of these verses quoted above.

How many of these things which are supposed to be added on to our faith are missing entirely, or they are just an irregular pulse or ectopic beat in our Christian life, often just barely making a cameo in our Christian profession! And look at charity, looking so far out of reach over there! And yet without charity… I am nothing… so God please give me charity! Don’t give it because of me… give it in spite of me!

We as Christians can talk about not getting self righteous and think we are hitting some virtuous high notes in our faith walk, but realistically, how are we doing with that godliness and brotherly kindness and charity? Man this is like a sledgehammer blow to what I thought I had in terms of Christian development. And yet if these things aren’t there… what kind of a life am I truly living?

So the question for me is, which I have been facing… has my salvation through Jesus Christ added to my life? After salvation, where I believed in Jesus Christ to save me from my sins, has God added on to that? In other words, have I grown as a Christian? This honestly is like a Christian growth checklist, and a pretty needful appointment here made for me in the word of God, but providing me with a valuable occasion to much needed honest and sincere self evaluation before God.

… But like most checklists, if we are being honest, they reveal where we lack and would like to be, not where we are. You’d have to be fairly audacious to claim to be in possession of all these additions to Biblical faith… and yet there are Christians who do have these, who’s lives are marked by these, even though they’re “not perfect”… but I can only and must look at myself. And I don’t think I’m faring too well here, so God have mercy on me a sinner.

It doesn’t matter how you are performing according to others, how are you performing according to the Holy Spirit in your life? How are you measuring up to God personally? Are you the kind of person that you would like if you met you? I remember how when Nathan told the parable about the wayfaring man to David, and David got VERY angry at the wayfaring man who stole another man’s little lamb. He wanted to kill him! What David didn’t realize was that the parable was about… himself! If you watched your life like you watch a movie, what would you think of the guy or girl in the film you were watching?

The fact is though, if there is no addition to my faith, then my faith hasn’t added to me first and foremost as it was meant to do, Jesus is meant to be a pretty big factor in our lives! … but also I obviously then can’t add to others around me either… and so then what was the point? We are not meant to spend years in arrested development… we are brought out of that past life of sin… to go somewhere. And that somewhere is the promised land for our life. If a baby doesn’t develop and grow up, you’d think somethings not right there… well as a Christian, if we don’t grow after salvation… and if your salvation is not going where God meant it to be… well, there is a problem!

See, here in 2 Peter, God tells us through his word that we should not be “barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Which make sense, because how could knowing God and having Jesus dwelling in our hearts by faith and endued with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead being present in our lives… how could that not produce something remotely higher than human nature, which is the divine nature, in our lives? I’ve met some Christians in my light a whole lot more “divine” in nature than me, and it actually made me feel awkward and uncomfortable. Was it their fault… or my fault? Yeah, the latter. When I’m not right with God, I struggle around people who are. … But as I’ve gone along, I’ve realized I want a life better than what I’m settling for. Not to impress others, or pass someone else’s assessment, or meet someone else’s expectations… for me, it’s that I’ve realize that there is a quality of Christian life out there far beyond which most of us ever know of, let alone live. … which we should all earnestly desire to have. No I’m not speaking about worldly riches… I’m speaking about the true riches in Christ.

I think in the recent year I have never felt more barren or unfruitful or lacking in my life! Hmm, so what’s going on there. And I’ve looked at situations and circumstances and blamed them. I’ve blamed God, then blamed myself. Then rationalized it all out. Then spent time in denial. … and then time in despond, doubt and despair. But God really wanted me to look at myself only. See, we kind of think that God changing our situation will make us… and it would help!… but what really “makes us” is these things listed in addition to our faith being added to our lives. Because the Bible right here in 2 Peter tells us what really and truly makes us. And God gives good gifts and good things, but those are only good if they’re actually producing good in our lives. Why would God give us things which only increase our sin, increase our independence of him, foster our disobedience, accomplice our rebellion and which would take us further from the divine nature and the abundant life he has for us?

I’ve been forced to confront the fact that my faith can sometimes look pretty lonely in the cupboard of my life. And even then, faith itself seems to be hanging by a thread at times. In fact, sometimes the cupboard just seems plain bare.

But I do believe God has been adding to my life spiritually. And in the worst times, generally that is when God is doing the greatest work. Which I think has been happening. And I’ve realized that the key to adding these things on is actually mentioned in the verses previous… where the Bible says “his divine power”. And without his divine power… I would be sunk. I can’t do this, I can’t be that person… and God knew that… that’s why he created a new person in me! And that’s why Jesus said “ye must be born again”. No overhaul jobs with Jesus Christ! He makes all things new! Thank God for the new creature in Christ Jesus.

The Christian life takes the grace and power of God! The sooner we get to that point, and trusting his power the better for us. Boy that will save a lot of flailing and failure! We cannot add on to ourselves and perfect ourselves… that’s what this world is trying to do. That’s what religion is all about, trying to be better. Even evolution is about that, trying to evolve higher. Trying to bring something out from within that is not there. As Joseph said in Genesis to Potiphar who was earnestly seeking “the answer”… well Joseph said “it is not in me”. The answer to life is not in me… it’s in Christ! Hence, “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”.

Who and what we are meant to look to is not ourselves, but to Christ, and trust in Christ to add these things to our lives because it is when he comes to dwell in our hearts by faith that we are made “partakers of the divine nature”. Are you a partaker? Have you experienced the divine power? Here in 2 Peter we are seeing what the divine nature looks like, and charity is the mountain top of the Christian life, it is the bond of perfectness. Perfection… hasn’t God heard nobody is perfect?

If you have ever been truly saved, there is a new nature in you. It’s either all there or not at all there as the Holy Spirit is either all there… or not at all there. And it is a nature that desires God and craves the word of God. If you’re saved, there’s a new person inside you who does rejoice in truth. If you’re saved, there’s a new person inside who is growing, and who is capable of, blessed by God and who possesses all of these attributes. None of this in 2 Peter, including charity is out of reach at all. So this isn’t just a good thing to aspire to and fall short like we make it out to be.

But this new person has got to grow… and how does this new person grow? Well, the new person grows when the old person goes! And that’s our responsibility. We do have to put on this new man, and put off that old man. How do we do that? Don’t make provision for the old man for a start. Stop feeding him. Let him be crucified with Christ. And then prayer. Reading the Bible. Fellowship with believers. Communing with our Saviour. Obeying him. Believing him. Hoping in him.

Remember that the Bible does say “let us go on unto perfection”. So it is possible. And we are already perfect in Christ, but will Christ be perfected in us? Being perfect doesn’t mean we won’t battle with sin and stuff in our lives… because we have that old man until the day we die. There’s going to be warfare. Let’s not live a life pretending we are something that we are not, and how it is isn’t how it is. God doesn’t pretend stuff away, he deals with stuff. And he wants to add on to you, he didn’t just save you to get out of hell, he saved you for such a higher purpose in life… and he wants to change you, and you can be Christlike in your life, and thus befit the title of Christian that so many claim, but few of us ever truly live up to.

Ever met Christians who’s faith doesn’t add up? It’s because their faith was never added to. And it’s when we’ve added on to our faith, and not added on fake virtues, but added on through the grace and power of God in our lives… that we then can add on to other people!

Last year I was considering a verse in Galatians where Paul spoke about some people that “added nothing to me”. Hmm, at the religious conference in Jerusalem no less, where all the spiritual pedigree and all the spiritual giants were… yet who really added nothing to Paul’s faith, life, walk with God… nothing. Have you ever been to a church or around Christians where it just did nothing for you? As in they just couldn’t add to you. It’s not a self righteous thing, but empty Christianity is not what we are called to, and it’s not something I have any great desire for.

But before picking apart someone else… I myself don’t want to be like that! I want to be someone that can add, because my life adds up. And I know I don’t have a thing to offer anyone else if I’m being a religious idiot, a fake, a fraud, with false spirituality. I can’t add to other people if I’m full of pride and selfishness and hatred and lust and envy… even if I’ve managed to veil it in some kind of performance. But I do want to be able to add to someone else’s life. I do want to be able to be used by God to see people saved. I want to be able to be used by God to be a blessing to other Christians.

There are so many people in Christianity who are like the horseleech in Proverbs 30… gimme, gimme, gimme. See, they’re not doing any giving, they’re not “adding”… all they do is suck the life out of others around them, and there are many spiritual blood sucking leaches out there… and I know that’s not the nicest terminology, but that’s what this picture of the horseleech is.

So end result is… I’ve realized something… that my faith doesn’t add up and I cannot add to someone else… until I’ve made sure some things have been added to my own life… and 2 Peter lists them out here… things that if I add them, and truly it is the work of the Holy Spirit to add these things to my life… and then God can use my life to truly add to other people in their lives too.

And that’s what it’s all about. Remember, Abraham was blessed… to be a blessing. And so when we ask God to bless us, we have to remember that we are blessed to be a blessing to others. Jesus said to Peter… “when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren”. So what Peter is doing here in these epistles, as he did in his life following Christ… is that he is adding to others. His epistles have certainly added to me, I always love reading them!

We have got to get into the ministry of “addition”. God does want to add to our lives… and very much so. And God wants to see the church added to. He wants to see souls added to the kingdom of God. But this starts with personal addition, and the true sincere work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And Jesus made it easy for us to know how to add on, and maybe you’ve thought of this verse already, but what about this one… Luke 12:31 “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Christ will do the adding! And that’s either written in the Bible just to sound nice, or it’s something that God really will do for us. So seek the kingdom of God! Put God first! Would God put something before us that we could not realistically press towards? Hardly. And yeah, maybe you feel like the only part of your spiritual equation is subtraction so far, but just wait on God, and he will balance that equation soon enough as he adds the things to our life which are forever! With God, it will all add up! Remember, it takes his divine power. And the Bible says that he has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. And so let’s have the faith adds up, because it has been added to, and it adds to us and also to others.

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