2 Peter 1:5-7
"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self control, and in your self control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love."
Step 1: Faith
Step 2: Moral excellence (virtue)
Step 3: Knowledge
Step 4: Self control (temperance)
Step 5: Perseverance (patience, endurance)
Step 6: Godliness
Step 7: Brotherly kindness (brotherly love)
Step 8: Love (charity)
The Bible talks a whole lot about love. The word love here is agape, which is the same word that Romans 5:8 uses when talking about Christs love for us.
- "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Christs love for us was so great that even when we were filthy wretched sinners He laid down His life for us. And now He calls us to have this same love.
This is how we are identified as His.
- John 13:35 - "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
We need to follow His selfless example.
- John 15:13 - "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."
Love edifies (1 Cor 8:1) - Love is the bond of perfection (Col 3:14) - Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8) - Love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom 13:10) - Love serves (Gal 5:13) - We're told to - Speak the truth in Love (Eph 4:15) - Be rooted and grounded in love (Eph 3:17) - Know love (Eph 3:19) - Walk in love (Eph 5:2) I could go on and on, but the chapter that comes to mind when talking about love is 1 Corinthians 13:
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
It can't be said any better than that.
"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self control, and in your self control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love."
Step 1: Faith
Step 2: Moral excellence (virtue)
Step 3: Knowledge
Step 4: Self control (temperance)
Step 5: Perseverance (patience, endurance)
Step 6: Godliness
Step 7: Brotherly kindness (brotherly love)
Step 8: Love (charity)
The Bible talks a whole lot about love. The word love here is agape, which is the same word that Romans 5:8 uses when talking about Christs love for us.
- "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Christs love for us was so great that even when we were filthy wretched sinners He laid down His life for us. And now He calls us to have this same love.
This is how we are identified as His.
- John 13:35 - "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
We need to follow His selfless example.
- John 15:13 - "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."
Love edifies (1 Cor 8:1) - Love is the bond of perfection (Col 3:14) - Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8) - Love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom 13:10) - Love serves (Gal 5:13) - We're told to - Speak the truth in Love (Eph 4:15) - Be rooted and grounded in love (Eph 3:17) - Know love (Eph 3:19) - Walk in love (Eph 5:2) I could go on and on, but the chapter that comes to mind when talking about love is 1 Corinthians 13:
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
It can't be said any better than that.
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