QT 26 Oct 16, 2 Pet 1:5-8, The cycle of Christian growth

2 Peter 1:5–8 (ESV) — 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

NOTE: The "reason," is the need to escape the corruption in the world. The tools are the promises of God, his word. The process is spiritual growth, a recipe that requires both the power of the Spirit (not mentioned here but mentioned in other passages) and human effort. And the process is cyclical, because one quality leads to another; and also because the author says that "if the qualities are yours and increasing," suggesting that even from the beginning step of faith, we are to increase more. So we are always or should always be in this cycle of growing our faith, then virtue, then knowledge, then self-control, then steadfastness, then godliness, then brotherly affection, and then finally love. As we discover weakness in our life, one of the interesting insights is that the problem may be on the preceding quality. So if I am struggling with brotherly affection, then maybe I need to step back and work more on godliness. I need to meditate more on the implications of this idea. Finally, when we are growing, the promise is that we will not be ineffective or unfruitful.