⁵Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, ⁶and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, ⁷and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

What practical steps, then, do we take to live our Christian lives in active fellowship with the Lord? In one of the great “lists” of the Bible, we find seven aspirations. Each one adds to the previous, all on the foundation of faith. Faith of course comes first, for as the writer of Hebrews puts it:

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Heb. 11:6)

But faith, if it is genuine and to be lived out on the promises of God, must grow by its exercise. And seven specific exercises of faith are listed here. Some attribute significance to the order of these, one being necessary to develop first before the next. Others see them all necessary in parallel, although with relative importance. Certainly, we can see some logical progression, though all teachers of the Word would agree that all seven should be our focus, building toward the greatest of all Christian attributes, love (see 1 Cor. 13:13, where love is the pinnacle of the shorter list of faith, hope, and love).

The English translations don’t adequately convey the full weight of the pursuit. No effort should be spared in this endeavor to live our faith every day in a way that reflects our fellowship with the divine Lord Jesus. One thinks of an athlete in weight training who keeps pushing himself to become stronger, sacrificing time, disciplining his eating habits, calculating how he can push himself farther. So we should pursue with diligence these spiritual exercises:

Moral excellence: Faith, if it is real, must result in a recognizable change of life on the moral front. The term has a wide connotation (ESV: virtue, NIV: goodness). If our faith does not make a tangible difference in our life, then we have not even begun the first baby steps of the Christian life (see James 2:14-17). Faith, if it is real, produces!

Knowledge: We build on the changed life with growing knowledge of Christ. We must be mindful of Paul’s maxim, “Knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1 NKJV), lest theological insights outrun our moral excellence and we become arrogant in our knowledge. Only as we put into practice what we have learned, are we in a position to learn more. (To be continued.)

Lord, help me grow solidly in my faith, with the right priorities.