2 Peter 1:8 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.
The end product of all of the virtues and character qualities of verses 5-7 is to know better Jesus Christ. Knowing Christ was Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 and Philippians 3:7-11. Several words stand out to me in this verse. The first is “increasing.” We should not be stagnate, passive Christians who do nothing to develop ourselves. Faith should grow and lead to love. Peter gives a clear path for that in these verses. We should not remain baby Christians in our knowledge of Jesus. Sadly, this is the case in many churches. People have not delved deeply into relational knowledge of Jesus. At best, they may have a child’s Sunday School answer type knowledge. How can we develop this deeper relationship? Digging into the Bible and responding to it in obedient faith is a good start. And then, as we go through life, we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us the mind of Christ and develop a loving character within us. A second word is “ineffective.” Many Christians wonder how to be more effective witnesses or even to find victory in life. Ineffectiveness comes from using the wrong source of strength and wisdom. If we find our values from the world, we will end up ineffective. By the world, this can mean our own thinking, humanism, culture, family, and many other things that point a different direction. A final word is “unfruitful.” This is similar in idea to ineffective but has the connotation of results that should produce more life. If any of the qualities of verses 5-7 are missing, our ability to be part of God’s harvest will not very much. Our own growth will be stifled and we will not be able to lead and disciple others. The key thought is to grow in our knowledge of Christ through developing our faith and character qualities. The end result will be recreation into the image of God as God has purposed for all humanity.
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