Knowing Christ

6 min read

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— 2 Peter 1:5-8

What is the reason for which we are to make this kind of effort? Through God’s glory and goodness, God has given to us “great and precious promises.” And the reason God has given us those great and precious promises is so that through those promises, we might “participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (verse 4).

Through faith and the gift of the Holy Spirit that comes with it, we are no longer prisoners of our sinful nature. But even if we find ourselves struggling in our sin, through faith, we have the promise of forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and the irrevocable inheritance of God’s eternal kingdom.

Of course, participating in the “divine nature” also comes with the calling that God has given to us to bear witness to Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.

So then, we have to make every effort to accumulate and purse the divine nature, so that we will not be “ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 8)—in other words, so that we will not be ineffective and unproductive in bearing witness to Jesus Christ.

Knowing Jesus does not mean knowing about Jesus. Knowing Jesus means to know Jesus personally because we are walking with Him. And walking with Jesus means that we go where He goes, do what He does, and say what He says.

Mimicking our Lord Jesus Christ is what it means to know Jesus. Mimicking our Lord Jesus is what it means to bear witness to Him. Mimicking our Lord Jesus is what it means to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Mimicking our Lord Jesus is how we bear fruit. That’s what makes us Christian.

The word “Christian” literally means “Christ’s.” Through faith and by God’s grace, we belong to Christ. And if we belong to Christ, if we are Christian, we have been called to bear fruit (John 15:16; Romans 7:4).

We must make every effort to not let the devil deceive us. The devil wants us to live our lives as if knowing about Jesus is good enough. It’s not.

The devil is constantly on the prowl looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). And that “someone” may be someone we love. Our witness may be the only thing that snatches someone from the devil’s teeth. We must not be satisfied just because we ourselves are saved.

And so I must make every effort to add to my faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, love, and whatever other fruit of the Spirit God has in store for me, so that I might bear witness to Jesus Christ in this dark world that needs Him so much.

Father, thank You for saving me. For myself, my family, and this Canvas community, I pray that You would help us to make every effort to be effective and productive witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ by going where He goes, doing what He does, and saying what He says. In Jesus’s name. Amen.