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. (2 Peter 1:5-8 ESV)

Something I often struggle with is the feeling that I may not be a very effective witness for Christ. It bothers me when I fail to see the fruit I hope for. Sometimes I get glimpses that maybe, just maybe, I am making a difference somewhere, but I want to see more fruit. How about you?

Let us re-read verse 8 in this passage:
“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.”

When I discovered these power-packed verses in 2 Peter, it became obvious to me that it represented a progression where each one builds upon the qualities before it. To me these verses are a model of God’s Growth Plan — a tool for increasing my effectiveness and becoming more fruitful in my witness for Christ. We might also call these verses God’s building blocks or steppingstones for Christian growth. It is an avenue to help us become more productive in our Christian walk.

The beginning of our Christian walk is when we by faith accept Christ as our Savior. This is an all-important step, but it is only the beginning, not an end in itself. If we only put this “faith card” in our pocket and continue life as usual it limits us to a lifetime of self-centered infancy, never growing in our faith or our witness for Christ.

The next step is virtue or excellence. This follows faith as it is the result of genuine repentance as we put our faith into action. We trust Jesus to help us deal with the sin in our life and to clean us up. Initial salvation through faith and repentance can bring about a quick and beautiful change in a person’s life, but there is always more growth to come when we build on these next growth steps.

To continue to grow we need knowledge. This is gained as we regularly study and focus on God’s Word. Through Bible study we build our understanding of who God is, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is. This knowledge grows our faith and helps us recognize and overcome more subtle sins as we increase in virtue. Notice how these qualities, or growth steps, continually overlap with one another.

Next, we will need to develop self-control. It is one thing to recognize and confess our sins. But dealing with them and gaining freedom from them requires self-control. Some sins may be easier to break free from while others will be more difficult and require us to lean into Jesus more and more.

When the going gets tough we need steadfastness or perseverance. This means not giving up when life’s challenges seem overwhelming. It is maintaining self-control and continuing our God-given tasks over the long haul.

I need to pause and say that each growth step is a process in itself, and growth can happen at any point at any time. They build on one another and are inter-connected. We do not have to “arrive” at one step before addressing the next step in our growth.

The virtue of godliness is a lofty goal. It is a growing thing, requiring prayerful soul searching to clean out the sins that are the hardest to recognize in ourselves. This only happens when we draw ever closer to God, and he reveals them to us.

Next is brotherly affection. We obviously will not have to wait until we have “arrived” all the other steps to begin practicing this one. Caring for one another, especially our Christian brothers and sisters, is a natural outcome of a Christlike Spirit. This comes more naturally to some than to others, and as our personalities vary, we may express brotherly, or sisterly, affection in different ways.

The highest step is love that goes beyond concern for our Christian brothers and sisters, it is the highest level of love, the totally unselfish love, that extends itself to loving even our enemies. Christ is our greatest example of this kind of love. This brings to my mind Jesus words to his disciples: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)

I am preaching to myself as I share this message. This Scripture passage reflects a life-long process in which we will not totally “arrive” until we breathe our last and cross the heavenly Jordan River.

I recently shared this message with my local Community Bible Study (CBS) class and gave the ladies this handout to keep in their Bibles. The extra verses were included as an attempt at a review of the concepts behind each of the steps. Feel free to download the handout and share if you feel so led. God’s Growth Plan handout X4.

Image credit goes to my grandson, Jonathan Huff. He created the enthusiastic fellow climbing the steps for my CBS presentation. Then he adapted it to be the woman on the handout since my audience at the time was a group of women. I stretched the steps so they wouldn’t be quite so steep. We make a good team. I’m excited to add that Jonathan is currently creating the illustrations for my upcoming alphabet book with the working title of Outside ABCs. It is being published by Ambassador International.