Our culture often unconciously plays the word association game. You know, when I say a word, you blurt out the first thing that pops into your head. For example, at the word “supplement,” many people would immediately think of a nutrition supplement, something we take because our diet is somehow deficient. But Peter says something quite interesting in 2 Peter 1:5-8 which causes us to question the idea of supplements always fulfiling a deficiency:

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 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 first question we must ask is what Peter is referring to when he says “For this very reason.” It seems that he is drawing from the verses immediately prior (1:3-4) which discuss the fact that God has granted us “all things that pertain to life and godliness” and that through God’s “precious and very great promises” we have “escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” This is the context from which Peter buids, beginning “For this very reason.”

Peter goes on to say that we ought to “supplement” our faith. This initially seems shocking, doesn’t it? Supplement my faith? Is Peter saying that faith is not enough? We know that Scripture does not contradict Scripture and that Paul says that we are “justified by faith” (Romans 3:28), so that is not what Peter means. John Piper says here that probably “the most important thing to notice here is that this command is based on verses 3 and 4 which are not a command but a description of what God has done for us.” In other words, God has already provided the strength, He has already provided the faith, therefore, we must pursue what follows, because we’ve already been given the ability.

This section is one where at least a slight knowledge of the Greek becomes helpful. It does not say that we should somehow “add” to our faith. Rather, it communicates the idea of an outflow or a furnishing. Peter seems to be saying that each of these progressive elements will flow from the previous and prove the existence of the preceding and that none can be had without the others. Piper argues that it might be rendered as:

“as you have obtained faith in Christ and stand in it, now apply yourselves diligently to advance in moral excellence, and as you stand in that do not be satisfied but press on to increase in your knowledge of God’s will, and as you stand in that do not be satisfied but be diligent to enlarge your capacities of self-control and mastery of your passions, and as you stand in that don’t be satisfied but cultivate every form of patience and serenity, and in that let devoutness and piety and sweet love to God flourish, and in that strive to kindle your affection for other believers, and in and through it all grow in love to all men.”

Again we are faced with a delicate balance. It is God who has provided the strength, but we must exercise it and we must grow. A true believer will not be stagnant, they will be growing and Peter tells us the specific areas where they will grow. As Peter continues, he reveals the earnestness of his plea. In verses 8 and 9, he says:

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. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins

How judgmental and unloving are such words to our ears! How dare you judge the spiritual health of another believer we cry! Who are you to judge we whine! But Peter is clear, if we don’t have these qualities, we are blind and don’t understand salvation! He doesn’t say with certainty that the person in question is not saved, but he comes awfully close, doesn’t he? The implication here is that we are to love one another enough to prod and poke along the way. If we have these qualities (and we are increasing in them), we will be effective and fruiftul. If we lack them, we are blind and don’t understand salvation. Oh, our churches desperately need these stern words. Oh, how we need to be reminded of the drastic and complete nature of salvation!