"Being The Best You Can Be,
For God"

In his second letter the apostle Peter wrote these words to the same "exiles of the dispersion" to which his first letter was written. Both letters are for the purpose of giving urging and advice in living the Christian life and remaining steadfast in faithfulness. "His (God's, mt) divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 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." (2 Peter 1:3-7)

Peter is reinforcing the fact that everything we need to live our lives in accordance with God's will has been handed down to us in His divine word, the Bible. Peter says, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to add to your faith virtue, knowledge, self-control (perseverance), godliness, brotherly kindness and love. He is giving advice to both Jewish and Gentile Christians on how to "BE THE BEST THEY CAN BE, FOR GOD." There is no greater expression of living for Jesus, every day, than that found in these words. They mean the same to us in the present day that they did to our brethren so long ago.

Peter has given us a recipe for BEING THE BEST YOU CAN BE, FOR GOD! The spirit of this admonition is not that we do it once and then go about our business. We are to set about, every day, to increase in these Christian virtues. We need to understand that the words imply much more than feelings. The words "steadfastness," "godliness," "brotherly affection," and "love" urge us to action. They should make us active in the Lord's work at Neely's Bend Church of Christ. We should always evaluate ourselves in these categories and continue to better ourselves going forward.