“All I know most surely about morality and obligation I owe to football”,
Living it out
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 2 Peter 1: 5-7Being a Christian is not about being religious, not about performing certain religious rituals. It is about believing that Jesus died for you, having a relationship with him and living it out.
How do you live it out? Peter suggests 7 key words
• goodness;
• knowledge;
• self-control;
• perseverance;
• godliness;
• mutual affection;
• love
We know that we cannot earn our salvation by our good work but remember what James wrote: “But someone will say, ‘Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds’” (James 2:18). We are to live out our faith by doing good works.
I once read a great definition of repentance: “Repentance is not simply a ‘once for all’ event – rather it is a continual alignment of the direction of our lives, so that we keep in step with God”. (John Stephenson).
Living out our faith involves that continual alignment of the direction of our lives with God. Over the next six weeks we will look at what Peter’s keywords look like in practice (and in competition!)