Godly Arithmetic

(a homily by Simon Peter and Dick Pickens)


PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 

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. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. 

10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-11, NIV)

 

 

REFLECTIONS:

I remember when, in elementary school, we took up the subject of arithmetic.

As I understood it, arithmetic was the step you had to take before you got to study “math.”

Then algebra and geometry — Now that was really big boy stuff. 

To me arithmetic was exciting, but also a little scary.

Suddenly we had to memorize things like  8 + 7 = 15.

(That was one that stumped me for a while.  I still have to say some of them out loud.)

At first it took a real effort!  But I was thrilled to be learning arithmetic. 

I doubt that Simon Peter ever studied arithmetic.

He was a simple fisherman, not your Harvard scholar.

(These days that may be a positive, given what some higher education has become!) 

But I guess Peter could count and measure.

After all, a fisherman has to count his catch and measure the bigger ones.

(Surely Peter remembered a time he couldn’t count high enough.  It was that huge catch when Jesus told him to cast his net on the right side of the boat!  — John 21:6)

So many and so heavy the net probably tore!  (If anything pains a fisherman, it’s the ones that got away!) 

I doubt that Peter was much on higher math,

and yet one of his most fascinating teachings was the one about addition.

It was in 2 Peter 1, starting in verse 5 where he wrote

(or dictated to a scribe) the following: 

“Make every effort to add …” 

Yep, this uneducated disciple and Apostle was teaching folks to ADD! 

And his lesson is outstanding among the gems in Scripture,

A formula we should all memorize.

Memorizing takes effort.

But we should make every effort to do this addition. 

Our addition should start with the “given” that all Christians must start with: 

faith. 

Our Christian journey starts with faith —

faith that Jesus is who he said He is (and who God said Jesus is).

But that’s not the Master’s full formula for us.

And Peter knew that we must add to that. 

What should we add first? 

goodness. 

Our beginning faith needs to vastly modify the impression people have of us.

So to faith God wants us to add goodness. 

How often I remember someone I really admired in my youth:

the city judge in my hometown municipal court — Judge Albritton.

my sophomore English teacher in Jacksonville High School — Miss Boles.

my first pastor — Brother Claude R. Meadows … 

When I speak of people like them I instinctively find myself saying:

“He was a good man” or “she was a good woman.” 

Folks like these were always people of faith who obviously added to their faith “goodness.” 

But there is more addition to perform. 

Peter says we must add to goodness: 

knowledge. 

Our Christian education must always continue.

Peter is saying to apply yourself to learn all you can about the tenets of your faith.

The point is to correctly handle the word of God as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15. 

Yes, I know that Ecclesiastes says “much study is a weariness…” (12:12),

yet that preacher was not referring to the kind of study Peter and Paul encouraged. 

Mere intellectual learning is empty,

but when you add God’s kind of education to faith and goodness,

you are now on God’s road to a beneficial life. 

More addition — then Peter said, “add to your knowledge: 

self control. 

Now there is a hard lesson for some of us.

How many highly educated people have you known who flunked the self-control course!

Yet without that certification you lose your supposed goodness and your education is of limited value,

not to mention your faith! 

Now once you attain self-control, what more is could you possibly need?

Peter said we will need: 

perseverance (per meaning  through + severe meaning difficulty) 

The people who “hang in” with character through severe times and events

become saints like Corrie Ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and even Peter.

But severe times are not only past-tense — expect them in the near future! 

Peter is not finished adding — he says we must even add to our perseverance: 

“Godliness.” 

That is something which probably cannot be added until you have mastered the first five: 

Faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, and perseverance. 

When you attain Godliness (God-likeness or the mind of Christ) you may lose a few “friends,”

but some of those may be the kind you SHOULD lose. 

Remember — Godliness is not an “aura” you take on or how others view you.

Rather it is a whole new way for you to view others. 

And it brings on Peter’s next arithmetic ingredient — mutual affection.

Peter uses here the Greek word philia (brotherly love).

You may have noticed that Christ can cause you to feel affection for some folks who are unlovable. 

Now that brings the last and ultimate element in God’s arithmetic , another kind of love!

not just human affection or ordinary philia,

but a uniquely Christian word for “love” — agape.

It is doubtful this word even existed before the New Testament.

Try finding it in pre-Christian writings!

Christians either coined it or adopted a very rare word missing from the common Greek usage. 

None of the common words for “love” could communicate the concept of their AGAPE love.

It’s that indescribably powerful love which can only originate from the throne of God.

As John wrote in I John 4:19: “We LOVE because He first LOVED US.”

Peter was also using a form of that same new word John had used. 

Peter’s concluding punch line is powerful.

He says that if we really do this kind of arithmetic, we will not be ineffective and unproductive.   

Nice going, Peter!  Until I read your second letter, I never realized you were such a deep thinker.

But, for the record, it seems to me this is more than a mere lesson in “addition.”

To me this all adds up to “sanctification.”