This is the sixth blog in the 2 Peter 1 series and the third lesson on the chain Peter lays out. Faith was the foundation. We spent two blogs there because nothing else can stand without it. Now Peter tells us where to go next.
2 Peter 1:5, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.”
Diligence describes the energy with which we are supposed to approach the Christian life, while faith is the foundation we build upon. Virtue is the first thing you stack on top of it. Believing right has to turn into living right, or it never really took root. A man who says he has faith and lives like the world is a man whose faith never grew. Peter does not give us the option of stopping at faith. He says add to it.
Webster 1828 Definition
Virtue is moral goodness. The practice of moral duties and the abstaining from vice. A conformity of life and conversation to the moral law. It is also strength and bravery. Acting power. Something that actually produces an effect.
Virtue is acting power. It shows up in how a man lives.
The opposite of virtue is wickedness and moral corruption.
The Picture of Virtue: Joseph
If you want to see virtue, look at Joseph. Sold by his brothers, hauled to Egypt, bought as a slave, and put in Potiphar’s house. Potiphar’s wife went after him every day. Nobody from his family or Israel was watching. He was a young man, alone, in a foreign country, with a woman throwing herself at him over and over.
Genesis 39:9, “There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
He did not negotiate or flirt with it. He fled. He left his coat in her hand and ran out of the house, and he went to prison for it. Joseph would rather sit in a dungeon clean than sit in a palace dirty. This is what virtue looks like.
The young man in a strange country with no one watching who still says, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God.”
The Block of Marble
A good sculptor looks at a block of marble and believes there is a statue hidden inside it, and his job is to take away the extra material to unveil what was there all along.
You are that block of marble. You have been quarried by divine grace and set apart for the Master. The image of Christ is already in there. Your job, with the chisel and the mallet of constant effort and holy dependence on God, is to work that image out of yourself until everybody around you can see Christ in you.
That is what virtue is. The Christ in you, chiseled out into your daily life, until the people around you can see Him.
Called to Virtue
God Himself calls every Christian to virtue. One of the reasons He saved you was so He could pull you out of the corruption of the world and into the moral excellence of Christ.
2 Peter 1:3, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”
1 Peter 1:15-16, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
1 Thessalonians 4:7, “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.”
God did not save you so you could keep living the way you used to. He called you to glory and virtue. He called you to holiness. The man who got saved and is still walking in the same filth needs to ask whether he ever heard the call at all.
Focus on Virtue
If you want a virtuous life, you have to set your mind on virtuous things. The mind always leads the man. Whatever fills the thoughts shapes the walk.
Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Colossians 3:2, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
Virtue starts in the thought life. A man who thinks on pure things lives a pure life, and a man who lets his mind run anywhere ends up walking anywhere too. The fight for virtue is won or lost in the mind long before it ever shows up in the body. Guard the inputs, the screens, what you read and what you listen to. Whatever you let in is what you will eventually live out.
Living Virtuously
Virtue is not a feeling; it is a way of living, day in and day out, in the world we are still in. Paul lays out exactly what it looks like.
Titus 2:11-12, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”
1 Peter 2:11-12, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they behold, glorify God.”
Romans 13:13-14, “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Virtue is two-handed. You push wickedness away with one hand and you put on the Lord Jesus Christ with the other. Denying the bad alone does not work. The empty house gets filled by something worse. You have to put off and put on at the same time.
The Crown of Virtue
Solomon lays out virtue for the home, especially for the wife and mother. The Bible makes a big deal about a virtuous woman because she is rare and because she lifts up everybody around her.
Proverbs 12:4, “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.”
Proverbs 31:10, “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”
Proverbs 31:30, “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.”
Ruth 3:11, “And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou shalt say: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.”
A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. A man without virtue brings shame on his whole house. Virtue at home is not a small thing. It is the difference between a home that is a refuge and a home that is a ruin.
Living This Out
Virtue is built one decision at a time. Guard your eyes. What you let your eyes feed on is what your heart will chase. Watch your mouth. No gossip, no off-color jokes, no foul language, no tearing people down.
Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”
Flee temptation, do not flirt with it. Joseph did not stay and argue with Potiphar’s wife. He ran away. Be the same man in private that you are in public. Keep your word, even when it costs you.
Psalm 15:4, “He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.”
Settle moral lines ahead of time, before you are in the moment. Dress and carry yourself modestly. Choose your friends carefully, because the company a man keeps will either pull him up or drag him down. Fill your mind with what is pure, and confess sin quickly when you stumble.
That is the chisel and the mallet. One blow at a time, the image of Christ comes out of the marble. The next blog stacks on the next step. Peter says to add to your virtue knowledge, and that is where we are going next.
