“3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 4 By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.

5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self- control, self- control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. 11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.”
2 Peter 1:3-11
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Look again at verses 8 and 9.
Read them slowly and understand what is being said.

“If these qualities are yours” – If these things define your life and character, if they are part of what makes you ‘you’ now that you claim Christ, then this is evidence of Christ at work in you through the Holy Spirit. This isn’t meant to convey guilt, as if to add pressure, but rather they are an indicator that what is happening in your heart, mind and soul isn’t just you or your own human will. This is Christ at work in you, and that is a very, very good thing. “If these qualities are yours” is an inclusion into righteousness through Jesus. “If these qualities are yours” is a sign of hope for what is yet to come in you and through you.

“…and are increasing…” – if these wondrous qualities at work in you aren’t merely present, but they are active, moving, growing and increasing, that is further evidence that the Holy Spirit has been given freedom (by your will & desire) to do these things in a way that allows and promotes growth. If these qualities are yours, and you take ownership of these new characteristics brought into being in you through the grace of God in Christ, then you will grow in Him. These blessings of faith will increase in you because you are taking the work of Christ in your heart seriously and you are allowing that investment to take hold, letting pride and the desires of the flesh go, in order that Christ may do a greater work in you and through you.

None of this is to your credit, a boost to your ego, it is simply the evidence of Jesus Christ being revealed in you through the work of the Spirit.

“If these qualities are yours, and are increasing” is simply a sign of faith at work, and God gets the glory for every moment.

Peter goes on to say that the lack of these qualities is evidence to the contrary, as we would expect. If we are not growing in our faith, then we have forgotten what Christ has done in us and have been distracted by the world or our own flesh.

Faith must grow.

This is a non-negotiable. Faith must be allowed to flourish, to take new steps, to win over new territory in our hearts. We must press on to new precipices of wonder in Christ and trust Him enough to take new steps of faith, in increasing measure, over those precipices and into new realms of discovery in Him. If we relegate our faith to what we deem as safe and we never take these steps, then we are showing a lack of faith, a lack of trust and a lack of hope in Him to do these things that He has promised to do in us.

Faith must grow if it is to be healthy, effective and real. It cannot stagnate, always staying in the same place. I was baptized into Christ at age eight, and if my faith remained at the same place from the day I was baptize until today, my faith would be frail and my walk would be small. Not to say my faith was insufficient when I came to Christ, it was definitely enough. But almost 30 years later, I should hope that my faith has matured, grown and increased quite a lot. A man who stops physically growing at age eight needs to be examined by a doctor. A Christian who stops growing the moment they are baptized in Christ remains an infant, and their faith life will be anemic as best.

If we are to take the call of Christ seriously to GoLove in His Name, we must grow in our faith, we must take new steps in Him, trust more in Him and let Him do what needs to be done, rather than weakly relying on self to ‘get the job done.’ Because ‘if these qualities are yours and are increasing’ you have a life of wonder, promise and joy laid out ahead of you. This is a promise: “11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly supplied to you.”