359. Earnestly Contend For The Faith

2 Peter 1-3, Jude 1

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;     And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;     And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.     For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.     But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.   2 Peter 1:5-9

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.   Jude 1:3

These are things you need to work on to build your faith. It starts, as Jude puts it, with the common salvation. But we need to contend for the faith. To grow further than the basics. We start by adding virtue, which is valor or excellence. Then to virtue we add knowledge. To knowledge, temperance, which is self control. To temperance we add patience and to patience, godliness. After we add godliness we add brotherly kindness and then we take brotherly kindness a step further and add charity which is a far deeper love than just being kind. If you add all these things to your faith, you will be a fruitful Christian. But if you don't you are blind and soon forget about even your salvation. Are you virtuous, knowledgeable, temperate, patient, godly, kind, and charitable? If not, you need to start putting the work into your faith and allow God to build these things into your life and character.

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