Recently the congregation I serve added stepping stones through a garden on the church grounds. This path makes the garden more accessible, but it also creates a nice shortcut from one side of the building to another. Our reading from 2 Peter today talks about something like spiritual stepping stones, though in this case there is no shortcut involved.
“For this very reason,” we read, “you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance and endurance with godliness and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Notice that the list begins with faith, which is as it should be. Faith, a gift to us from God, is what allows us to enter into the process and to take the first steps along the path of discipleship. But the passage reminds us that as those who have faith we “must make every effort” to support that faith with goodness. In other words, once we find ourselves on the journey along the path of faith the next step is to seek goodness. To take that step, however, we need knowledge such as we find in study, prayer, and involvement within the community of faith. And on it goes, from knowledge which requires self-control, to endurance which is supported by godliness, and finally mutual affection which is built upon love. Take out any of the steps and you will find the way blocked. Try to move along the path too quickly and you are apt to find yourself falling by the wayside. What we need are intentional, thoughtful steps, taken with confidence in God’s guidance.
Ah, but this is no ordinary path. We do not travel along it once to its conclusion. Instead we must travel each of the steps continually, so that one step supports and encourages all the others. After all faith is supported by love as much as it is by endurance. And godliness is as dependant on goodness as it is on mutual affection. And, as I’ve said, this is no shortcut of a path, but a lifelong process of loving and enduring and being faithful in goodness, knowledge, and godliness. But if we stay on the path, or continue with the process, we know we are moving in the proper direction. And that is good news.
Prayer: O God, help us to live our faith day in and day out according to your will. Amen.
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