Have you ever felt spiritually anemic? If you’re not sure, what might be some symptoms?
Ineffective? You just feel stuck, making little (if any) progress. You’ve been spinning your spiritual wheels for a while and you’ve ended up in quite a rut. Now you’re idle. You know you can and should do more, be more, but complacency has settled in and lukewarmness has started to feel comfortable, despite the fact that you know that’s a dangerous place to be.
Unfruitful? You’ve disengaged. You’re going through the outward motions, but inwardly you’re inactive. Unplugged. You’re withering on the inside and you know that’s unhealthy because the lack of vitality, focus, and zeal on the inside is affecting more and more on the outside. You know you can’t keep up the hypocritical charade for long.
Blind? You’ve lost your way. You’re struggling to remember what it was like to walk in the light. You actively wonder if you could ever really be forgiven of your past, experience joy in the present, or hold hope for the future.
Falling? You’re not nearly as steady as you once were. In fact, you’re crashing. When you’re honest with yourself, you know you’re teetering on the brink of spiritual disaster. It’s not difficult at all to imagine losing everything. Problem is, you don’t know how you drifted so far in the first place and you’re not sure you have what it takes to get back.
Ineffective, unfruitful, blind, and falling. That’s a bad place to be. But if any of that hits close to home, did you know there’s a God-breathed prescription?
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet 1:5-11)
When essential vitamins and minerals are lacking in our physical diets, doctors often prescribe supplements. Something vital is missing, something helpful and life-giving needs to be added. For the anemic soul, the great Physician has been pointing for 2,000 years to the essential supplements, the spiritual building blocks of an abundant, joy-filled, steady, fully-equipped life. What are those supplements?
Faith. Virtue. Knowledge. Self-control. Steadfastness. Godliness. Brotherly affection. Love.
Why is the world around us in the state that it is? The Creator provides the diagnosis in 2 Peter 1: “the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” All the perversion, depravity, immorality, and evil we see “out there” is because of sinful desire “in here”–within our own God-given hearts. It’s corruption without, corruption within, and here’s the bottom line: untreated corruption results in death. But that’s not your Creator’s desire for you.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement… (1:3-5)
The diagnosis has led to a prescription. Something vital is missing, something helpful and life-saving needs to be added. Faith supplemented by virtue. Virtue supplemented by knowledge, Knowledge supplemented by self-control. Self-control supplemented by steadfastness. Steadfastness supplemented by godliness. Godliness supplemented by brotherly affection. Brotherly affection supplemented by love. That’s the divine prescription for abundant life that produces excellence and leads to glory.
Is it really that straightforward? It’s right there in 2 Peter 1 of the New Testament in the Bible. Corruption or glory? Which outcome? Which do I want? Which story will be mine? Well, it depends. Do I believe the Physician’s diagnosis? What will I do with his prescription?
These qualities can be yours. They can be increasing day by day in your heart for the good of your soul and the blessing of the people around you. They don’t always come naturally. These qualities have to be practiced. But if you do? If you trust this Physician enough to apply his prescription? These supplements will keep you from being ineffective, unfruitful, or blind. Practice them and you’ll never fall. Live them out and an entrance into the eternal kingdom of Jesus will be richly provided for you.
“For this very reason, make every effort…” That’s a challenge worth taking seriously today.