II Peter 1:5-11
…Applying all diligence in your faith, --
Being sure your belief results in trusting God.
supply moral excellence, --
This faith will lead to a high personal moral standard.
and in your moral excellence, knowledge; --
This will lead into a deeper understanding in your knowledge of the things of God.
and in your knowledge, self-control, --
This deeper knowledge will strengthen you in having better control of your natural urges.
and in your self-control, perseverance, --
This perseverance will keep us steady in our walk with God.
and in your perseverance, godliness, --
Behavior that recognizes that God is the ultimate Judge of my actions.
and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, --
This attitude will lead to treating others with the kindness that would be given to a beloved brother in one's own family.
and in your brotherly kindness, love. --
Treating even strangers and people who are our enemies in this manner will lead us into the agape love of the Father toward us; that deep, true, unconditional love that will pay any cost, make the greatest sacrifice, for the one loved.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. --
If we continue to build these qualities into our lives and attitudes, then God will be able to use us in His work, and we will bear much fruit, in spreading the knowledge of our Lord.
For he who lacks these qualities is blind, or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
Someone who fails to display these qualities in their life has either never received the light of the Spirit (blind), or is so shallow that they cannot see the long-term effects of their actions (short-sighted, myopic). Anyone in this state needs to re-examine if they ever did repent, allowing God to purify them of their past sins through the death of Jesus.
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; --
If God called you to Himself and chose you to be a member of His own family, then you will carefully examine your "salvation experience" to make certain that you really did realize that Jesus took your deserved death for you on His cross, paying in full for all your sins, past, present and future.
for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble, --
When we continually work on doing these things, being this way, then we will not be vulnerable to making wrong choices in the heat of the moment.
For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
This just means that we can be sure we are really saved, and will certainly go to Heaven if we die, or be translated directly into His 1000-year reign at the Rapture.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
