Many would have us think that all we need is to believe – or all we need is love – or all we need is faith to be a Christian, but it really doesn’t work that way. Some scriptures might give that impression but the Word of God is interconnected. We need to embrace all aspects of God’s instruction to become spiritually mature. For example, Galatians 5:6 tells us faith expresses itself through love. Therefore, faith and love must be interconnected.
I think 2 Peter 1 explains this very well.
Verse 1 – 4: Paul wrote this letter to those of us chosen by God to receive faith. God has given us His promises that through them we may participate in His divine nature and escape corruption in this world caused by evil desires.
Verse 5: Because of this we should be diligent or eager to add to our faith goodness and to goodness add knowledge…
Verse 6: And to knowledge add self control; to self control add perseverance; to perseverance add godliness…
Verse 7: And to godliness add brotherly kindness; to brotherly kindness add love…
Verse 8: The point is we need all of these things to be effective, productive and mature Christians.
Verse 9: If we lack them we are blind and we have forgotten all that God has done for us.
Verse 10 – 11: If we are diligent, which means it takes some effort, to add these things to our lives we are going to stand firm in Christ and not fall.
Verse 12-13: Paul says we know these things but it’s good to be reminded from time to time.
Now my intent is not to delve into faith, goodness, knowledge, godliness, kindness and love so we can have a deeper understanding of what they all mean. We can do our own Bible study about each topic if we are interested. My point is that we need all these qualities and many more such as joy, peace, patience, gentleness and so on (Galatians 5:33) to be a spiritually mature Christian.
Galatians 5:6 tells us faith expresses itself through love. Very true! But sometimes faith expresses itself through joy. And sometimes our joy may depend on how much peace we have. And sometimes our perseverance may depend on how much self control we’ve exhibited. The list is endless because these attributes can be interconnected.
It’s our job or responsibility to add these qualities to our lives. God doesn’t just funnel them into our character. But as we add them we need to realize they all work together in creating a mature Christian in the image of God.
