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Welcome to the final episode of our Evidence of Spiritual Life series where we have been looking for these evidences in our lives. If we haven’t easily found them, that may have meant that we didn’t possess spiritual life in the first place, or it represents the next step in our spiritual maturity.

I know that there isn’t enough time in a podcast episode to truly give these topics the scope and detail that is required, but I pray that you have been able to truly step back and look at your life in an honest, biblical way. 

If you are truly born again by the Holy Spirit into Christ and an eternal relationship with God the Father, then these evidences will be in your life . . . and they will be growing. That’s so important to realize. We must not allow ourselves to believe the lie that spiritual life stagnates, plateaus, or slips backward.

No, spiritual life is sanctification from one degree of glory to another as we’re conformed to the image of Christ.

Alright, before moving on, I want to remind you that if you use Amazon to do your shopping, you can visit TruthLoveParent.com and use any of our Amazon affiliate links to get to the website. If you use one of our links, most of what you purchase will result in Amazon paying us a commission. You pay the same price you always would, and Evermind benefits from it.

And also be sure to check out CelebrationOfGod.com to sign up for our new Evermind App as well as access our episode notes, transcript, and life resources from our blog.

And—with that—let’s try to tackle the amazing, overwhelming, massive, and eternally important topic called love.

Let’s start by reading II Peter 1:5-7, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.”

1. Introduction

As I said earlier, we’re not going to be able to do much more than scratch the surface of this topic. So, what I hope this does is that a truly born again believer who is growing in their knowledge of God and the Bible should want to continue their study. This episode should whet your appetite and cause you to want to dive deeper into this gorgeous truth.

Also, please understand that the world has no idea what love is, and a spiritually dead person cannot exercise the love that we’re going to describe today. The best the world can do through common grace is a fleshly, self-focused affection that does not accomplish the purposes of God.

This is a warning on three levels . . .

A. As a child of God, your definition of love needs to be God’s definition.

B. If the best love you have has more in common with the world than it does the Bible, that may very well be an evidence of the fact that you don’t have spiritual life. And . . .

C. If you do have genuine biblical love in your life, it must be ever-maturing—moving further and further away from the fleshly version to the God-love the Lord pours into our lives.

Also by way of introduction, of the eight Greek words we’ve been studying in II Peter 1:5-7, the words translated moral excellence appear in the New Testament 5 times, knowledge 29 times, self-control 4 times, perseverance 32 times, godliness 15 times, and brotherly kindness 6 times. However, the Greek word translated “faith” is used 243 times in the New Testament. Given the absolutely foundational nature of faith, this makes perfect sense. But the word translated “love” in II Peter 1:7 shows up an amazing 115 times, and other forms of the same word show up another 200-some times. It’s clear that Peter bookends the trajectory of Christian maturity with the weightiest character traits known to man—faith and love. 

Faith is how we enter into a relationship with God, and love is the warp and woof of that relationship. The two greatest commands are to love the Lord and love your neighbor because all the other commands of Scripture hang off these two. Faith is the root, and love is the necessary fruit.  

Last week we looked at the importance of redemptive relationships—deep, connected, familial discipleship that results in the joint maturity of each in the relationship—but this week, we’re going to consider the personal responsibility of Christian love that exists even when others do not reciprocate our love. This love is the most mature, the most godly, and is the goal toward which all God’s people should be growing.

There is so much to be learned concerning this topic—because it touches every area of life—but we’re going to limit our study today to 4 main concepts: the source, necessity, character, and recipients of true love.

2. The Source of True Love

True love originates in God, flows from God, and is to return back to God.

A. True love finds its existence in God. 

I John 4:8 tells us that, “God is love.” I believe this description is important lest we come to the wrong conclusion that love as we know it is something achieved or exercised by God. No, true love is intrinsically woven into the very character of God to the degree that the Bible says that God is love.

B. Humans can experience true love only as they access it in God. 

I John 4:19 reads, “We love, because He first loved us.” If we have not first been loved by God, we cannot love others.

And, no, the fact that God so loved the world does not mean that the whole world can exercise the love of God. The love John is discussing here is the saving love of God in our lives. Yes, it can be argued that the world’s ability to exercise a fleshly version of love is the result of God’s love that pours His common grace out on them, but the love that is an evidence of spiritual life requires that we first have experienced God’s love in spiritual life.

C. A godly life is the evidence of true love. 

I John 2:5, “Whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.”

II John 1:6, “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandment.”

Matthew 22:37-40, “You shall love the Lord your God . . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

A person who believes themselves to be loving, but who does not possess or is not growing in faith, moral excellence, knowledge, Spirit-control, perseverance, godliness, and brotherly kindness is lying to themselves.

This means that an ungodly life is the evidence of not being able to truly love.  

In John 5:39-43 Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from men; 42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me.”

And I John 4:20-21 reveals that, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”

The source of love is God Himself. Therefore, it’s impossible to imagine that we will love the way He loves if we don’t have new life in Christ and the power of the the Holy Spirit evidenced in the fact that we’re living the life of God.

What about you? Do you love because God has first loved you? Are you maturing in the spiritual disciplines and character of Christ?

3. The Necessity of True Love

If we do not love the way God commands us to love, life will not work the way He intends it to work. To not love is to sin, and sin always brings destruction. But when we love God and everyone else in our lives, we will thrive as God originally intended.

I Corinthians 13 is rightly known as the Love Chapter. We’re going to look briefly at the rest of the chapter later, but for now we must consider the introduction to the chapter.

I Corinthians 13:1-3, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

A. According to verse 1, your communication will not work if the love of God is not alive in your life.

Think of all of your communication during an average week. If you’re anything like I, then it isn’t hard to remember an example of communication that was worthless because you didn’t love God and others the way you should. 

B. According to verse 2, your religious expressions will not work if the love of God is not alive in your life.

Consider the practical outworking of your faith during an average week. This can include all “religious” activities as well as personal acts of devotion, etc. Again, I’m sure we all can give an example of a religious activity that was worthless because we didn’t love God and others the way we should as we participated in it.

C. According to verse 3, your relationships will not work if the love of God is not alive in your life.

Consider the plethora of relationships in your life. Can you think of an experience in a relationship where—even though you treated them well on the outside—it was empty because you weren’t loving God and them they way you should.

The big three—your communication, your faith, and your relationships—will all fail if you do not have true biblical love. If you don’t learn anything else today study, learn this: Life doesn’t work without True Love.

I know that may sound like a song from the 60’s or a cheesy motivational poster, but this is a biblical fact. Your life will absolutely not work in any meaningful way if you are not living it in God’s love.

4. The Character of True Love

Now, we’re going to skim through I Corinthians 13. Don’t shut down your brain because you’re familiar with this passage. Allow each character trait of love to shine its blinding rays into the hidden corners of your life. Grapple with these truths honestly and carefully. Don’t just say, “Yeah, that’s in my life; I’m good.”

A. Love is patient. 

Verses 4 & 7 teach that love is patient and endures all things. 

With whom are you the least patient? You’re not loving that person the way you should.

B. Love is kind. 

Verse 4 teaches that love is kind. 

The original word has the idea of “showing oneself useful,” and the adjectival form of this word means “serviceable, good, or gracious.” 

With whom are you the least useful? In what relationship is your participation not accomplishing God’s will in that person’s life?

C. Love is humble. 

Verse 4 also teaches that "love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.” 

Humility is living with an others-motivation. Nothing is done with self as the end goal. 

With whom are you the least humble? In what relationships do you consider yourself before considering what’s best for them?

D. Love is selfless. 

Verse 5 teaches that love “does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.” 

There’s a lot of overlap with this one of the one before it, but ask the question anyway, with whom are you the least selfless? The answer is a person you do not love.

E. Love is holy. 

Verse 5 also teaches that love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” 

With whom are you the least holy? What relationships in your life either thrive off of sin or do not discuss and pursue the righteousness of God? Those are the relationships in your life that are most hateful.

F. Love is strong. 

Verse 7 teaches that, “Love bears all things, [and] endures all things.” 

With whom are you the weakest? We could ask it this way, which relationships in your life tire you out the most? With which people do you think, “I just can’t handle them right now”?

G. Love is optimistic. 

Verse 7 also teaches that, “Love . . . believes all things, [and] hopes all things.” 

Love is not foolish or undiscerning, but since it knows the power of God, it recognizes that anything God expects is possible from anyone from whom He expects it. 

With whom are you the most pessimistic? Pessimism is not realism. Realism says that we can accomplish anything and everything God wants for us. To look at someone and think they will never change or that they’re hopeless is pessimism, and it’s not love

H. Love is eternal. 

Verse 7 goes on to teach that, ”Love . . . endures all things,” and verse 8 reveals that, “Love never ends.” 

True love is not capricious and wavering. With whom are you the most inconsistent? What relationships in your life are on-again, off-again not because of legitimate scheduling issues and the busyness of life, but because you don’t consistently love them the way you should? 

I know these are hard questions, and I don’t want you to think that failures in any of these categories mean that you’re not born again. I think I’ve solidly explained how we will still sin on and off as long as we are in these unredeemed bodies.

But there are two clear signs of a lack of spiritual life: first, an absence of God’s love in our lives, and  second, if we really have to contrive the love in our lives to fit it into these categories. If you’re trying to beat your square shaped love into God’s circle shaped love, that needs to concern you.

And, if you thought that was hard, buckle up because now we’re going to look at the relationships where your love absolutely must mature.

5. The Recipients of True Love

Who does God want you to love in the ways we just described? Are there people you don’t have to love? These are vital questions we need to answer.

Simply put, God commands us to love Him, our neighbors (those who love us), and our enemies (those who don’t love us). There is no one you’re allowed to not love!

We don’t have time to read Luke 10:25-37 and Matthew 5:43-48. I strongly encourage you to do so when you have time. And when you’re done reading them, ask yourself the following questions:

In what ways do you find it hard to love God? In what ways do you find it hard to love your neighbors? And in what ways do you find it hard to love your enemies?

It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is for us to justify hating people. Now, when I say “hate,” I’m talking about not loving them the way God loves us. That’s what hate is. Even the selfish, fleshly love of the world is biblical hate because it’s working at cross-purposes with God. 

How can I say that? Here’s my favorite definition of biblical love: True love flows from a relationship with Christ whereby it’s empowered to want and to work toward God's greatest good for the one loved regardless of how they treat you. 

Each one of those ideas is the same area in which we justify not loving others. When I ask people why they don’t love someone in their lives, these are the kinds of answers I receive . . . even in marriages. 

“I don’t want to.”

“I believe God wants me to treat them this way.”

“Have you seen how they treat me?”

My friends, it doesn’t matter. If you are truly born again, you’re not going to love perfectly, but you absolutely need to be growing in your love for everyone in your life.

Now, that was a much more superficial overview than I would have liked, but it’s the extent we can cover right now.

Listen, my friends, if you are not wanting and working toward God’s best interest in the life of the people around you, you’re not a disciple of Christ. That’s what Jesus Himself said. People are going to know you’re His disciple because you love the way He loved.

So, though none of us will be able to love perfectly, that means that those of us who have spiritual life absolutely must be maturing in it.

We have to love our friends and our neighbors and our family and our pastors and those really annoying people at church and even our enemies. We need to love them the exact same way that the Father loves the Son.

Now excuses. No plateauing. No going back.

Now, we don’t have the time to schedule one more episode to put a concluding bow on this series, so I want to take our last few minutes to do that now.  

6. Your Spiritual Maturity from Spiritual Life to Physical Death

II Peter 1:1-15 is a gloriously concise explanation of how a Christian is to grow in his or her maturity.

Peter starts in verse 1 introducing himself this way, “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.” Though none of us are apostles, it’s important that to understand that if Peter were a bond-servant of Christ, we are too.

Peter then addresses his readers and explains that he is writing to “those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Spiritual growth cannot occur if there isn’t first spiritual life, and spiritual life comes as a result of the gift of faith that comes from our righteous God.

Verse two says, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” After we have been born again into a relationship with God, we are recipients of the multiplied grace and peace that is ours in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 

But what is the goal of this grace and peace? Verse 3 tells us: “that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”

Praise the Lord that He gives us access to everything we need for life and godliness! And praise God that He tells us exactly where to find everything we need—we discover it in the knowledge of God. Only as we learn, understand, and live in the knowledge of God can we access faith, peace, and grace, and grow in godliness. 

But where do we find the knowledge of God? Is it revealed in nature? Do we learn it in dreams? Do we rely on holy men to tell it to us? No, it comes through God’s revealed Word, the Bible.

Verse 4 then explains “For by [His own glory and excellence] He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” It’s through God’s glory and excellence that we receive the precious and magnificent promises that God gives to everyone who is born again. 

And what are those promises? Whereas previously we were corrupted by the world and our lusts, we now have everything we need to grow in grace and peace, that is—spiritual maturity. And that is why verse 5 begins, “For this very reason also, applying all diligence . . . .” 

Because Christians are bond-servants of God, and because He has given us faith, grace, and peace that come through knowing Him and which results in life and godliness, we obviously must be growing, but it’s not something that’s just going to “happen to us.” We must apply all diligence to the process.

Diligence is an earnest, urgent effort. It carries the idea of something being done in haste; not sloppily or partially, but passionately in order to be sure the action happens in a timely manner. 

To all of you listening to my voice today who are—without a doubt—servants of Jesus who have been given faith by our righteous God, know that grace and peace are being poured on you in the knowledge of Christ our Lord since God designs to use that knowledge to provide everything you need for life and godliness. 

That is ultimate goal for which He has chosen you. His glory and excellence has granted to you the precious and magnificent promise that you no longer should live in the corruption of your former lusts, but that you should become a partaker of His divine nature. Since God has given you everything you need to achieve His greatest goal for you life—conformity to His holiness—work diligently to grow in Christlikeness. 

So, here’s the question for you today. Do you believe that this is a non-negotiable requirement for your life? If your answer is, “No,” then you’re not believing what God’s Word abundantly commands and illustrates.

But if you say, “Yes,” but your life isn’t the exemplary fulfillment of what you say you believe, then there’s a very good chance that you’re wicked heart is deceiving you. It’s easy to say we believe something, but if we’re not living in conformity to what we say we believe, it’s all a lie.

So, here’s a followup question. Have your thoughts, words, and actions today exhibited a moral excellence that only a Christian can have in the power of God? If yes, that’s wonderful. Praise the Lord! If no, what does your lack of moral excellence reveal about your faith in God? That’s an important question.

In order to grow in your excellence, you will need to study God’s Word in order to learn what is righteous, what is wicked, what needs to be pursued, and what needs to be put off. 

So, which of the following descriptions best encapsulates your interaction with the knowledge of God?

1. Casual, Occasional Reading                

2. Consistent, Thoughtful Reading        

3. Involved Study across Various Cross References        

4. Immersive Study Involving Word Studies and Additional Study Aids 

This is going to reveal exactly how seriously you’re pursuing spiritual maturity.

So, then as you learn how God would have you live, you need to exercise Spirit-filled self-control to only do those things that please Him and reject those things that steal His glory.

Now, consider this scary question. If those who know you best selected a description of your level of self-control, which would they choose?

1. You lack self-control. You frequently think, say, and do things you shouldn’t think, say, and do.        

2. You have self-control, but it’s not inherently spiritual. Unbelievers exhibit the same self-control.

3. Your self-control is deeply rooted in God’s expectations for your life.

As you consistently participate in your sanctification by trusting God’s Word to the degree that you deny your flesh and submit to the spirit and thereby grow in your moral excellence, you will persevere steadfastly in greater and greater consistency.

So, since we started this series two months ago, in which spiritual disciplines can you honestly say you are maturing?

If you’re having a hard time thinking of one that has shown a marked change, that may be an issue.

But as you consistently participate in your sanctification by trusting God’s Word to the degree that you deny your flesh and submit to the spirit and thereby grow in your moral excellence, you will persevere steadfastly in greater and greater consistency.

The more consistently you choose God’s will for your life and reject your own, you will become more and more godly.

On a scale from 1-100 (1 being low, and 100 being perfect), how God-like in character (godly) are you compared to what you know about God’s expectations? 

This transformation into the character and behavior of the Lord Jesus Christ will drive you to build redemptive, discipleship relationships with other believers. 

How would those who know you best describe you?

1. Selfish/Unloving

2. Distant/Standoffish

3. Friendly but Superficial

4. Quick to give help, but avoids receiving help.            

5. Someone who invests a lot relationally, but avoids spiritual engagement. 

6. Someone who consistently leads the people in your life into a deeper relationship with Christ.

Because of your conformity to Christ you will continue to multiply in the greatest of all divine attributes—true, Christ-honoring love. You will want and work toward God’s best for everyone in your life (God, friends, enemies, strangers) whether they want you to or not

Now, in conclusion, after outlining the trajectory of Spirit-filled, Christ-honoring spiritual growth, Peter gives the following instructions starting in verse 8: “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.”  

No one likes to consider themselves “useless,” but in order to truly be useful in God’s economy, you must possess these evidences of spiritual life and be maturing in them.

Continuing in verse 9, we read, “For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.” 

Regardless of the character traits in which you struggle the most, you aren’t flourishing in them because—in one way or another—you are not seeing God, the resources He provides you, His plan, and/or the life for which He’s saved you.

And then in verse 10 we read, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.” 

Once again, Peter (under the inspiration of God) is commanding you to be diligent to grow in Christlikeness. And then Peter makes a truly disturbing claim—he says that your saving relationship with God (or lack thereof) is going to be evidently seen in whether or not you possess and are growing in faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. The existence of true salvation will always be seen in a person’s life.

And then Peter ends this thought by saying, “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. 13 I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.”

Peter’s highest calling on this earth was to always be ready to vigorously remind the people in his life of these truths—even though they already knew them and were established in them! In fact, he was so committed to the task of diligently keeping these truths ever before his fellow disciple’s eyes that he was confident that after he died, his fellow disciples would be able to easily remember them on their own.

Peter was a servant of Christ just like you are. Peter was a born again believer and a recipient of God’s transforming grace just like you may profess to be. Peter was responsible to God to be engaged in spiritually profitable redemptive relationships just like you are. So, there are two more important questions to consider:

1. Who is repeatedly, consistently, and diligently reminding you and challenging you in your spiritual growth?

2. Who are you repeatedly, consistently, and diligently reminding and challenging in their spiritual growth?

I hope you have names that you can honestly attach to those questions.

I suppose, if nothing else, that’s what we at The Year Long Celebration of God want to be for you. We want to continue reminding you, sharpening you, and equipping you. But we also recognize our limitations. We function best as the material and instruction through which you work with other people. Whether they’re discipling you, you’re discipling them, or it’s mutual. You really need to have your local community of born again followers of Christ doing life-on-life discipleship with you.

Well, we made it. Praise God for giving us everything we need for life and godliness! We pray this series has challenged and equipped you, and we pray that it will continue to do so for years to come. 

If you have any questions or concerns, if you would like more detailed assistance in addressing the practical steps necessary to grow in any of the concepts we’ve studied, please don’t hesitate to contact us at Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com.

Also, please take full advantage of the resources available at CelebrationOfGod.com and make sure to revisit EvermindMinistries.com as we add more ministries that will help keep God and His Word at the center of your daily experience.

Please share this series on your favorite social media outlets so that more people can look for the evidences of spiritual life and grow in them.

And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be starting the final Season in The Year Long Celebration of God—the Season of Power. And were going to start by learning about the power of God.

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Welcome to the second to the last episode of our Evidence of Spiritual Life series. I’m so proud of you for making it all this way, and I pray this series has been insightful and helpful for you you.

My name is Aaron Michael Brewster, and I thank the Lord that I have had the privilege of traveling and speaking more this year than any prior year. It’s an honor to meet the churches, communities, families, and individuals who have opened there homes and hearts to me. 

I love ministering God’s truth to His people. There is no greater calling or blessing, and I want to say “Thank you” to everyone who joins me every week to open God’s Word and worship Him together by becoming the people He created us to be.

Thank you, and thank you.

And be sure to continue your study by accessing today’s free episode notes, transcript, and life resources on our blog at CelebrationOfGod.com.

And now let’s investigate the next leg in our spiritual journeys.

1. The Definition of Brotherly Kindness

As we diligently mature in our faith, we will grow in our knowledge of God and submission to the Holy Spirit which will enables us to live a self-controlled, consistent, morally excellent life in conformity to the character of Jesus Christ. And though there is much that defines such a life, there is one dynamic character trait in particular by which all of God’s people must be known. 

In John 13:34-35 Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

But even though there is one primary character trait (love), there are two very important characteristics that must define this trait. This week we will be studying the relational necessity of Christian love, and next week we will be studying the personal responsibility of Christian love.

The word translated “brotherly kindness,” “brotherly love,” and “love of the brethren” is one Greek word, philadelphia, which is used 5 times in the New Testament. It is grammatically related to the Greek word phileo which is used 25 times in the New Testament. Though there is often much nuance in the Greek language, these particular words are frequently used in reference to a familial affection that is reciprocal in nature. It’s a love that flourishes in mutual relationship.

As you will see from the 5 passages where philadelphia is used, each commands and illustrates relational interactions, and this is consistent with the frequent admonitions in Scripture that God’s people live in community with each other. 

Among other things, we are commanded to engage in corporate worship of God and corporate discipleship of each other. This is the focus of II Peter 1:7 where we are commanded to supply brotherly kindness in our godliness. 

Proverbs 18:1 reads, “He who separates himself seeks his own desire, he quarrels against all sound wisdom.” The tendency to pull away, cloister, and be a lone wolf is the result of immature selfishness, whereas brotherly love requires that we humbly set aside ourselves in order to serve others.

In Romans 12:9-21 we read, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

We will look at this passage again in more detail later, but for now it’s important to consider why—from this passage—brotherly love is the necessary outflow of godliness.

If God Himself sacrificed everything to lavish His love on us, how could we not be equally as loving since we are the recipients of His love?

2. The Requirements of Brotherly Kindness

Brotherly kindness is the love that drives us to serve others and commune with them in Christian fellowship and familial unity. It’s what motivates our relationships with other believers, and it’s something in which we must constantly mature.

I Thessalonians 4:9-10 says, “Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia.” 

The Thessalonican church was known everywhere for being a church that overflowed with love for God’s people. But listen to what Paul said next. “But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more.”

If perseverance in Spirit-controlled godliness is the goal, we recognize that we will never perfectly achieve it in this life. Therefore, it must be our constant endeavor to mature in this regard. However, we will never grow in our love for God’s people in our own strength. It’s impossible to truly love someone for selfish reasons.

Consider I Peter 1:22-25, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, ‘All flesh is as grass, and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ And this is the word which was preached to you.”

According to these passages, in order to love the brethren as we should, we must . . .

1. Know the living and enduring Word of God.

2. Believe the Word of God and thereby be born again from its imperishable seed. And . . .

3. Purify our souls in sincerity to the truth.

If you are truly born again and growing in your knowledge of the Scriptures, you should discover that your relationships with God’s people are multiplying and deepening. 

But is that your reality?

A person who hates, rejects, and avoids God’s people is someone who likely doesn’t possess spiritual life. 

Now, I’m not talking about avoiding the people who claim to be God’s people, but who are living in sin. Actually, after reproving them, if they refuse to repent, the Bible commands us to avoid them. 

I’m talking about avoiding the imperfect people who are trying to please the Lord in their imperfection. I’m talking about avoiding Christians who want to sharpen and disciple us. I’m talking about the professing believers who claim they don’t need the church to glorify God.

So, how would you describe the quantity and quality of your relationships with professing Christians?

In addition, who can you say is biblically discipling you?

If you are not in active fellowship with God’s people, you’re not engaging in brotherly kindness, which means you’re not persevering in godliness which is the fruit of Spirit-control as taught in the Bible which is believed through faith.

3. The Relationships of Brotherly Kindness

Lest we fly past this important consideration, let’s consider a few relationships in your life that should be affected by your spiritual life in Christ.

Consider Hebrews 13:1-9. “Let love of the brethren continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. 4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ 6 so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’7 Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Here we see seven unique relationships. In order of how they were revealed in the passage we have: love of the church, strangers, persecuted Christians, spouses, community relationships, God Himself, and our spiritual authorities. 

Of the church, we’re commanded to love them. Of strangers, we’re commanded to be hospitable. In regard to persecuted Christians, we’re commanded to remember them in prayer. Our spouses? We’re commanded to honor them. When it comes to our relationships in the community, we’re commanded to be someone who is content. Of God, we’re commanded to trust Him. And in regard to our spiritual authorities, we’re commanded to imitate them.

My friends, none of that will happen divorced from life-on-life relationship.

God expects that as we become more godly, our closest relationships, most distant relationships, and every relationship in-between must reflect these attributes, and those attributes are just the beginning. 

So, the question you have to ask is, “Are my relationships identified by God’s definition of brotherly kindness?"

Think about it—of the 7 relationships I just listed, with which 3 do you not have strong, reciprocal, Christ-honoring relationships, and why?

Those may be a wonderful starting place for you as you seek to mature in your brotherly kindness.

Now, let’s return to Romans 12:9-21 to consider even more markers of brotherly kindness.

When I have my counselees study this passage, I provide them a handout with rows and columns. The vertical columns list the 7 relationships we just discussed. The 20 rows itemize 20 expectations from Romans 12:9-21 that God has for our relationships. I’m going to read those expectations to you momentarily, but I want to describe the rest of the assignment for you first.

I ask my counselees to write a number from 1 to 10 that describes how mature that character trait is (on average) in their relationships. For example: 1 = This character trait is not evident in this relationship sphere, 5 = This character trait is evident in about 50% of this relationship sphere, and 10 = This character trait it evident in nearly ever facet of this relationship sphere. I also ask them to write “N/A” in the top box if they have no contact with anyone from this category.

So, I know this will be difficult for you to do this as you listen. I’m going to move too quickly, and it may be hard for you to keep the 7 relationships in your mind. But when you get to a place where you can meditated on this, come back to this episode, or—better yet—check out our blog and look at the relationships and attributes there.

To what degree are your relationships not hypocritical? What about your mutual hatred for evil and your mutual love for good? How strong is your devotion for each other in each category? How about selflessness in the relationship? Are you diligently fervent in the service of God together? To what degree do you rejoice in the hope of God? Do you preserve in difficulty? How often do you pray together? Are you equally bonded in caring for needy Christians? What percentage of your relationship involves being hospitable? To what degree do you bless those who treat you poorly? To what degree to you rejoice when the other rejoices and weep when they weep? Are you unified in Christ or does He separate you? What percentage of the time are you humble with each other? How about loving? Are you consistently righteous in your interactions? What about peaceful? How much of your relationship is defined by that?

Now, again, each of those questions need to be asked in regard to each of the 7 relationships. And—of course—you can go into even more detail as you consider individuals within each of those categories.

If you are maturing in your walk with Christ, then you will also be maturing in your brotherly kindness as defined and described in the Scriptures.

I want to close by doing something I don’t normally do. Usually, I try to keep my conclusions shorter, and I try not to add too much new information in at the end. But today I want to bring this to a close by reading some more passages of Scripture and allowing them to speak for themselves.

Remember, we’re doing this study to discover whether or not we have spiritual life, and we’re also doing it to better understand the expected trajectory of our spiritual maturity. 

So, its important to grapple with the fact that brotherly kindness is not merely a trite descriptor of superficial relationships. The biblical idea of brotherly love is deep and reciprocal. It describes relationships where all the New Testament one-anothers are thriving, where each participant is sharpening the other, and where God is at the center.

But, remember, this is not an optional part of Christian growth. Consider the following expectations from the verses I’m going to read and carefully judge your relationships to see if they are the product of growing godliness.

I Peter 4:8, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another.”

I Thessalonians 5:11, “Therefore encourage one another and build up one another.”

Ephesians 4:2-3, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Romans 13:8, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”

I Corinthians 12:24-26, “But God has so composed the body [of Christ], giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

Galatians 5:13-14, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

Ephesians 5:21, “Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

I Thessalonians 5:11, “Therefore encourage one another and build up one another.”

Hebrews 10:24-25, “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be spiritually strengthened.”

And, finally, I John 3:23, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.”

That is a lofty expectation, and it requires a lot of maturity in the power of the Holy Spirit to live that way.

Please do the kind thing and share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that your friends and family can learn how to mature in their spiritual life.

And if you would like personalized help in growing in your brotherly kindness, please email us at Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com.

And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be discussing the final consideration for this series . . . true, biblical love.

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Thanks for joining me today. If you are new to the show, I want to invite you to do two things. The first one is to start this series with Part 1. That will be super important for your ability to understand and apply what we’re going to discuss today.

Secondly, I want to invite you to visit CelebrationOfGod.com or scroll to the very beginning of this show and listen to our introductory episodes. Those episodes will help you better know and appreciate what it is we’re doing here.

And while you’re online, everyone should visit EvermindMinistries.com. The Year Long Celebration of God is part of the Evemind Ministries family, and we have other ministries that might be a blessing to you. So, definitely check that out. 

And everyone needs to download the new Evermind App! It’s still in its infancy stages, but we already have a bunch of resources there that can be a blessing for you. Downloading the app is free, and I encourage you to do it from EvermindMinistries.com or from the Evermind Store which is linked on the other webpages.

If you sign up before you download the app, you will have a better experience when you initially download it.

And then—of course—you can access today’s free episode notes, transcript, and life resources from our blog at EvermindMinistries.com.

And now let’s move into the 6th evidence of spiritual life.

II Peter 1:5-6, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness.”

God gifts us faith which we exercise to trust Him. When we do that, we are imparted Christ’s righteousness and equipped to actually live a life that glorifies Him. From there, it’s important that we grow in our knowledge and understanding of God’s Word so that we can exercise our Spirit-control to persevere in our sanctification.

And it’s that sanctification—really, it’s the entire process we’ve been outlining—that will result in our godliness. The Greek word translated “godliness” refers to an internal devotion to God that exhibits itself in behavior that is in accordance with God’s expectations. 

What’s interesting about this list—as I mentioned earlier in the series—is that these topics overlap each other in many ways, but they also lead to each other. However, even though there are two more traits listed after this one, those last two are actually finer, more specific points that expand on the topic of godliness.

So, this part of the list is unique in that it’s the culmination of the list (even though it’s not the end of the list), but it’s also unique in that it’s the first item on the list that is impossible to do in our own power. And we’re going to talk about that more in a minute.

However, we want to start with this . . .

1. The Nature of Godliness

A. The Difference between Moral Excellence and Godliness

Now, perhaps you’re wondering how godliness is different from moral excellence? They sound like they could be two different words for the same idea. Moral excellence is a broad term that encompasses all self-control, love, perseverance, brotherly kindness, godliness, and the other biblical commands. In a similar way, love, self-control, and the like are also part of what it is to be godly. So why did Peter choose to use this word? Is He just being repetitive?

Consider II Peter 1:3, “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” Generally speaking, our becoming godly is God’s ultimate goal. We were dead; He made us alive. We were sinful; He made us righteous. We were self-worshippers; He made us God-worshippers. We were fleshly; He makes us godly.

God gave us faith so that we could experience positional and practical moral excellence. He also gave us knowledge about Him so that we could learn to grow and persevere in our Spirit-control. As we continue to resist the devil and draw near to Him, we are being conformed into the very image of Christ. Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” II Corinthians 3:18 reveals, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord [the knowledge of God in the Bible], are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit [Spirit-control].”

So, moral excellence or virtue is part of what it is to be godly just like self-control and perseverance are. Moral excellence is also a position and possession, but godliness is the ultimate goal and expression of moral excellence.

B. The Fleshly Version of II Peter 1:5-6

What’s interesting about this godliness is that it’s the first item on our list that requires submission to the God of the Bible. 

Let’s look at this realistically. An unbeliever can trust in a worldview that encourages morally excellent behavior like philanthropy. Such people can grow in that philosophical knowledge as well as develop the self-control necessary to persevere in charity and kindness to those in need. 

There are people who devote themselves to religious systems—they have faith in Islam or Buddhism or Humanism—and they are pursuing excellence in that system by constantly growing their knowledge and applying self-control so they can persevere in the system’s teachings.

This fleshly shadow of the spiritual realities we’re discussing is evidence in any and all decisions people make. Let’s consider what would be considered a negative application. A criminal believes that his lifestyle is best. He pursues excellence in his craft by practicing and studying. He exercises self-control in how he chooses his targets. He may be adept at lock picking or manipulation. And he perseveres in his lifestyle because he works hard to be good at it.

But nothing I just illustrated will result in godliness.

Even someone who grew up in a baptist church who trusts the “Christian lifestyle” of nominal American Christianity, who really enjoys being morally excellent as opposed to the wickedness they see in the world around them, who studies the Bible in order to know how best to control their choices in order to persevere in their moral superiority . . . they won’t achieve godliness either. They are identical to the pharisee in Luke 8:11 who “stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’”

Jesus then contrasts him with the tax collector and says, “13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Yes, true faith that leads to moral excellence in Christ that pursues knowing God from His Word that results in genuine Spirit-controlling that perseveres no matter what temptations come against it will produce godliness every single time. 

But just because you trust something, are excellent at it, are constantly studying it, changing your behavior to fit it, and consistently growing in it doesn’t mean that’s from God or glorifying to Him.

None of that pleases the Lord because it’s motivated and empowered by self.

Godliness is impossible without the Lord because it’s the direct result of His working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). 

So, what about you? Are you trusting in certain lifestyles and worldviews in order to live how you think is right, growing in your knowledge of such lifestyles, developing self-control, and persevering in those worldviews, but falling short of true godliness because it has nothing to do with a desire to obey what God has commanded in His Word?

Can you give even one example of an area of your life that is truly godly—an area where—because of your love for and devotion to God—you trust in the Lord and experience Spirit-control as you steadfastly submit to the things you’re learning about God?

I hope so.

But since it’s so easy to deceive ourselves, let me ask this question. Are there any mature, Bible-saturated, Spirit-controlled individuals in your life who would say that you are godly?

If we’re looking for a more legitimate evidence of spiritual life, godliness is it, since it’s so easy to exercise the other traits in our own fleshly power for our own fleshly ends.

2. The Goal of Godliness

In I Timothy 2:2, the Lord presents a truly simple and beautiful goal for the Christian life: “so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” 

And II Peter 3:10-11 asks, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness”? 

“Holy conduct” or moral excellence is a facet of godliness, and nothing matters more in the whole world than to be godly. In fact, in I Timothy 6:6 we learn that “godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.”

But we must be careful because it’s easy to see the benefits of godliness and pursue it for selfish reasons. II Timothy 3 describes individuals who are unloving and disobedient and lack self-control and hate good, and yet verse 5 says, “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” These people believe that a certain set of behaviors constitutes godliness even though their lives are filled with the ungodliness that comes from sinful self-control. 

And I Timothy 6:5 describes “men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”

If you superficially submit to the Scriptures in order to receive the blessings promised by God, you’re no different than the Israelites. After King Saul sinned, Samuel proclaimed to him, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” 

And in Psalm 51:16-17 David wrote, “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

Did God want His people offering sacrifices? Yes. He commanded it. And yet, external obedience without a genuinely godly broken spirit and contrite heart is sin which God despises.

I would encourage you sometime to study what the Bible means when it talks about a broken spirit and a contrite heart. They are powerful terms that carry great weight and significance as they are divine expectations for our lives.

3. The Process of Godliness

So, we’ve seen that godliness is conformity to the character of Christ that grows from a devout faith in Him. The entire purpose of our lives here on earth is to grow in our sanctification, and as we do so, shine the light of God’s glory to the world. 

But how are we to become godly?

In I Timothy 4:7-10 we read, ”But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. 10 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.”

Becoming godly requires 4 key steps.

A. Ignore worldly philosophy.

You cannot grow in obedience to the wisdom of God when you’re filling your mind with the foolishness of the world.

B. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

Discipline refers to Olympic training. Training doesn’t happen to you, it happens as you participate with the trainer. Again, we see that godliness is the result of personal investment in God’s will for your life.

C. Discipline requires for you to labor and strive.

Godliness requires hard, often uncomfortable work empowered by the Holy Spirit for the purposes of being able to discern good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14)

D. You are to labor and strive to be just like the living God.

The standard of our godliness and moral excellence is the living God Himself.

But why does godliness have so much work? 

It’s hard work because living like God is the exact opposite of living like a human. I Timothy 6:3-4 says, “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing.” And I Timothy 1:9-11 describes the opposite of sound words: “Those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.” And Galatians 5:17-21 goes into even more detail about natural, fleshly behavior.

On the other hand, Titus 1-3 gives a snapshot of what it is to live according to sound doctrine. When I’m going through this material with a counselee, I give them a spreadsheet I created based off Titus 1-3. It lists out all of the character traits that are to be in the life of a man or woman of God.

And I encourage them to mark all the descriptions of godliness that legitimately describe them on a daily basis. I tell them to make sure they’re judging themselves according to true godliness that grows from a heart of submission to God and not mere external behavior that can be called “godly” by casual onlookers.

I encourage you to read through Titus 1-3 and compile your own list and compare your life to it.

And then I give my counselees a goal. I say, “According to this short list of character qualities, which three would you like to start striving and laboring toward first?”

There is nothing more practical than that.

For example, in Titus 2:2 we read, “Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.” For the sake of my own life, I would choose to pursue greater and deeper temperance. This word refers to sober moderation, but not merely in food or drink, but in character.

And so I would then turn to the Scriptures to better understand the moderate sobriety with which God would have me live my life, and as I learn and understand what it means, I would need to actually put those things to practice in my life.

So, let’s finish with a look at I Timothy 6.

Trust in God (faith) equips us to live righteously (moral excellence), and increased knowledge of God along with submission to the Holy Spirit (self-control) produces perseverance in our conformity to Christ (godliness). And we need never fear that we can’t know what kind of life Christ lived. Not only do we have multiple accounts in the Gospels of His earthy life, the Old Testament beautifully reveals the character of God and our responsibility to Him, and the rest of the New Testament provides more direction than we could ever hope to achieve in a single lifetime.

So, let’s finish this short study in godliness by reading I Timothy 6:11-21. I Timothy uses the word “godliness” more than any other single book of the Bible, and Paul’s final words to Timothy are instructive for all who desire to discipline themselves for the purpose of godliness. If you’re reading this on our blog, take special note of all the bolded words. If you’re listening, I’ll try to highlight them. These words represent the labor and striving necessary to pursue true godliness.

“But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. 17 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. 18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. 20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— 21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.”

So, I just asked you to consider three areas in your life where you would like to pursue godliness. Based off I Timothy 6:11-21, what are some practical steps you need to take to discipline yourself in those areas?

Asking, answering, and applying these to your life is the only way to continue maturing in your spiritual life.

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that God’s people can learn what it is to be godly. And if you need assistance in growing your Christ-likeness, please write us at Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com.

And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be discussing the first of two specific applications of godliness.

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Welcome to Part 6 of the Evidence of Spiritual Life Series. I pray that this series has helped you to recognize whether or not you have spiritual life. Of course, some of you may still have doubts, and others may be convinced they have spiritual life when they don’t. So I hope that you will continue the study with us through Part 9.

If you know for certain that you aren’t born again into new life in Christ, I don’t want you to wait until the end of this series to take that step. Please . . . today is the day of salvation; don’t wait any longer if you know you’re still estranged from Christ.

But those of you who are convinced you’re a living, growing child of God, I hope this series has been a helpful roadmap for your spiritual growth. However, please don’t think of this roadmap as moving toward a destination, and then moving away from that destination toward a new one. 

In the Christian life, there is nothing we’re to leave behind except our old selves corrupted in the flesh. I suppose that instead of a roadmap, we view this process of maturity as rows of blocks in a wall.

All Christians are born into a relationship with God by grace through Fatih. All spiritual life and maturity grows on the foundation of faith. But that foundation has perfectly square corners and straight plumb lines. This is because God calls us to start living a life of moral excellence in Christ from the very moment of our conversion. Of course, we’re never going to move beyond moral excellence, but as we grow in the knowledge of God, each subsequent row of bricks in our wall will conform to the moral excellence established from the beginning in Christ. That’s why Spirit-control is next on the list. It’s submission to Christ in the power of the Spirit that helps us to think like Him and—therefore—to consequently live like Him. And it is in our faith, virtue, knowledge, and self-control that God requires that we persevere.

And that is the topic of today’s study.

But before we get to that, I’m really looking forward to being the keynote speaker at a parenting conference in Howell, Michigan tomorrow.

I’d love to meet any listeners who attend the conference, but I’d also like to invite all of my listeners to consider inviting me to speak at their church, ministry, or organization. It may be a full-out conferences or a class or a workshop, but I would be honored to minister to you and the people in your life.

Please check out AMBrewster.com to learn more.

You can access AMBrewster.com, CelebrationOfGod.com, as well as all the other members of the Evermind Ministry family at EvermindMinistries.com. So, be sure to check them all out. And while you’re at CelebrationOfGod.com, don’t forget to access and enjoy today’s episode notes, transcript, and life resources.

And now, let us persevere.

1. The Necessity of Perseverance

Not to sound too redundant—I know, that’s a great way to get into your first point—hopefully the order of these spiritual disciplines is making a lot of sense. It all starts with faith in God that immediately produces good works (moral excellence), and as we grow in our knowledge of God, we will grow in our good works as we cultivate Spirit-empowered self-control. Then as we continually submit to that control and build those spiritual muscles, we will grow in our consistency, and that consistency in our good works is the next item on the list which we call perseverance or endurance or steadfastness or—depending on your translation—you may also find “patient enduring.”

The Greek idea behind the English word “perseverance” refers to abiding under something. It’s like the mythological creature, Atlas who bore the weight of the world on his shoulders.

God doesn’t just want us to adopt occasional virtue or cultivate isolated good works . . . He wants us to continue in the things which we’ve learned and grow in them. In fact, a lack of perseverance is a sure sign of an unbeliever.

You may have made it this far in our study, and you may be certain that you have spiritual life because all of the things we mentioned were evident in your life the first 6 months after you professed to be a follower in Christ. But every year since your fervor and passion and obedience and submission to God has waned and faded and mellowed.

Consider Romans 2:5-8, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who will render to each person according to his deeds.”

According to verse 5, a person who doesn’t persevere in moral excellence is stubborn and unrepentant.

And then Paul continues in verse 7, “to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; 8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”

"Perseverance in doing good works” characterizes those who are seeking glory and honor, immortality, and eternal life.

Verse 8 further describes the character of individuals who do not persevere in good works. Paul refers to them as selfishly ambitious, those who do not obey the truth, but instead obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation.

True perseverance can only come as we actively pursue the things of God because only God can cause us to persevere in His will. 

II Thessalonians 3:5 states simply, “May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.” Steadfastness is only found in Christ.

So, what about you? Is your life characterized by persevering in good works which is impossible for human beings to accomplish in the flesh and is only possible through the direct working of Jesus Christ?

Are you continuing in the things you’ve learned and growing in them? Are you more spiritually mature this year than you were last year?

Are you hoping for the future reality of your Holy Spirit-empowered perseverance?

And Romans 15:4-6 reads, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus. 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Hope comes through faith in what is written in the Scriptures through the power of God and which results in the same mind among God’s people as they obey Him in all things. 

But for what are we hoping?

2. The Hope of Perseverance

As was mentioned earlier, those who are truly born again, have eternal life, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to persevere. If they fail the grace of God, they were never truly born again in the first place because God always completes the work that He begins in His people, and no one can take a true believer out of God’s grasp. But what is the hope toward which we persevere?

Hebrews 10:36 reveals, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” As we consistently endure in the will of God, we will receive that which He has promised. But what is the promise?

Verses 37-39 read, “For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. 38 But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”

If we shrink back, we will receive destruction, and our souls will not be preserved. A lack of perseverance leads to eternal death, but steadfastness on this earth is the forerunner of eternal life in glory! Revelation 14:12-13 puts it this way, “Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 13 And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.’”

John describes our future hope as eternal rest.

And even though it’s a future promise, Romans 8:25 says that, “But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” Perseverance in the power of God actually fuels the hope we have that He will keep the promises He’s made to His children. 

And James 5:11 explains how we can trust God, “We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” 

Compassion refers to the Father graciously giving believers everything they do not deserve because He loves them with the same love He loves Jesus.

And mercy refers to the Father not giving believers the condemnation they deserve because Christ has given them His righteousness.

But the blessing of perseverance is not merely a future reality. James 1:3-4 promises, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

This passage has three promises . . .

A. Endurance results in our perfection.

Now, this word has been misunderstood by those who believe that Christians can be sinless this side of heaven, but that’s not what this word means. Let’s read some other places in the Scriptures that use this word in order to better appreciate the perfection that’s achieved via endurance.

James will use this word three more times before the end of his letter. In James 1:17 he wrote, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

This sets a high standard for this concept because it describes perfect gifts as coming directly from God. This is similar to Matthew 5:48 where Jesus says, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

Again, that’s an impossibly tall order, but what it does is it once again confirms that our spiritual maturity is in Christ, through Christ, to Christ, and in the image of Christ. He is the standard, not our pastors, not our favorite Christian influencers, not our own conceptions about holiness . . . God alone is the standard of perfection, and He demands that we be maturing in it.

Then in James 1:25 we read, “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

This substantiates what we have learned before. If we want to mature in our virtue, we will find God’s enabling and instruction in His perfect Word.

And then James 3:2 we read, “We all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.”

Here we see the idea of perfection being tied to our ability to submit our words and—by extension—our actions to God’s expectations. This is a beautiful picture of Spirit-control.

In Matthew 19:21 Jesus tells the rich young ruler, “If you wish to be complete [that’s the same word translated “perfect” in James], go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Here Jesus equates perfection to seeking God’s will instead of our own. This is consistent with what we learn in Romans 12:2 (which should be familiar to you), “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Paul’s use in I Corinthians is helpful in rounding out this concept. His use of the word refers to our maturity. 

I Corinthians 2:6, “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature.”

I Corinthians 14:20, “Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.”

Ephesians 4:11-13 tells us that God gifted us pastor/teachers to equip us for the work of the ministry which is building up the body of Christ which verse 13 describes as, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

Colossians 1:28 illustrates this truth in Paul’s life, “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”

This was the same thing toward which Epaphras was working. In Colossians 4:12 we read, “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.”

Philippians 3:14-15 tells us, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you.”

Hebrews 5:14 further describes the spiritually mature this way, “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

Earlier in the passage, the author of Hebrews contrasts this solid food of the Word with the milk of the Word, the elementary principles that they had already been taught. My friends, remember this—spiritual maturity requires growth and change, learning new things, deeper things, more mature things.

So, what does endurance accomplish in us? It makes us more mature, and the increasing maturity is increasing conformity to the perfection of God via the Holy Spirit in our sanctification.

This is an absolute must and an unavoidable reality of spiritual life. If you are not growing in Christ, you are not born again. If you are on a perpetual, unrelenting, unrepenting, downward slide, you are probably not a child of God.

And this will be further substantiated with the remaining list.

B. Endurance results in our completion.

Now, this Greek word is a synonym of the word we just considered. I don’t believe this list necessarily itemizes three different results of endurance, but it instead highlights three facets of the same result.

The first word argued for the trajectory and the momentum of our spiritual maturity, and I believe this word which is only used twice in the Bible is going to focus on the future reality. If we are on the right trajectory, then by God’s grace the future result will be our spiritual completion.

I Thessalonians 5:23-24 reads, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”

A corresponding noun form which only appears in Acts 3:16 describes the health of a miraculously healed man as being “perfect.” Again, the future toward which we are moving is one in which God has removed our sinful flesh, and we get to celebrate God perfectly for all eternity.

And it’s in that direction that we should be moving now.

And then our third idea from James 1 shows us the inverse. If I am being perfected with the future hope of completion, then I can have confidence that I am not going to lack anything that I need to glorify God.

C. Endurance results in our possession.

I’m using the word possession to be a positive contrast to lacking nothing. Instead, we have everything we need.

And we learned this truth early on in our study in II Peter 1:3, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”

We must not be foolish enough to ever think or believe that we don’t have what we need in order to mature in our spiritual lives. 

We have faith through God’s grace, we’ve been given Christ’s new life which comes with the ability to be morally excellent, we have all of the knowledge we need in the Bible, and we have all the empowerment we need in Sprit-control to persevere in our spiritual growth.

Now, let me ask you this. Do the present and future promises of God that result from perseverance excite you, or do you think it’s not worth all the hard work?

Does being perfected in Christ to the glory of the Father and through the power of the Spirit not delight you? If so, it’s quite possible that you don’t have spiritual life to begin with.

But if you do have spiritual life, this is one of the big reasons God has left you on this earth. As you have been commanded to be salt and light to the lost, dark, and dying world around us, God expects you to be sanctified from one degree of glory to another so that your salt becomes saltier and your light becomes brighter. 

So, now let’s finish by discussing . . .

3. The Process of Perseverance

How are we to practically grow in our consistency, perseverance, steadfastness, and endurance?

Luke 8:15 gives us the first requirement, “But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.”

We need to be honest about the Bible. The “good heart” we’re to have is a mind that is consumed with that which is beneficial to the will of God. That is the heart that will accept the knowledge of God.

Colossians 1:9-12 unpacks this process beautifully, “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

The first practical step is to . . .

A. Pursue Christlikeness

We must first be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, we must also understand it, and then live in wisdom—wisdom being defined as skillfully living what we know and understand. It’s the fruit of true belief.

As we grow in our knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, we will walk “in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

It’s important to note that growing in faith, moral excellence, knowledge, and self-control always results in more knowledge which leads to increased faith, moral excellence, and self-control. That repeating pattern is the very nature of steadfastness.

The Colossians passage continues in verse 11, “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.”

And of course, we recognize that none of it is possible without the glorious strength, power, and might of our great God!

And it all inextricably leads to verse 12 “joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.”

In writing to his young disciple in I Timothy 6:11, Paul instructs, “But flee from these things [all the sinful things he had listed in the previous chapters], you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.”

Men and women of God must consistently chase after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, and gentleness in such a consistent way that they are known for their perseverance.

Practically speaking, spiritual growth is actually pretty simple and straightforward. It involves studying God’s Word to know and understand the milk and the meat, and then it requires intentionally and premeditatedly putting into practice in your life through God’s power the things which God commands.

So, what about you? If your closest family and friends were to be surveyed, in which of the Christ-honoring character traits that I just enumerated would they say you are growing and persevering?

But there’s a second practical step.

Faith produces moral excellence which produces a desire for increasing knowledge of God which submits to Spirit-control that—over time—results in consistent obedience. 

But there are two sides to every choice. On one hand we choose to persevere in righteousness, and on the other we choose to reject that which does meet the standard of moral excellence set by God Himself.

B. Flee Sin

Consider Hebrews 12:1a, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.”

What are some of the encumbrances and sins in which you find yourself regularly entangled? I often encourage my counselees to carefully consider this question and compile a list. I encourage them to talk to spiritually mature individuals who know them well in order to add to the list.

One of the most difficult and yet most fruitful assignments I have ever given is to write down 100 ways in which you sin on a regular basis.

Generally speaking, an average born again believer can work through 1-20 pretty easily. Beyond that, they hit a wall. It’s at this point that I help them to think more specifically. Instead of saying that I’m unloving (which is true), it’s valuable to enumerate the specifics of that. I Corinthians 13 is helpful to this end. A lack of love is often the result of impatience, pride, rejoicing in the wrong things, and so on.

This helps the counselee work through number 50. But they often hit another wall. At this point, we start looking at the roots of our sin. We recognize that the most base foundation of all sin is not merely pride, it’s idolatry. We’re self-worshippers. 

Beyond that, when we start to see ourselves for what we really are, it’s much easier for certain sins of which we previously believed we were not guilty, are actually true of us. 

We are gluttons. We are adulterers. We are fools. We are often immoral, impure, sensual, hateful, angry, disputing, divisive, and envious. We start to see ourselves as more like Ebenezer Scrooge than less like him: “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!”

That’s why this assignment is so powerful. When we can see ourselves for what we really are, it strips us of pride and it reveals how much more growth we need.

So, how are we to lay aside these life-dominating sins?

The Hebrews passage continues: “and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus.”

This is where I ask, Who is Jesus to you? Maybe you’ve never considered that. Maybe you have. Maybe you have a doctrinal statement with a robust description of your Christology, but the real question is do you actually live like it’s true?

Listen to how the author of Hebrews describes Jesus, “the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Jesus authored and perfects the faith of every believer. He joyfully suffered a torturous death for His people. He is right now seated at the right hand of God, in complete control of all things, and He did all of that so that you . . . that’s right . . . you . . . could persevere (not grow weary and lose heart).

So why do we not persevere as consistently as we should? The answer is simple, we’re not looking to Jesus. We’re not laying aside the sin that offends His excellence. We’re not living in the faith that produces genuine self-control in submission to the knowledge of God from His Word.

So, if you genuinely desire to be perfected in your steadfastness, you must commit to the following: When you are tempted to return to the sins that so easily entangle you, stop, pray, and meditate on the truth you’ve been learning from the Bible. Make a conscious decision to persevere in what you know is right.

Now, I said before that this process is simple. That means it’s not complex. I’m not insinuating that it’s easy. In fact it’s so hard and so impossible that we can’t do it without faith, Christ’s righteousness imputed to us, a growing knowledge of God’s Word, and self-control that’s empowered by the Holy Spirit.

But it can be done . . . it must be done because endurance is not just an evidence of spiritual life, it’s a requirement for all of us who have spiritual life.

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that other followers of Christ can learn the importance of perseverance. And if you need personalized help in your discipleship, don’t hesitate to reach out to Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com.

And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be discussing what it means that perseverance produces godliness.

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Today we dive into part 5 of our Evidence of Spiritual Life series. Of course, as I’m made it a point to mention at the beginning of every show in this series, if you already know you have spiritual life, then this series can function as a road map for your spiritual maturity. 

And boy-oh-boy is today’s topic one massive milestone in that maturity.

But first, if you are a parent or someone who works with or ministers to children, you should check out the Truth.Love.Parent. podcast. We have over 500 episodes spanning tons of topics that are super practical and relevant to any and all family situations.

And speaking of families, please pray for me as I speak at two different conferences in the next week. The first will be a family conference in Indiana, and the second is a parenting conference in Michigan. 

I love doing conferences, I love interacting with people face to face and opening God’s Word in a room full of people.

If you would be interested in having me do a full conference or perhaps a workshop, class, or session, please visit AMBrewster.com. I speak, preach, and teach on a wide range of topics including family, marriage, parenting, worship, discipleship, and so much more.

In fact, you should visit EvermindMinistries.com to get to know our whole family of ministries and see how we can help keep God’s truth at the center of your daily life.

And—of course—you’ll be able to find today’s episode notes, transcript, and additional life resources on our blog on the Year Long Celebration of God website.

And now let’s talk about the next evidence of spiritual life and the next destination on our journey to Christ-likeness . . . self-control.

1. The Curious Concept that is Self-Control

Let’s start by reading II Peter 1:5 and 6: “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control.”

Unlike the words “faith” and “knowledge,” the Greek word translated “self-control” in verse 6 is not used that often in Scripture. In fact, it only shows up two other times.

Acts 24:25 reads, “But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, ‘Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.’” It seems that righteousness, self-control, and judgement were really frightening to Felix, and we’ll soon find out why.

And then the word also appears in another list in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Both of these passages are instructive, but the Bible has so much more to say about this concept than is summed up in this one Greek word. So, for starters we’re going to consider the English words used to translate the Greek word, the Greek word itself, and two important issues that must be understood when studying this word.

A. The English Words

When the Bible was originally translated into English, the word found in II Peter was “temperancy” or “temperance.” Temperance refers to moderation which refers to being neither over- nor under-indulgent.

However, 100 years after the King James Version was first printed, the English word “self-control” was coined. And the original idea of self-control referred to the “restraint of one’s desires.” This word quickly became the favored translation for the Greek text. 

Now, let’s consider . . .

B. The Greek Word

Unfortunately, neither of these English terms truly do the Greek justice. The original word penned by the Apostle Peter referred to having mastery over something. But there are two key issues that must be addressed when handling this word: (1) who decides what passions need to be mastered, and (2) who or what is having the mastery over who or what?

“Self-control” seems to be a nice English interpretation since the assumption is that the individual is controlling their sinful desires, but the Scriptures provide a much deeper understanding of this spiritual discipline.

In Ephesians 5:18 we read, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” The lesson is clear—don’t allow alcohol to control you, instead be so completely filled with the Holy Spirit that He controls all you do.

We have to grapple with the reality that Christians do not exercise the self-control of the world; Christians are commanded to submit to the control of the Holy Spirit. Our self-control is less about controlling ourselves and more about submitting ourselves to another’s control.

In addition, God alone gets to decided what passions are to be moderated, and God alone has the power necessary to truly reign-in sinful impulses, immoderate behavior, and inappropriate thoughts. Therefore, Christians are to bend their self-control to the over-mastering hand of God.

So, though it’s not technically inaccurate to use words like temperance or self-control, Christians must be careful to understand that they will never be able to control their flesh outside of the power of God. Furthermore, He will only enable us to fulfill that which He expects.

Now, before considering the broader teaching of Scripture concerning being controlled by the Spirit, we need to take a closer look at the 4 times our Greek word for “self-control” is used in the New Testament.

II Peter 1:5-7, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.”

According to this list we see that Spirit-filled self-control is a product of faith in God, a life lived for God, and increased knowledge of God. And this biblical self-control results in perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love. It’s not rooted in what we think is best or what we’re trying to accomplish for our lives; it’s rooted completely in God and His expectations as revealed in His knowledge.

In the same way, the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:23 reveals that self-control is a result of living by the Spirit and walking by the Spirit, and it coexists with the other characteristics of God.

This is why—I believe—in Acts 24:25 Felix is so afraid. As Paul spoke of righteousness, Felix realized his life didn’t match up to the righteousness of God. As Paul spoke of self-control, Felix realized he didn’t have the power in himself to master the passions that God said were sinful. And as Paul spoke of the judgement that falls on unrighteousness, Felix had only one of two choices: (1) Submit to God, achieve His righteousness by His Spirit-control, and avoid His judgement, or (2) Escape the convicting conversation so he could distract himself and not have to think about it anymore. 

The following verses describe his choice, “Felix became frightened and said, ‘Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.’ 26 At the same time too, he was hoping that money would be given him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him. But after two years had passed . . . .” 

It appears that Felix did have self-control. He managed to continue engaging in conversation with Paul in the hope that Paul would pay him off. But after two years—knowing Paul was innocent of the charges brought against him—Felix never let him go, never submitted to God, never got his money, and was eventually replaced by another man.

So, there’s a really important question you need to ask yourself. Does the idea of biblical self-control frighten you? Does the idea of submitting all of your beliefs, thoughts, desires, choices, feelings, words, and actions to God’s control scare you?

If so, you probably do not have spiritual life.

Now, that’s not to say that the idea isn’t daunting to born again believers, but there’s a difference between experiencing the sober impact of God’s expectations and our submission versus fear or animosity toward the idea.

So, if it does frighten you, or if you hate the idea all-together, ask yourself why. And if the idea seems palatable and right, ask yourself why it doesn’t frighten you.

2. The Goal of Self-Control

Biblically speaking, controlling your spirit (and thereby your behaviors) is a matter of life and death! Proverbs 25:28 says, “Like a city that is broken into and without walls is one who has no control over his spirit,” and Proverbs 16:32 reads, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.”

The word translated “rules” refers to having dominion over something, ruling over like a king, and governing it. But this is easier said than done. James 3 describes the tongue as “a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” And it goes on to say that “no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.”

If we are incapable of controlling something as small as our tongues, how can we ever hope to control every other sinful desire and action in our lives?

By the way, if you lack control in your communication, that can be a huge indicator as to whether or not you have spiritual life. And I’m not talking about simply lying or being unkind or swearing or the like. I’m talking about whether the majority of your communication conforms to the truth of God. 

A person who says they love God, are born again, read their Bibles and pray every day, go to church at least twice a week, and yet who—in their daily lives—are indistinguishable from unbelievers in how they communicate about their lives, their choices, and the circumstances in which they find themselves can’t possibly love God and His Word as much as they let on.

But again, this is an impossible task in our own power. Thankfully, God’s people have access to God’s power.

I Corinthians 6:19 asks believers an important question, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

According to verse 20, submitting to the rule of God in our lives results in God being glorified in our bodies.

Having access to the Holy Spirit absolutely changes everything! Only by His power can we hope to glorify God. Listen carefully while I read an extend portion from Romans 8:1-17, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”

I love how submitting to Spirit-control is described here. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free.

Continuing on . . . “3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

What does it mean to walk according to the Spirit?

The Greek word translated “walk” refers to how we behave, conduct ourselves, lead our lives, and occupy ourselves. Vines Expository Dictionary says this word is used figuratively to signify “the whole round of the activities of the individual life, whether of the unregenerate or of the believer.”

The word translated “according” can be translated “after the manner” or “in accordance with,” or “after the manner of.” 

Therefore, to walk according to the Spirit is to conduct our lives in accordance with the Spirit—His expectations and empowerment.

Continuing on again . . . “5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

On our last show we learned about the importance of thinking truth—the knowledge of God. We will never be able to grow in our Spirit-filled self-control if we don’t set our mind on the things of the Spirit.

To set our minds on the things of the Spirit requires an intentionality and a premeditated purpose of making the truth of God the object of our thoughts. 

The example I used earlier of the individual who claims to love God but who does’t communicate in line with God’s revealed Word does so because what comes from our lips started first in our hearts. 

We need to continually set our minds on the things of the Spirit if we ever hope for our communication to run in line with the Spirit.

And then verse 9 says, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Biblical self-control has absolutely nothing to do with my being able to make myself do anything. Listen, Aaron Brewster can make himself do tons of things that are relatively impressive by human standards, but they don’t glorify God.

In order to walk by the Spirit and set my mind on the things of the Spirit, I am going to need divine enablement. And praise God that the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in His people. 

This is why Spirit-control is an evidence and a requirement of spiritual life. “He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

This is why verse 12 says, “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

Verses 12-14 reveal that children of God will be led by the Spirit, and being led by the Spirit means that we must actively be putting to death the deeds of the body. In fact, we are under divine obligation to be putting to death the deeds of the body.

And what are some “deeds of the body” that Spirit-filled self-control will put to death in your life?

That’s a really good question you need to ask of yourself. If the deeds of the body, like the ones listed in Galatians 5 and so many other places in the Bible are a regular part of your daily existence, it’s safe to say that they’re not being put to death. 

And then the passage ends this way: “15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

Allowing the Holy Spirit to control us frees us, but trying to control ourselves is enslaving. II Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” Fear, anxiety, and timidity don’t come from God. Instead, He gives us power and love and discipline. 

And Hebrews 2:14-15 reads, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

If the idea of Spirit-filled self-control scares you the way it scared Felix, it’s probably because the idea of submitting yourself completely to the will of God is distasteful to you. And I would add that not wanting to let go of the reigns of your life is in fact evidence of the reality that you do not have spiritual life. 

It’s also an evidence of the fact that you’re delusional enough to believe you ever had the reigns in the first place.

But if you recognize the fact that there is no person in the entire cosmos more trustworthy and magnificent than God, and you are willing (though maybe hesitant) to submit yourself to His will, then that is an exciting stage of spiritual maturity. 

Now, before I finish today, I want to make it clear that the idea of Spirit-control is not that you become a marionette, nor does it carry the connotation of being possessed by an evil spirit, nor is it a let-go-and-let-God type of thing.

If you are born again, you already have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. Submitting to the Spirit, allowing Him to control your life, and experiencing His empowerment is nothing more nor less than choosing to believe what you encounter in the Scriptures and striving to the best of your ability to obey.

We don’t need to be in a trance, and God isn’t going to force us to do anything as we’re fighting against Him. I think a silly, earthly example is an assistant to a multi-millionaire. Her boss has some associates who are flying into town, and he tells her to use the company credit line to set them up in the finest hotels with the finest cars at their disposal and to get them tickets to the hottest venue in town.

Now, if she chooses to disobey her orders, the hotels and cars and shows will not be booked, and there will be consequences. But even if she wanted to do as she were told, those are not things the assistant could afford on her own. The only way she can do it is through the financial enabling of the company.

Like I said, it’s silly, but I use that example because at no point was she being manacled and micromanaged by the boss. She had freedom and power to do exactly what he told her to do, and she didn’t need to break out her own credit card to accomplish it.

In a similar, yet infinitely more amazing way, God commands us to obey, and as we put our hand to the plow, God works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that other followers of Christ can learn about the freedom of Spirit-control, and be sure to reach out to us at Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com if you need some personalized help growing in this spiritual discipline. 

And then join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be discussing what it means to persevere.

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Welcome to Part 4 our Evidences of Spiritual Life Series where we are not only discovering the fruit of genuine conversion, but we are also staring at God’s roadmap for our continued spiritual growth.

I’m glad you’re with me today, but if this is your first time to visit The Celebration of God, I would ask that you do a couple things. First, please start with Part 1 of this series so that the foundation and continuum won’t be lost for you. Second, take a moment to visit CelebrationOfGod.com to learn more about who we are and what we’re seeking to accomplish in your life and the life of your fellow disciples of Christ.

And while you’re there, you’ll be able to access all of the episode notes, transcripts, and life resources for this series.

And now let’s talk about the exceptionally important next stage of our spiritual maturity.

II Peter 1:5, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence.” 

As we learned last week, if you’re born again, you are so because you exercised the gift of faith when God revealed Himself to you through His Word. In that moment, you were given spiritual life and strength by the Holy Spirit and were fundamentally changed from the inside out. That’s why even baby Christians can start living morally excellent lives from day one. The righteousness of Christ was imputed to them and the Holy Spirit started His work of conforming them to the Savior.

But we all must continue to grow, and that will require that we continue to learn more about God and continue to respond to Him in faith. In II Peter 3:18, Peter ends his letter by commanding God’s people to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

1. The Knowledge of God

And as we saw earlier, the grace we need to mature in Christ comes as we are increasingly exposed to the knowledge of God. II Peter 1:2, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” 

But we must ask, will there ever be a time when we have learned all we need to learn? Will there ever come a time we can stop reading and studying and memorizing and meditating on the Bible?

According to Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”

There will absolutely never come a time—both now and into eternity—that we will be able to fathom the totality that is our infinite God. This is why Christians must continually be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). Only in Christ and His Word can we ever hope to access the knowledge of God. Colossians 2:3, “In [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

As a biblical counselor—really, just as a human—I am perpetually amazed by the fact that so may Christians are okay not learning anything more about God than what they hear from the pulpit on Sunday. The atrocity of this is compounded by the fact that a lot of so-called pulpits are filled with nothing but lies while others have partial truths mixed with feel-good humanism.

The state of the church and the state of the country is evidence of the fact that Christians aren’t learning, knowing, understanding, and living according to the truths of God. 

If you have been truly born again, then you will desire to know more about God. A lack of interest in the things of God is often a glaring sign that a person hasn’t truly been saved.

When I was in college, it was still considered cool to write your significant other. I remember waiting very impatiently to receive a letter during summer break from my girlfriend who lived states away. And when it arrived, I would read and reread and respond to it.

Well, there are a lot of professing Christians out there who have supposedly been saved from eternal damnation by the God Who loves them with an eternal love, and they say they love Him back, but they have no interest to read His Word and get to know Him better. I believe they are self-deceived or just extremely immature.

That means that for those of us who are born again, there should be a drive in us to better know our God. We should want to read and reread His letters and respond to them.

2. A Warning Concerning Knowledge

We absolutely have to consider the warning from I Corinthians 8:1b-3, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. 2 If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; 3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.”

Is it possible for the knowledge of God to make us arrogant? I believe so, but only in a superficial way. We should all know by now that obedience is doing the right thing in the right way for the right reason and in the right power. But most of our obedience is often relegated to simply doing the right thing and sometimes doing it the right way. In the same way, if our knowledge of God is nothing more than a factual collection of information concerning what God would have us do and how He would have us do it, then that knowledge can and will definitely puff us up.

However, if we are truly learning and growing in the necessity, nature, and focus of doing the right things for the right reasons, we absolutely won’t be able to become arrogant in that knowledge. To be arrogant is to reveal that we don’t understand the motivation.

Therefore, the relationship between the knowledge of God and the love of God is directly connected. As we study, learn, and grow in our knowledge of God, it should multiply our love for God to such a degree that we fade into the background as He becomes our sole aim in life.

When it comes to an evidence of spiritual life, if your knowledge of the Bible produces nothing but pride and arrogance, then you may very well not truly know God. There are many unsaved Bible scholars who approach the Scriptures from a dry academic perspective. They know so much about it, but they don’t believe any of it.

For those of us who are born again, when we study the Scriptures, we absolutely must desire to know more about the God of the Bible than to simply know more about the Bible or the Christian life or a doctrine. I’m not saying we should’t study those things, but underlying it all needs to be a passion to know the God Who has commanded the way of life and established the doctrine.

3. The Product of the Knowledge of God

The Apostle Paul was once a Pharisee who hated Christ and tried to have Christians imprisoned and killed. He knew much about the Old Testament—probably more than we do—but he was arrogant and foolish. 

In Philippians 3, Paul recounts part of his former life when he knew much about the Scriptures, but even though he was a Jew of the Jews and “blameless” as the Pharisees understood the Law, Paul proclaims in verse 7 that “whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” All of his arrogant knowledge was nothing compared to the excellencies of Christ.

As Paul learned Who Jesus really was, he loved Him more and more. And as Paul learned to truly love God, it affected how he viewed the knowledge of God and the knowledge he had accumulated his whole life.

In Philippians 3:8 Paul says, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.”

There is absolutely nothing in this life that can compare with knowing the Lord. In fact, Paul said that all of his accomplishments before Christ were nothing but rubbish—a Greek word that could be used of human excrement. 

Paul’s highest desire was that he “may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul’s knowledge of the Law produced a human righteousness in his own power, but Paul describes that the knowledge of Christ produces the following 5 things:

A. The righteousness which comes from God

Though we may experience a level of moral excellency in our lives when we are born again, it’s the knowledge of Christ that enables us to grow in our righteousness. 

If you feel stuck in your Christian life—like your spiritual maturity has plateaued—it’s likely because you have stopped truly studying the Word to better know God. You may be studying it to learn more stuff, but you aren’t studying it to really know the God Who saved you.

B. The power of His resurrection

If you have been resurrected with Christ, that same power is yours to grow in Christ. If you would describe your walk with God as anything but powerful, that should give you pause.

If you are born again, I’m not suggesting that you will always feel up to the task. No, no! The reality is that whether we’re saved or not, we cannot do anything God wants us to do in our own power. However, through His strength we can do all things to which He has called us.

C. The fellowship of His sufferings

I’m just going to come out and say that a professing believer who is doing everything they can to avoid suffering in this life—especially the suffering associated with being a Christian—likely isn’t born again. Their focus is on themselves and their comfort.

Of course, I’m not arguing that the life of a Christian is one of masochism and self-flagellation. We should be wise enough to avoid hurting ourselves, but the things we cannot control (like persecution) are things that we shouldn’t inherently be trying to avoid. In fact, we should be living a life so similar to Christ’s that it would make all the sense in the world for scoffers and scorners to hate us the way they hated Him.

And that leads to . . .

D. Being conformed to His death

Are you willing to die to self and to put to death the deeds of the body? If not, then you likely do not have spiritual life. But if we do have spiritual life, the more we learn about God should motivate us to be conformed to His death by crucifying the sinful flesh within our hearts.

And the final thing Paul notates in this passage that comes from the knowledge of God is . . .

E. The resurrection from the dead

The knowledge of Christ produces the righteousness of Christ by the power of Christ so that we may experience the suffering of Christ that leads to the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.

In the same way the knowledge of God encompassed the entirety of Christ’s earthy life and helped Him glorify God in it, the knowledge of God will do the same for us. 

But knowing Christ doesn’t just teach us truth, it also gives us . . .

F. The ability to battle lies

II Corinthians 10:3-5 reads, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.”

The phrase “walking in the flesh” doesn’t refer to living according to the lusts of our sinful flesh. It refers to simply being alive in their mortal, pre-glorified bodies. This should give us hope that what was described next in the verse is something we can have and experience now.

I also want to focus in on the word “fortresses.” This Greek word is only used in this passage, but it refers to a physical stronghold or military garrison. However, Paul is using it metaphorically to refer to  areas in our thinking that stand in opposition to the knowledge of God.

The greatest threat to our faith and moral excellence is any “knowledge” that contradicts God’s Word. Any idea, opinion, speculation, feeling, thought, or belief that disagrees with the Bible is dangerous and deadly. 

In verse 5, we see two important sides of the same coin. In order to grow in our knowledge of God we must 

First, destroy the speculations that contradict God’s truth, and . . .

Second, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

I love the imagery of that. 

If you are a born-again disciple of Christ, then our thoughts need to exist within the confines of Christ’s truth. We aren’t allowed to be so open-minded that our brains fall out. We don’t need to give a second’s thought to ideas that contradict Scripture.

I recently posted something on Instagram and had someone tell me I had to “get with the times.” And by that, they meant to get rid of the biblical position I was taking. Well, no, I don’t. In fact, my thinking absolutely needs to be held captive by Jesus Christ. 

I love to bring up Philippians 4:8 as I teach this: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

That’s what it looks like to have a mind that is captured by Christ.

And if that verse doesn’t describe your thought life, but instead your mind is given to speculations and lofty things that are raised up against the knowledge of God . . . you may very well not be a true child of God.

The saved battle lies, the unsaved believe them.

And finally . . .

G. The ability to teach others

As you continue to read the Bible, study it, and meditate on it, you will find that you will not only grow in your Christlikeness, but you will be able to help others do the same. Romans 15:14 says, “And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.”

Our chief goal at The Year Long Celebration of God is for you to better know, understand, and worship God this year. But our second goal is that you would help your fellow disciples to do the same. They may be your kids, your friends, your fellow church-members, your family, your co-workers . . . it doesn’t matter. If they are professing Christians, and God has them in your life, then He expects to use you in their sharpening, their maturing, and their spiritual growth.

So, ask yourself this: Who are the people in your life God wants you to be able to admonish (teach & warn) with His truth?

I hope you’re able to come up with at least one name.

If you are not actively involved in the spiritual maturity of God’s people, I’m going to argue that you are not growing in the knowledge of God, and therefore, may either be unsaved or still very spiritually immature.

But as you mature in Christ, you will be admonishing His people in your life.

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets, and never hesitate to reach out to us at Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com.

And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be discussing the spiritual necessity of self-control.

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Welcome back to our Evidence of Spiritual Life series. This series is designed to not only help us understand whether or not we have spiritual life, but—for those of us who do—is designed to show us the trajectory for our continued spiritual growth.

If we’re not growing in our spiritual life, it’s very likely that we don’t have spiritual life. 

But before we jump into the content for today, I invite you to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest for daily encouragement, challenges, and the occasional laugh. Following me on those platforms is not the only way to redeem your newsfeed, but it’s a great way! I love interacting with people who comment and share, so let’s become social media friends.

And remember, if you love this show and want to hear more of it, we desperately need your support. We’ve taken a break from our other podcast because I’ve had to pick up a second job. But the more donations Evermind Ministries receives, the more time I can devote to creating these free resources.

Your prayer, sharing this ministry with your friends, and your financial support are greatly appreciated. Please visit TruthLoveParent.com/Donate to learn more.

And then visit CelebrationOfGod.com for today’s episode notes, transcript, and life resources.

And now let’s look at the second evidence of spiritual life and the next step on the road to our conformity to Christ.

The passage we’re considering is II Peter 1:1-15, but the core of this passages comes from verses 5-11, and verses 5-7 are the main focus of this series.

Unfortunately, verses 5-7 are a list of 8 evidences of spiritual life. I say “unfortunately” not because God messed up when having Peter write this letter, but because when we encounter a passage like this—if we don’t force ourselves to consider the whole counsel of God—it’s very easy for us to just glide over it and give ourselves a checkmark in every one as we go. But God has a lot to say about each of these character traits, and the more we study them from the Scripture, the harder it is to give ourselves a checkmark in them.

For example, last time we talked about faith. Generally speaking, everyone has faith, but what kind of faith do they have? In what do they have their faith? What is that faith producing in their lives? The more detail you pursue, the more revealing the answers will be.

And that’s what we want for this series, we want to have the reality and condition of our spiritual life to be revealed and matured. So, we have to be detailed.

So, what does God want us to add to our faith? Verse 5 reads, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence.” Some translations refer to is as “virtue.”

But what is that? What does it mean to have virtue or moral excellence? If confronted on the street and asked if you are a virtuous person or a morally excellent person, I think most Christians would say, “Yes.”

So, first we need to understand what the original word meant. 

1. What is Moral Excellence? 

This word refers to anything that is known for being excellent and having intrinsic eminence or goodness. Its excellency is indisputable. 

In fact, II Peter 1:3 was the first place we encountered this word. “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” God used this word to describe His own eminence, and now He’s using it to refer to the lifestyle that we must live. 

But have you ever wondered why this very high standard for our living comes so early in the list? Many people who have studied this passage find the order of the character traits to be very interesting. 

Once we understand the preeminence of faith, it’s easy to understand why it’s first on the list. It’s absolutely, foundationally, seminally necessary to all spiritual life. But why is moral excellence listed before things like knowledge? Don’t you need knowledge to become morally excellent? Isn’t self-control and kindness and love just different parts of moral excellence?

That’s a great question. This is not merely a random list. This list is deliberate, and when we understand it, we will definitely appreciate the fact that moral excellence is the next evidence of spiritual life.

So, let’s investigate this from the broader teachings of the Scripture.

When a person is unsaved, they are dead in their trespasses and sins. They are living in darkness, and the Bible makes it clear that an unbeliever can’t be righteous. 

Isaiah 64:6 says, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.” The best that unbelievers have to offer is so unrighteous that God compares it to a piece of cloth soaked in bodily fluids!

Ecclesiastes 10:3 reveals that “Even when the fool walks along the road, his sense is lacking.” A fool is a fool even when he’s just walking down the street.

Proverbs 12:10 says, “Even the compassion of the wicked is cruel,” and Proverbs 21:4 says that  when an unbelieving farmer plows his field, he’s still sinning.

Titus 1:15 teaches us that, “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”And Romans 8:8 reveals, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

My friends, if someone does not have spiritual life, it is 100% impossible for him or her to do anything good. They are completely in sin, and even their best attempts at righteousness can’t please God. 

So, based off those observations alone, it’s clear to see why moral excellence is the necessary byproduct of life-giving faith. When a person is born again, two miraculous things happen.

A. God positionally gives us the righteousness of Christ. As Jesus took our sin on Him at the cross, so too the Father places Jesus’ righteousness on us. Some have said that when God the Father looks at us, all He sees is His Son. And to a certain degree, I agree completely. However, let’s not be delusional enough to think that means we can hide our sin and self-worship from the Father’s eyes as we crouch behind Jesus. That’s not what we mean.

So, positionally, we have virtue the moment we’re saved.

But, second, though our lives may not be completely changed the moment we’re born again . . .

B. God practically gives us the righteousness of Christ. 

Moral excellence is the direct result of being born again. Matthew 5 reveals that a humble sinner who turns to God will hunger and thirst after righteousness because they’ve been righteousness-starved their entire life. And that hunger will result in mercy, purity, peacemaking, and joy.

When God makes someone alive, their behaviors are going to change because they now have access to spiritual strength and righteousness even if they don’t yet know a lot about the Bible.

But what does this moral excellence practically look like in a believer’s life?

Do you remember II Peter 1:3? “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” 

First, we need to acknowledge that God is the standard of this excellence.

Now consider I Peter 2:9 in light of this truth, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

This passage further confirms that the excellencies God expects for our lives are intrinsically tied to His excellency, and we see that our virtue will be lived out in the light of God and not the darkness of sin. 

Therefore, it should be easy for us to recognize that moral excellence is simply conformity to God’s will and character, and that the opposite is sin. Therefore, everything in the Bible about righteousness and sin needs to inform our understanding of Christian virtue.

But, for now, let’s consider the first part of I Peter 2:9. What kind of life will proclaim the excellencies of God? 

When I present this material in a biblical counseling session I ask my counselees to give careful thought to what it means for a believer to be part of the chosen race, the royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God’s own possession. For their study, I present them with a number of Old and New Testament passages that talk about these different titles.

For the sake of brevity today, I’ll say that each of these categories is unique in that they are required to be unique. They have expectations on them that make them “peculiar” in the world. Of course, this makes perfect sense because the World is dark and lost, but believers have and are commanded to live in the light of God’s righteous excellence.

Because He has chosen us to offer sacrifices of spiritual obedience and to be holy as a unique possession of the all-perfect God, all Christians must grow in obedience and put off sin in our lives.

But often times that seems easier said than done. So, let’s consider . . .

2. How do we live morally excellent lives?

The only other passage in the New Testament where the Greek word translated “moral excellence” appears is in Philippians 4:8. So far, we’ve only seen Peter use this word, but Paul uses it as well as he’s instructing the Philippians in how to have genuine, abiding peace.

After explaining to them that they must rejoice in God, love their neighbor, and instead of being anxious, they need to take all of their burdens to the Lord, Paul promises that they will experience a peace that passes all understanding. But then Paul continues in verses 8-9, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

According to Philippians 4:4, we will only be able to love others and release our anxiety to God when we rejoice in Him. Rejoicing is a conscious decision to value the excellency of something.

And then in verses 8-9 Paul demonstrates that before we can ever hope to do the things we’ve learned and received and heard and seen, we must think right.

We should all know by now that action follows thinking. If you didn’t know that, I’d encourage you to listen to our Grow Your Worship series.

So, if we want to live a morally excellent life we must think morally excellent thoughts.

In Romans 12:2 we read, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

And Colossians 3:1-5 teaches, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”

In order for us to lay aside immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, and idolatry, we must set our mind—think—on Christ.

And according to II Corinthians 10:5, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

We are literally imprisoning our thoughts to the obedience of Christ. 

Listen, I understand our cultural proclivity to have “open minds,” I’m a proponent for questioning those things which we believe are true. Unless my counselees at least stop for a moment to consider that they’re wrong in how they’re living their lives, they’ll never change and glorify God.

But the other extreme is that we see people every day whose minds are so open their brains have fallen out. 

The point is God has a lot to say about the boundaries and confines of our thinking, and we would be wise not to challenge those parameters.

According to I Corinthians 3 Paul uses various metaphors to illustrate the life of a believer, but then he reveals in verses 18-23 that in order to live in a Christ-honoring way, we need to reject the wisdom of the this age and embrace the foolishness of God.

In Philippians 2:1-16, Paul is going to command us to do various acts of righteousness, he’s going to use Jesus Himself to illustrate how we should live, and he’s going to tell us that it all starts in our minds. So, listen carefully to the following passage. I’m going to point out how our actions are to grow from our thoughts.

“Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. 14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.”

That’s such a beautiful passage full of so much truth, but there are two things I wanted us to pull from it. First, all of our doing will inevitably come from our thinking, so the only way to change our doing will be to change our thinking.

But the second thing I wanted us to see came from verse 13: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

Okay, so let’s put all of this together. 

1. Moral excellence is the standard God sets.

2. Until we submit to Him in faith, we will never be able to do anything good or pleasing to Him. 

3. Once we’re born again, God gives us positional moral excellence. But it’s not limited to that.

4. Once we’re born again, God also gives us practical moral excellence. He empowers our sanctifying faith that will result in a growing moral virtue. But . . . 

5. Moral behavior starts first with moral thinking. We need to have the same mind that Jesus had if we hope to live the same life He lived. 

Okay, so let’s investigate our own spiritual life.

In order to know we have spiritual life, there should be an evidence of practical moral excellence which is specifically revealed in how we think and then which moves out into how we speak and act. 

In order to rightly judge this moral excellence as being from God and not just the spirit of the age, it must be empowered by God, come from God, and conform to God.

We mustn’t just try to do things. Yes, I need to be kind to you, but God wants me to be kind to you because He commands me to love you, and He commands me to love you because that is what’s required of me to be holy as He is holy, and I need to be holy as He is holy because God deserves to be glorified by my perpetual sacrifice of obedience.

Therefore, I love you not to impress you or garner favor. I love you not to make anyone feel good—myself included. I love you not because of you at all. I love you not because of me at all. I love you because my mind has been taken captive to the obedience of Christ. I love you because I want nothing more than to give God what He deserves.

This is the thinking that produces the moral excellence which is the evidence of our spiritual life. Is this evidence in your life?

Now, let’s say that after our last show you concluded that saving faith is evidenced in your life, but perhaps it’s harder for you to point to genuine instances of morally excellent thinking.

My friends, a nebulous “faith” doesn’t save. Our faith needs to be alive and active. We need to be living out the fruits of our faith, and one of the first is moral excellence—Christian virtue. A faith that is not actively growing in Christ-honoring thinking is a weak evidence at best and an evidence for not being born again at worst.

So, there you have it. Does your life have the evidence of moral excellence as defined by God and His Word? No? Then my friend, trust in the God of the Bible, submit your will to His, and experience the life-giving ability to have the mind of Christ.

And for those of you who answered the last question with a, “Yes,” are you growing and maturing in your moral excellence? You will never reach a place on this earth where you perfectly possess the mind of Christ, so that means that you should always be pursuing it. 

Living Christians are growing Christians. So, ask yourself this question: “How am I to think more morally?”

How do I think more like God today than I did yesterday? How are you to grow in your moral excellence?

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that others can join you in maturing their spiritual life, and never hesitate to reach out to us at Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com for personalized help.

And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be answering the question I just asked, "How are you to grow in your moral excellence?” as we look at our third evidence of spiritual life.

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Last time we introduced this series by explaining its two-pronged goal. On one hand we want to provide an evaluative tool for anyone who listens to be able to identify whether or not they are genuinely born again with new life in Christ.

On the other hand, assuming that someone already knows or comes to learn that they genuinely possesses spiritual life in Christ, we want you to be able to understand the trajectory God has in mind for your spiritual maturity.

So, it makes all the sense in the world that God is going to explain that trajectory with the most seminal, foundational, necessary truth in the universe.

But before we get to that, make sure you check out our new homepage for Evermind Ministries. You can visit EvermindMinistries.com which is a landing page for AMBrewster Ministries, Faithtree Biblical Counseling & Discipleship, Truth.Love.Family., The Year Long Celebration of God, and the Evermind Ministries Store.

Keep in mind that each of these pages are in various forms of flux and at different stages of development, but we wanted you to get familiar with EvermindMinistries.com and what we have to offer.

Evermind is devoted to the mission of keeping God’s truth at the center of the human experience, and that includes so many facets and slivers of our lives. We pray that as we grow, you will be able to find more and more biblical answers for the situations in which you find yourself.

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And now let’s talk about the first step to spiritual life and the first evidence of spiritual life.

Let’s start by reviewing II Peter 1:1-4. Peter introduces himself, and identifies his audience as those who have received the faith he had. Faith which comes through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. 

He then greets them praying that grace and peace be multiplied to them in the knowledge of God which is able to grant us everything we need for life and godliness into which we were called for God’s own glory and excellence. 

And it’s by God’s glory and excellence that we have been granted precious and magnificent promises by which we have become partakers of the divine nature—having escaped the corruption of sinful lust.

And then in II Peter 1:5, Peter says, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence.”

Based off all that has come before, for the ultimate glory and excellence of God by which we partake in the divine life and nature and escape sinful corruption, we need to do something, and we need to do it diligently. And what is that something? The verse continues, “in your faith supply moral excellence.”

The very first evidence of spiritual life, the very first requirement for our spiritual life and maturity is not moral excellence . . . it all starts with faith.

I like the King James rendering of this verse. The first part of verse 5 reads, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.”

The assumption is that if you have new life in Christ, you have faith. That was made clear all the way back in verse 1, “To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

If you and your fellow disciples have never listened to our Grow Your Worship Series, I am going to do more than encourage you to listen to it. I’m going to go so far as to say that you may never truly understand the importance and nature of faith if you don’t listen to that series.

Here’s why I say that. I am a biblical counselor. I have also moved 22 times in my life, have been a member of many churches, ministered to thousands and thousands of people, and I have found that the single most important concept in the life of a believer is also one of the most misunderstood and adulterated.

And of course it is. Satan hates us, and he doesn’t want us to truly understand the nature and significance of faith. 

In fact, I was interacting with someone on Twitter recently who beautifully illustrated the point I’m making here. Though he was certain he understood what faith was, his description of it categorically proved his understanding was not biblically informed . . . despite the fact he claimed to hold a seminary degree. 

Now, this is a big topic, and I will unpack it a little bit today, but my main goal for this episode is not to rehash the study we did in the Grow Your Worship Series. Everyone needs to take the time to listen to that. The goal today is help us identify the presence of or lack of genuine faith in our lives. 

So, to that end, as I speak of faith, if it confuses you or seems to contradict what you thought it was, then you absolutely need to listen to that series. However, if what I say lines up perfectly with what you know about faith, great.

1. The Nature of Faith

Let me start by saying that faith and knowledge are categorically not the same thing. It’s true that you can’t believe what you don’t know, but the fact that you know something doesn’t mean you believe it.

In fact, I’ll take it one step further, to mentally acquiesce to a truth doesn’t mean you believe it either. 

Faith is not a hope in something. Faith is not even technically blind. In reality, the blind ones are the ones without faith. II Corinthians 4:4 reads, “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

People say that faith is bling because Hebrews 11:1 says that, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” A lot of bad thinking about faith has come from poor understanding of this verse.

The word translated “hope” doesn’t refer to a baseless wish. It refers to a confident expectation in a guaranteed reality.

The word translated “conviction” is a hapax legomena that refers to a proof or a test that provides such proof. And the idea of things not seen doesn’t refer to baseless, reasonless, illogical, blindness like “I believe in magical purple unicorns who make the sun to rise even though there’s no proof of them.” No, no, no.

Let’s consider other places in Scripture where God refers to that which is not seen.

Romans 8:24 says, “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?” But this verse comes after Paul describing how the entire nature groans waiting eagerly for its future redemption. We don’t yet see that redemption as it’s a future reality, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know exactly what that redemption entails.

II Corinthians 4:18 talks about, “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Did you catch that figurative language—“looking at the things which are not seen”? We know exactly what they are. The things which are unseen are the eternal things of our future.

Later in chapter 5, verses 6-8 we read, “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

Paul knew exactly what the future held—absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We can’t physically see that reality right now, but we have good courage knowing that it’s coming.

And then a few verses later in Hebrews 11:7 we read, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen.” It wasn’t seen because it hadn’t happened yet, but Noah knew exactly what to expect.

And I think the best verse to illustrate this is Hebrews 11:27 where we find the author of Hebrews referring to Moses, “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”

God Himself is unseen, and yet we know so much about Him. In fact, it’s through the knowledge of God that we have everything we need for life and godliness.

My point is this. Faith is not knowledge or mental assent. 

Faith is also not knowledge-less. It is rooted in truth. The more truth we know, the stronger our faith is.

Faith is simply a choice to trust something. 

In a best case scenario, faith is a choice to trust that what God says is true . . . is true.

God says that we are all sinners on our way to an eternal hell, but that Jesus Christ came and did what no one else could do. He died as a perfect substitutionary atonement for our sins so that we could have an eternal relationship with the God of the universe.  And the Bible provides many details about what salvation is in justification, sanctification, and glorification. We learn about propitiation and the incarnation and the miracle of resurrection and so much more. 

And the question is whether or not we will trust that what God has said is true.

Faith is a confident expectation that everything God says is true and either has happened exactly as He said it did or will happen exactly as He says it will.

And I also need to add that I believe the Bible is very clear that the faith necessary to trust God comes from God Himself. We can’t drum it up within ourselves. This is taught in II Peter 1:1, “To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.”

The word translated “received” is very interesting in that it refers to casting lots or being chosen by lots. Proverbs 16:33 tells us that what appears to be a random casting of the lot is decided by the Lord. You can’t make a set of dice do what you want it to do, but God does every time.

You can’t drum up genuine saving faith all by yourself, but God does, and we are the grateful recipients of that faith.

But since faith is nothing more than a choice to trust, that means that there is a faith that doesn’t lead to salvation. “How is that?” you ask. Well, what if you choose to believe a lie? What if you put your faith in something that’s not true?

Yes, there is a Living Faith and that Living Faith has two practical outworkings. There’s Saving Faith and Sanctifying Faith about which you can learn in Part 4 of the Grow Your Worship Series. But there is also Dead Faith, and there are three kinds of Dead Faith.

And this is where we need to pay close attention.

There are people out there who believe they believe in the right things. They have faith that they have faith in the God the Bible. They trust that they are trusting in truth . . . but they’re not.

So, allow me to quickly address the three kinds of Dead Faith.

A. Misplaced Faith

Misplaced Faith is faith in something other than God. If I believe that Santa Claus will take me to his polar workshop when I die, then my faith placed in Santa is a Misplaced Faith.

Countless people in the Bible had misplaced faith. Jezebel and Ahab believed their false gods would save them, but they both experienced the wrath of the one living God.

If you have Misplaced Faith, you are not a genuine believer. But the chances of any of you having Misplaced Faith as we’re defining it is slim to none unless you worship some god other than the God of the Bible, and you’re here simply to learn what Christians believe about faith.

So, let’s move to . . .

B. Confused Faith

This refers to someone who is personally deceived about what they believe. They’re convinced they believe in God, but really they just know things about God. They’ve confused knowledge of God with belief in Him. People who have confused faith live a confused life. They talk like they believe in God, but their life choices constantly betray what they profess.

I think Martha is a good example of this. Her brother, Lazarus, had just died. Jesus visited and said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha replies, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”

Martha knew that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. She knew He fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah, but in just a short time she would show that she didn’t really believe that Jesus was God in human flesh.

In fact, Jesus had to confront her about that same unbelief. When Jesus commanded that the stone covering Lazarus’ tomb be removed, Martha cried out, “‘Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.’” But “Jesus *said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’”

Martha acquiesced to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, but she didn’t really believe it enough to trust that whatever He wanted to do was best. Otherwise, she would have had complete trust that everything Jesus was going to do was exactly what needed to be done and shouldn’t have been contradicted by her . . . a mere mortal.

This, my friends is something we all need to watch our for. This is the faith of the Rocky Hearted person in the Parable of the Soils. Luke 8:13 says, “Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.”

I don’t have time to unpack this parable today. I’ve done it for Truth.Love.Parent. in The Four Children Series, and I plan to do it here in the future, but for now, understand that the Rocky Hearted person mentally acknowledges and accepts what they hear. But it’s not real faith—real trust—and so they fall away.

There are quite possibly people under the sound of my voice today who believe they believe, but they only just know. What are they to do? We’ll talk about that in our next point after we look at the third type of Dead Faith. 

C. Partial Faith

A good way to illustrate this is faith in Christianity instead of faith in the Gospel. Paul was a good example of this before he was converted. He—like the rest of the Pharisees—followed the Old Testament Law in all the wrong ways. He would say that he believed in Yahweh, and he thought his obedience of the Old Testament Law was proof of that fact, but the legalism of the Pharisees showed that they didn’t understand the God they claimed to worship. They believed God was judging them based on their works instead of understanding that God would save them based on their faith. 

Part of what they believed about God was right, but a big part was wrong.

This too happens all the time in the church. When people claim to believe in Jesus, and they quote the Scriptures, and they devote their lives to following Christ, but—in their mind—Jesus’ love would never allow Him to send anyone to Hell . . . they’re not really believing in the Jesus of the Bible. They’re believing in their own false version of Him, a full faith in a partial Jesus.

I’ve worked with many people who believe that Jesus doesn’t condemn homosexuality, that God is okay with transgenderism or abortion. These people may believe certain things the Bible says about God, but their faith is not in the God of the Bible because they are believing things about Him that aren’t true.

Another good biblical example of Partial Faith is the demons. In James we read, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” 

The demons don’t submit to God as their King. They do not believe they must, but they do believe that He is powerful. That’s why they shudder. The demons have a right belief about the power of God, but they don’t have a right belief about the position of God. They still believe they can win.

Okay, so those three faiths are Dead Faiths because they are not belief unto salvation through a relationship with the true God of the Bible. 

Now, let’s look at our final point for the day and apply it to each of us.

2. The Evidence of Faith

Peter is going to spend the next few verses telling us to add things to our faith—the first of which is virtue or moral excellence. Faith is not the end, it’s the beginning of everything. It’s the beginning of life, and it’s the beginning of change. 

This is why James contrasts the Living and Dead Faiths with one simple evidence. You are all very familiar with James 2:14, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”

Verse 7 says, “faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

Verse 18 tells us, “But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’”

And verse 26 reads, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”

If you want to know if you have true spiritual life, then there are a couple things that will absolutely be true.

A. You will unequivocally trust the God of the Bible.

Now, this won’t mean that you won’t have questions or doubts. But it means that when you discover that which you need for life and godliness in His Word, you will trust it. But you won’t simply acknowledge it’s truth. 

B. You will act according to your trust in the God of the Bible.

Now, everyone acts according to what they believe. We all do what we believe is best. Therefore, it’s our doing that evidences our beliefs.

This is why in I John, the Apostle writes, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

It doesn’t matter what you say. I’ll go so far as to say, it doesn’t matter what you believe . . . if your works do not flow from a genuine trust and obedience to God’s Word—a submission to God—your belief is not rooted in the God of the Bible.

When someone confronts you using the Bible, do you submit to the reproof? Do you at least humbly take the time to test yourself, study the Scriptures, surround yourself with biblical counsel, and at least consider the fact that you may be in sin? 

When you become convinced of the fact that you have actually transgressed God’s law, do you humbly confess your sin, ask for forgiveness, and start the process of change in repentance?

Do you submit your life choices to the Bible? Do you strive in all things to make certain that everything you do, say, feel, want, and think are in line with God’s expectations for your life?

Are you a student of the Word, not comfortable to assume that you have it all figured out, but one who recognizes your need for continued spiritual maturity, recognizes the fact that you don’t know and understand it all, and continues to learn from the Bible so that you may be more and more conformed to the image of God?

Faith, my friends, is the gateway to spiritual life, but it’s also the springboard for our maturity in it. A person who is moving away from God, deconstructing their faith, and the like does not have saving faith. 

But neither does a person who is stagnate and unchanging in their supposed faith. Growing things change. God demands that we mature and be sanctified from one degree of glory to another. Stagnation is not a state in which a genuine child of God can live.

Again, this doesn’t mean that we’ll never sin, never slip back into old habits, and the like, but the idea of a “carnal christian” is not a biblical reality. A professing believer who backslides and never slides back to conformity to Christ was never a believer.

Now, before we finish up today, I need to provide . . .

C. A Warning

Human beings are blind. We’re foolish. We’re ignorant. We’re deceived. It’s so incredibly easy for us to believe that we’re believing the right things and living the right ways . . . and be completely wrong. 

We may be able to look at our lives and remember a time that you believe you put your trust in Christ, and then you may look at your life and see changes that appear to be the result of that trust, but I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who were in that same position who later came to realize that they were a Rocky Hearted individual. 

They saw things in the Scripture with which they agreed. They changed their lives in their own power to conform to the expectations they saw in the Bible which—by the way—were generally only freckle-deep. It was outward, superficial conformity to a standard. It was hypocritical, it was Pharisaical.

And they later realized they never truly were trusting Christ. They were trusting their own ability to do what they thought needed to be done. In reality, they were their own god. They had decided how they needed to live, and they were doing it in their own power and for their own glory . . . all the while convinced that they had genuine faith in God.

And of those people—when they saw the situation for what it actually was—some of them submitted to Christ for the first time in their lives . . . but others relished their freedom from the superficial masquerade, and they finally outwardly rejected Christ as they had been doing inwardly the whole time.

So, what do we do?

Well, it goes back to what I said before. We absolutely must know and understand the Scriptures the best we can. We need to study and get wise counselors and be the eternal student God created us to be. 

If you are prideful and defensive and argumentative when you are approached about possible sin in your life, that needs to be a warning sign—not simply that you may not be born again, but at least broadly that you may well be very wrong on this point, and you do need to change.

Now, there are so many other points that could be made here, but I pray that we’ve laid the ever-necessary groundwork to allow the other evidences of spiritual life to compound with this one and either convince or convict us of the truth of our spiritual life and the trajectory of our spiritual growth.

Again, please listen to the Grow Your Worship Series. It’s linked in today’s description. Also, check out The Discipleship Spiral. That series will help you to better understand the relationship between knowing, understanding, and believing something. It will also further substantiate the absolute necessity of living works that grow from Living Faith.

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that others can not only rightly judge their relationship with God, but—Lord willing—grow in it.

Also, never hesitate to send an email to Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com if you have personal questions you’d like to ask,

And then join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be discussing the next evidence of spiritual life: excellence.

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Welcome to our newest series. We’ve vaulted off our previous series about life in God to better understand the biblical evidences of genuine spiritual life. We haven’t been justified, we aren’t being sanctified, and we won’t be glorified if we don’t have the life of Christ.

But far too many people assume they have spiritual life without knowing for sure. So, this series is going to have a two-edged mission. On one hand, it’s going to provide all of us the necessary evaluative tool to determine if we truly have life in Christ. And for those of us who do, it’s going to map out God’s expectation for the trajectory of our spiritual growth.

But before we start, will you please take a minute to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and/or Facebook? It’s a great help to the ministry, and it’s a blessing to all of our hearts when you rate and review us.

And then be sure to check out CelebrationOfGod.com to access today’s free episode notes, transcript, and spiritual life resources.

Now, let’s begin.

For this series, we’re going to be using II Peter as our jump-off point. So, I want to take some time to set the stage before we get into the specific evidences of spiritual life.

Now, it’s not my intention to get into the weeds from the very first episode, but I do think my first point today is very valuable as we consider the author of the letter we’re going to be studying.

1. Peter’s Spiritual Life

Peter is by far one of the most well-known and most controversial of the disciples. Not only was his personality brash and impulsive, but the Lord accomplished so much through him.

But the question I want to pose for your consideration is this: When was Peter truly born again?

Many people take for granted that Peter was a genuine child of God from the moment he was called by Christ (or shortly thereafter), but one of the beautiful realities of Peter’s life is that is a warning to us all of how determined, passionate, and outwardly successful a person can be without having a genuine, saving relationship with God.

I won’t try too hard to present my case with all of the evidence because we have other more important things to discuss, but I believe it’s clear that Peter was not truly born again until the conversation he had with Jesus after the Resurrection. Here are some of my reasons for believing this:

1. Just because Peter was a physical “disciple of Christ” doesn’t mean he had to be born again. Judas was a “disciple of Christ” too.

2. Just because he preached and did miracles when Jesus sent the disciples out doesn’t mean he was born again. Judas did the same.

3. Everything we know about Peter before his conversion is consistent with a nominal Christian experience. 

4. In Matthew 10:33, Jesus makes it very clear that he who denies Christ before men, Jesus would also deny him before the Father. Peter denied Christ three times.

5. Jesus and Peter’s conversation on the Sea of Galilee supports the fact that Peter recognized his need to truly love Jesus.

6. There was a categorical shift in Peter’s personality and ministry after that conversation. Peter was no longer the man he used to be, it was clear he had new life in Christ, and he was being sanctified.

And I think this is beautiful because it is this man, a man who I believe thought he had genuine spiritual life but who later discovered he didn’t, this man under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is going to share with the us the evidences of genuine spiritual life.

I think that’s cool.

So, now let’s look at the introduction to the chapter.

2. II Peter 1:1-15

This passage is a gloriously concise explanation of how a Christian is to grow in his or her maturity, and therefore subsequently a valuable resource to determine if we have spiritual life in the first place.

Peter starts in verse 1 introducing himself as a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Though none of us are apostles, it’s important to understand that if Peter (as an Apostle of Christ) were a bond-servant of Christ, we are too.

Peter then addresses his readers and explains that he is writing to “those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Spiritual growth cannot occur if there isn’t first spiritual life, and spiritual life comes as a result of the gift of faith that comes from our righteous God.

After we have been born again into a relationship with God, we are recipients of the multiplied grace and peace that is ours in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Peter gives more explanation of this spiritual benefit when he proclaims in verse 3, “that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”

Praise the Lord that He gives us access to everything we need for life and godliness! And praise God that He tells us exactly where to find everything we need. We discover these spiritual resources in the knowledge of God. Only as we learn, understand, and live in the knowledge of God can we access faith, peace, and grace, and grow in godliness. 

But where do we find the knowledge of God? Is it revealed in nature? Do we learn it in dreams? No, it comes through God’s revealed Word, the Bible.

Verse 4 then explains that it’s through God’s glory and excellence that we receive the precious and magnificent promises that God gives to everyone who is born again. And what are those promises? Peter tells us that whereas previously we were corrupted by the world and our lusts, we now have everything we need to grow in grace and peace—aka, spiritual maturity. And that is why verse 5 begins, “For this very reason also . . . .” 

Because Christians are bond-servants of God, and because He has given us faith, grace, and peace that come through knowing Him and results in life and godliness, we obviously must be growing in that life. So then in verses 5-7 Peter provides an eight point plan for Christian growth. 

Over the next few weeks, you and I are going to work through this eight point plan in order to better know it, understand it, and grow in it. But since Peter’s plan is nothing more than eight short descriptions, we’re going to need to search the Scriptures (the knowledge of God) in order to truly know, understand, and live out these character traits in our lives.

Each of these episodes is designed to help you dig deeper in your understanding of God’s Word. Our goal is to be able to better understand each of the eight character traits in which Christians should be growing so that we can grow in them or come to the realization that we don’t have spiritual life . . . and then run to Christ!

Now, that’s a very broad overview of the passage we’re going to study in this series. But now I want to get more specific concerning an important concept Peter uses in this first chapter.

3. The Diligence of Spiritual Life

In verse 5, Peter writes, “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence.” The Greek word translated “diligence” can be interpreted haste, hurry, earnestness, carefulness, and effort.
What reason should we be diligent? Verse 4 tells us that God’s glory and excellence has “granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”

If we have spiritual life, we have it for a reason. God has imported His glory and excellence to us so that we would be recipients of His precious and magnificent promises. And those promises are designed to make us partakers of His divine nature. 

We’ve talked much about this concept of escaping the corruption that’s in the world by lust and being matured in the divine nature of Christ which includes His character, words, and deeds.

This is God’s plan for our salvation, and—my friends—it’s going to take some earnest, careful, and diligent effort on our part to mature in this process.

It’s not going to happen through osmosis or subconsciously or without our participation. Sanctification is the process of us cooperating with the Holy Spirit to be transformed. We have to do our part because He’s not going to “force” it on us against our will.

Now, let’s jump ahead to verse 10, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you.”

My friends, we must make certain! We must exercise earnest, careful, and diligent effort to make certain about His calling and choosing to give us life in Christ.

The passage goes on to say, “for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”

And—just for good measure—Peter uses this concept again in chapter 3 verse 14, “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless.”

Here again we see the relationship between faith and works. We don’t do good works to earn our salvation, we do good works because we are saved. God has created us for this purpose so that as we are being salt and light in this world, Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Our light shines all the brighter as our good works are evidence of the life of Christ in us.

II Peter 1:11, “for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”

We have to be certain that our earthly life bears the earmarks of genuine spiritual life. We need to be diligent about it. We need to be earnest about proving it.

This is why the passage ends with . . .

4. The Necessity of Living Community

Allow me to read verses 12-15 and comment as we go.

“Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.”

It really doesn’t matter if we’ve heard or know what we’re going to cover in this series. It’s so important to be reminded of them that Peter says that he would always be ready to remind us even though we might already be established in the truth.

And he goes on to continue arguing for the importance of reminders, “I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.”

And here we find another reference to diligence. Not only are we to diligently pursue growth in our spiritual life, not only are we to diligently confirm the fact that we have spiritual life, but Peter was diligent to make certain that everyone under his care so knew these truths that they could easily call them to mind even after he was no longer around to remind them.

We need to be diligent about our relationship with the Lord and our continued maturity in sanctification, but we also need other spiritually-alive, maturing believers who will be equally diligent about our relationship with the Lord and continued maturity.

I pray this podcast and these episodes are part of that process—reminding you of the these things to such a degree that once we’re gone, you can’t help but remember them.

But I pray you have many more people in your life who are doing the same.

I’m really looking forward to studying with you the evidences of spiritual life, but let me share with you that we’ve already seen one.

If you believe that you have been born again, but you aren’t diligently pursuing spiritual growth and change, I would be careful about the certainty of your profession.

Literally everyone who is passionate about their sports team pursues watching the games and knowing how their team is doing. Everyone who is a professional in their field pursues learning and training. How can we say that we life in Christ if we’re not interested in developing that life?

If we’re not diligent to know God better and be more conformed to His image and worship Him better this year, then what are we doing?

But—of course—that’s why you’re here.  

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that other followers of Christ can learn about the trajectory God has planned for their spiritual growth, and never hesitate to reach out to Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com for personalized assistance in your discipleship.

And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be discussing the first evidence of spiritual life in which we absolutely must be growing.

Welcome to the final episode in our Life series. I pray the past episodes have been a huge blessing and encouragement and challenge for you. It has been so valuable for me.

But before we round off this series, I would like to invite you to interact with us on social media via Facebook, Instagram, and now on Twitter and Pinterest. We’re slowly growing our presence on Twitter and Pinterest, but we’re sure that if you use those platforms, our content will be a blessing to you there.

And you should also check out CelebrationOfGod.com for today’s free celebration tools, transcript, and life resources.

And now let’s talk about how to celebrate life in God.

I think the best place to start today is by defining what we mean by . . .

1. Celebrating God 

What is it?

Well, if you’ve never listened to our introductory episodes, you really should. I’ve put a link in the description of today’s episode labeled What Does It Mean to Celebrate God?, and every blog post has a link which reads, “Are you new to the Celebration of God? Click here for your first steps.”

Those intro episodes will answer this question for you in great breadth and depth.
However, by way of simple reminder, to celebrate God is to do everything He commands of us. It’s worship, it’s praise, it’s exultation. We celebrate Him by submitting to Him, following Him, and obeying Him. Celebrating God is giving Him the preeminence that’s due Him.

For many Christians this is easy to do during—what we call—the High Days. These are days like Sunday and the sacred holidays on our Christian calendar.

But the hardest form of celebration occurs on—what we call—the Low Moments. These are all the other days and hours and minutes and seconds that make up our average, daily lives.

God deserves our worship on the Holidays and the Everydays.

So, let’s look at some great ways to celebrate the life of God this Season.

2. Celebrating the Life of God during the Holidays

The Year Long Celebration of God celebratory calendar has a number of amazing High Days in the Season of Life. In fact, that greatest holiday of the entire year falls in this Season. Let’s take a quick look at them.

First, Lent

Lent is a time where God’s people prepare for the celebration of Resurrection Sunday by fasting, praying, and serving.

And—again—if you’re new to the show, then it will be important for you to hear the details of how we celebrate these holidays. We are not Catholic or Lutheran. This ministry is protestant, and we follow baptistic creeds. This means that we don’t carry the baggage of the catholic observation of Lent, but we still get the benefit of the historical celebration of God.

I’m going to put links into today’s episode notes so that you can easily access all of our information about all of these holidays. Please check them out to learn more.

And the next minor holiday fits perfectly within the 46 days of Lent because it’s . . .

Second, World Day of Prayer

Obviously, we can and must pray every day without ceasing, but gathering with the Universal Church on the first Friday in March to join in prayer together is a fantastic way to celebrate the life of God.

And then comes . . .

Third, Passion Week

This week is more of an Observation than a Celebration, but we don’t need to get into the semantical weeds. As deep and painful as the events of this week were, it was glorious how God redeemed them.

Passion Week includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Wednesday, Good Thursday, and Silent Friday and Saturday.

Yes, you heard me right, though it’s not sinful to observe Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we have a number of episodes that reveal the biblical and historical realities that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday. So, check them out!

And all of that is in preparation for the greatest holiday of the year . . .

Fourth, Resurrection Sunday

Were it not for Easter, all of our hopes and faith would be in vain. It’s Christ’s return to life that is the cornerstone of our entire faith. It’s the perfect celebration of the life of God in that God raised Jesus from the dead and—because of that miraculous event—we too can have eternal life in Christ!

And then a little later we celebrate . . .

Fifth, Stewardship Day

Stewardship Day is a biblical way to appreciate Earth Day on April 22nd because we Christians should recognize more than anyone else the important responsibility we have to steward the earth for God’s honor and glory. 

This minor holiday is another fantastic addition to the Season of Life in that Creation is alive and is a gift from God to sustain our lives in the here and now.

But, did you know that the yearly celebration of Resurrection Sunday rarely lines up with the historical date on which Jesus rose form the grave?

That’s why we also take a day to celebrate . . .

Sixth, Technical Easter

It’s not a flashy name, but for those who like to take a moment to continue the celebration of Resurrection Sunday, April 25th is a great way to do it.

And then we have another amazing way to celebrate life . . .

Seventh, Mother’s Day

Praise God for the miracle of life that God ordained to occur in a woman’s body! We thank the Lord for using our mothers to give us life and so much more.

And then we look forward to two more beautiful holidays before the end of the Season of Life.

Eighth, Ascension

Ascension is the day we celebrate Jesus’ return to glory where He sat down at the right hand of the Father and completed His redemptive work!

And finally . . .

Ninth, Pentecost

This is a wonderful day set aside to celebrate the gift of the church. Life within the body of God’s people is a joyous blessing, and we love to celebrate Him for it.

So, those are the High Days, the Holy Days, the Holidays in the Season of Life, and though God doesn’t require us to observe any one of those days, they are a beautiful opportunity to join with God’s people to thank Him for the gifts for which all of His people naturally desire to thank Him.

But those are only a few handfuls of days. There are plenty more opportunities to celebrate God in the Season of Life than the High Days. And—let’s be honest—if we only try to worship Him during the Holidays, it’s safe to say we’re not worshipping Him at all. 

That’s like someone who tries to do the “good Christian” thing on Sunday and then lives the rest of the week for himself. I promise you that God is not pleased by his pretense on Sunday.
​

So that’s why we finish off today’s discussion by looking at ways of . . .

3. Celebrating the Life of God during the Everydays

First, let’s start with the Christian discipline of Bible Study. 

All of God’s people should long for and enjoy their daily time in His Word. To that end we’ve put together a simple 3 Month Bible Reading specifically for the Season of Life. You could use it alone, or you could easily add it to your other devotions.

You can find the Season of Life Bible Reading at CelebrationOfGod.com.

God is well-pleased when we not only read His Word, but we study it in order to better understand it and apply it to our lives.

But there’s another vital Christian discipline in which we should engage every day.

Second, Prayer.

I mentioned this earlier, but it’s important enough to revisit. I love reenergizing my prayer life as I fast in preparation for Resurrection Sunday. It’s a wonderful way of getting me back on track for the rest of the Season and the year.

I look forward to the day that we’ve created more resources on prayer, so—depending on when you’re listening to this—be sure to check out our website for more biblically-based teaching in the nature and habit of prayer.

Until then, though, be sure to not just ask God for a bunch of things. Praise Him, confess your sins, advocate for others, and enjoy the complexity and depth of a robust conversation with God.

And yet another desperately important discipline is . . .

Third, Assembling with the Church.

We did a series called Celebrate God at Church; so definitely be sure to check that out as you strive to worship Him better as church.

But there are still so many other ways in which we need to celebrate God this Season. That’s why we encourage you to worship God in . . .

Fourth, Everything Else.

To help you do that, we have a growing body of resources dedicated to helping you better understand and apply God’s Word in every area of your life.

For example, we have episodes on discipleship, worshiping God at work and school, celebrating Him with your rest, vacations, and recreation. We talk much about pleasing the Lord with what and how you eat including the discipline of fasting. We have a series about worshiping God in your friendships. We even discuss how to celebrate God with the reality of death.

And—of course—TruthLoveParent.com provides you thousands of ways to worship God better in your parenting.

There are so many tools and resources designed to help you worship God better this year than you did last year, the real question is whether or not you’ll take advantage of them. 

We pray you will, and we pray you’ll subscribe to this show and revisit CelebrationOfGod.com as it continues to grow so that we can equip you to be a better follower of Christ.

Please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets so that other followers of Christ can learn how to celebrate Him better this Season.

And if you’re in need of biblical counseling or assistance in your discipleship, please reach out to us at Counselor@CelebrationOfGod.com.

And join us next time as we seek to better know, love, and worship God and help the people in our lives do the same.

To that end, we’ll be starting our new series called The Evidence of Spiritual Life.