One of the most arresting passages in the entire Bible is found in Hebrews 11:6. The writer positively declares, "Without faith it is impossible to please God". He then follows this declaration with a statement which clarifies the kind of faith he is talking about. He says, "Those who come to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him". Of course, faith is a central doctrine of the Christian religion. However, too many people see it as a passive acceptance of the fact of God...a belief in His existence and in the story of Jesus Christ. This is a far cry from the dynamic picture of faith which the writer of Hebrews proclaims. Faith is not a passive element of our religion. It is the dynamic that remolds us into the image of God, and which motivates our behavior in every phase of our lives. In my library I have many translations of the Bible. Every once in a while I run cross a translation which grabs my attention and gives me the "AHA!" experience. I had this experience when I read the Amplified translation of II Peter 1:5, where it says, "...employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue, etc.". It occurs to me that we have a lot of faith, lying around in our churches, which has become weak and impotent from lack of exercise. If the extent of your exercise of faith is church attendance, and following the rituals called worship, your Christianity is doing little toward diligently seeking the Father.
Faith is not the thing which causes you to choose a particular group to gather with, and a certain set of religious rules to follow. It is suppose to be used by you to change your life into an imitation of Christ, and to improve your relationship with the Father. That's why Peter urges us to "add to our
faith", or "to exercise our faith to develop" a Christian personality.
Let us note the characteristics Peter lists as the essentials of such a Christian personality. Your faith should cause you to add virtue to your life. Webster defines virtue as: "General moral excellence; right action and thinking; goodness of character". This is something a person can only acquire by great effort, in this world of moral degeneration and pagan philosophy. It is a growth process for the Christian who diligently wants to find God in his life. Barclay quotes Moffatt as saying, "The Christian life must not be an initial spasm followed by a chronic inertia". Exercise your faith.
The next word Peter uses is "knowledge". It has been my experience that the average member of the church has a "general" knowledge of the Bible. He knows
the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, the crucifixion story told at Easter, the stories of miracles and wonders wrought by the Lord while here, and that
Paul wrote most of the New Testament. Beyond such general facts most people are abysmally ignorant about what the Bible teaches. Their information is usually limited to the rules emphasized by the particular church of which they are a member. Their lack of in-depth knowledge reflects a lack of real
personal study, meditation and diligent seeking for an understanding of the Father and His will for us. I am not saying we should all be Bible scholars,
or theologians. But our knowledge should reflect time spent in personal study, and in an effort to get closer to our Lord.
I realize that there are parts of the Bible which are very difficult to understand, but we should not use this as an excuse for not reading and studying the revelation God has sent us through the writers of this Book. You don't have to wrestle with the symbolism of Revelation, or Ezekiel's dry bones. If you will spend hours each week reading the four Gospels, and meditating upon the lessons taught, you will come to a better understanding of our Lord and of His purposes. Spend a year doing this and you will walk with the Lord, and the knowledge of Him will grow in your life to protect you from sin and give you peace. Try it.
In our next essay, we are going to talk about exercising your faith to develop temperance and patience. In our world of pressure and speed, of instant
gratification and rat race demands, temperance and patience are rare commodities. With faith we can develop them if we will. We will talk about it next time.
