Well said.

"The love of the Lord is the strength of the believer."

Yep. Knowing that I love Him, only because He loved me first, and sought me, and brought me into His domain and life.

That's where our joy comes from for the most aprt, knowing that Christ loves me, and gave Himself for me (Gal. 2:20).

That's a great strength, His love and joy. And He also gives us His peace to guard our hearts.

So even in the darkest seasons of our walk through this devil filled world, we can have assurance that Jesus is faithful, even when we are not, because He loves us with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3).

Have a terrific weekend, and especially Lord's Day Daniel. Lord bless you and your family with His abundant peace and grace. Amen.

 

Interesting post on faith. Ephesians 2:8-9 says that faith is a gift from God so that we can not boast that it comes from anywhere other than God. Jesus says in John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day".

In 2 Peter 1:3-11 there is a path that we must walk and add to our faith. with the end result being love. I know you ended your post with that's all folks.

But...

What are your thoughts on the adding to our faith as we are instructed at 2 Peter 1:3-11?

 

M.A.C.

Good question, and thanks for asking it.

Some older translations translate the Greek word επιχoρηγεω ("provide/supply") as "add".

When I read that I am supposed to add X to Y and then add Y to Z, I picture the whole thing as a big mathematical equation (i.e.: X + Y + Z). I expect most of us think like that.

Is Peter envisioning a "stack" of virtues beginning with faith, which God supplies, then cumulative layers supplied out of our own effort, layers such as moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, etc. ending in the crowning layer of love? Is that how we understand the word?

I think that the desire for moral excellence is supplied by a genuine faith such that the believer who denies himself, and walks in faith, is going to pursue moral excellence. He can try to pursue moral excellence apart from faith, and in his immaturity he probably will, but eventually he will pursue it as the text implies: through faith.

Peter writes that it is because all things pertaining to life and godliness has been granted to us, that we are free to appropriate them. How do we appropriate moral excellence? Do we produce it through self effort? Surely, if moral excellence flowed from human effort, not only could the godless achieve it as readily as the godly, but more, the results quickly dissipate the moment we slackened our effort. Has God provided moral excellence? The text tells us that God has supplied already all things pertaining to godliness. Presumably this shopping list is intended to act as an example of those things, off the top of Peter's head, that he considered as having been supplied by God for the purpose of our attaining to a godly walk.

-cont-

 

-cont-

I think therefore that moral excellence flows from faith - it is appropriate through faith. This, I think, is the point of Peter's instruction. If we have faith, we ought to pursue what can be appropriated through faith - moral excellence, knowledge, self control, perseverence, godliness, brotherly kindness, love. Not that I think Peter was supplying and exhaustive list, nor intending it to be interpreted as a list of progressive prerequisites so that the believer is hindered from loving until after he has master the previous "links" in the hypothetical chain.

So I don't think Peter is speaking of adding to our faith in the sense that your question implies, as though we were to add something to our faith that comes from without our faith. Rather I think Peter is speaking in the same sense as something like: having been given breath, let us add words to that breath. Having words, let us add song. Having song, let us add praise. Having praise let us add worship.

I don't think Peter is suggesting that faith is insufficient, rather I think he is explaining the sufficiency of faith.

Does that make sense?

 

When I read that I am supposed to add X to Y and then add Y to Z, I picture the whole thing as a big mathematical equation (i.e.: X + Y + Z). I expect most of us think like that.

I highly doubt that most of us think like that. Except to think that my house cost this much, my car that much. Therefore I am somehow better because of my socioeconomic standing then those other folks. This seems to be a good consensus whether a person attends church or not. But I digress.

I was only implying within the context of the text. Considering that the original text was Greek perhaps there could have been a slight misunderstanding in the transliterated version. But I doubt that. For if that was so then the whole bible is mistranslated and therefore open to scrutiny if we use your method of trying to break down the text to mean something other than what the simple English is implying. Consider that the bible was translated into 500 different languages by 400 A.D. then after Jerome translated to Latin in 382 A.D. there was only one after 500 A.D. and it was Latin.

My understanding is that virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love are things we must add. But that we add them by example through surrender. Which is what you have implied here and in your original post. Correct me if I am wrong.

To further clarify. My experience with church has always been that; and you have implied this within your OP as well. That we must try to do this or that to be better through prayer, reading, acting better, etc. When all we really need to do is surrender our spirit (which could be translated as will) to the spirit of God.

Sure I agree that he is explaining the sufficiency of faith. However if we add those things the text says we would have a better understanding. Such as when I was a child I thought as a child now that I am a man my thoughts and actions are no longer the same.

So I think that Peter is saying that it is by action through surrender to the spirit of God that we add these things not by thought.

Is that more or less what you meant?

 

M.A.C.

I appreciate your sentiment. I hope I do not come off as suggesting that the Greek says one thing, but it means something other that what it plainly says.

Contextually, as I understand it, the text is saying that believers are commanded to use all those regenerate faculties that God has placed at their disposal through faith to live godly lives.

My point was to say that the word "add" in this case, because of ambiguities peculiar to the English meaning of "add", can lend itself to alternate interpretations that one might not so readily attempt were one reading only the Greek text, or again, a more precise English translation. In the context Peter is saying that we are to abundantly furnish ourselves from what God has supplied - He means it in this sense: we should not be appropriating the faith that God supplies and leaving behind the moral excellence that flows from it. We should not be taking the faith and moral excellence that God supplies, and leaving behind self control, etc. We should be furnishing ourselves with -all- that God has supplied for us. That is the instruction Peter is giving.

The conclusion that some readers might draw from reading the text when the translator uses "add" instead of "supply" or "furnish" is that we are to get faith from God, then add to that faith our own, self generated, moral excellence. I would say that when we use the word "add" in this way - it isn't that we are understanding or translating the word "add" wrong, it is that we are applying it wrong. I am not saying we should change the meaning of "add", rather I think we should use a less ambiguous word to translate the Greek, I think that might make the text a bit clearer in English.

My concern is not so much about the "adding" as about where we get it from. That is, we add to our faith the moral excellence that flows from faith, as opposed to adding to our faith our own attempts at being morally excellent in the strength of our flesh.

Surrender itself, if it not merely outward suppression, is the fruit of faith. In that sense, I would agree that through surrender we appropriate these things. Perhaps it is a po-tay-to/po-tah-to thing. That is, perhaps we are saying the same thing with different emphasis?

 

Blogger is acting funny. Sorry, for those of you who are subscribed to the post, for the multiple posts there.

 

Daniel,

I am bible blessed plus I have at my fingertips every single translation available in the English language. And they all use derivatives of the word add. Such as; supplement, develop, etc. Nowhere can I find supply/provide.

Perhaps we are saying the same thing with different emphasis. My concern is that after a brief study of the verses in 7 different English translations the word add or a derivative of add is present in all but one.

I looked at the Amplified, KJV, NKJV, ASV, YLT, ESV CSV, and the World Wide English version. That is the only version that excludes add or a derivative of it. It simple says to live a good life and to learn more about God. I believe that version uses the KISS method.

 

M.A.C.

It is good to be bible blessed. ;).

Perhaps our apparent disconnect stems from the fact that I am not examining various English translations, but looking directly at the Greek text, and translating the verb for you directly?

Notwithstanding, my own impromptu translation of the Greek, after looking I found several English translations that translate επιχoρηγεω as "supply": NASB, ASV, ERV, PNT, WEB, HNV, UBV and J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible.

While the Geneva study bible uses the word "join" to translate επιχoρηγεω, it adds a clarifying marginal footnote on the word: "supply also, and support or aid".

Some other English translations use derivatives of supply:

"Supplement": HCSB, ESV, RSV, and ISV

Having Fully Supplied: Green's Literal Translation

Still other English translations used words like furnish or join, but the clear majority of early English translations used the word "minister" for their translation:

"Furnish": The complete Jewish Bible

"Join": Geneva,

"Minister": Tyndale NT (1525), Miles Coverdale Bible (1535), Biblia Sacra Vulgata, Wycliffe Bible, The Bishhop's Bible (1568)

Darby translated it as "In your faith also have", and the NLT goes so far as to pre-chew the thought and forego translating the passage directly, instead giving their understanding of the meaning of the verse instead, "So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better."

I am pleased to discover that the NLT has "translated" the verse according to my understanding, but I wouldn't advise anyone to use that translation, as it strays too often, and too deeply into interpreting the text for you. I prefer a more literal translation (like the NASB).

-cont-

 

-cont-

Which is not to suggest that because I can find many English translations that use the word "supply" that it means that translations which do not use the word are inferior or wrong. It only means that the word that is being translated does not have a perfect synonym in English.

It is telling that the older English translation almost unanimously translate the word as "minister". Newer translations, opt for less precise language I find.

Either way, whatever is meant in the Greek, is best understood in English by looking at the various words that were chosen by learned men to translate the text. Supplement, supply, add, furnish, join minister. The common thought these words paint is that of taking what you have (faith) and building on it.

The disconnect seems to be, and this could just be myopia on my part, in how what is being built on our faith is supposed to look. I am painting it with a brush that emphasizes the fact that God supplies the whole of it, so that we are able to appropriate it all - even though many won't and we are commanded here by the Apostle to do so.

 

thanks for the encouragement, Daniel.