Supporting Our Faith

In everything we do, we need support.

For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge.and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness.and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. - 2 Peter 1:5-11

In today's reading from the first letter from Peter, we get the idea that our salvation is not guaranteed.  We must do something to secure it, and that sounds like a contradiction to our faith, where we believe Christ came to save us, and died to secure that salvation for us.

So, what is Peter talking about?

I believe the warning is about stumbling, about slipping away from God, letting the world take hold.

Staying the course sounds hard, requiring goodness and knowledge and self-control with endurance.  In other words, we have to build up the support we need to be fruitful within this world, helping those in need and making a difference in their lives.

It is not enough to be good, for we can all fall.  If we practice sharing God's love in the world, we will be on the right path, and will not stumble.

So, while salvation is ours without having to do anything, We can screw it up.  We can reject it, so we need to stay focused on keeping ourselves in the light, supporting the faith we claim as our own.

It is not about earning our salvation, but working to keep it.  That's our mission in life, and it may not be as easy as we thought.

More to come...