For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with a virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
– 2 Peter 1:5–7
And it’s really interesting right after these three verses, this list of things to supplement your faith with. Verse 8 says, If these qualities are yours, and are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective, or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus. And then verse 9 says, Whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he’s blind. And then verse 10 says, If you practice these qualities, you’ll never fall.
2 Peter 1:5–7 encourages us to cultivate moral excellence.
So you put all that together, this list is really significant. And I just want to lead us to pray for all of these things to be increasing in our lives. For God’s help to practice all of these qualities. Based on 1 Peter 1:10, if we practice these qualities, we will never fall.
Based on 2 Peter 1:9, if we practice these qualities, we’ll be able to see clearly in our lives. If these qualities are increasing in us, then we will be effective and fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus. Don’t we want all of those things to be effective and fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus? To be able to see, not to be blind, and to never fall? So let’s just pray exactly what this word says over our lives. 2 Peter 1:5, God, we pray that you would add to our faith today.
Virtue this word that means excellence, or excellency of moral character. God, we pray that you would help us to grow today, to increase in our excellence of moral character, that our morality would be excellent. We pray for virtue, and then on top of virtue, for knowledge. We pray that you help us to grow today in the knowledge of who you are. And how you work in the world, and what you are doing in our lives.
2 Peter 1:5–7 encourages us to persevere in godliness.
Help us to grow in knowledge today, and to add to knowledge, self-control. God, we pray for self-control today. Help us to be disciplined in our thoughts, and our emotions, and our words. We pray for self-control over every facet of our lives today. And we pray that you would help us to add to self-control, steadfastness. God, help us to stand firm in faith today no matter what this world brings our way.
Help us to be steadfast, to stand firm in you. And we pray that you would add to our steadfastness, godliness. God, we pray that you would help us to become more like your character today, to be holy as you are holy, to be loving as you are loving, to be merciful as you are merciful, to be kind as you are kind. God, we pray for godliness, for your character to increase in us today.
This verse encourages us to develop virtue within our faith.
And we pray that you would add to our godliness, brotherly affection. God, help us to love the people around us like family, especially those who are brothers and sisters in Christ. Help us to love, serve, care for, build up brothers and sisters in Christ in a way that glorifies you as our Father. And we pray that you’d help us to add to brotherly affection, and love. God, we pray that our lives would be marked by increasing love, increasing love for you, and increasing love for others around us.
God, we pray for all of these things over our lives, for virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love to be found in increasing measure in us today. And God, as we pray for these Christ-like qualities to be evident in us. We pray that the character of Christ would be evident to people around us today, and that you would give us opportunities and boldness to share the gospel of Christ today.
Prayer for the Ramgarhia People
And we pray for people who’ve never heard that gospel, who don’t have a Christian around them right now to show them your character in these ways. God for the Ramgarhia people of India. The small Punjabi people group in India. God, we pray for the spread of the knowledge and love of Jesus to the Ramgarhia people of India, and to thousands of other people, groups like them God who need the good news of Christ, the Gospel of Jesus, and have never heard it. God, we pray all of this directly according to your Word to us in 2 Peter 1:5–7, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
