How Should a Christian Act and Why?
“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.” II Peter 1:5-7
The Christian faith always results in actions. It never sits still. It always impels us to do something with our faith! That being said, there is a temptation to think that we are saved by being a good person. We know that God wants us to be good, and it is easy to think that this is why God will save us. The problem with this is the question, “How good do we have to be?” Better than our neighbor? Better than our friends? Better than people in prison? The Bible has an answer to this question. It says that all who sin have broken their covenant with God. So unless you are perfect, you do not measure up to God’s standard. For this reason, if salvation is because of our being good, then we are in a world of trouble!
What is wonderful about the gospel, however, is that it offers us a different path. For all who cannot be perfect – and that is all of us – there is another way. We can trust in what Christ has done for us. We can trust in his promise that all who place their faith in him will be saved. This is the good news of the gospel. We are saved by grace through faith, not by our works or righteousness or goodness.
What then is the result of this gracious salvation? It is humility, since we have been given salvation instead of earning it. It is love for God because of his gracious act toward us. And it is service. Since God has done this for us, the reasonable response is to serve God out of gratitude. This is what makes Christianity action-oriented. We respond to the great grace of God. Because we are truly grateful, we give God our thankful service in return.
II Peter notes some ways in which our faith results in action. It mentions goodness. Because of what Christ has done for us, we seek to live good lives and be good in heart. We grow in our knowledge so we can understand our faith better. We exercise self-control so bad habits do not control us. We endure various hardships because of the hope to which we look forward. We seek to be godly and reflect Christ’s heart in what we say and think. Our relationships with others are characterized by real affection because God has done so much for us. In addition, love surrounds all we do–love for God and love for others. Sometimes we do not recognize the fruit faith bears in us, but it is there. We are trees in God’s garden. As we grow, our lives bear fruit in many ways.
Christianity is action-oriented. It changes our lives in real ways. It produces character traits that are good and noble. When we nurture our faith, fruit results. As Peter says, God’s grace in us results in goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. These are the evidence that God is truly in you and at work in your life. Give thanks for the garden of good attitudes, thoughts, words, and practices that God is growing in your life.