Add to your faith Goodness…

2 Peter 1:5-7 (NIV)
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness;

The first quality we are to add to our faith is goodness.  In the King James version and ESV it uses the English word “virtue”.  The NASB expounds it even more clearly - “moral excellence”.

A Christian is to be known as a person of faith.  But he/she is also to be known as a person of goodness.  If there is anyone who should stand up in this world as an example of goodness, of what is good, it should be a Christian.  Why?  Because of our claim to worship and walk with the God who alone is good!  We live in an age today where people invent what they believe is good or right for them.  The result is a lifestyle of liberty and one that pleases the self.  But we Christians are to stand as those who reflect the life and teachings of our Lord.

We are to be morally excellent, people of virtue, people whose qualities or attributes in life are admirable to others.  This may seem to be a tall order to some – and it is!  Who of us can claim to be morally excellent?

The desire of God for us to be morally excellent does not mean that He expects us to be perfect.  But God does desire that we live a life that is morally excellent in the eyes of those who live with us – in our homes, in our workplaces, with our friends.  Our lives become examples not just of good, but of the goodness of the God whom we believe in.

So how can we live morally excellent lives?  First, realize that there is no one who is good. 

Mark 10:18 (NIV)
18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.

So true goodness can only come from the Lord.  When our lives are transformed by the Lord, changed from within, He brings His righteousness, His goodness in us.

Titus 2:11-12 (NIV)
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

It is this goodness that we are to work out in our life.  We are exhibits, examples of the Lord, of the goodness and righteousness that comes from Him.  As Peter said:

2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV)
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.