Goodness
As we hear Peter calling us to ‘add goodness to (our) faith (2 Pet 1:5), we see that not only does true faith produce good fruit, but also that faith in God is the foundation for making choices of goodness. When temptation comes, not only is our morality challenged, but our faith is confronted too. We are people who live the way we do because we have placed our faith in an invisible God, and so when faith wavers, we can be tempted to abandon the constraints of holiness and just live as we please. We forget God and abandon goodness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer describe this masterfully:
‘With irresistible power desire seizes mastery over the flesh. It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money. Joy in God is extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature. At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God. The lust thus aroused envelops the mind and will of man in deepest darkness. The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us. The questions present themselves: “Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?” “Is it really not permitted to me, yes—expected of me, now, here, in my particular situation, to appease desire?” It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God’.
Peter also makes it clear the the life of goodness calls for effort on our part. Grace cancels out earning, not effort. We are not saved by our good works, but we are called to give ourselves diligently to them. As we do, God will help us - the marriage of our own good choices with his empowering. That partnership is expressed beautifully by Paul in Phil 2:12-13:
EFFORT: So continue to work out your own salvation. Do it with fear and trembling.
EMPOWERING: God is working in you. He wants your plans and your acts to be in keeping with his good purpose.
D.J. Moo describes this call to effort:
‘Peter uses strong language to emphasize just how strenuously we need to pursue this goal. “Make every effort,” he says. The word “effort” can also be translated “earnestness,” “haste,” “zeal.” Peter is fond of this word, using it again in 2 Pet 1:10, 15 and 3:14. The last verse is especially interesting, for it repeats the basic exhortation that we have here and thus serves to “round off” the letter: “So, then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” Peter’s point is clear: Spiritual growth is not a matter that Christians can treat lightly; it is a goal to which we need to give ourselves body and soul, every day of our lives’. (Moo, D. J. (1996). 2 Peter, Jude (p. 44). Zondervan Publishing House).