🍇 2 Peter 1:5–7 | A Greek Lesson & Fruits of Virtue

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📧 In today’s email…

• 🧭 Exploring virtues

• ✍️ Reflecting on Virtues

• ⬇️ A powerful quote from C.S. Lewis

 🧠 Memorize

_{see if you know what words go in the blanks}

For this _____, make every effort to supplement your ___ with ____, and ____ with ________,

and _____ with _______, and ________ with ______, and ________ with godliness,

and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with _____.

2 Peter 1:5–7

Exploring Virtues 🧭

Let’s dig into specifics of the virtues in our memory verse.

First you’ll notice the pattern, which is a writing device that points the reader to a climax of faith (the first fruit) leading to love (the last).

Greek 🗣️ 

• The Greek word “faith” here is the word pistis, which means “trust, confidence, belief, or reliability.”

• The Greek word for “love” here is agape, which means “affection without condition” (the same word used to describe Jesus’ love for His church and the love that Christians should model to other people).

So to think of it simply:

Putting your trust and confidence in God leads to Godly love without condition.

What about all the fruits listed in between faith and love?

Here are their Biblical definitions:

• Virtue: aretē, meaning “moral excellence”

• Knowledge: gnōsis, meaning “knowledge of spiritual mysteries”

• Self-control: egkrateia, meaning “mastery of passions and instincts”

• Steadfastness: hypomonē, meaning “perseverance under pressure”

• Godliness: eusebeia, meaning “reverence, respect, or piety”

• Brotherly affection: philadelphia, meaning “non-erotic love for someone with shared vision or origin”

In the context of our memory verse, showing these virtues or fruits is evidence and confirmation of our calling and election by Christ.

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Apply & Respond: Reflect on the Virtues ✍️

Take out a pen and notebook, and write down all the virtues from our memory verse:

• Faith

• Virtue

• Knowledge

• Self-control

• Steadfastness

• Godliness

• Brotherly affection

• Love

Then, write the name of a brother or sister in Christ who exemplifies that fruit.

Take 5 minutes to text, call, tell or write a letter to them and thank them for their example!

Wisdom Wednesday 🧠 

“After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again.

Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still.

It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.”

— C.S. Lewis

Recommended Resources 🎙️ 

Here are a few resources to help you dig deeper into this week’s passage:

• 📚️ Memorize What Matters by Josh Summers (link)

• 📚️ Second Peter Commentary by John MacArthur (link)

• 📚️ Life Lessons from 1 and 2 Peter: Between the Rock and a Hard Place (link)

• 🎥 The Bible Project’s Summary of 2 Peter (link)

• 💻️ 2 Peter: In the Face of Falsehood by Ray Stedman (link)

• 🎵 Listen to “Jesus, Firm Foundation” (Click here to listen on Spotify | Click here to listen on Apple Music)

Answer key ✅ 

For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with 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