Christian Principles Underlying Love and Respect

Welcome to the last lesson of our “Love and Respect” series. Today we are going to do a more conventional study of scripture, and see how it applies to our few weeks in the Love and Respect study. We are going to look at seven basic truths about how to conduct ourselves in the Christian life, and apply them directly to being more loving and respectful.

The passage of Scripture we are going to look at has been sometimes called the seven virtues of Christianity, amongst other things. It is really a list of things to work on for a believer throughout his or her lifetime. Let’s look at the Scripture, 1 Pet 1:5-8:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. NASU

First let’s look at the beginning of this set of verses. Right before this the Apostle Peter says, and I am going to paraphrase it, “Because of what Jesus did, you can take part in His divineness, and this is how you do it”. Then he begins verse five. In that he says, “applying all diligence, in your faith supply”, what does that interesting phrase say to us? (Open to class)

The Message, a modern paraphrase of the Bible, says it in a well expressed fashion:

So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith. (The Message)

The idea here is that we are to acknowledge that we have a basic belief in Jesus and what He has done for all of us (faith), and because of that we ought to get on with what Peter is about to tell us. There are seven things that Peter identifies for us, let’s list them:

· Moral Excellence
· Knowledge.
· Self-control.
· Perseverance.
· Godliness.
· Brotherly Kindness.
· Love.

We’ll look at these seven virtues or Christian principles in a moment, but first we need to see the point of why we ought to do these things. In verse 8 Peter tells us by using a double negative, that these qualities will lead us into Christian fruitfulness and a deeper knowledge of Christ. To me that sounds like something worth going after.

Now it is time to get to the meat of our lesson, the seven virtues. I am going to look at these in the context of “Love and Respect”.

Moral Excellence

This is sometimes translated as goodness, or virtue in other versions than the one I typically use. What does the class think this might mean? For a further clue let us take a quick look at Ph 4:8-9:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. NASU

This gives us a flavor of what Peter was meaning when he said “moral excellence”. My personal take on this is that he is talking about having courage in applying and improving on the strength of godly character that we show in our daily lives.

In terms of “Love and Respect” it means we are to put in every effort to be loving and respectful, as we are instructed to in Eph 5:33. It further means that we are to do this regardless of what the other person in the relationship says or does. That takes courage and strength.

Knowledge

What do you think Peter might have been getting at when he puts this second in the sequence of virtues? (Open to class)

This is a uniquely Judeo-Christian virtue, although the flowering of knowledge as we know it only began a few hundred years ago, and was only found in the Christian world. I think if we think a little about it, we might see that Peter is directing our thoughts to seeking knowledge from God. There are many verses about knowledge in the book of Proverbs, but I think the essence of Peter’s message can be found in these two. Pr 1:7 and 2:5:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction. NASU

Then you will discern the fear of the Lord, and discover the knowledge of God. NASU

From these two verses what kind of knowledge is Peter talking about? (The knowledge of God) What does that mean? It is not the knowledge about God; it is not knowing God, because Peter’s audience already knew God. He is talking about the knowledge that comes from God through the Holy Spirit. And we know where that starts don’t we? The fear of the Lord, or for our purposes, the awestruck respect of the Lord. Communing with the Holy Spirit is usually accomplished through prayer and meditation, and so if we want to receive knowledge from God, that is what we will need to do.

Our context is Love and Respect. So this is going to be simple to say. If you want to love or respect someone it is wise to seek counsel from God directly through prayer and meditation. Allow God to help you acquire His knowledge on the best way to love or respect someone. This is one of those times when we can pray, “change me” instead of “change him or her”. I can’t emphasize this enough; God is way more disposed in helping you become a more mature person, than he is in helping you by answering a self-serving prayer to change another person for you. Any thoughts?

Self-Control

Does anybody here this morning want to skip this one? Just kidding!

The KJV uses a wonderful word here, temperance. Did you know that a whole worldwide ministry was built around this concept of temperance? It began in England and was originally called the “Gospel Temperance Army”, and their focus was on getting a legal prohibition of alcohol by saving one person at a time. Do you know what ministry I’m talking about? That’s right “The Salvation Army”.

I know that was a bit of a divergence, but it illustrates the idea that I think Peter was trying to convey. That is the idea that we need to seek God, to help us be self-controlled. The temperance army focused only on alcohol consumption, but Peter wants us to consider universal or complete self-control.

In our context this morning, we are to consider how we are to conduct ourselves in our efforts to be loving or respectful. If things aren’t going how we thought they should, are we under self-control? Or, are we hopping mad that he or she is not responding in a textbook fashion? Or are we upset that God hasn’t brought them to their knees, because they deserve it? Or are we not trusting God? Do you recall that in our previous study we learned that God is in control in the big picture sense, but we are in control of how we conduct our lives? It is when we put our self-control under His authority that we can truly exercise our love or our respect.

Perseverance

We all have a good idea of what this means, it sort of says “keep on, keeping on”, doesn’t it? Webster’s dictionary has a very good and appropriate definition:

The steadfast adherence to a course of action, belief or purpose.

For those church historians among you, perseverance is one of the five doctrines of Calvinism (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints). I am telling you this to help us to understand that this virtue is a big deal in the Christian life. Let us look at why this might be so, our direction on how to view this is found in Rom 5:1-5:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. NASU

What is the Apostle Paul saying to us here? (Class input) In verse one and two we see a statement that basically says “since we have been made right with God by Jesus, we are now under His grace and live in the confident expectation that we will have the glory of God in our lives.” Then we get to my point.

Verses 3 through 5, lay out the purpose and importance of perseverance. The Living Bible has an excellent paraphrase:

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us-they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then, when that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. TLB

In this paraphrase perseverance is translated as “patience”, but the Greek word here is “hupomone”, which means “cheerful endurance”, and that is a better way of describing the virtue. The point here is that the difficulties which we all face will lead to us developing perseverance, and God’s intent is that it refines our character, builds our faith and connects us more closely with the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes when we are trying to love or respect our partner, it is a trial or we might even say a tribulation. God says to us to persevere, and he will use this to improve our own character. So even if you don’t feel or think that something is happening in your relationship, it is happening in you! The implication is this. If you don’t keep going in your efforts to love or respect, even if the other person is not responding, you will lose the opportunity to have your character improved by God!

Godliness

One commentary has an excellent description of what Godliness means, but before I read it let us hear from the class on some of the things we think might be included in this small word.

Piety toward God; a deep, reverential, religious fear; not only worshipping God with every becoming outward act, but adoring, loving, and magnifying him in the heart: (from Adam Clarke's Commentary)

This is such a good picture of what being godly is all about. If we start to apply it to love and respect what kind of things can we say?

God’s word says to love and respect, with no conditions. If we are to express “godliness” then we would obey, wouldn’t we? According to the definition provided providing unconditional love or respect is an act of worship, do you agree with that? (Open up) What is the opposite, not providing unconditional love and respect? It is self-worship, as you would be saying that your ways are higher than God’s ways.

Brotherly Kindness

We have talked about “brotherly love” a couple of times in our study, can anybody recall the Greek word used for this or how we have described it in our lessons? Phileo is the Greek, and we have defined as a deep sense of affection for another person.

The word used in the original language here is a special extension, it is “Philadelphia”, and is best translated as “Love for the Brothers”, meaning all fellow Christians. This is one of those generic uses of the masculine word (brother) that covers both males and females. It implies that we are to develop a special affection, displayed through friendships, for our fellow believers. Rom 12:10 clearly identifies this for us:

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; NASU

Paul uses the same Greek word here for brotherly love (Philadelphia), and tells us to give preference to one another.

If there is such a thing as giving more preference to someone, should it not be toward those we are to love and respect? I think that we might do well to consider this as a very specific instruction to become friends with those we are to love and respect, even if we don’t feel like it! This particular virtue reminds us of the fifth men’s need described in our book, “Shoulder-to-shoulder friendship”.

Love

This last virtue is the ultimate virtue, it is what we have looked at before and identified as “Agape” love. The willful action of unconditional and sacrificial love toward someone. In fact Jesus made this virtue the very definition of a Christ follower in Jn 13:34-35:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." NASU

I suppose the simplest way to look at this in terms of love and respect is this. If you act in a loving and respectful manner, you are acting as a Christ follower, if you don’t, then you are not acting as a Christ follower.

I hope that we can all see the power of scripture displayed today when we took a piece of God’s word and applied it to our study. Our Bible is truly amazing and alive.

That is it for our series!