Your Goal: The Remarkable Jesus Life Developed and Displayed

Spiritual maturity is not automatic—nothing in God is automatic. Maturity is developed. In 2 Peter 1, the apostle Peter reveals God’s mind-blowing provision for every believer: an equal saving faith, precious and magnificent promises, that allow us to partake of the divine nature itself. Pause, and think about that! But these promises are gifts that you are supposed to open. They are meant to be pursued with eager, wholehearted diligence as believers. We are to develop excellence, grow in the knowledge of God, and increasingly reflect the character of Jesus. Discover God’s Ladder of Virtue and why it is a lifelong journey of transformation that helps Jesus’ followers escape the corruption of the world. The divine nature is to be developed and displayed in your everyday life. That’s why in this week’s Light on Life episode we are talking about Your Goal: The Remarkable Jesus Life Developed and Displayed.

This Week: Develop His nature and display His nature by asking the Holy Spirit where He is calling you to grow, then responding with all diligence through His promises, His Word, prayer, meditation, waiting on God, and obedience.

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You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This weeks call is:

This week: Develop. Display. Climb.

This week, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the next rung on Peter’s Ladder of Virtue where He wants you to grow. Then respond with all diligence.

Your Challenge:

Read God’s promises. Study His Word. Meditate. Pray. Wait on God. Most importantly, act on what He shows you.

Remember:

The goal is not merely to admire the character of Jesus but to develop His divine nature until it is displayed through your everyday life.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believers life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).

This week’s question is:

Question: Which rung of Peter’s Ladder of Virtue is the Holy Spirit emphasizing in your life right now—excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, or love?

Share: What practical steps are you taking to develop that area of the divine nature, and how have you seen God producing Christlike character in your life?

Remember: Spiritual maturity is a lifelong journey. As you diligently pursue God’s promises and respond to His Spirit, you increasingly develop His nature and display His character to the world.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 49 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 45 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes:

Well again, welcome.
Let’s pray.

Father God thank you for your exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might become partakers of the divine nature. Walking just like Jesus. Talking just like Jesus. Living just like Jesus. You have provided what we need by Your Word, and Your Spirit. Help us to see and know what’s possible in You. We give you all the praise and glory for these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Equal Faith Before God

2 Peter 1:1 (NASB 2020) — 1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

Note the order here.
Peter considered himself a servant of Jesus first, then an apostle.
Spiritually, this is the way of things.
You call on Jesus first for salvation — then comes the realization of your calling.
Now the rest of verse one says:
To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
Did you hear the words the same kind as?
The words are highlighted for you in the podcast notes for this episode.
The words ‘the same kind as’ is one word in the Greek and it means of equal value or honor.
Your faith is not inferior.
Is there a minister that you admire?
Maybe it was an autobiography you read of a deeply spiritual, mightily used man or woman of God.
Their saving faith is the same kind of faith as yours.
Let that encourage your heart.
Your faith in Jesus has as much value as any ministry gift you admire.
Whether the apostles and prophets of the first century or the twenty-first century, your faith for salvation has equal value and honor to theirs.
Now after people come to Jesus, some access more of what Jesus died to provide than others, and in that sense there is a difference.
You see, faith acted upon is faith developed.

God’s Royal Provision

So, be encouraged.
And so,
Now we drop down to verse three where Peter continues amping up the encouragement.

2 Peter 1:3 (NASB 2020) — 3 for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

Peter says, God by His divine power has granted to us everything.
Notice Peter doesn’t say God will grant.
He says God has granted.
That means God’s provision has already been made available to His children.
This is not yesterday’s news.
No, this grant has ongoing force for the Jesus’ follower today.¹
The word ‘granted’ itself means way more than the simple giving of a gift to someone.
This word was used of gifts bestowed upon royalty or super high officials.
So, we are talking a gift that communicates honor and respect.
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia gave Queen Elizabeth a necklace with 300 diamonds on it.
That’s a gift worthy of royalty.
What God granted you is worth infinitely more.

The Gift That Changes You

2 Peter 1:4 (NASB 2020) — 4 Through these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world on account of lust.

In this gift box from heaven are precious and magnificent promises.
Precious means a ‘high-cost’ gift.
It’s high-cost because these promises are backed by the Blood of Jesus.
Magnificent means a ‘mega’ gift.
It’s a huge gift because only God Himself could give a gift of this value.
This incredibly huge high-cost gift is provided for you by God because you are His child.
Welcome to the family.
Now, let’s unwrap this gift.
What is this gift fit for royalty?
This gift is God’s own promises to you that will develop you into a person having the character of Christ.
Now, you may say, ‘That doesn’t sound like it would be a valuable gift—I think I would rather have the diamond necklace given to Queen Elizabeth or maybe a few gold bars from Fort Knox—that would be a valuable gift.’
Not according to Jesus.

Matthew 16:26 (NASB 2020) — 26 For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?

What price tag can you put on your spirit man?
Sinners go to a devils hell all the time having bank accounts loaded and draws full of jewelry.
You see these promises continually applied help you to escape.
Escape what?

These promises help you escape.
They move you farther and farther away from the corruption that once defined your life.
I promise you—you want to have as much distance between you and corruption as the great gulf that separated Lazarus and the rich man in hell.
These promises help you to walk as Jesus walked.
And, He walked right into glory.
Surely you don’t think that corruptible material like gold or silver could compare?
By this gift you learn to walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus, and help people like He helped them.
We always say we want to be like Him.
We always sing that we want to be like Him.
Now here’s your chance.
So, develop His nature. Display His nature.

A Bridge Called ‘All Diligence’

2 Peter 1:5—7 (NASB 2020) — 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

You need to hear what’s going on here.
All Jesus’ followers have an enemy that they need to escape from.
This enemy is hounding your every footstep.
This enemy is called corruption.
Corruption is moral decay, ruin, or destruction.
Yikes! How can we escape this enemy?
Ah, this is our great God that we are talking about.
He specializes in making ‘a way of escape.’
If you remember, there were many ways of escape God provided for His people when they were about to be destroyed.
A multifaceted God created a highway through the Red Sea, sent a localized earthquake into the enemy camp, and, in another case, brought confusion so great that an invading army turned and destroyed itself.
Surely this God can make a way for His kids to escape an enemy called corruption.
He has.
It’s up ahead—it’s a bridge.
Like most bridges, this one has a name.
It’s called the Bridge of All Diligence.

Crossing the Bridge of All Diligence

2 Peter 1:5—7 (NASB 2020) — 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence…

The word ‘applying’ is most critical for your life.
It means to supply an additional exertion of effort.
This is your part of what’s added to ‘all diligence’ so you that you can escape corruption.
You can say that it’s the toll you pay to cross the Bridge of All Diligence.
God doesn’t furnish this part while you sip umbrella drinks by the poolside.
No, you have to get off your duff and add your stuff.
This is your part.
You must supply the exerted effort required to apply all diligence.
What is all diligence?
It is a pressing forward with haste and eagerness.
That’s what you are adding your exertion of effort to.
Putting this all together: you must supply an exertion of effort to be hasty in acquiring mastery of divine attributes.
The Amplified translation says all this well.

2 Peter 1:5 (AMP) — 5 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),

Once again, it takes effort to cross the bridge.
The Jesus life is not an assembly line that cranks about carbon-copy Christians.
Where no effort is required on your part.
So rev up your engines.
Get off your duff and add your stuff.
So, develop the divine nature. Display the divine nature.

Sparing No Expense for Spirit Development

Now, one of the problems, you as a podcast listener are going to run into is that in just a few verses here in Second Peter chapter one, we already have defined a lot of words.
They are essential words that needed to be defined.
Now, how are you going to retain all of this?
Of course, you already know that you can replay this podcast or any other podcast multiple times.
And then there are the podcast notes that are available for every episode which you can find at emeryhorvath.com.
Now we come to yet another critical word in 2 Peter 1:5 and that’s the word ‘supply.’
Oh, is this an important word.
Supply paints the picture of the first-century equivalent of a billionaire philanthropist.
Uploading this concept to the 21st century, this is a guy who funds the building of a children’s hospital.
He pays all the expenses.
In the ancient world, this individual supplied the necessary funds to pay actors, actresses, and dancers to put on a production.
Peter, by the Spirit of God, dropped this word ‘supply’ in to the Jesus walk as an intensified word meaning that we should contribute extravagantly to your own moral development, based on the extravagant resources already provided by God.²
And with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.

Believers must be lavish in the time and effort they put into developing their Christian lives—not being satisfied with getting by on the minimum, but striving like the chorēgos of old to achieve the finest and most attractive production.³

The Ladder of Virtue

2 Peter 1:5–7 (NASB 2020) — 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Now we come to the very areas where everything that we have talked about in this podcast matters.
We’ve spent our time showing that God has given us great and precious promises which we are to pursue with high intensity and eager focus.
Now what are these areas we need to put the time to develop?
We want no part of destructive corrupting influences.
And so we set our sights on God’s ladder of spiritual maturity: and here it is—excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.
Starting with faith, we climb the ladder until we master each each area and have matured in love.
Love is at the top of the food chain—it’s the apex of the Jesus walk.
Faith is at the bottom of the apex.
Hebrews 6 calls faith a basic elementary principle.
If you are struggling to believe, you haven’t really gotten off the ground yet.
Now what are these areas worthy of our time and effort to develop?
Let’s take them up one at a time.

Excellence

The NASB translation of the Bible does a bit of disservice to us in that it doesn’t bring out the full meaning of the Greek word translated excellence.
The word ‘moral’ is not in the Greek.
The word is simply excellence but excellence as it was understood in the first century.
In our day, we think of excellence as something well done.
For example, an Olympic sprinter wins the gold medal race.
We would say, he ran an excellent race.
That’s not the way the word is used here.
Go back to the Olympic sprinter for a moment.
Why did the Olympic sprinter run an excellent gold medal race?
It was no accident.
He had the capacity to run it—a capacity forged by years of extensive training and discipline.
All of the intense practice developed an inner capacity of excellence.

Hebrews 5:13–14 (NASB 2020) — 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.

That’s what Peter is talking about.
Excellence is the developed capacity to function at a high level as a follower of Jesus.
Be a gold medal believer.
Develop via practice faith, hope, and love to gold medal standards.
Grow the capacity to freely flow in the fruit of the spirit to championship levels.
Become increasingly acquainted with your heavenly Father through God’s Word.
Your heavenly Father is a God of excellence.
He possesses unlimited capacity.
These seven attributes are descriptors of the divine nature.
Do you want to know what God is like?
Do you want to be like Him?
Take the first step up on the ladder—develop excellence.
Remember, we’re not just developing excellence.
We’re developing the divine nature so we can display the divine nature.
Now, we come to the next rung on the Ladder of Virtue, knowledge.

Knowledge

2 Peter 1:5 (NASB 2020) — 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge…

Acquiring knowledge of God is the passion of any Jesus follower.
You may heard the expression knowledge is king.
But for a believer it’s knowledge OF the King.
That is we are not to accumulate knowledge for it’s own sake.
The danger in accumulated knowledge separate from God is pride.

1 Corinthians 8:1 (AMP) — 1 NOW ABOUT food offered to idols: of course we know that all of us possess knowledge [concerning these matters. Yet mere] knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud)…

Pride is poison to the divine nature.
So mere knowledge for the sake of it is not the goal of the Jesus life.
God not only tells us what knowledge to pursue—He tells us how to acquire it.

Proverbs 2:6 (NASB 2020) — 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

First, the knowledge we desire above all else is the knowledge of God.
That comes directly from God.
Now the Lord has helped us in that He had a book written for us whereby we can gain access to the right kind of knowledge.
And, He gave us instruction on how to attain it.
Attaining anything from God requires humility.
The way up is down—always.

Psalm 25:9 (NASB 2020) — 9 He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.

Humility is king if you desire to know God.

Ephesians 4:13 (NASB 2020) — 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

Interestingly, even the Greek word translated “attain” hints at this idea.
And with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
‘Attain’ is a compound word with the prefix kata, meaning “down.”
The rest of the word relates to a destination.
One of the destinations every believer is called to reach is “the knowledge of the Son of God,” and this word ‘attain’ pictures arriving by way of humility.
If you want to have knowledge of God then you must know that humility is the rate of exchange.
Humility is key but that’s not all that’s needed.
If you want to climb the next rung of the Ladder of Virtue, you have to pay the price to do it.
The knowledge of God does not come cheap.
Several passages in God’s Word point at this very thought.

Proverbs 4:7 (NASB 2020) — 7 “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your possessions, acquire understanding.

‘With all your possessions’, did you hear that?
Jesus one day in His earthly ministry weighed in on this exact principle.

Matthew 13:45–46 (NASB 2020) — 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold everything that he had and bought it.

Is the knowledge of God, the pearl of great price to you?
It is part and parcel of the divine nature.
How can you know God enough to be like Him is you don’t know who He is and what He likes?

1 John 2:3–4 (NASB 2020) — 3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

If you want to know what God values, look at His commandments.

The Ladder That Never Ends

The Ladder of Virtue is a ladder that never ends.
You never arrive at the one-hundred percent mark of any of these divine attributes.
God is an infinite God.
Just about the time you think you’ve arrived, you will find out you haven’t.
The more you know, the less you see you know.
That’s the depth of the divine nature.
Jesus followers are always growing — they are always stretching.
Philippians 4:12–14 nails this right on the head.

Philippians 3:12–14 (WUESTNT) — 12 Not that I already made acquisition or that I have now already been brought to that place of absolute spiritual maturity beyond which there is no progress, but I am pursuing onward if I may lay hold of that for which I have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, as for myself, as I look back upon my life and calmly draw a conclusion, I am not counting myself yet as one who has in an absolute and complete way laid hold [of that for which I have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus]; but one thing: I, in fact, am forgetting completely the things that are behind, and am stretching forward to the things that are in front; bearing down upon the goal, I am pursuing on for the prize of the call from above of God which is in Christ Jesus.

In God, there is no such thing as ‘the place of absolute spiritual maturity beyond which there is no progress.
We are pursuing God and Christlikeness—climbing God’s Ladder of Virtue, much like Jacob’s ladder reached from earth toward heaven.
Earlier we talked about Olympic champions and how they try to develop a capacity of excellence.
Do realize how many Olympians there are who didn’t just stop at winning a single gold medal in their area of discipline.
They kept going—they kept training.
Michael Phelps won 23 gold medals over four Olympic games.
Michael kept training because excellence can always increase.
He retired from Olympic competition because age catches up to athletes.
But, the Jesus life is different.
Your spirit, like God, is eternal.
And so, we never retire from becoming more like Jesus.
How can we when love is the top rung of the ladder.
God is love and so love is everlasting.
In light of that, we keep climbing.
We keep growing.
We keep stretching.
We keep developing the divine nature and displaying the divine nature until we can say…

it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Develop His Nature. Display His Nature

This week, ask the Holy Spirit where He is calling you to grow in His divine nature.
Do you need to develop a greater capacity for excellence?
Maybe you have left off the pursuit of the knowledge of God in exchange for other pursuits.
The best way is always God’s way.
So ask Him.
Maybe the Holy Spirit will give you fresh direction.
Maybe He will remind you of what you already know.
In either case, respond with all diligence.
Act like what He says to you matters.
Read God’s promises.
Study to show yourself approved.
Meditate, pray, and wait on God concerning these things.
Above all, act on what He shows you.
If this podcast helped you, consider sharing it with someone else.
These and other podcasts are available at emeryhorvath.com.
Your Goal: The Remarkable Jesus Life Developed and Displayed.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

References:

Curtis P. Giese, 2 Peter and Jude, ed. Dean O. Wenthe and Curtis P. Giese, Concordia Commentary (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2012), 39–40. ↩
Daryl J. Charles, “2 Peter,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition), ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), 387. ↩
Richard B. Vinson, Richard F. Wilson, and Watson E. Mills, 1 & 2 Peter, Jude, ed. R. Alan Culpepper and Leslie Andres, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Incorporated, 2010), 298. ↩

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Your Goal: The Remarkable Jesus Life Developed and Displayed

Podcast: Light on Life Season Thirteen Episode Twenty-Eight

by Emery Horvath

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