For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness… (2 Peter 1:5-6)

Today’s word is “godliness,” and it takes us right back to yesterday’s word of “perseverance.” In particular, it takes us back to the later section of this letter that Pastor Michael quoted yesterday, where Peter writes: “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (2 Peter 3:11b-12a).

We have a hope in Christ that keeps our eyes fixed on him, looking forward to his coming again when he will set all things right and make all things new. In anticipation of that day, we are called to persevere—to hang on to our hope and faith through all the trials, sufferings, and everyday burdens of life. That was what we talked about yesterday.

But now Peter says we must do more than just hang on and endure until Jesus returns—we must also live. Not just surviving by living out a life that sources the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and work mind you, but living a life that seeks to embody the faith and hope we claim in Christ. We “ought to live holy and godly lives as [we] look forward,” ever straining to become who God has made us to be.

For this, Peter uses the word “godliness.” It’s a word that refers to good deeds that arise from the root of faith and the motivation of love. It’s a word that also refers to spiritual disciplines like prayer and worship. It also refers to a respect for the Creational boundaries and proportions that God has set for our creaturely lives in relationship to self, to others, and to him. Most simply—it is a word that suggest we ought to become like Christ, our God.

To become godly is to really live out that whole “What Would Jesus Do” line. It is to respect the boundaries and fittingness of life and interactions, as Jesus did. It is to tend our relationship with God through practices of prayer, as Jesus did. It is to do good in this world, as Jesus did. To do all this, not only “as” Jesus did, but “because” Jesus did. We seek to become godly as an all-of-life act of devotion to him. Or, as Paul puts it in Romans 12, it is offering our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is,” he says, “your true and proper worship.”

Seeking to live a godly life is not something that we do from guilt nor something that we attempt to conjure up out of nothing by sheer force of will. No, as Peter already told us in verse 3: God’s “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life,” and he has done so “through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

It is God’s desire and design that we should become like Christ. He is the one who called us to be godly. He is the one who provides, through the Spirit, all that we need to do it. He is the one who brings this Christlike godliness to life within us when we join with him. Finally, he is the one who gives us the hope to lead us on and to assure us that all of this will finally be accomplished: on that day when Christ comes again.

Until then, let us “live holy and godly lives as [we] look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).