Want to hear something crazy.  Peter wrote it in his second letter to those who had received from God a faith as precious as his.  He proclaimed that “[God’s] divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”  [vs 3 NIV]

That’s not the crazy part.  That comes in verse 5.  “Now make every effort to add to your faith ….”  Huh?

If we have everything we need in the precious faith given to us by God through Christ Jesus, why do we have to add anything? Ever thought about that?

Sitting on my couch is a bag. Inside that bag is an instruction book with a picture of a baby blanket. Also inside that bag is a Size G crochet hook, scissors, and six skeins of yarn in pink. I have everything I need to make a beautiful baby blanket for a baby arriving in December. Everything. And if I let that bag sit on my couch untouched, when December arrives, I will still have everything I need for that beautiful baby blanket, I just won’t have a finished product.

God has given us, via faith, everything we need to become a finished product, looking like His Son Jesus. But if we don’t make every effort to add the virtues Peter will go on to list in his letter, we will have wasted the here and now. We will gain heaven, because that is purely by faith alone, but we will not influence or change our world as Christ did and commanded us to do also.

You have it all … now add.