All right now, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge, but it's never too late to start and we're in this together.

This is the Join the Journey podcast.

Welcome back to the Join the Journey podcast.

My name is Christy Shermack, and I'm back in the podcast studio today to wrap up our time in Peter's two letters.

Now, if yesterday wasn't enough of a gut punch today, we're picking back up in Second Peter. And if you didn't listen to yesterday's podcast or you didn't read the text yet, I'd encourage you to go ahead and stop listening to this and do both of those things. Yesterday, we started off with some really helpful context that I think we're going to build on today. So you might remember that we talked a little bit

about how Peter began his letters by reminding us of our identity in Jesus. Then he goes into some

ways that this new identity should be informed with how we interact with the world. And then today,

in Second Peter, he's going to give us some wisdom on how to interact within the body of Christ.

So let's jump right in. In 2 Peter chapter 1,

we're again reminded of our identity. Peter tells us we have everything we need through God.

And in verse 5, he uses a really cool literary language and device to outline some Christian virtues

for us to consider. He says this, in view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's

promises, supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance with Godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection with love for everyone.

Now, realistically, these traits don't have to build on one another.

Peter is just outlining it this way in a poetic manner to help emphasize each virtue

and help us to feel what spiritual growth might look like for us.

These verses insinuate that we have some ownership and what we're willing to grow in.

One scholar explained it this way, using the analogy.

The Christian life is like

the power steering on a car. The engine provides the power for the steering, but the driver must actually

turn the wheel. So the Lord provides the power to run our lives, but we must turn the wheel. So to a

great extent, the Christian determines the course of his life. In 1st Peter, we had the analogy

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