This morning as I read the Bible and spent time with the LORD, He revealed such a beautiful message to me. 2 Peter 1:3-8 reads,
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope that you are a part taker of His divine nature. His divine nature is the Holy Spirit. His divine nature is who is transforming us and what our transformation will be. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 reads
But when one[ turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord
His divine nature is love, since the Bible tells us that God is love (1 John4:8). The Bible tells us that love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). The Bible tells us that all the commandments come down to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). And Jesus said love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34-35)
Look at those verses in 2 Peter again, how faith should be supplemented which is supplemented with self control self control is supplemented steadfastness and then with godliness, which is supplemented with brotherly affection and then the pinnacle of love.
Love is the divine nature of God. Love is the perfection of who we can become, and who we should become, as we follow Christ as we imitate Christ, as we are transformed into the image of Christ. We do not naturally or haphazardly obtain or display love. This love is beyond loving your kids or your spouse, it is beyond loving your friends, it is even beyond the love we manifest for our fellow believers. This love is Godly Love, love that lays down its life for another, love that forgives even the deepest hurts and worst transgressions. This love is complete, it is just, it is perfect. This is the love that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13
Verses 4-13 read,
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
That love is the love of Almighty Holy God, our Father, our Savior, our Counselor. That is perfect love. This is the divine nature of God and our goal on this earth. Most of us are probably not there yet, I can be envious, I can resent. Sometimes I do not want to put up with all of another person’s faults or problems. But through the Holy Spirit, I am able and I am learning to love others as Christ has loved me. This is so much more than romantic love, love for your loved ones, or brotherly affection, this is love as God is, this is who He is. Believer, He has given us His Spirit, He indwells us and through Him we are transformed to Jesus’ image to love as He does, to walk as He walks, to be as He is. Right now, we love partially, one day we will love perfectly. But right now, He loves perfectly and He is in us, and He is our goal! We can do all things through Him who strengthens us!
This perfect love is not automatic, it is a goal. We begin with faith and we build on faith to achieve virtue or goodness. We add knowledge, knowledge of who God is and what He is doing and has done. That knowledge is gained form reading the Word, communicating with God, listening to God, and obeying God. Knowledge leads to self-control, as we listen to and obey the Holy Spirit, the nature He gives us is manifested as self-control which becomes steadfastness. Steadfastness, which is seen as commitment, resolution, and persistence, results in godliness. Godliness is not being religious but being like God, it is righteousness, it is devotion to Him and being seen as sperate from the world. You are not of the world, you are separate, peculiar, and a citizen of Heaven! This leads to brotherly affection. Brotherly affection is that next step up of love. You love your family on a whole different level than you love your neighbor. There is a common spirit with family, a camaraderie that loves beyond the worldly love. And so it is with the brotherly affection in these verses, we share the same Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we understand that God loves and so we love, we get that each person was created and loved by The LORD, we love one another. We are able to see one another and know one another because we have the same Creator, the same Spirit, the same Savior. And as we grow in that faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, and brotherly affection we learn to love with Godly love. We are partakers in His divine nature, The Holy Spirit.
And what is the manifestation of the Spirit within us? Galatians 5:22-23 reads,
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
And so we keep walking, keep bearing the fruit of this walk and we become more and more who God created us to be. We should not be maintaining status quo, born again but remaining a spiritual infant. We should be maturing so when the world looks at us, they will see Love, they will see Jesus!