For centuries, nations have built fleets of ships to control the seas. Military leaders have asserted that maintaining a vibrant navy was essential in keeping the peace, as well as in waging war.
When you control the seas, you have the advantage.
These ships displace more than 25,000 tons of water. They were loaded down with the biggest guns and welded together with the thickest armor. Their ominous presence had psychological and diplomatic effects on the enemy. In every sense of the word, these battleships were the embodiment of power and nautical prestige.
During WWI and WWII, battleships crashed the ocean waves as military campaigns were fought in the Atlantic and the Pacific. These seafaring monsters were so large it could take up to two years to build one. For example, the USS Missouri took three years to complete.
"The Unlucky Shot"
Battleships, though, do have an Achilles' heel.
Apparently, there's an "unlucky shot" that a ship can take that will kill 80 percent of the crew and leave the remaining metal a blazing fireball to burn out for days. This fate happened to the USS Arizona—a battleship that did not survive the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Once a battleship is commissioned, it will still remain in service even if it has been shredded by enemy fire and completely sunk.
Why? Most of the time, these ships can withstand punishment beyond belief. And after they have been fully submerged under water, the navy will raise them out again, repair the damage and send them off into battle once again.
Sinking and Being Raised Again
These ships are the image of every Christ-follower engaged in spiritual battle.
We all have been commissioned to engage the Enemy. Together as a fleet, we strengthen one another in the good fight. We always have the advantage against our flesh. We have the thickest armor and the presence of God. We can withstand the fiery darts of the Enemy.
But we are not perfect.
In the event we get pummeled, we don't give up. As we become battle worn, we trust that we are not forsaken.
Even if the Enemy gets in the "unlucky shot" sinking us down to the bottom, we'll be raised again. We know that as long as we're alive, we have an obligation to wage war. We'll never be decommissioned this side of death.
Peter Lists 7 Biblical Virtues
Waging war is only part of the battle.
There are other things you need to see and share and do. God asks us to supplement our attack with other virtues that will increase our ability to win. God gives us power to defeat sin in so many ways.
Peter lists some of these virtues in his second letter:
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 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; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
2 Peter 1:3-9, (NIV)
7 Biblical Traits that Guarantee Spiritual Growth
We have been given a new life over sin, death and the Enemy. For Christ-followers who are learning the proper way to rid themselves from the power of sin, Peter instructs us to "add" to this new life; to supplement our faith.
Continual spiritual growth won't come if we only focus on eradicating sin.
There has to be more.
Peter acknowledged that God's divine power gives us what we need for life. However, he instructs us to supplement that life with certain virtues and practices. These disciplines help our spiritual lives to thrive. They become added things that help us see Jesus and become more like Him.
Add to your faith goodness. Goodness is the very character of God. Goodness reflects moral excellence and beauty.
Add to your faith knowledge. This is found in the truth of God.
Add to your faith self-control. This is what's used to restrain impulses, emotions or desires.
Add to your faith perseverance. This is what's needed when times are tough.
Add to your faith godliness, which is the inclination toward godly things.
Add to your faith mutual affection. This means that you genuinely care for the people of God.
And finally add to your faith love, the key to life with God. For God is love. Love is characterized by selfless and sacrificial life-serving others and seeking the kingdom of God over your own, putting the interests of others above your own.
We can lose sight of these quickly. We can be quite near-sighted. We need to add to our faith on a daily basis.
Excerpted from Tim Chaddick's Bible Study, Truth and Lies_. 2015 Lifeway Press. Used by permission._
BONUS: Learn More About Tim's Bible Study
At the sound of the word "temptation," we typically jump to the capital-letter temptations that show up as various addictions.
But there are more subtle forms of temptation in the lies of success, false identity and religiosity. The tendency is to trivialize or dismiss these, but their presence may be even more controlling, and more constant, than the usual suspects.
This six-session study will help readers understand how God uses temptation to reveal and bring character out of them. That is, temptation is an opportunity to recognize and choose truth as Jesus did.
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