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2 Peter 1:6
6 And [de] to [en] knowledge [gnosis] temperance [egkrateia]; and [de] to [en] temperance [egkrateia] patience [hupomone]; and [de] to [en] patience [hupomone] godliness [eusebeia]; KJV-Interlinear
6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; NASB
Once you have put all of your distractions and prior beliefs away, and have begun to listen to the teaching of the Word of God, then temperance, then patience, then godliness, enter into your life.
But what exactly is temperance and patience and godliness? Does this mean that you become the perfect little angel we find in the children's stories? Does this mean that you change your lifestyle and stop drinking and gambling, and womanizing? Does this mean that you dress up in your pretty little outfit and smile shyly when someone looks at you?
No. These things have nothing to do with your personal lifestyle habits. Anyone, even an unbeliever, can read the Bible and mimic a shy or liquor free lifestyle. Anyone can move to a monastery and sit life out.
But what you do in life has nothing to do with your spiritual growth. Your spiritual growth affects your daily life, not the other way around.
Self-control means self-discipline, and self-discipline has to do with the consistency of your listening and learning on a daily basis. Anyone can go to church once a week or once a year, but it takes an exceptional person to study daily, every day, every day of their life. Motivation has to enter into your life somewhere along the way, and that motivation is the carrot, which God has dangled before your eyes already. Grace and peace.
You develop along the way a desire, a drive in your life, such that nothing else, not even the little things that may bother you along the way, will keep you from your daily study.
Life is full of annoying little mosquitoes. These are the things that bug you to death (so to speak). Things that annoy you. But children are the ones that get annoyed, not mature adults. ‘He looked at me.’ ‘She looked at me.’ ‘He just won’t pick up after himself.’ ‘That sound, that color, that thing, bothers me.’
These are the little things of life. If you allow them to bother you to the point that you are willing to lose an infinite prize, what then happens to you when really big problems come along, like losing a job, losing a family, losing a marriage, losing a home, losing your health, etc., etc., etc.?
Self-discipline helps you to get through the little things, the little distractions, early in your spiritual life.
Then we add to the recipe of your spiritual life, perseverance, which is endurance, which is the willingness to stick with your studies, especially when life does not go well with you, or your plans. Perseverance is the ability to concentrate, to focus on what you are learning and just what your priorities in life really are.
Are you reading the Bible so you can receive a miracle, so you can be impressed, so you can be entertained? Look around you. The days of parting waters have already occurred. Jesus healed thousands and the crowds still only wanted to be cured or entertained. Not many stood behind Him when He was arrested.
The objective of your spiritual life is to build up spiritual muscle in your soul, not act as a genie when you happen to need some help.
The objective of your spiritual life is to help you grow up.
And self-discipline, or consistency in your daily studies, combined with concentration, produces obedience to God. That means you begin to follow the things you have learned. You confess your sins, regularly, in order to get yourself into fellowship, so that your studies, your prayers are more effective.
You begin committing your heart, your will, your mind, your body, your finances, and your future to God.
By loving Bible doctrine more than anything else in our life.
By committing yourself completely to Him and His plan for your life.
By pursuing knowledge and wisdom through the study of the scriptures.
By recognizing that your talents, your abilities, your gifts all come from Him, and are to His credit, not yours.
By recognizing that all that we have, comes from God, and that we are the managers of His gifts, not the owners.
By understanding that your future is not in this life, but in the next, and that this is your time for preparation, not indifference.
This is the godliness achieved, or the beginning of the transformation of your mind away from the standards of the world, to the standards of God.
