|
All
relationship problems exist because we have not "grown up"
into the character traits of God. We don't have love, we have
fear. We don't have trust, we have suspicion. We don't
want to give, we want to receive.
We also have not correctly
assessed the character traits of our potential spouses, so we choose
people who also lack the mature qualities of God's intention.
We then "play
house" until we grow tired of the game, or a new
"toy" (love interest) comes along and looks brand new and
much more fun than our old one! (Sounds like children, doesn't
it?)
Or we whine miserably, and
stay in our pitiful relationships, bashing the opposite gender and
missing the glorious life that God had intended for us.
So what ARE the qualities of
God that we are supposed to grow into?
2 Peter 1
2May grace (God's favor) and peace (which
is [a]perfect
well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and [b]freedom
from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied
to you in [the full, personal, [c]precise,
and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3For His divine power
has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to
life and godliness, through the [[d]full,
personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and
excellence (virtue).
4By means of these He
has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so
that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay
(rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of
covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the
divine nature.
5For this very reason,
[e]adding your
diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in [f]exercising
your faith to develop virtue
(excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising]
virtue [develop] knowledge
(intelligence),
6And in [exercising]
knowledge [develop] self-control,
and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness
(patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness
(piety),
7And in [exercising]
godliness [develop] brotherly
affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian
love.
8For as these
qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep
[you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [[g]full
personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the
Anointed One).
9For whoever lacks
these qualities is blind, [[h]spiritually]
shortsighted, [i]seeing
only what is near to him, and has become oblivious [to the fact]
that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10Because of this,
brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to
ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast) your calling and election;
for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall.
11Thus there will be
richly and abundantly provided for you entry into the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
|
