eight expressions of Christian character

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.

2 Peter 1:5-7

This passage begins with faith and ends with love, demonstrating for us the well-rounded character that God wishes to produce in all believers. This is the life that Jesus brings to us. Here is the succinct list:

1). Faith. This is where it starts. We believe the gospel — that Jesus died and rose again to pay or sin debt and give us eternal life. And we keep believing it and applying His forgiveness and grace every day.

2. Virtue. This is moral excellence. It is the highest of standards.

3. Knowledge. This is more than a general mental assent. It is the all around general knowledge of Christian faith and doctrine. Christians are always learning… always seeking to know God’s truth.

4. Self-control. It means mastering desires, passions, and appetites in their proper God-designed and God-honoring expressions.

5. Steadfastness. This is patient endurance that is unswerving over time. Ultimately it is what the reformers noted as the perseverance of the saints.

6. Godliness. This is a holiness born from worship of God and respect for God.

7. Brotherly affection. Christians love those in the church… we know a deep affectionate connection to other believers in the Body of Christ.

8. Love. This is AGAPE love… that unique, sacrificial, celebrational love of Christian expression. We love like Jesus loves!

We should be careful to make sure we aren’t making these eight character traits just a legalistic check list. This is not an “in” or “out” list to judge each other. Rather, these eight virtues mark the continuous goal of our growth in Christ as we learn to forsake sin, change our beliefs and attitudes through the knowledge in scripture, applying it personally to our situation. We then trust God’s Spirit to change us so that we can live in these new, wonderful, expressive, Spirit-led, personally-applied, and Word-informed ways.