Growth in Christian Virtue (Part 8) Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Growth in Christian Virtue (Part 8) ----------------------- Date: 06/05/1999 Keywords: "godliness" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: 2 Peter 1:2-8, looking today primarily at verse 6* 2. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3. seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; 6. and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; 7. and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, Christian love. 8. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Questions 1. What does godliness mean to you?   Practical help Adam and Eve were promised in the garden that if they ate the fruit they would "be like God, knowing good and evil." We might call this "god-likeness". To be a god is to not need God. As a god, you could decide right and wrong, good and evil, and you wouldn't have to accept God's rules and requirements. On the other hand, "godliness" is absorbing God into your life. It is knowing Him so well, that you begin to unconsciously act in ways that please Him. Instead of obeying from fear of punishment, you desire to please because of an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude for what He has done and continues to do for you. The godly person sees his past with pornography as evidence that God has acted in his life. He doesn't deny the sin, but is willing to show the healed scar as evidence of God's healing power. Godliness is living with joy in the power of God's active love and grace in your life. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 1999 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."