a narrow gate to a wide-open way

2 Peter 1:5-11 ⁵ But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, ⁶to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, ⁷ to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. ⁸ For if these things are yours and abound, youwill be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; ¹¹ for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

How can we improve faith?  After all, faith could not have taken root without the gracious intervention of God and by faith we are saved and through faith we have light to see.  From the passage above we see that we still have a great deal of choice, even after we have tasted faith.  Virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love...these are what Peter says we should add to faith.  But do they take place in addition to...or apart from... faith, or are they the fruit of faith?

Here is the Message Version of the same passage: 

 ^5-9So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.

 ^10-11So, friends, confirm God's invitation to you, his choice of you. Don't put it off; do it now. Do this, and you'll have your life on a firm footing, the streets paved and the way wide open into the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I think the answer is that faith awakens our eternal identify, establishes our eternal destiny and creates the opportunity for an entirely new quality of living.  The promise of verse 11 is that, if we live this way, the "narrow way" that leads to life opens to a wide road to the Main Street of Heaven.

Matthew 7:³ "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

We will take a look at these "additions to faith" over the next several days.

blessings,

Rob Smith