ADONAI’S ADDITION

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love^G26. For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

2 Peter 1:5-9

But the fruit of the Spirit is love^G26, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Notice the overlap between what Paul is teaching us in Galatians 5:22-23 (The Fruit of the Spirit) and what Peter teaches in 2 Peter 1:5-9. Paul begins with love, and Peter ends with love. Love forms the bookends for all the traits the Holy Spirit develops in believers. God is love (1 John 4:8). He is also the alpha and omega (Revelation 1:8) which represents the beginning and the end. Love begins with the Almighty God loving us to the utmost by sending His Son to die in our place. As we surrender to His love for us, He enables us to love Him and then to love others. “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). From that Christlike love flows all the Fruit of the Spirit and all the character traits Peter urges us to add one upon another. Adonai (literally my Lord) through both Paul and Peter emphasizes that these traits build on each other. When you add up the Fruit of the Spirit and Peter’s list of traits, the sum is Christlikeness. God enables us to move toward this goal by the power of His Holy Spirit within us, and ultimately, we will be completely sanctified (made holy). “His divine power has given us everything we need to experience life and to reflect God’s true nature through the knowledge of the One who called us by His glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3 VOICE).

Our capacity to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16) is only limited by how much we tap into the Holy Spirit by increasing our knowledge of and devotion to the Lord Jesus and surrender to God’s will. As we obey what God has shown us in His word, we become more like the Lord. Do you see the Fruit of the Spirit developing in your life through the addition of Christlike traits? Ask the Lord to let His Spirit flow through you that others may see Jesus in you. Your life may be the only living reflection of Jesus someone may experience. Make it count!

Father, we ask You to keep adding Christlikeness to our characters that others will see Jesus reflected in our lives. May our demeanors be as much of a witness for Christ as our words.