“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to knowledge and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises: that through these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:” (2 Peter 1: 2–10)
So we have this precious formula from Peter.
- Faith. We must always begin with faith in our Savior. Before we can correctly put our trust in Him, we must receive the Holy Spirit which reveals His will to us, for faith comes by hearing the word of God. Having that precious seed or word, we must believe in it and act upon it, for faith without works is dead. So we begin to tread upon this bridge over the chasm of captivity to Satan by trusting in our Savior, being comforted and guided by His Holy Spirit.
- Virtue. Having begun to be faithful, we must not falter or doubt. We must gather our strength and courage and do all that we know to do, to obey the commandments we have received. This is the meaning of virtue. The word derives from the Latin vir, meaning man, and by association virtue means strength. As muscle and mind grow in strength with use and decay under abuse, so with faith. The focus of our mind and thought should be to move correctly, with faith, and surely, with strength. We are not asked to go faster than we have strength.
- Knowledge. Faith supported by virtue brings the need for further knowledge of the ways of the Lord in order to be more faithful. “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 12:6; emphasis added). Though the Lord’s ways are not our ways, He nevertheless delights in revealing His mysteries to those who serve Him in righteousness to the end. They learn of Him line upon line, precept upon precept, until their understanding reaches unto heaven. And because they know, they can become a great blessing to their fellow-beings if they act on that precious knowledge.
- Temperance. To be temperate is to be even, to be steady. To be a faithful, strong, understanding servant means that we must add steadiness, to serve the Lord in season and out of season, in convenience and in inconvenience, in blessedness and in sacrifice. For to be faithful at only our own desire or in our convenience is not true faith; it is only playing with faith. To be faithful in difficulty is the only way we can show that the faith, strength, and understanding we have are our own heartfelt choices. To serve the Lord only when it is pleasant and convenient is to treat Him as a convenience. But to serve Him in sacrifice is our way of showing our selfless love for Him, for His work, and for all for which He stands.
- Patience. With our personal stage now set to be much more effective in the work of righteousness (blessing others), we first turn to discern their needs. As we look to those around us, we see souls bound and afflicted with varying degrees of “natural man problems,” varying degrees of captivity to the adversary. We may be tempted to smite away their fetters and blindfolds. But knowledge and temperance tell us to be patient, to know that only the self can unlock the self. We must be patient, suffering with the ones we would bless until the key of faith is in their hands, and they can begin to unfetter themselves.
- Godliness. But we will not just stand idly by, watching their suffering. We will share the burden with them, sacrificing our own strength to help them. Godliness follows upon patience because our heart, our concern for others, needs to grow until we cannot look upon any human being without feeling compassion for them. This compassion prepares us to serve and bless all, even as our Savior would were he in our shoes.
- Brotherly Kindness. To have godly concern for all human beings is but a frustration unless there is a solid means of helping them. As one looks for a way to help, one obvious structure for delivering help is the kingdom, the Church. The essence of the Church is its priesthood organization. The strength of the priesthood organization of the Church is the men who are its embodiment. To learn to love them and to fulfill in faith a stewardship under them is the greatest way to help this world that one can have; to be a missionary, a president, a teacher, whatever. Is it not possible that the words we have as “brotherly kindness” really were intended to say “love of the brethren?”
- Charity. Finally we come to the final stage of development when we possess the greatest spiritual gift, which is charity, or the pure love of Christ. It is pure, unselfish love for the Savior and from the Savior, reflected through us in patience, godly concern, love for the brethren, then delivery of blessings in our stewardship with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength. Of one who possesses this love, Peter says:
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: (2 Peter 1:8–10)
Then shall we be even as our Savior is:
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:2–3)
The opportunity of patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity can be framed another way by asking the question; How shall I let my light so shine that others seeing it will be caused to glorify God? We might answer by positing three steps by which the light of the Savior can be fully manifest.
Step 1. Love. We can love purely. We can show the example of full, unselfish Christ-like love as the Holy Spirit radiates through us to others. Be we father, mother, sister, brother, president or member, we can all give unqualified love to those around us. We will not be critical, but supportive; not condemning, but sympathetic; not condescending but honoring each person as a child of God. We can let each person around us be fully assured that someone knows they exist and cares about what happens to them. The purity of our love will be the purity of the Holy Spirit; the strength of our love will be the strength of the Holy Priesthood. The fulness of our love will be the fulness of our Savior, who received a fulness of all things from our Heavenly Father.
As all of the truly spiritual people of the world know, the world’s greatest need is more of this love. The Savior has it to give, but he needs translators. We have the opportunity which the world does not. Will we translate?
Step 2. Example. We can show the example of a godly life. We can show how it is that a true servant of Jesus Christ eats and drinks, marries and gives in marriage, buys and sells, teaches and learns, governs and obeys, prays and worships. The example is important because the world needs hope, the hope that the commandments of Jesus can be lived. Many have the ideal, but do not understand how it is done. Only those who both know the truth and have the power of God can show the full example:
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (2 Peter 3:11–12)
Step 3. Witness. We can teach the word of God in its simplicity and purity, as we receive it from the scriptures and the Holy Spirit. We bear testimony that the Savior lives, that His prophet is on earth, that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living Church. We teach the fundamental principles of faith and repentance, baptism and confirmation, of enduring to the end. Thus may others come to comprehend and understand the ways of the Lord.
Now a frank question: Would you like to have someone in your life who loves you purely, who is the example of all righteous action; who can teach you so that you understand the ways of our Savior? Could you better live the Gospel if you felt, saw and understood the truth manifest in the flesh? Surely we would all appreciate that.
Another frank question: Why don’t you and I who have testimonies and know something of the ways of the Lord go out and show love, live as an example, teach the truth to the best of our ability? Surely if we all lived in the physical presence of the Savior, we would have a surer testimony. But we don’t. Why not then take all the love, the example, the understanding that we have received and pass it on? Is not our opportunity to bless others greater because the Savior is not here?
Let us be about our Father’s business.