GIVING ALL DILIGENCE
(mr 01/02/19)
OLUBI JOHNSON
2Peter 1:5-10 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; (6) And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; (7) And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. (8) 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. (9) But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. (10) Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
Here, God the Holy Spirit through Peter instructs us to give ALL DILIGENCE to exercise our faith to add: to inject diligently into our souls: will, minds, emotions; and bodies ALL of the fruit of the Spirit.
Doing this will cause the Christ to be formed (Gal.4.19) and glorified (Jn.17.22-23) in us and so cause our calling and election to be sure!
Now diligence is applying CONSISTENT, CONCENTRATED AND WELL-DIRECTED EFFORT.
Proverbs 11:27: He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.
Here the scripture instructs that whoever DILIGENTLY SEEKS GOOD, will receive God’s favour: mercy and grace to be effectively diligent.
Observe the order: the diligent SEEKING is what attracts the favour. In other words, we FIRST make the decision to be and START PRACTICING diligence, THEN the grace and mercy to be actually diligent is released that in turn makes us truly diligent.
So, it is not our diligence that procures God’s favour; it is our SEEKING: the decision and practice; to be diligent that procures the favour and it is the favour that actually makes us diligent and not our efforts alone.
Practically, this means that when you initially make the decision to and start practicing diligence, you will initially fail because of the sin-nature in the soul, body and circumstances; however, as you CONTINUE, grace and mercy will be given to you to actually make you diligent.
This truth is captured in these scriptures:
Romans 4:16 KJV: Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
So, it is by GRACE through faith that all the seed: EVERY Christian, irrespective of their weaknesses will be able to be diligent and so inherit all the promises of God.
Genesis 24:27 KJV: And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.
Luke 17:12-14 KJV: And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: (13) And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. (14) And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
Here, Abraham’s servant was led and the lepers were healed as they acted on God’s Word in faith BEFORE the grace and mercy of God was released to manifest the leading and the healing.
The principle is this: believe FIRST BY DECISION AND PRACTICE then favour: mercy and grace are released to cause the physical manifestation of what you believe.
So, we APPLY this principle of diligently seeking good to:
1. Putting on the WHOLE armour of God DAILY.
2. Use the blood, the Word and the Spirit (praying in tongues) to pray once every 6 hours, at every opportunity and in every temptation to GRADUALLY perfect the love of God.
3. At least ONE hour every week to pray with all kinds of prayer (Eph. 6.18) and travail (Gal. 4.19) for Christ to be formed in you.
As we practice this, we will procure favour to give ALL diligence and make our calling and election sure!
