A Sure-Fire Recipe For Effective Christian Living

Like most people who cook, I have a favorite food recipe handed down from my mother – salmon croquettes. The recipe is sure-fire — if you follow the directions exactly. However, if you omit some ingredients and substitute others, the end result won’t be too tasty.

Spiritually speaking, the apostle Peter has provided us a sure-fire recipe for effective Christian living. The two main ingredients God provides, are His divine power and His precious promises that we attain through an active and obedient faith (2 Peter 1:3-4; cf. James 1:21-25; James 2:14-24).

Then Peter lists other ingredients that we must add to our faith: "virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love" (2 Peter 1:5-7). If we include each of these ingredients, we’ll not be unfruitful, nor will we stumble in our walk with the Lord (2 Peter 1:8).

However, anyone who omits the above ingredients is shortsighted, even blind, and “has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:9).

Beloved, let us never change God’s ingredients for effective Christian living and then blame His recipe when things go wrong, but let us diligently follow His instructions to the letter (2 Peter 1:10; 2 Timothy 2:15), assuring our spiritual success.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets