Christian Character

Today we were supposed to start a series on our Statement of Faith, however I had a bad night last night and was not able to get it ready. So I am going to pull one from my notebook that I already had ready.
Turn to 2 Pet. 1:1 "Simon Peter a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith...", because Peter knew this would be his last letter he wanted the believers to understand who he was and how he felt about himself. If you look at the original meanings of "a servant and an apostle", you see that Peter was calling himself both a slave and an apostle. In doing so he affirmed both a sincere humility and a position of authority.
Now look down at verses 5-7, "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". In vs. 1 we see that he considered himself equal with everyone else who had obtained a faith of equal privilege, a faith that is essential to salvation, and Christian growth.
Once we are saved then we are obligated to make every effort to supplement our faith with first, virtue. Virtue is goodness, or moral excellence. To virtue or moral excellence, we are to add knowledge, the understanding and insight that comes from diligent study of the Bible under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. It is a practical, applied knowledge, not simply a theoretical one.
To spiritual knowledge is added temperance, or self-control. The God-given ability to take charge of your own life, and control the passions and desires that the Devil uses to undermine people's spiritual lives. In addition to temperance we are to add, patience or endurance. This is what Paul talked about in Heb 12:1-2 "...run with endurance the race...for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross...".
As we are focusing on Jesus we develop godliness, or being God-like, the quality of living reverently in God's presence. Even though God has given us everything we need, we must diligently pursue godliness.
The first five qualities in this quest for Christlike character are climaxed by two kinds of love. The first, and lessor is brotherly kindness, or affection (philadelphia), which is a family like love, that involves a willingness to sacrifice for each other. This leads to the highest aspect of all Christian character, charity or Christ like love (agape). That is unconditional love, it was agape love that motivated God to send His only Son to die for us. It is the kind of love we are commanded to have for each other.
Verses 8-9 "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".