September 22 Daily Devotional

A fully-furnished faith

‘Add to your faith’, says this authorized version (2 Peter 1:5); ‘supplement it’, says another; ‘furnish it out’, says another ... this word ‘furnish’ is a Greek word that was used in connexion with the performance of a drama. It means the providing of a kind of orchestra or chorus, so that it may be complete. It was something that rounded off the performance ... That is the meaning of the word, add to it, furnish it, supplement it, make the thing complete, let it be a full-orbed faith.

What do you add to faith? The Apostle gives us this list…. The first thing he says is, ‘Add to your faith virtue’.... Here again is a word the meaning of which has changed since this authorized version was produced. It does not mean virtue in the sense in which we commonly use it.... Its meaning here is energy, moral energy, it means power, it means vigor…. The condition that the Apostle is dealing with is this languid undisciplined, slack kind of Christian life, and he begins by reminding them that, ‘Now you have faith, you believe the truth ... you have like precious faith with us’. Well, what more need they do about it? He tells them that... they must cease to be languid. In other words, add to your faith moral energy, pull yourself together, don’t shuffle through your Christian life, walk through it as you should do with vigour, add to it that kind of strength and of power. Do not be a languid Christian, who always gives the impression that he or she is on the point of swooning and fainting and might fail at any moment. Do not be languid, says the Apostle, furnish your faith with manliness and power—virtue.

Spiritual Depression, pp. 212–13