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“Dress With Excellence | Add To Your Faith”
Categories: Add To Your Faith | 2025
When I get dressed for work or for church, I typically do one final check in the mirror before leaving home. I’m looking for any collars that are turned the wrong way, belt loops that have been skipped, a fly that’s unzipped, or any buttons that I missed. I don’t need to be dressed to the nines for anybody’s attention, but I want my appearance to exhibit a degree of excellence.
I think that’s a decent comparison to the kind of excellence that ought to characterize Christian living. Not that we’re seeking attention, but that we simply do life properly. Peter’s formula for spiritual growth (2 Pt. 1:5-9) puts that ideal as the first addition to active faith in God. He uses the word arete, which can be defined either as “excellence” or “moral excellence.” Obviously, this speaks to the quality of our moral behaviors—that we avoid cussing, drunkenness, gluttony, and greed. That we aren’t careless with debt, divisive or manipulative, arrogant, sexually provocative in dress or behavior, or into immoral types of entertainment. And yet, it speaks more than that. The word is used in only four places in the New Testament: two of them refer to our Christian way of life, and two of them refer to the “excellencies” of God himself. That speaks to excellence as a character trait unto itself.
As sons and daughters of God, we ought not be clothed with haphazard habits, lackluster efforts, and milquetoast commitments. Instead, we clothe ourselves with the character traits of Christ (Col. 3:12-14) and we wear them with excellence. So whether in school, work, the arts, or even sports; we give our best efforts. We give God our most sincere and skillful worship. We manage our households, finances, and place in society well. We hold our Bible teaching and Bible learning efforts to a high standard. Et cetera, et cetera. The Christian life isn’t defined by carelessness, laziness, and slovenliness. It ought to be a living example of continual excellence.
So the next time you go out into the daily grind, take a good look in the mirror and do a check on the whole of your life: Am I living a life of arete? Am I living a life that is clothed with excellence?
- Dan Lankford, minister
