Ben Franklin listed thirteen personal virtues for life. The first one said: “Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.” Franklin was not a Christian, but that self-prescribed advice has both practical and spiritual value. It distills the principle that excess—whether of food, drink, luxury, sex, entertainment, comfort, etc.—is not healthy. We are much better off with a governing amount of self-control.
 
Excess dulls our minds. Like a bear waking up from hibernation, our minds become groggy, weary of the work required by life and relationships. And this can’t be the state of people who take every thought captive to Christ (2 Cr. 10:5), who know how to answer each person (Co. 4:6), and who continually prepare our minds for action (1 Pt. 1:13). We are called to have clear minds with strong wills tuned to serve God skillfully.
 
Excess dulls our spirits. Jesus was forever telling us that people who need something respond best to him (cf. Mt. 5:3, 19:24, etc). But if our lives are glutted with all sorts of comforts and indulgences, what will we feel that we truly need? What will cause us to desire Christ and not simply acknowledge him? It takes a certain degree of ‘soul hunger’ to desire the spiritual fullness that he offers (cf. Mt. 5:6). Excess doesn’t lead to that.
 
Therefore, we practice self-control. We choose contentment. We shouldn’t torture ourselves with starvation and the like, but we would each be wise to self-impose some moderation—to stop eating before we’re full; to fast and pray; to put marital sex on pause and devote ourselves to prayer; to just walk in some less comfortable shoes once in a while. And we should be generous, letting go of our excesses (God once condemned the Northern Kingdom after its fall with these words: “she… had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy” [Ez. 16:49]).
 
Over time, those of us who practice the wisdom of God will eventually develop an aversion to excess. Not that we’ll resent all comforts, gifts, and blessings; but that self-control will make us averse to what leads to dullness. It teaches our hearts and minds to need only that which will truly satisfy: God.

- Dan Lankford

As a 90’s kid and a public-school attendee, I vividly remember the D.A.R.E. programs and the “Just Say No” campaign. These were anti-drug abuse programs that encouraged children to exercise self-control and, “Just say no to drugs.” According to them, overcoming the temptation to use drugs was that simple, “Just say no.” In more recent years, those programs have been roundly criticized for their ineffectiveness. Ultimately, they just didn’t work. 

Typically, people take one of two extreme positions on self-control; either it is as simple as just saying, “No,” or we are incapable of truly controlling ourselves. Yet, I believe the Bible paints a more balanced picture than that. Here’s what it teaches us…

First, it is possible for us to not only exercise self-control, but to gain self-control. Everyone has moments in which they control themselves and subdue their passions, but Peter seems to be talking about something more impressive than this when he advises us to add self-control to our faith (II Peter 1:6). He means that this can become a part of our character. We can become the kind of people who, as a rule, control ourselves.

Secondly, self-control must be added. The big mistake of the “Just Say No” campaign was the assumption that all school aged children naturally came equipped with remarkable powers of self-control. Peter indicates that self-control doesn’t come naturally. We’re not wired that way. It’s something we must add. The natural state of man is not defined by inner strength, but weakness. As Jesus cautioned His apostles, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). 

Thirdly, self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). That means this quality is added to our faith when we are filled with the Spirit. So often we seek to add self-control by simply trying harder to “Just Say No,” and yet the best way to add self-control is to focus on filling ourselves with the Spirit letting the word of Christ and His glorious Gospel fill our hearts (Ephesians 5:18). When the Gospel fills our hearts, self-control is the inevitable result. 

- Jonathan Banning

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I think we understand why that is. The only reason a chain is effective is because all the links are interlocked. If one of those links breaks, the whole chain becomes useless. Therefore, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

When Peter writes the “Add To Your Faith” passage, he doesn’t just give us seven qualities to add, he gives us seven qualities that build upon one another – seven qualities that are linked to one another. First, he tells us to add “Arete” to our faith. In other words, we should pursue excellence in spiritual things, but what good is excellence without knowledge? So, Peter tells us to add knowledge to our excellence. He does the same with knowledge. We should add knowledge to our faith. We should seek to discern God’s will for us, but what good is that knowledge if we do not possess the restraint necessary to live by it? So, Peter tells us to add self-control to our knowledge (II Peter 1:6).

The word translated “self-control” is the Greek term, “Egkrateia,” and it means temperance, strength, power and mastery over self. Peter tells us that Christians need to possess the ability to control our passions and desires. We need to learn to master ourselves.

It seems to me that, for many of us, this is where the chain of faith often breaks. We’re content to strive for excellence. We’re happy to add more and more knowledge. Yet, when the moment of temptation comes we struggle to choose good. Self-control is often our weakest link. I think we ought to own that and determine together that we are going to do something about it.

For the next few weeks we’ll dig deeply into what the Bible has to say about how we can add self-control to our faith.

- Jonathan Banning

When it comes to adding spiritual knowledge to our faith, the prime source for that knowledge is obvious: it’s the Bible (cf. 2 Tm. 3:16-17). But what about the abundance of other sources available? Books, magazines, blogs, sermons, podcasts, and even these articles all purport to teach; but how do we know if we’re getting trustworthy knowledge from them?

While some books, organizations, and people claim to be teaching the Bible, they’re doing it wrongly and often in self-serving, harmful ways (Paul warned that this was happening in his time; cf. Phil. 1:17, 2 Cr. 10-12). So how do we know if we’re getting correct knowledge? How do we know if it’s what God really wants us to know?

Here’s one piece of advice that will go a long way: Consider the *assumptions* that the teacher/writer is working from.

If they assume that right and wrong are determined by men, that the Bible was written by men, and that religious doctrine is from men… If they begin with the assumption that God revealed more of his will to someone else after the apostles’ work was finished… If they assume that the Christian way is mostly determined by a particular culture of men… Or if they work off the assumption that a particular Christian group’s word is authoritative simply because it’s that group, then we should look elsewhere.

If, on the other hand, the teacher/writer assumes that the Holy Spirit revealed his will truthfully and completely in the Bible, and if their goal is to expound that without changing it, then we can almost always learn something valuable to our faith from a source like that! If they point us back to God himself and persuade us to trust him, then we can be grateful to learn from them.

These checks on assumptions work well whether applied to commentaries, podcasts, YouTube videos, sermons, blogs, workbooks, devotionals, or ‘Christian living’ books. The firmer the teacher’s commitment to God’s will in God’s word, the more we can be sure that we’re learning something worthwhile from them. It’s not just that we would stand against certain types of sources, but that we should have some wisdom to guide our pursuit of spiritual knowledge from all potential sources.

- Dan Lankford

When Jesus was only 12 years old, His family made the trek to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. After all was said and done, the family made their way back home assuming that Jesus was tagging along somewhere in the group when, in fact, He’d stayed behind in Jerusalem. When they found Him, He was sitting in the temple in the midst of the teachers (Luke 2:41-45).

I don’t know about you, but for some reason I’ve always had the impression that Jesus was in the temple teaching the teachers. As if little boy Jesus was showing up all the seasoned veterans. Yet, that’s not quite true. Luke tells us that He was listening to them and asking them questions (Luke 2:46). The preteen Jesus stays behind in the temple, not to teach, but to learn. When He tells His parents that He must be about His Father’s business, that business was not preaching to the grown ups but learning from them - adding knowledge to His faith (Luke 2:49). Later, Luke records that as Jesus aged He grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52). Isn’t that fascinating?

No one fully understands all the intricacies and dynamics of what it means for Jesus to simultaneously be God and Man, but one thing seems to be clear - that Jesus added knowledge to His faith just as I must add knowledge to my faith. That fact should helps us appreciate two things...

First, that we should hunger and thirst for knowledge of His word like He did. We need to understand that being busy in our Father’s business is not just a matter of engaging in good deeds, it also involves learning. In fact, as it was with Jesus so it is with us, our involvement in the Father’s business should begin with seeking to understand His will and grow in His wisdom.

Second, if we develop such a hunger and thirst, we can grow in wisdom and knowledge as He did. Of course, there are some attributes of Jesus that we’ll never share, but we have the opportunity to grow like He did. If I dedicate myself to listening, learning, and asking as He did I will continually add knowledge to my faith.

- Jonathan Banning

Transcription / Notes:

Last week, Jonathan gave three tips for better Bible study. Here are four more from me, in order to "add to your faith... knowledge."

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1) Read whole Bible books.

I find it very helpful to read books of the Bible as whole books, similarly to how we read novels. I find that there is great power in the flow of thought from the beginning to the end of books like Isaiah or Romans. I find that the totality of the narratives is compelling in books like Judges or Acts. So I recommend reading them beginning-to-end on a regular basis.

2) Read without line numbers.

The Bible’s chapter and verse markings were added long after the documents were written. When I learned that, I wanted to find out if it would make any difference to read without them. For me, the answer was, “YES!” Chapter and verse markings are like the line numbers in a legal document—they’re useful for quickly finding a phrase or a thought, but they don’t have a bearing on the meaning of that thought. I’ve bought a couple of “Reader’s Bibles” in different translations, and I find them to be immensely helpful, letting the thoughts continue or break where in more natural ways, rather than where a particular line number may dictate.

3) Look for repeated ideas.

I often mark up my study Bibles with different colors, which helps me isolate various motifs, items, sayings, and concepts that the Holy Spirit is repeating. For two examples: the repeated mentions of belief in the whole Gospel of John and of resurrection in the whole book of Acts. Isolating these makes me take a mental step back to ponder why they were so important to the author, which helps me realize why they should matter so much to my walk with God.

4) Watch for God to act.

Especially in stories, don’t just look for what the human characters are doing—look for what GOD is doing, even if it’s behind the scenes. Early in life, we’re right to look at the human characters as the good or bad guys/girls. But as we get older, we often realize that: 1) human morality often isn’t so clear-cut as that, and 2) the humans often aren’t the main characters in a story anyway—God is. So watch for what he’s doing, and you will learn a lot about him, which is one of the things we should want most in our Christian lives (cf. Mk. 12:28-31).

- Dan Lankford

Transcription / Notes:

Last week, Dan put forward this beautiful idea: What if we came to know the Bible so well that the teachings of the Bible naturally flowed out of us? That’s what I want! I want the teaching of the Holy Spirit to become second-natured, to become my natural inclination. Accomplishing that starts with establishing a consistent habit of Bible reading and not just daily reading but good daily reading. So, this week, we thought we’d offer a few tips on what good daily Bible reading looks like.

1) Be Patient

In the Bible, the Gospel is often compared to a seed. Like a seed, if the Gospel is planted in your heart and allowed to grow it will inevitably transform your heart, your life, your actions (Matthew 13:18-23; Galatians 5:22-23). At the same time, like a seed, this process takes time, and we need to be okay with that. If daily Bible reading isn’t having a life-altering effect after two weeks, remember that Jesus personally taught His apostles for three years and by the end of His ministry they still didn’t quite get it (John 14:9). Be patient.

2) Quality Over Quantity

Sometimes in our impatience we try to speed up the growth process. Like a procrastinating college student, we cram loads of Bible study into tiny sections of time to make up for years of neglected study, but that just doesn’t work. That’s not how hearts change. So, good Bible students learn to emphasize quality over quantity. It’s better to just let five words sink in than to let 1,000 words go in one ear and out the other (I Corinthians 14:19). Just read a chapter, or a chunk, or a verse and allow it to sink in.

3) Master Meditation

When you close the book make sure to take something with you. Maybe it’s a thought, a promise, or a question. Whatever it is, take it and keep it with you through the day. Remember it. Meditate on it. Dwell on it. Absorb from it every ounce of edification it provides. This is what David did, what he longed to do – he anxiously waited for the night watches because in those moments of solitude he meditated on God’s word (Psalm 119:148). We should do the same.

Next week, Dan will have a few more Bible study tips to share!

- Jonathan Banning

The things in my life that I know best are the ones that I recall and revisit every day—the “I could do that with my eyes closed” kind of stuff. I know my way around the house because I navigate it every single day. I know the way I drive to work without thinking about it. I know my family by daily interactions. I know my native language by perpetual usage. These and many others are a kind of knowledge so regular and deep that I take it for granted. They are a kind of knowledge that I’ve gained, not just by amassing facts, but by repetitive experience.

What if we added knowledge to our faith like that? What if our knowledge of Christianity was so deep that it became fully natural to us? What if our knowledge of the things of God was so ingrained by daily experience and exercise that we took it for granted as the natural and normal way of life?

How can we do that? By revisiting, recalling, and refreshing the Christian way in us every. single. day.

In Deuteronomy 17, God prescribed regulations for the ideal king who would lead his people, and they were exceedingly simple. They come down to his restraining his own power and prestige (vv. 14-17) and continually reading God’s word (vv. 18-20). I find those rules powerfully instructive: More than being savvy politicians with deep knowledge of political science, God wanted the kings to have knowledge of him. And how would they come to a point where that knowledge is their natural path? By engaging the written word every. single. day.

Daily Bible reading is a habit that Christians sometimes write off as “a good idea, but not really commanded.” And while that’s technically true, it’s not good spiritual wisdom. The reality is that the more often we engage the words and ways of God, the more natural they become for us. Over time, they become the only way that we know to do life. They become the things that we can do and say without thinking about them, because we have come to know them on a whole different level. “Add to your faith… knowledge [that comes from daily habits].”

- Dan Lankford

Gnosis. Knowledge. Peter says that if we want to grow in Christ we need to grow in our knowledge. Yet, if you listen too much to the echoes of our culture you might find yourself discouraged in that pursuit. Here’s why:

There are many highly respected and highly visible people in our culture who would claim that it’s not possible to know the will of God. Sure, the most basic truths are discernable, like the fact that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead; but beyond those simplest truths God’s will is just kind of muddy. Some claim that the Bible itself is not clear on most issues. Others claim that the Bible is clear, but that we’ll be forever undone by our own bias and prejudice. Still others make the case that God’s word is intentionally left open to interpretation—that God wants us to draw our own subjective conclusions.

To put it simply, we live in a culture that just doesn’t have faith in our ability to know, understand, and correctly apply the word of God. But culture is wrong.

The Holy has told us clearly that we can know the will of God. Remember that Jesus promised that those who continue in His word would know the truth and it would make us free (John 8:31-32). When writing to the Colossians, Paul prayed that church would filled with the knowledge of God’s will so that they could please Him in all respects (Colossians 1:9-12). That doesn’t sound like something you would say if it were impossible to know God’s will. 

More meaningful to me is what John states at the beginning of his Gospel: “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:18). The word translated “explained” is the Greek word, “exegeomai,” and it means to open up or unfold. That’s a beautiful idea, isn’t it? Through His life and teaching Jesus has unfolded—He has revealed—the character and the will of God. Be not discouraged in your pursuit of knowledge! You can know the will of God!

- Jonathan Banning

Spiritual growth is a never-ending process. It’s like a marathoner’s pursuit of the perfect race—the faster they go, the faster they want to go. There’s always something more to reach for. As Peter said, the attributes of a quality spiritual life are always increasing (2 Pt. 1:8). This can be a daunting reality, but it need not be, because as we work toward growth in one attribute of spiritual life, growth happens in others simultaneously.

Knowledge—gnosis in the Greek—is one of those springboard qualities: when it grows, other growth happens. If we’ll let it, knowledge increases our virtue, steadfastness, self-control, etc. This is what God wants for us and from us. The apostles spoke freely and often about saints growing in the knowledge of God (Rm. 15:14, 1 Cr. 12:8, Ep. 1:17-18, Co. 1:19, Philemon 1:6, 2 Pt. 1:2). They didn’t want them to just believe and remain ignorant—they wanted them to possess deep understanding of God’s word, his will, and his Way.

But someone might be thinking, “Isn’t knowledge bad for Christians? Doesn’t it make people prideful? Aren’t we supposed to be about love and not about knowledge?” I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that anyone who would ask this is well-meaning, but the simple answer is, “No.” There are only a very small handful of times when learning/knowledge is negatively portrayed in the New Testament, and they’re usually when someone had an attitude or faith problem; not that they were just “too smart” (such is the case where Paul said, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”). Knowledge of God and his word doesn’t inherently make us prideful—that’s a choice that each of us have to make. The pursuit of Bible knowledge, of worldview understanding, and of spiritual discernment ought to be a hallmark of Christians. In fact, that’s God’s stated purpose for church leaders: that they would build saints up “until we all attain to... the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ep. 4:13).

Spiritual growth is a never-ending process, so let’s keep learning, brothers and sisters. Let’s keep adding some more knowledge of the things of God to our faith.

- Dan Lankford