The Prelude of Love, The Journey of Faith: Part 2 - Virtue

"... giving all diligence, add to your Faith, Virtue..." -2 Peter 1:5

Add to Your Faith, Virtue.

The first response I had to this was a very prideful, "Virtue? I've got loads of that!" Within the days and weeks beyond that comment, I painfully learned that the few Virtues that I had begun to grasp were not even the beginning steps on my journey.

When Liege first told me the term "The Prelude of Love, The Journey of Faith" while I was writing praying and writing a post here, I had no idea that it would become a constant thought, something that would become a cornerstone of my daily life. I had no idea that 2 Peter would become something more than a book of the New Testament, and would become a manual to read in addition to my prayer and studies.

Virtue

Virtue is a very complex aspect of Love, that the apostle Paul could only fully describe in a very poetic passage.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never Fails."
-1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Most of these virtues are addressed again in 2 Peter under various other titles, but before we go farther we need to have a basis in each of them.

Every one of these vices are symptoms of low Self-Control and/or Perseverance. One of the more difficult aspects of Self-Control, because Self-Control is two-layered, is controlling our inner lusts and our outer actions.

In this case lust quite simply means, "An intense Longing," (- M-W Online ) but can still be very deadly.

The foundation that we need in this scriptue is initially quite simple, Stay away from the vices, and Strech for the virtues! Later it becomes more difficult, but this passage will be used again when examining Self-Control and Perseverence, but simply put, following the guidelines in 2 Corinthians 13 will provide us with another Virtue, (little "l") love.

A Virtue Sorely Missed: love

Every time I am certain I have one step closer to learning Liege's Love, our Liege shows me that to progress further, I have to go back and re-learn the earlier lessons over again. At first I didn't understand why, but now I can see at least one reason that the Lord said to do it that way.

At my church, several people have been quietly yet relentlessly attacking my Youth Pastor with words and deeds. I go to a small church, and if ten of the youth who are involved in any kind of ministry are against Pastor Luke, that presents a near majority.

There is one youth and one adult who have many of the church goers ears, and they have been constantly (not-so-quietly) taking any and all irritation and anger out on Pastor Luke's authority. Sometimes when I see them a Holy rage flares up in me(love always protects), and sometimes a fleshly rage takes its place (Keeping a record of Wrong).

When I was first on one of the stages to Love as outlined in 2 Peter, the Lord told me that I had not only more to pick up the next time through 2 Peter 1:3-9, but that I had missed a very foundational step. He told me that I was working on showing His Love to others, but I missed something basic about virtue."

I struggled to find what I had missed, and I kept finding things, but not the one aspect that Liege wanted me to find. Finally one Sunday when I saw this Adult who attacks Pastor Luke (I'll call him Jack), the Lord said simply, "love." I didn't get what He said at the time, but what it came to was that in my haste to find the Lord's (big "L")"Love," that I had forgotten to practice the little that I know already, (little "l")"love."

It has taken me a long while, but slowly the Lord is bringing me to a point where I can see "Jack" and not feel bitterness or anger towards him. Sometimes when I see him I still feel fleshly anger, but He is teaching me to "deny myself [my anger], and follow Him." Slowly, the Lord is teaching me to instead feel Holy anger at our Spiritual adversaries who have caused "Jack" enough pain that he would want to attack a man of God such as Pastor Luke. Then, instead of anger directed at "Jack," I feel great sorrow.

As I learned recently, I am nowhere near a complete grasp of even this single aspect of Virtue, for when several of my friends and acquaintances were talking about a church I was kicked out of, I still felt both a fleshly anger rising up in me, best translated as, "How DARE, they kick ME out of that Church!" and a tinge of self-pity and bitterness sounding like, "How could they kick little-ol'-me out of their church?"

Even as I write this, a sickening voice of flesh is saying to me, "Why forgive them, they did you a great wrong! Let their "way be to them like slippery ways; In the darkness [let them] be driven on and fall in them ... [bring] disaster on them, the year of their punishment!" - Jeremiah 23:12

That may be what the Lord will do, but if I want to Love as Jesus Loves, I have to have "Holy Habits," one of them being to say (and mean) "Father, Forgive them."

That is a cornerstone of Virtue.

Virtue: A particular Moral Excellence
Virtue: A capacity to Act : Potence
- Miriam-Webster Online


Virtue: A Potent Moral Excellence that compels and commands Action!


For me, learning this forced me to go back and re-study the first step of Faith again. I had originally assumed that Faith was nothing more than Belief in Jesus Christ, but (as I posted in Part 1) there is so much more to Faith than a simple knowledge that Jesus is our Liege-Lord, our Savior, and our King.

Yes, Believe on Jesus and you will be Saved (- Acts 16:31), but if we truly want to go farther, to go deeper in our Christian experience, we have to practice Faith and Virtue (especially the Virtue of love) and make them Holy Habits.

As we walk down this path, often we will find that different aspects offer different levels of difficulty to different people. Some people might fly through learning Virtues, and have a terrible time with keeping Faith. Others may find that Knowledge (the next step) is simple, but they keep struggling with keeping even the simplest of Virtues (for those of us with that shortcoming, staying away from pride is almost always a challenge).

One Virtue that must always be kept in sight is this, love is not Self-Seeking, and love always preserves. If we are trying to learn to Love like Jesus, and yet we let others get pushed aside to make way for us, we have failed in Virtues.

A difficult scriptue to keep is probably the best to remember for this:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink."
-Romans 12:20

(Both big "L" and little "l") Love Always Preserves; even your enemy! Even my enemy!

Once we reach this step, we start to see what an immense journey is truly ahead of us. For...

"...giving all diligence, add to your faith Virtue, to Virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness Love."
-2 Peter 1:5-7

The next step:
Giving all diligence, Add to your...Virtue; Knowledge.

Virtue: A Potent Moral Excellence that commands Action.

Lord, give me Virtue. Virtue that makes me repay evil with genuine kindness, Virtue that gives me an unending desire to Love those who hate me. May people then see me and know You by my Virtue, give me that moral excellence that compels from me action, that commands me to be new and different. Make me a fresh breath of Virtue and honor to this world. Make me an image of You to the nations.

-David Shore