"But also for this very reason, 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 Pet. 1:5-7; NKJV).
The Christian is to add to their faith: virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and now godliness. The godly individual is someone who loves God to the point of wanting to be like Him. Consider what Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:48, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." We will never be perfect in the sense that our Father in heaven is perfect, but we can strive for that perfection. If our desire is to love what God loves and to hate what God hates, then we will be able to work towards the godliness that Peter addresses in 2 Peter 1:6.
Paul taught the Colossians the same concept when he told them to seek those things which are above (Col. 3:1-2). However, it is unfortunate that the desire to seek godliness is not popular in today's society. The world is more concerned about the physical than the spiritual. However, Paul told Timothy, "For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things." Paul is not telling Timothy not to exercise. He is simply saying that godliness is of a far greater value than anything of the physical nature.
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