The Seven Pillars of A Christian Life

I heard a great message at Church today in which the Pastor showed what he called the seven pillars of a Christian life, and the importance of all Christians practicing these seven pillars, otherwise they will fall. His text was from 2 Peter 1:5-8:

5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

And, I'm sure you can discern from the passage exactly what those seven pillars are that we should add to our faith. They are:

1. virtue

2. knowledge

3. temperance

4. patience

5. godliness

6. brotherly kindness

7. brotherly charity

VIRTUE

The Pastor then said each Christian should learn these things in order. And, as we started looking at each one, I suddenly realized I didn't really know what virtue was. I mean, I used it in sentences before, and I've read the word in the Bible, especially when it speaks of a virtuous woman. But if someone asked me to define the word, I wouldn't know how to define it. So I looked it up in the Webster's 1828 dictionary when I got home. I found it means:

1. Strength

2. Bravery; valor.

3. Moral Goodness The practice of moral duties and the abstaining from vice, or a conformity of life and conversation to the moral law. In this sense, virtue may be, and in many instances must be distinguished from RELIGION. The practice of moral duties merely from motives of conveniences, or from complusion, or from regard to reputation, is VIRTUE, as distinct from religion. The practice of moral duties from sincere love to God and his laws, is virtue... Virtue is nothing but voluntary obedience to truth.

As I thought on this, I gleaned a great truth. Religion is doing something for God because you are COMPELLED to do so, while virtue is doing right because you want to. What a great difference!

How sad to me in our day there are so few Christians there are out there in modern Fundamentalism who have true virtue. Many of them are instead religious, as they might serve God, but they do so because their Pastors force them to, or compel them to, browbeating them time and again for their lack of service for God. Whatever happened to just serving God because you love Him, and not because you are presssured to do so?

So many preachers nowdays have to visit people in their congregation every week, because if they don't they won't come to church. They have to lay guilt trips on their congregation to do visitation or soul winning, because if they don't, then the people won't do so. They have to start programs in which the congregation can earn stuff for each visitor they bring to church, because if they don't, they won't invite others.

The problem is a lack of virtue in the congregation. And the Pastor is too blind to see it. If only he would preach the Bible, preach Christ crucified, and preach the compassion of Jesus, then the congregation could do those things because they WANT TO, not because they are guilt tripped into doing them because they HAVE TO! If only people had a "want to" in themselves, then we could see real revival in America!

How sad there is such a lack of virtue in Christianity today.

KNOWLEDGE

Next, the scriptures speak of "knowledge." We know that this is learning the scriptures after one is saved so they might grow in grace (2 Peter 3:18). But in modern Christianity today we see very little sound bible doctrine being preached and taught from the pulpit, and very little growth in the lives of those we call "converts."

I believe it's because many pastors use "Christian psychology" or modern made up programs of man like the "Purpose Driven" programs. Instead of just teaching verse by verse from the Bible (which is the best way), Pastors often jump around from passage to passage pulling what they want from the scriptures to prove their own points, rather than letting God himself make the point he wants others to get from the context of His word.

Surely, we live in a time of spiritual drought, in which truth lieth in the streets, and people are spiritually anemic. Sure we have many who claim to be "Bible Believers" but very few are actually "Bible Readers." And even fewer still are "Bible Knowers" and "Bible Doers."

If only people would get in the book, and learn it and practice it, my how times would change!

TEMPERANCE

Temperance is our third pillar, and I must admit, I had to look that one up too. It basically means "self-control." I've heard it preached that temperance has to do with the way metal is tempered or heated to make it stronger, and how God often must put us through trials and tribulations to teach us how to deal with things we can't always control without exploding in anger and giving ourselves over to hatred, filthy communications (cussing), and brawling. It's all so we can learn to control ourselves in adversity.

But do modern Christians have temperance? Thankfully many do, but how often do you hear of a man who falls into sin? How often do you see those who name the name of Christ fall into adultery, or some other grevious sin? It's all too common. Their lack of self-control prove they haven't grown in the faith.

PATIENCE

This brings us to our fourth pillar--patience. This is something very few Christians truly have today, nor do they want. I've even heard preachers say things like, "That's one thing you should never pray for, because if you do, God will make you wait to get it!"

But how many today truly practice patience? How many are "longsuffering" with others and able to simply place things in God's hands without trying to fix things themselves? My, what a mess we can make of things when we impatienly do things our way instead of God's way!

Without patience, it's easy to run around like a dead chickenswith their head cut off toiling in the service of the Lord, but doing so in the flesh, not in the Spirit of God. Sure, you can claim, "I'm doing something for God!" But even the Pharisees said the same! It's easy to DO something. But it's harder to first PRAY and then DO, because that takes patience.

Are you a GO AND DO Christian, or are you a PRAY, WAIT, and then GO DO TRUSTING GOD Christian?

The old saying is "Patience is a virtue." We should be patient, waiting on God as we pray and then go and do for Him, never rash and zealously doing something for God without first asking God to bless it!

GODLINESS

Godliness is our fifth pillar, and boy is it an important one. The word shows up in the scriptures only in the New Testament and is mentioned fifteen times. Godliness is living a holy, peaceable and honest life (1 Tim. 2:2) full of good works (1 Tim. 2:10), excercising yourself spiritually by being profitable to God (1 Tim. 4:7,8) consenting to sound doctrine and departing from strife, pride, envy, railings, disputings, and evil surmisings (1 Tim. 6:3-5). It is further fleeing foolish and hurtful lusts and sinful desires, instead following love, patience, meekness (1 Tim. 6:5-11), while acknowledging the truth (Titus. 1:1). For there be many who may hold a "form of godliness" but they deny the truth and the power therefore (See a list of such people in 2 Tim. 2:1-7).

Godliness is wanting to be more like God and to live your life trying to please God. Are all Christians like this today? Most certainly not! There are many who might act godly outwardly and around others, but if you were to follow them home, or see them outside of Church, they are just as worldly, fleshly, and carnal as they can be. They are modern day Pharisees who appear righteous before men, but inwardly are ravenous wolves! God help us! We need more godly Christians in our churches, pulpits, schools, political offices, and secular job force.

BROTHERLY LOVE AND BROTHERLY CHARITY

The next two pillars both are two words long each, and the first word of each is "brotherly." They are brotherly kindness and brotherly charity.

Why did the Holy Ghost use the word brotherly twice? I believe, like in many parts of the scripture, when God uses the same word twice there is a reason for it, and usually it is because it's so important, God chose to tell it to us more than once. It wasn't God being redundant it was for us to remember what he said!

Brotherly kindness and brotherly charity almost sound like the same thing, don't they? So what is the difference between kindness and charity? For you can be kind to someone without being charitable, and you can give charity to someone without being kind. So what's the difference?

Kindness in Webster's 1828 Dictionary is described as: "good will," "hospitality," or "an act of benevolence." And, the word Kind in Webster's is defined as: "Disposed to do good to others, and to make them happy by granting their requests, supplying their wants or assisting them in distress; having tenderness or goodness of nature...Proceeding from the tenderness or goodness of heart."

In other words kindess, or benevolence, is the opposite of "violence." It's doing good towards and simply being nice to others who are also Christians (hence the word brotherly), compassionately and caringly as you help those in need.

Does this sound like modern Christianity to you? Are Christians nice to each other all the time practicing acts of goodness one to another? If you say yes, then you must not have been saved for a long time. My old Pastor used to say, "The people who will hurt you the most when you are saved are other Christians!" And, boy have I found that true.

Backbiting, gossip, bitterness of heart, church splits, threatenings, and more are common in Christian circles today, and it's only getting worse. Where is the love? It is a fallen pillar.

What's worse is the great lack of Christian Charity. Webster's defines charity as "...liberality to the poor, consisting in almsgiving or benefactions, or in gratuitous services to relieve them in distress. Alms...any act of kindness."

Charity, then, is more than just being nice. It's giving to those other brothers in need. It's helping those Christians who can't help themselves, and lending a hand to those who need a leg up.

Does this sound like how modern Christians help other Christians? Not on your life! Instead, many churches are more focused on giving to missions than to helping those saints within their own church. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with giving to missions. We should encourage the spread of the Gospel. But how can we care more about lost souls than we do about the souls that are already in the church?

I can't tell you how many empty church buildings I've been invited to preach in. There are far less numbers in Fundamentalits churches than ten, twenty, and even thirty years ago. Why is this?

From what I've seen, the reason most often that people who claim to be Christians are out of church is because instead of finding charity from others in a time of need, they are criticized for not being as rich or as strong or as full of faith as others in the congregation. Because of this, they leave the church because they are not helped, only hindered by self-concieted Christians who only care about themselves. Their attitude is "I got mine, now you go get yours and leave me alone!"

Where is the love? It used to be Christian character was so strong that it dictated to the world how they should behave. People worldwide in the Victorian Era prided themselves on being civil, charitable, and courageous. But today the church has adopted the world's attitude of "Me first, you next, maybe!"

I remember, and it wasn't that long ago, when a member of the church was suffering financial difficulties, other members would anonymously buy him groceries and leave them on his door step. But now it's hard to find Christians with that same spirit of charity. Why is this? Could it be because modern day Pharisees have entered the ranks are are only interested in what they can get from others rather than what they can give?

SUMMARY

In closing, let me say that the message I heard that Pastor preach today really led me to thinking, and really showed me some things that I need to do in my life to strengthen those pillars so that I will not "fall" as the Apostle Peter says.

However, it also exposed to me the reason that modern Fundamentalist Christianity today is so powerless amid an evil and ungodly world. It has given heed to the world, and has chosen wordliness over godliness. It's lack of virtue has lead to it becoming a political, religious system which tries to control men, rather than encourage men to serve God of a pure heart. Rather than teach sound Bible doctrine, it seeks to replace it with tradition and the programs of men. Rather than being temperant and patience, it has become so anxious to appear godly, it does all it can for God in the flesh, without first seeking God's face and striving to serve Him in the power of God. Because of its carnality, the church has turned from true kindness and charity to strife, envying, backbiting, and attacking one another. Their pillars have fallen, and rather than rebuild, they are tearing them down even further.

The Pastor said it well when he said: "The world is getting darker, and did you know that the darker it gets the brighter a light is? We are the light of the world, and the only light this dark world will ever see!" But he then added sadly, "But as the world is getting darker, I fear that the church is getting dimmer. It's because they have allowed the pillars to fall. We need to set them up again!"

Do I really need to say anymore? How is your Christian life? How are your pillars?

As the Pastor said, "Heads bowed and eyes closed..."