Optional Additive?

Fueling up my truck the other day, the screen on the gas pump asked me if I wanted to purchase a fuel additive. Apparently, this special product would clean out my gummy fuel lines and help my engine run smoother for longer. After hesitating briefly, I pushed "no." Would that extra shot of juice have helped my vehicle? I don't know for sure, though I assume it would have. But something about that word "additive" made it seem unnecessary. Why go to the extra expense, when my truck would probably make it down the road just fine with that base-level, number-87 gasoline I always used?

That may be how some of us feel about Peter's call to "supplement" or "add" to our faith with all those qualities in 1:5-7. Are these just optional additives? I'm sure that working on steadfastness and self-control and all of that would strengthen my Christian life, but if I have saving faith, don't I have what I need to get me down the road? A supplement sounds like a vitamin--something for overachievers--and that's not me. I'm not sure I want to go to all the trouble of growing; I think I'll punch "no" for today.

It may sound silly when I put it like that, but this is exactly how many Christians approach their discipleship. They are still trying to coast down the road on that initial blast of faith they received at salvation, opting out of further growth as something for others but not for them. Peter knows this about us. So he takes the time in 1:8-11 to show us how hazardous this careless attitude can be for our walk with Christ.

In 1:8, we learn that neglecting my spiritual growth leaves me ineffective and unfruitful. Neglecting spiritual growth leaves me an ineffective believer. Jesus takes us far more seriously than we take ourselves: he wants to use you to advance his purposes. He has meaningful work for each of us to do. He has assigned you a significant role that only you can plan. He offers us abundant life by serving others in his name. But if I'm not growing--if I have become stagnant, distracted, or apathetic--I won't be effective for him. How can I be? What will I have to contribute or share? I will be unemployed and unemployable in the Lord's work, like that servant in Jesus' parable who buried his one talent in the ground. No clear-thinking Christian aspires to be ineffective for the Lord.

Neglecting spiritual growth also leaves me fruitless. Jesus chose me, as he chose his first disciples, to bear fruit in his name (John 15:16). He saved me, in part, to produce. He wants my life to yield that which is beautiful, valuable, and pleasing to God. But I cannot fulfill this purpose unless I am actively pursuing spiritual growth. If I neglect the cultivation of virtue, knowledge, love, self-control, steadfastness, and the other Christ-like qualities, I will not bear fruit for the Lord. I will be a dry, barren twig stuck in the ground. My life will possess little spiritual beauty to attract others to the Savior, and offer little spiritual benefit to help others know him. Do you want to be fruitless?

I often jog through a nearby cemetery in the mornings. I read the names and observe the epitaphs that families selected to sum up their loved one: "Faithful father," "loving son," "devoted wife and mother." Do any of us want the epitaph of our Christian life to be "an ineffective and unfruitful believer?" Of course not! Yet it is a real possibility, and we must not settle for it. Let's instead set our hearts on eagerly pursuing those vibrant qualities of 1:5-7. They will keep us from being ineffective and unfruitful!

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church