I am in II Peter 1 where Peter is talking about how we supplement our faith with outer expressions of Christlikeness, but this is to help me learn what Paul meant when he talked about “weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left.” Peter’s list of Christlike qualities matches Paul’s description of what righteousness looks like. And, somehow, these realities of righteousness in believers are like weapons that defend the gospel we believe and demolish strongholds in our lives.
This week I am moving from what Peter expressed about supplementing our faith with virtue (Christlikeness) to how we supplement our virtue with knowledge. I spent most of my morning time with God looking up scriptures that connect knowledge to truth because what knowledge means in the Bible is knowing truth by personal experience.
One thing Jesus’ disciples must accept is that, when we declare that Jesus is “the truth”, and we are taught by the “Spirit of truth”, and the Bible is “the word of truth”, we are standing in direct opposition to the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And the three musketeers of evil fight DIRTY!
This starts to make sense of why Paul would speak of righteousness as a weapon. When this righteousness of faith leads us to supplement our faith with virtue and knowledge, our righteous character and our love of truth will put us on the frontlines against “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” and “the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
When Paul spoke of the whole armor of God that would enable the body of Christ to stand against the schemes of the devil, the first piece of this armor is, “the belt of truth”. A belt is worn, and so the church must wear truth so that everything we do is handled by truth. A belt also holds the rest of a soldier’s clothing and armor in place. For believers, truth holds everything in place, and only when people within the church welcome falsehood does the church’s armor begin to weaken.
Supplementing our virtuous behavior with knowledge means always seeking to know the truth as it is in God. Whatever problems come up in the church are to be handled by “speaking the truth in love”. We recognize that this will work within the body of Christ as the members come together and share what they are learning in the word. This helps the whole church supplement our virtuous faith with knowledge which then helps us know how to keep walking in virtuous faith.
I have so many scriptures waiting for me to explore this week to see how practically the apostles teach the church to take up these weapons of righteousness with our right hand and our lift as we supplement our faith with virtue and knowledge, always joining God’s work of “being transformed into the same image” as our Savior “from one degree of glory to another.”
And it is that constant transforming work the enables us to take our stand against the devil’s schemes so we are defending and confirming the gospel on one side while demolishing strongholds of lies and deception on the other.
The only question is, who will God unite us with today to
grow in this grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ?
© 2023
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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