Memory Lists
2 Pe 1:5-7 Faith, virtue, knowledge, restraint, perseverance, piety, brotherly-love, love.
Ga 5:22-23 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, restraint.
Pp 4:8 True, noble, just, pure, lovely, commendable, virtue, praise.
1 Co 13:13 Patient, kind, modest, forgiving, joyous, forbearing, enduring, faith, hope, love.
Passages
2 Pe 1:3 As all to us from His divine power, which for life and piety, having been given through the knowledge of who called us to His own glory and virtue,
2 Pe 1:4 through which those costly and greatest promises He has given to us, so that through them you would become fellows of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption in the world in desire,
2 Pe 1:5 and this itself then, all hurry applied, provide in your faith virtue, in then virtue knowledge,
2 Pe 1:6 in then knowledge restraint, in then restraint perseverance, in then perseverance piety,
2 Pe 1:7 in then piety brotherly-love, in then brotherly-love love.
2 Pe 1:8 These indeed being in you and increasing, establish you neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ;
2 Pe 1:9 for whom indeed is without these is blind, nearsighted, taking forgetfulness from the purification of his past sins.
2 Pe 1:10 Therefore more, brothers, hurry to make firm your call and choice; these indeed doing, you never stumble.
2 Pe 1:11 Thus indeed richly will be provided to you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Pe 1:12 Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you about these, though having seen and been established in this present truth;
2 Pe 1:13 and I consider just, while I am in this the tent, to arouse you in memory,
2 Pe 1:14 having seen that soon is the putting off of my tent, just as also our Lord Jesus Christ showed me,
2 Pe 1:15 I shall then hurry, and always have you after my departure, to make remembrance of these.
Ga 5:22 The fruit then of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
Ga 5:23 gentleness, restraint; against these such, there is no law.
Pp 4:6 Worry not, rather in everything in prayer and in petition with good-grace reveal your requests to God.
Pp 4:7 And the peace of God which comes over every mind will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
Pp 4:8 The rest, brothers, whatever is true, whatever noble, whatever just, whatever pure, whatever lovely, whatever commendable, if any virtue, and if any praise, think these;
Pp 4:9 which also you learned and received from and heard and saw in me, these practice; and the God of this peace will be with you.
1 Co 13:1 If with the tongues of men I speak and of the angels, yet love have I not, I have become brass sounding or cymbal wailing.
1 Co 13:2 And if I have prophecy, and see the mysteries all, and all the knowledge; and if I have all the faith so as to remove mountains, yet love have I not, I am nothing.
1 Co 13:3 And if I donate all my possessions, and if I deliver my body that I may boast, yet love have I not, I profit nothing.
1 Co 13:4 Love is patient, kind. Love is not jealous, not boastful, not arrogant,
1 Co 13:5 not dishonorable, seeks not things of herself, is not provoked, counts not the evil,
1 Co 13:6 rejoices not upon the injustice, rejoices then with the truth;
1 Co 13:7 bears all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.
1 Co 13:8 Love never falls; if then prophecies, they shall cease; if then tongues, they shall stop; if then knowledge, it shall cease.
1 Co 13:9 By part therefore we know and by part we prophesy;
1 Co 13:10 when yet comes the perfect, the by part shall cease.
1 Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, thought as a child, reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I ceased these of the child.
1 Co 13:12 We see therefore now through a mirror by a riddle, then yet face to face; now I know by part, then yet I shall recognize even as also I am recognized.
1 Co 13:1-13 Now then remain faith, hope, love, these three; greater then of these, love.
Purpose in Discipleship: Virtue, Christlikeness in Relation to God and Others
God creates in mankind the ability to recognize and praise what is good, and the freedom and strength to make moral decisions, essential in His image and it’s voluntary restoration in man after the fall. He calls His followers to praise what is praiseworthy, and memorize, practice, do, and increase virtues for growth and holiness.
1 Pe 2:9 You then, chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for preservation, that you proclaim His virtues, calling you from darkness into His marvelous light;
God through Peter and Paul calls us then to praise and virtue thinking. He says, “Think these.” Pp 4:8
Love, the Sum and Goal of Law, Morality, Virtues, Graces, Perfections
1 Ti 1:5 The purpose then of the instruction is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unhypocritical faith …
1 Jn 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is from God,
and everyone loving is born from God,
and knows God.
1 Jn 4:8 One loving not, knows not God,
for God is love.
Love Defined
Love is the feeling of affection. This motive is best and most clearly seen in God:
Jn 3:16 For thus God loved the world, that He gave the Son, the Onlybegotten, so that each one believing in Him would not perish, but have life eternal.
Again, God’s nature seen in Christ maintained and expressed perfectly the law of love.
Virtue Defined
Religious, moral, social, cultural and civic quality, feeling, motive, character, disposition, skill, habit, custom, strength of soul; fruit of the spirit, a figure of speech referring to virtue, part of God’s design and provision of man’s creation, as part of the image of God in man, to then be increased by man with practice in an ongoing personal, thoughtful, prayerful relationship with God.
Virtue and Freedom
Prevention is ideal for bad habits, addictions, and their consequences such as prison, homelessness, early death, etc. Yet wisdom is offered in Scripture for both prevention and recovery. The fundamental freedom of man to choose or refrain from choosing an action is assumed, implied, taught, and pictured everywhere in creation and Scripture. This freedom is rightly known to be integral in the image of God in which man is created, necessary for moral accountability, both before and after the fall. Upon man’s repeated choices in response to repeated divine illumination then, Jn 1:9, man can increase virtue to regain and heighten fundamental though impaired freedom. Ga 5:1 Scripture focuses upon our working to consciously increase specific virtues as daily, lifelong discipline in progressive sanctification, that is, holiness, becoming like Christ, being perfected in love, see especially 2 Pe 1:3-15.
The alternative vices: Rm 1:29, 30, 31, 32; Jm 3:14, 15, 16.