As we continue thinking about what it means to be partakers of the divine nature, it would be beneficial to revisit our foundational text from Peter’s first epistle. 

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 1:3-11)

Having thought about foundation as the point of our origin for partaking of the divine nature, we now proceed to examine what it means to add virtue to that faith.  According to dictionary.com, virtue can be defined as moral excellence, goodness, or righteousness.  Of course, that definition itself begs the question, what is moral? Definitions of morality have become increasingly contextual as society insists on rejecting concepts such as absolute truth.  What one considers moral, another considers immoral.  It reminds me of a track meet not too long ago where I had a talented javelin thrower competing. The week before this meet she had thrown 119 feet, which would have won the state championship for our classification last year. At this meet however, she only threw 102 feet. While many other girls would be absolutely thrilled to throw 102 feet, for her it was a disappointing performance. “Preach, I sold,” was her summation of the results.  (Side note, the kids from church and the community call me “Preach,” and apparently in teenage parlance “to sell” means to underperform or fail.)  I think back to my own time running the mile as a high school track athlete.            Running a 5-minute mile would have been disappointing for me in high school, as my personal record was 4:41. Running a 5-minute-mile for 43-year-old me would be nothing short of miraculous, or fatal.  It’s amazing how our standards shift depending on who we are, where we are in life, and how we view things.    

          Another definition of virtue is “conformity of one’s life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.” Again, it begs the question of who decides what principles are moral and ethical? If you drive on the right side of the road in my hometown of Glenmora, Louisiana, you are obeying the law (assuming you are doing so while observing the speed limit).  If you drive on the right side of the road in Great Britain, you are breaking the law. What does it mean to be upright? Is it determined by economic prosperity? Political power? Fame?

          Scripture has its own definition of virtue. The word used by Peter here is arete, which occurs very few times in the Bible. If we go to the Greek version of the Old Testament, commonly referred to as the Septuagint, we see it appear twice in Isaiah 42. The ESV translates it as “praise”:

⁸ I am the Lord; that is my name;  my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols…. ¹² Let them give glory to the Lord,
    and declare his praise in the coastlands. (Isaiah 42:8, 12)

          The praise that God rightfully receives is the result of his virtue. Because no other god possesses God’s virtue, God gives his praise no other.

          Perhaps it is appropriate to reframe the question from what virtue is, to who virtue is. The Lord spoke through Isaiah saying, “My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”  In other words, virtue cannot be found in created things, whether it be the idols we create, or even ourselves as created beings. Virtue is not something we have, it’s someone who abides in us. Jesus is the embodiment of virtue! In the opening of Matthew’s gospel, we read:

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

²³ “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:22-23)

          John reflects on the fact that virtue took on flesh in the person of Jesus the Messiah:

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:14)

And so, obtaining virtue is not about increasing in some abstract moral category, but welcoming more of the embodiment of virtue, Jesus Christ, into our life.

I have often pondered how life is like a mathematical function. Without sending you into PTSD, think back to high school math class. I’d like you to recollect that a function is a rule that connects an input to an output. In a mathematical function, your output is directly dependent on your input.  What you put in determines what you get out. Switching back to a theological lens, we can’t wonder why we are lacking in virtue when we haven’t been actively consuming virtue. We can’t wonder why we don’t look like Jesus if we never behold Jesus! This was the point Jesus himself was making in his discourse in John 6:

⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:48-58)

Some interpret Jesus to be defining his flesh as physical food. However, I think Jesus is here making the point that he is true food, of which our physical food is but a pale imitation.  Physical food sustains us but a few hours, whereas Jesus sustains us for eternity. Jesus makes a similar point later in John’s Gospel when he states:

⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Bears much fruit! Our abiding in, our connectedness to Jesus results in a harvest of fruit. While he leaves unsaid what exactly that fruit is, we know that a grape vine produces grapes, and a watermelon vine produces watermelons.  Plants and vines produce fruit after their kind, so that being connected to Jesus’ means bearing fruit consistent with the nature and character of Jesus.  It means bearing the divine likeness: virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, love.

I would like to conclude by inviting you to think of your life as a painting.  When you have a canvas, before you start painting you must decide what it is you want to paint.  Having made that decision, you paint your subject by studying it intently and then endeavoring to replicate it on the canvas. I remember years ago when we needed a new backdrop for the baptistry at church.  One of our ladies, Archie Poole, who was a gifted artist, volunteered to paint whatever we needed.  I brought her a small painting that had a scenic view of a creek through the woods and a piece of sheetrock. Ms. Archie went to work studying the painting I had brought her, steadily transferring that image on to the much larger piece of sheetrock. She studied every detail of the work, so that she could faithfully reproduce it onto the larger “canvas” I had provided. When all is said and done in this life, when we finally step back from our life’s canvas, what will we see? If we want it to look like Jesus, then Paul has some advice for us.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)

Part of becoming partakers of the divine nature is adding virtue to our faith.  That happens when the object of our faith, Jesus Christ, moves from being someone we trust beyond ourselves, to someone who lives within ourselves.  It happens when Jesus is replicated on the canvas of our life.

-Justin Simmons lives in Glenmora, LA and preaches for the Glenmora Church of Christ