2 Peter 1:5-8 “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Notice the word “useless” in the last sentence in this passage. I am memorizing the book of 2 Peter, and I am now just finishing up chapter one. I am reviewing these verses every day. There are four different places in the New Testament that talk about being useless or useful for doing God’s work, and every time I review this verse, I get a bit melancholy thinking about how I am doing in my growing as a child of God, and if I could do better than I am. I know that being useless or useful is not an either/or situation, and that I can be on the useful side of the line, but I also know I could be way more useful than I presently am. The key is the phrase, “if these qualities are yours and are increasing,” I might have these qualities , but are they increasing? It is easy to be self-deceived, thinking I am doing fine, when in fact, I am really plateaued. I do not want to be satisfied, plateaued, content with where I am and with what I have done. “Increasing, increasing, increasing, increasing, that word haunts me.