Adding
Love
2
Pet. 1:7
In previous articles we have
discussed Peter's injunction to us that we add to our faith virtue, knowledge,
temperance, patience, and godliness. In
verse 7 he continued to instruct us to add brotherly kindness and charity. When we go back to the Greek text, we find
something very interesting.
In the Greek text of the New
Testament there are two words that are translated love. They are philos and agape. I shall discuss their meaning as we go
along in this article. Both of these words
are used in this verse.
First, let us consider adding
brotherly kindness, This term
"brotherly kindness" comes from the Greek philos. This word is a love
of the emotion. It is loving because we
find something in the person we love that is lovely and worthy of love. It is the word "Philadelphia." This is a compound word phila from philos and adelphos meaning brother. It is fraternal affection or loving one's
neighbor, kindred, or friend.
Then we are told to add
charity. The word here is not charis from
which we get our word charity. It is
from the word agape. This word
speaks of a love of the will. It is a
love that can be commanded and Jesus did so command us to love one another as
He has loved us. Now for those who will write me saying we cannot love in this way; I refer you to Christ's command. You can take it up with Him. Jesus did not love us
because He found something lovely in us or something worth loving. No, He was not moved by emotion to love
us. Rather He determined by His own will
to love us in spite of ourselves.
This word edifies. In 1 Cor. 8:1 we are told that knowledge puffs
up, but charity edifies. In other words
it builds up. Are you building anyone
up? It covers a multitude of sins. In 1 Pet. 4:8 we are told that charity shall
cover the multitude of sins. It fulfills
the commandment as seen in 1 Tim. 1:5 "Now the end of the commandment is charity
out of a pure heart, and of a good
conscience, and of faith unfeigned:"
In verse 8 of our current chapter We are told that when we
add all these things to our faith we shall be neither barren or unfruitful.
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