2 Peter 1:5 – A Christian Personality – Bible study

2Peter 1:5-8 A Christian Personality As Christians, we all want to develop the right kind of personality. In this section, Peter told us how. What is personality? The American Heritage Dictionary defined "personality" as "The totality of qualities and traits, as of character or behavior, that are peculiar to a specific person." That means personality is everything you do, consciously and subconsciously. that make you that makes you into who you are, unique, the individual you are. There is no such things as a PERFECT personality. We are all unique and God wants us to be so. In fact, we will have our own unique personalities in heaven. So our goal is not to have the same personality but a right personality, a personality that pleases and copies the personality of Jesus. To that end, lets look at what Peter said. I. \#5\ Note some words that Peter used. 2Peter 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; A. "ADD." The word "add" places the emphasis on adding the positive instead of trying to remove the negative. 1. Peter did not say "subtract." a. He said, "add." b. The key to being Christ-like is not in what you can remove from your life (although some things probably need to be removed.) c. The key to being Christ-like is in what you add. 2. The Plan – Balanced a. It is amazing how much energy well-meaning folks spend trying to do the wrong thing! (1) The wrong thing is to try to remove the negatives. (2) Nowhere in the Bible does God tell the Christian to remove his negative personality traits. (3) (The Bible does say that we are to put our sins from us but not our negatives.) b. We need to understand that just because a trait is negative, it is not necessarily sinful. (1) anger – I would not want to be a person that could not get angry with sin. (2) jealousy – If someone is fluttering with your mate, you have every right to take that as an offense and move to protect your marriage. (3) stubbornness – That is a great trait when you are stubborn about the right things. c. There have to be both the positive and the negative characteristics for us to balance. (1) The combination of our positive and negatives are part of what give us our unique personality. (2) Remember, we are not talking about rights and wrongs here. (a) Get rid of lying, stealing, vulgarity, gossiping, backbiting. (b) But your negative traits help make you the person God wants you to be. i. Forgiveness balances our demand for justice. ii. Kindness balances our demand for accountability. iii. Diligence balances the mercy and opportunity we give. 3. The Perversion a. The only negatives we ever want to remove are the ones that have been perverted. b. What is a perversion? (1) A perversion is when we take something God made and use it for the wrong purpose or in the wrong way. (2) Homosexuality c. Mankind, even good Christians, are bad about altering the characteristics God has given to us. d. When we do that, it becomes a perversion. (1) We pervert love into lust. (2) We pervert anger into wrath. (3) We pervert tenderness into bitterness. (4) We pervert contentment into complacency. (5) We pervert need into envy. (6) We pervert humility into laziness (or inability). (7) We pervert leadership into rebellion. (8) We pervert concern into worry. e. No person needs to remove love, anger, tenderness, contentment, need, humility, leadership, or concern. e. They just need to quit perverting them into something God did not intend them to be. 4. The Problems – There are even more problems we run into when we try to remove the negative. a. It is nearly impossible for a person to just stop a thing. (1) That is not the way God wired people. (2) Humans dont like emptiness. That is why no matter how big you build your house, it will become too small. (3) People hate a vacuum and to take something away without putting something in that place is very difficult for us. b. The more you think on a thing, the harder it is to overcome it. (1) The last think you want to think about when you want to cut back on your eating is cutting back on your eating. Doing so will make you so hungry you will think you are starving. (2) The same thing is true of not losing your temper, not being late, not smoking, not drinking or not doing anything else. (3) The more you think about something, the more likely you are to do it. 5. The Plan – So we go back to where we started. a. The plan then is to balance the positive and the negative. b. Dont concentrate on what you want to remove. c. Concentrate on what you want to ADD. d. Hence, Peters word, ADD. B. \#5\ "Diligence" 1. This word tells us two things. a. It tells us we must work to add these things. b. It tells us we must work "DILIGENTLY" to add these them. 2. We must work. a. Many people "want" to have a better personality. b. Wanting a godly attribute is good. c. It is the first step. d. But wanting by itself will never get you what you want. e. To get what you want, you must work at it and Peter said you must work at it diligently. 3. We must work diligently. a. "DILIGENCE" means with haste, speed, and earnest care. b. Although adding "the right" to our lives is infinitely easier than just removing the wrong, it is still hard work and requires constant attention and effort. 4. What kind of things must we do to add righteous characteristics to our personality? a. Formulate a plan. (1) Nothing good just happens. It never has and it never will. (2) Like humans do not like an emptiness so creation tends to run down and not up. (3) That is actually a scientific law that you probably arent interested in hearing about but I will give you the common mans version of it. (4) Its called Murphys Law. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." (5) So if we want to add Christianity to our personality, we will have to put thought and effort into doing it. (6) Ask yourself "What do I need to change?" "With whom do I need to change?" "When am I most likely going to need this change?" b. Seize opportunities. (1) Most character improvement opportunities come when we dont want them to, (i.e. when we are in a hurry, when we are aggravated, when we are tired). (2) Watch for those people and those opportunities. c. Enlist help. (1) Parents, pastors, godly Christians are usually a good sources seek for advice and accountability. (2) Your friends usually are NOT. d. Learn from our mistakes. (1) Humble yourself and truly apologize when you fail. (a) Go immediately. (b) Go every time. (c) Go humbly and with shame that you failed Jesus Christ. (2) Learn to say, "I was wrong when I did that and I am truly sorry. Will you forgive me?" (3) Then add, "What can I do to show you I am sorry?" (4) Then do whatever they ask. (5) Nothing grows a personality quicker than completely owning up to our bad behaviors. e. Dont quit until we have succeeded. C. \#8\ "Abound" 2Peter 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. These qualities cannot just be in us. They must abound. 2. Strongs says the word means "to increase, to SUPER abound." 3. The way to teach ourselves these traits is not to just practice them when we think we should but to put them into practice all day long with everyone! a. You are not going to just be kind with the cashier at Walmart but with your brother and sister. b. You wont just be patient when you get stopped by the train but with the co-worker who keeps causing you to be work late. c. You wont just control your temper when the neighbors dog drops gifts on your lawn but also when your political opposite posts on timeline. d. You wont just love your wife and kids but you will show love to the stranger, the beggar, the fellow who just cut you off in traffic. 4. You cant sift the people that you show Christ to. You have to show Christ to everyone! D. \#8\ A phrase, "neither barren nor unfruitful." 1. This is our target, our goal. 2. We want to be fruit-bearing Christians. 3. Do we remember the fruit we are to bear? Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.