(2 Peter 1: 2-7)
 
GOD makes strenuous demands on His children, but He empowers us to live up to these demands. It would be one thing if God demanded that we live a righteous life but did nothing to help us achieve that goal.

Human nature being what it is, we could never work our way up the ladder of righteousness until we are pleasing in God’s sight. The Bible puts it rather bluntly: “All our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God.” But God does not play games with us. He does not demand the impossible and then punish us for our failings. That kind of God would be cruel rather than loving.

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Rather, as the second letter of Peter assures us, “That divine power of His has freely bestowed on us everything necessary for a life of genuine piety.” This is the paradox of God’s grace -- We are given what we own!

And what do we owe God? According to the author of 2 Peter, we are to make every effort to under gird our virtue with faith, our discernment with virtue, our self-control with discernment, our self-control with piety, and our piety with love.

These are the obligations we owe God -- virtue, faith, discernment, self-control, piety and care. Put in more familiar language, we owe God goodness, trust, wisdom, self-discipline, worship and love. We are capable of none of these in our own strength.

But empowered by God’s grace, we can render all of these in our service to Him. Moreover, these are debts to be paid to God over a life-time, not once and for all. That means we give to God these interlocking values by learning goodness, trust, wisdom, discipline, worship and love.