EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/13/2025 6:15 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1”The Virtues Pursued”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Peter 1:5b-7
Message of the verses: “moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.”
I realize that I have been quoting a lot of John MacArthur’s commentary onto my Spiritual Diaries, which then go out around the world through the blogs that I write. I have mentioned that this section of Scripture has been difficult for me to understand and so I hope that by quoting from MacArthur’s commentary that I will better understand it.
“The first virtue, moral excellence (arête), uses the distinctive word in classical Greek for virtue. It was such a lofty term that it was used for moral heroism, viewed as the divinely endowed ability to excel in heroic, courageous deeds. I came to encompass the most outstanding quality in someone’s life, or the proper and excellent fulfillment of a task or duty (cf. Phil. 4:8).” “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” “Arete never meant cloistered virtue, but that which is demonstrated in the normal course of living. The apostle Paul modeled the pursuit of such spiritual heroism: ‘I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 3:14; cf. 2 Cor. 5:9; 1 Thess. 4:1, 10).
“The heart of moral excellence is knowledge. Knowledge refers to the divine truth that is the foundation of spiritual discernment and wisdom (Rom. 15:14; 2 Cor. 10:5; Col. 1:9; cf. Prov. 2:5-6; 9:10), the truth properly understood and applied (cf. Col. 1:10; Phile. 6). This virtue is related to illumination (cf. 2 Cor. 4:6), which is having one’s mind accurately enlightened about the truth of Scripture (Col. 3:10; Titus 1:1; 2 Peter 1:3; 3:18) and involves diligent study and meditation on it. (John 5:39; Acts 17:11; 2 Tim. 2:15; cf. Deut. 11:18; Job 23:12; Ps. 119:97, 105), so as to acquire ‘the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor. 2:16).”
I have to say that when I went through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation that it took me around 25 years to study all of it, and I know that when I did this I went through 2 Peter using helps from Warren Wiersbe, but the thing about is that they are not all in one place on my computer so I think what I will do after I get through these verses that I am going over now is to then look at Warren Wiersbe’s commentary and quote what he has to say about these verses, for I believe that these verses are that important for me to do this.
10/13/2025 6:45 PM
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