God knows everything about everything, yet Christians sometimes act as though He has some debilitating limitations. Once again, the Bible shines the light of truth upon the matter. It reveals that He is great, “and of great power: his understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5). In fact, His eyes “are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). In other words, there is nothing that escapes the knowledge and attention of God. This includes the good and the bad! The Son of God proclaimed to the church at Thyatira that He knew their works, charity, service, faith, and patience. He too knows about the level of a man’s faith! He knows the content, strength, and reality of that faith. A man can and will fool others and frequently even deceives himself (Jeremiah 17:9), but he has no capacity to mislead God. The Lord knows those who believe and accept His word as the perfect word of God and He is not unrighteous to forget (Hebrews 6:10).
Every mature Christian knows that physical strength remains incapable of scaling the spiritual heights of the Christian life. Yet, far too many Christians spend enormous efforts in trying to live the Christian life in their own power. Sooner or later, they all experience the sheer futility of such an endeavour. The Christian life is to be lived and developed in the spiritual realm, never the physical one. Spiritual maturity comes as building blocks that are placed one upon another. Interestingly, when a man begins walking in the power of the Spirit, God opens his eyes to each new area of life in need of attention, correction, and growth. Today’s passage refers to several of these attributes. Each characteristic builds upon the previous ones; things like virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. Every believer ought to strive to exemplify these, yet the Bible identifies one as foundational to them all. According to 2 Peter 1:5, faith remains foundational as the first grace to which believers are to add all others. Those who neglect faith have nothing upon which to build.
