Sola Fide? (Faith Alone?)
2 Peter 1:5-7-- "For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perserverence; and to perserverence, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love."
"add to your faith..." Does this phrase make Luther spin in his grave? Nope.
Speaking about 2 Peter: "This epistle is written against those who think that Christian faith can be without works. Therefore he exhorts them to test themselves by good works and become sure of their faith, just as one knows trees by their fruit." [LW 35:391f]
Okay, so now my inner exegetical scholar has come out. The word "goodness" just seemed weak to me, so I did a word study. "Arete," as it is transliterated, means "virtue, goodness, excellence." Looking at the other times it is used, there seems to be an argument for the last definition. The NIV, which I quoted to open, pretty much translates "goodness" throughout. However, the English Standard Version, which is the version "recommended" for use with the new Lutheran Service Book, translates it as "excellence" three out of four times, with the fourth time being a translation of "virtue" in this text. Here's the ESV's take on this text:
"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love."
In this humble pastor's opinion, the ESV wussed out on the translation of this passage. However, in their defense, they did add a footnote to "virtue" saying that "excellence" is also acceptable.
However, the NIV put a dang skirt on the word. "Be good. Have goodness. Eat your vegetables. Play nice." Bah! Who wants to be "good?" Who wants to cheer for a "good" team. "Oh, my football team was good this year, they went 9-3." .750 isn't bad for a team but I'd rather say, "My football team was excellent this year. They went 11-1 and they're playing for the National Championship." Likewise, who wants to look back at their years and say, "I had a good life," as opposed to looking back and saying, "I had an excellent life." At the risk of sounding judgemental, I would even say that a "good" faith will save yourself, while an "excellent" faith will save others as you let your works shine before all men, so that they'll glorify the Lord.
So what the heck does all this mean to an average Christian anyway? It means that, for salvation, faith alone is more than sufficient. Faith in the grace extended to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is all that we need for salvation and justification. However, for sanctification, for the daily living of our lives, we must have supplements, one of which is excellence. Now I just have to figure out how to put excellence, godliness, self-control, patience, and all the others into a small capsule and see if GNC will market it for me.
"add to your faith..." Does this phrase make Luther spin in his grave? Nope.
Speaking about 2 Peter: "This epistle is written against those who think that Christian faith can be without works. Therefore he exhorts them to test themselves by good works and become sure of their faith, just as one knows trees by their fruit." [LW 35:391f]
Okay, so now my inner exegetical scholar has come out. The word "goodness" just seemed weak to me, so I did a word study. "Arete," as it is transliterated, means "virtue, goodness, excellence." Looking at the other times it is used, there seems to be an argument for the last definition. The NIV, which I quoted to open, pretty much translates "goodness" throughout. However, the English Standard Version, which is the version "recommended" for use with the new Lutheran Service Book, translates it as "excellence" three out of four times, with the fourth time being a translation of "virtue" in this text. Here's the ESV's take on this text:
"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love."
In this humble pastor's opinion, the ESV wussed out on the translation of this passage. However, in their defense, they did add a footnote to "virtue" saying that "excellence" is also acceptable.
However, the NIV put a dang skirt on the word. "Be good. Have goodness. Eat your vegetables. Play nice." Bah! Who wants to be "good?" Who wants to cheer for a "good" team. "Oh, my football team was good this year, they went 9-3." .750 isn't bad for a team but I'd rather say, "My football team was excellent this year. They went 11-1 and they're playing for the National Championship." Likewise, who wants to look back at their years and say, "I had a good life," as opposed to looking back and saying, "I had an excellent life." At the risk of sounding judgemental, I would even say that a "good" faith will save yourself, while an "excellent" faith will save others as you let your works shine before all men, so that they'll glorify the Lord.
So what the heck does all this mean to an average Christian anyway? It means that, for salvation, faith alone is more than sufficient. Faith in the grace extended to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is all that we need for salvation and justification. However, for sanctification, for the daily living of our lives, we must have supplements, one of which is excellence. Now I just have to figure out how to put excellence, godliness, self-control, patience, and all the others into a small capsule and see if GNC will market it for me.