"Day Of Remembrance" - 4

"And beside this, giving 'all diligence', add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." (2 Peter 1:5-7) Am I saying that the virtue of man is nothing? No; but what I am saying, is that the virtues of man are shallow. The word for 'virtue' used here in 2 Peter is the Greek word 'Aretes', and it is a noun. The main meaning of this word 'Aretes' is: Superiority or being pleasing to God; or the superiority of God revealed in the work of salvation. 'Arete' denotes in a moral sense what gives man his worth, or his efficiency. In a plural form, such as in 1 Peter 2:9, it is translated as "praises": The virtues as a force or energy of the Holy Spirit accompanying the preaching of the glorious gospel. It is very, very important to realize from what we have been taken, and to what we have been established into. The virtues of man are honourable; such as courage, fortitude, resolution, or even moral excellence. However, compared with the virtues of God, they are shallow; why? because they are mortal, or of the flesh. The opposite meaning of virtue in this regard would be 'A vice': fault; blemish; evil habit; immorality or depravity. However, if we have truly been 'regenerated' by the Holy Spirit, then we have been purged from our old sins, and from morality; and we have been brought into a new 'Everlasting Kingdom' which has been established by Jesus Christ. What this basically means, is that, when we are walking within our own virtues, or the virtues of man, then we are also subject to the opposite of these virtues, which are basically rooted and grounded in our old sins, or the flesh; of which we have been purged from. "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the 'Praises' of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous Light." (1 Peter 2:9)