Virtue – The Call to Excellence
In 1 Pet. 2:5 Peter exhorts “supplement your faith with virtue.” Why is virtue the second attribute in Peter’s list? The English word virtue can mean a variety of things like moral excellence, good behavior, and chastity. However, the Greek word Peter uses is, arete, had a more specific meaning in the culture of his day.
In my last blog post we looked at how our faith should mirror the faithfulness of God. When you think about that, it’s a very high calling. God wants us to be like him, and Peter says as much earlier in the chapter reminding us that God has “called us to his own glory and excellence” (v3). In fact, that word “excellence” is the same word as “virtue” in Peter’s list. God has called us to glorify him which means manifesting his characteristics like faithfulness.
Again, that’s a very high calling. God is eternal and we are mortal creatures of the dust. But that’s the point of the word arete. To understand what the word means consider too horizontal lines that represent what God has called us to be and where we are when we begin our walk in Christ:
What I am called to
Arete is the resolve to fill the gap
Where I am right now
Arete is about the drive to be like God and the desire to fill the gap. That’s why it follows faith because faith is about trusting that God’s way works, that growth and development of character is all important. When I have arete is means I have a growth mindset and desire to be like God.
A couple of blog posts ago when I introduced Peter’s list, I talked about how it parallels the development of a child as he or she matures. I compared virtue with the idea of a toddler who looks up to mom and dad and wants to be just like them. Well, isn’t that what the purpose of God is all about? We want to develop the desire within us to be like God – to fulfil the fact we were created in his image and likeness. And isn’t that what it means to be called to his glory? A toddler tends to adore their parents. It’s a wonderful thing when you’re a dad and your kid looks up to you with adoring eyes and expresses their love for you and desire to be like you. That’s the spirit of praise God is looking for in his children. We ought to look up to him with complete adoration and have genuine desire and enthusiasm to be like him.
The English word virtue sounds like God is expecting us to be perfect moral creatures. So, when we fall into sin it can make us think that we’re complete failures and we might feel like giving up. Instead, let’s view ourselves as growing in Christ, as spiritual toddlers. Yes, we’re going to make mistakes, just as toddlers sometimes do naughty things. But what God is looking for in his children is attitude. An attitude that springs from a childlike faith and manifests in the adoring quality of arete. We will fail if our religion is all about trying to be perfect moral creatures. But if instead we develop the enthusiasm to be like God then, as Peter, goes on to show in his list of qualities, we will grow into people who do glorify God.