Knock, and it will be Opened
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."
When we keep His words, free from the corruption of this world and love Him, we have opened our door to Him to come and dwell within us. Pet 1:2-11 teaches and guides us the progressive path to perfect our love for God.
Pet 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Pet 1:5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
1. Faith is your belief. If you believe that Jesus is your Saviour, then you do not need to find other means, such as idolatry or good works. Similarly if you believe Jesus is your Healer, then you don't need to consult doctors. Walking out one's faith is virtue, which is associated to people of principle or doer of the Word.
2. Having Virtue our Lord Jesus will reveal His truth (knowledge of His words) to us.
John 8:31-32 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
2 Pet 1:6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
3. Having knowledge or truth, we are set free from all worldly bondages. We can then exercise our self-control over anger and pride, lust of the flesh (carnality) and lust of the eyes (covetousness).
4. Having Self-control and the truth that we must suffer with Jesus in order to be glorified with Him, we can now have the perseverance to face all types of persecution, torture and even martyrdom.
Rom 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
5. Brethren, when we have faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control and perseverance, aren't we slowly being transformed into His image (godliness or God-likeness)
2 Pet 1:7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
6. Having godliness - our Lord Jesus were always helping people so that they were comforted and free from worries and sorrows. We will be joyful when we have the opportunity to be merciful, compassionate and kind to our brethren esp. with finance.
7. Having brotherly kindness - our Lord showed us how He loved us by dying on the cross, and we, being His disciples, will love to die for our brethren.
Door into His Kingdom Opened
We must step by step perfect our love for God and then the entrance into His Kingdom will be opened to us.
2 Pet 1:8-11 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
