The apostle is not merely pressing the great fact that we have life, but he is insisting upon the deep importance of living the life we have. Every believer has a new life, but we may well challenge our hearts with the question, Are we content to know that we have that life, or are we seeking to live the life? The fact of having life, blessed as this is, will not in itself enable us to escape the corruptions of this world. If we are to be preserved from lust and lawlessness we must live the life of practical godliness.

The first great quality of this overcoming life is faith. Faith turns from everything of sight and sense and looks to Jesus, in the realization that He knows all things about me and He alone can keep me (John 21:17).

With our faith we shall need virtue, or spiritual courage, and energy (as the word implies). By this moral energy we shall be enabled to refuse the working of the flesh within and to resist the devil without. To live a practical life of godliness in a world such as this will demand spiritual energy to deny ourselves, refuse the world, and resist Satan.

With virtue we shall need knowledge, by which we acquire divine wisdom to guide us in all our practical ways. Apart from the knowledge of God and His mind, as revealed in His word, our very energy may lead us into paths of self-will.

Knowledge may puff up our minds (1 Corinthians 8:1); therefore with knowledge we need temperance, or self-restraint. Without this self-restraint, knowledge may be used to exalt ourselves.

With self-restraint, by which we govern ourselves, we need patience with others. Without this patience, the very temperance by which we restrain ourselves may lead to irritation with others who are less restrained.

Our patience is to be exercised with godliness, or the fear of God; otherwise patience may degenerate into compromise with evil. Godliness supposes a walk in communion with God by which our life is lived under His guidance and direction. Do we take all the changing circumstances of life that test our piety, whether prosperous or adverse, from God and to God?

With godliness that thinks of what is due to God, we are not to forget brotherly love, or what is due to our brother. Godliness will lead to the affections flowing out to those who, being God’s children, are our brethren.

With brotherly love we are to have love---divine love---otherwise our love may be limited to our brethren, instead of flowing out in the largeness of the love of God to the world around. Moreover, brotherly love may easily degenerate into partiality and mere human affection. Brotherly love makes our brother the prominent object. “Love” is a deeper thing and has God in view, even as we read: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments” (1 John 5:2).

In these verses the apostle sets forth the blessed effects of having these qualities and the serious consequences to the one in whose life they are lacking. A life marked by these qualities would be a full and abundant life, according to the Lord’s desire that His sheep should not only have life but have it abundantly (John 10:10). So too our knowledge of the Lord Jesus would not be barren and unfruitful. The life of practical godliness is one in which there is fruit for God and usefulness and blessing for man.

Hamilton Smith