Developing Christian Virtue (2)

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. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. - II Peter 1:5-8

Yesterday we started, looking at developing Christian virtue, but today we will be considering things that block virtue.

Bitterness: The enemy used Peninah to provoke Hannah so as to stop her miracle. Envy, sorrow, and jealousy quench the flow of the Spirit. The tribe of Reuben became the smallest tribe in Israel because he slept with one of his father's concubine. But his problem came out of the fact that his father in law, Laban forced Leah, his mother upon Jacob. It was a marriage in bitterness. The bitterness towards his mother was transferred to him. So, Reuben never respected his father. Jacob cursed Rueben out of bitterness. Virtue is a matter of the heart. That is why you must not allow anybody to make you miserable. Joseph did not allow bitterness, He did not say that he would not interpret dreams again, no wonder he became the prime minister (see Genesis 40:8-14).

Pleasure- loving (sin). When you enjoy living in sin, it blocks virtue. You become a dead person, do not as a matter of practice, fill your oil with dead flies which make your oil to stink. Ecclesiastes 10:1 says, “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour”. Therefore, do not live in sin. Do not allow your life to be corrupted. Practise holiness. Let the blood of Jesus work for your advantage.