A beautiful mind - Excellence (Part 8)

for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:3

The seventh attribute has been translated as "virtue", and the word in Greek is "Arete," which means excellence and is considered chief virtue in life based on ancient Greek and Roman traditions. 

"Excellence" is often defined in worldly culture as high achievement driven by perfectionism. It is especially societal and cultural expectations that drive us to achieve more, therefore stress more, and the media portrays excellence as a sign of prestige, comfort, and convenience. As an example, under the culture of excellence, we strive to excel at work, climbing the corporate ladder probably to have a bigger retirement fund. In some way, the worldly excellence motivates us to attain good looks, have a successful career or business, and lead glamorous lifestyles out of inward focus and self-centeredness. 

Biblical excellence is defined as moral excellence, and all eight attributes in Philippians 4:8 refer to Jesus. Today's key verse explicitly states that we are called to be His glory and excellence, not our own. Since God is excellence, when we think or do things with excellence, it's always about Him and has nothing to do with us. 

In addition, what are the standards of excellence? There is no way to define the ultimate standards in the world, and possibilities give us a false sense of standards.  Humans need "manuals" to guide them through any situation, which is why God gave us the Bible as a manual for Christian living, whether it is about our callings, our finances, our relationships, or anything else. We follow God's moral standards to cultivate virtuous and excellent lives by following these guidelines. 

We are never designed to be perfect and to use our own strength to achieve “excellence ”. There would have been no need for Jesus if humans were perfect or capable of being excellent. Aside from that, God's standard is high and our imperfection could never reach it. As a result, when we embrace our imperfection and weakness, we will become more excellent like Him. By being His image bearers and participating in His divine nature, the Holy Spirit will remove corruption and reveal more of Jesus' excellence in our lives. 

Finally, the more we think about Jesus, the more virtuous and excellent things we have. In Christ, we aren't bound by excellence based on worldly success, good looks, or power. Instead, we conform to His image to attain moral excellence full of love, godliness, selflessness and sacrifice.

Blessing prayer Our hearts are full of praise for your perfection and excellence. We pray that our weakness is perfected in your power, so that our thoughts and deeds reflect your excellence and virtue. In Jesus' name, Amen