Please read this passage before reading this homily.
God is glorious, divine, powerful, huge, and overwhelmingly great, in the eyes of the author of this letter. Yet, this God wants to share with us all the splendidness of this glory. The author gives us a step-by-step plan for us.
Faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, endurance, devotion, mutual affection, and love form the eight-step plan. The growth from faith to love, however, is not a graded structure such as one could find in an educational setting. Rather it more that good theology should lead to good action. God’s majesty, for example, is creative; it made the world. Our doing good is a valid proof that what we believe about God is true. If God is love, then when we know God deeply, we also know that love is not mutual affection, since God loves everyone even those who do not love God in return.
Knowledge of God is important, but the knowledge must be more than an intellectual exercise. It must be come from the deepest depths of our human nature, without strings or qualms. It must be love as God loves each of us, boundless and all-inclusive.
To this love, to this majesty, to this sharing of God’s glory, God has called us. This is what the author wants for his people; this is why he writes. May your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord lead you into the fulness of God’s grace and peace.