And also, for this very reason, you must make every effort [take every opportunity] to:
supplement your reputation to your faith;
and with your reputation add discernment;
and to your discernment add self-control;
and to your self-control add patient endurance;
and to your patient endurance add dedication;
and to your dedication add [kinship] solidarity;
and to your solidarity add self-giving love.
For if these be the excellent and flourishing characteristics of your life, they will serve to establish your contribution in complete knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ. For indeed when these things are not disclosed [in a person's life], that person in his short-sightedness is blind to them, prone to forgetfulness about the cleansing from former sin. Much rather, brothers and sisters, make every effort [take every opportunity] to firm up your calling as the specially chosen [ones], for by doing so you cannot fail.
This is how you will be richly supplied with all that you will ever need for your entry into the Kingdom of our Lord and Deliverer Jesus Christ which ever goes on and on.
This is a letter of a "senior student" in the school of Jesus Christ. Jesus was clearly capable of creatively developing His teaching. His "sermon on the mount" could be read as an "update" on the Old Testament book of proverbs, and it provides poetic grist for milling out a set of New Covenant psalms. His teaching is also an open invitation to literary creativity, and considering the fact that his mother was obviously capable of musical and poetic composition, as was His uncle Zechariah, the priest and father of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was capable of teaching in ways that the people loved. And clearly in the midst of all this creativity something rubbed off on Peter one-time fisherman from Lake Galilee.
What is this passage? Could it be a song of some kind? Clearly, as he has written it down it is an open-invitation to teachers among his readers to take it and re-work it in order to promote
complete knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The aim is to excel in encouraging God's gifts. They are given to His people in order that His people flourish. And as they do so, so the talents and abilities that He has showered upon us are strengthened and grow. The life of faith following Jesus Christ is a life that is called forth from the One who is the Author of every good and perfect gift. It is not just something that shines in a corner - it is an open-eyed onward march into the Kingdom of God.
So there is no reason to simply assume that this life is a holding operation. There is good work to be done. There is fruit that is to be brought forth. There is a flowering and a flourishing, an enriching and an empowering that derives from the very same One who, when He established the many and varied works of His creation looked at them and: "Good, really good. I like that a lot!"
This is an encouragement to get busy with the life God has given to His people. It is not all glitter, And it is not all success and applause. But it is a life-time's project in which one's restored status in Christ leads to deeper faith, sharper discernment, disciplined self-control, patient endurance, dedication, solidarity with our brothers and sisters and neighbours, with an overflowing self-giving love.