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The Apostle Peter, in his second letter to the early Christian Churches in Asia Minor, addresses the recipients of the letter as those “who have received a faith as precious as ours” “through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Pet 1:1-2).. The Greek word that is translated “precious” in this verse, is “isotimos,” which means “of equal value or honour”. All Christians have an equal measure of faith as Peter – fantastic! We read in Romans 12:3, that we are called on to align our thoughts and actions “in accordance to the faith God has distributed to each of you(us)“. It suggests that God gives us all the same measure of faith. All born-again Christians receive the same amount of faith from our generous God. We may seem to have different degrees of faith but that may possibly be the portion of faith that is exhibited or being exercised by us.
Knowing that we have the same measure of faith as Peter, and probably even Jesus, do we consider our faith to be very precious? We often describe faith in terms of its size, in terms of it as a privilege, but here, we are reminded that our faith is a precious treasure to be kept and guarded with all our lives. When something is precious, we think of something of great value, not to be wasted or treated carelessly. Just like a loving and caring parent holding their precious newborn baby, not to be let out of their sight and always to be held in their arms, we are reminded to see our faith as very precious. Our Christian faith is something to be guarded and kept properly. We should not take our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ for granted, simply because this faith happens to be a free gift of God (Eph 2:8).
The Lord Jesus has given us all this very precious faith and we need to simply trust and obey Him. A favourite hymn encourages us: “Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus”. Let us respond to this measure of faith given to us by guarding it from the evil one (1 Pet 5:8). We are to demonstrate it by exercising our faith so that others may see our God – the generous giver of this faith (1 Pet 2:12). We can fully trust in the Holy Spirit to guide and help us in this exercise of our precious faith as we live our daily Christian lives for the glory of God.
