The Staircase to Selfless Love

The style of the home that I live in is called a tri-level. Both front and back entrances are on the main level of the home. From this level there are eight steps leading down to the den and eight steps leading up to the second floor where the bedrooms are. Because much time is spent on all three levels I spend a lot of time running up and down stairs.

Beamer, one of my lovable dogs, has the habit of choosing one step about halfway up the stairs to just sprawl out and lay down on. He does not have a particular stair that is his favorite, but randomly chooses to lay across one. He does not ascend to the top of the staircase where there are several choices of more comfortable places to lay down. We do not keep our dogs off the furniture, so both dogs have favorite chairs as well as enjoying my bed. Yet Beamer will climb partially up, pick a stair, plop down and lay sprawled across it.

As I run from the den up the stairs to the kitchen, it does not occur to me to stop part of the way up. Neither do I ever consider pausing part way up to the upper level. My goal and destination is at the top of the stairs. In order to reach this destination I must climb every stair. Stopping to wait halfway up will not accomplish my desires.

In his second letter to the churches, Peter gave a list of instructions for spiritual growth. “For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence), And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety), And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7 AMP) He did not make things easy or give any accolades for qualities already developed. He simply encourages us to keep moving on to greater heights.

In reading this list, one may think, ‘I already am diligent, exercise my faith and I’m doing pretty good in the virtue department. I study to gain knowledge and my self-control is much farther than it has been in the past. These must count for something. Now it is time to rest a bit.’ But Peter does not allow us to stop there and neither does God. We must continue on to steadfastness, godliness and brotherly affection on our way to developing true, others-centered, Christian love. Although this list may seem cumbersome and difficult to attain, there is great benefit in pursuing it to the end. Peter continues the above passage with these words, “For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).” (2 Peter 1:5-8 AMP) We must keep growing to be fruitful and meet our goal of being developed into the image of Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul touches on the same topic. “Him we preach and proclaim, warning and admonishing everyone and instructing everyone in all wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God), that we may present every person mature (full-grown, fully initiated, complete, and perfect) in Christ (the Anointed One).” (Colossians 1:28 AMP) Although we do not see an entire list, as we do in Peter’s letter, Paul uses the terms “all wisdom” and “mature” to indicate that the process will continue on. The word of God is what causes growth in our lives. We allow the Holy Spirit to use the written word to transform our character, step-by-step. We can then confidently agree with Paul when he said, “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 AMP) We are changing.

If not careful and sensitive to the Lord we can find ourselves, like Beamer, stopped on one of the steps that Peter spoke of. Unwilling to allow God to change our habits we can become stalled on the self-control step. Facing a multitude of trials we may develop an attitude of “enough is enough” and stall on the steadfastness step. Unwillingness to forgive someone will make the brotherly affection step hard to climb. But as difficult as these are, we can continue to climb in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit when we allow Him to control us. And in His strength we can continue to climb to reach the destination of displaying the character of Jesus.

This is a lifelong climb. There will always be more to learn and more ways to grow into that true, God-like love. Even if we have stopped at some point, we can get up and continue the climb. The destination is worth it.