Am I One of the Elect?

Marshal Art asked how one can know if they are among the elect. Good question. There is a biblical answer.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-11)

In this text Peter offers a string of qualities to be added to faith. They are given in succession. Then he says, "If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Notice he adds "are increasing." So we're looking at a continuous spiral ascending, so to speak. You add virtue to faith, knowledge to virtue, self-control to knowledge, steadfastness to self-control, and godliness to steadfastness. And then you do it again -- increasing. That is, he says, if you know Jesus, your life changes. The knowledge is "fruitful." And it is that ongoing life change that signals clearly that you are called, you are elect. It is how we confirm our own calling and election.

Notice that it begins with "For this very reason." What reason?

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

How is this stuff accomplished? His divine power and the knowledge of Him. We have "precious and very great promises." He provides escape from the corruption in the world.

If you look at the list of qualities, it can seem daunting. But Peter doesn't say, "If you possess these in full" but, rather, you possess them and increase them. Beyond that, it is accomplished by God's power and by knowing Him. It is a command to "confirm your calling and election," so we must, but we shouldn't have to worry about it. If we belong to Him, He will be at work in us (Php 2:13).