Pimp My Faith

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
(2 Peter 1:5-9 NKJV)

There is a now famous show on MTV entitled “Pimp My Ride.” The premise of the show is quite simple. Take some one’s old, junkie, non-working car and improve it. But the point is not to put the car back in the same shape it was when the car was manufactured. The point is to improve and customize the car. When you “pimp” a car, you add accessories to the car that help define the person. The car becomes an extension of the person.

In the same way, our faith is an extension of our true selves. Our faith does not just replace our bad habits with good habits. Instead, our faith is a source of renewal. Our faith is the beginning point where God can “re-create” extensions to our selves and our lives.

So how can I “pimp my faith”?

I can add a paint coat of virtue (moral excellence).

I can add a new engine of knowledge.

I can add a new set of brakes of self-control.

I can also add a patient endurance.

I can add godliness.

I can finally add love.