Peter (2 Peter 1:5-7) starts his “list” with “faith!”
Not Paul, not here.
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, FAITH, meekness and temperance,” says our Apostle in Galatians 5:22-23.
Why the difference?
Peter is tracing our spiritual growth from beginning to end, from first believing in Christ until finally reaching that golden plateau of genuine Christian “love!”
Paul is, on the other hand, enumerating the “traits” of being filled with the Holy Spirit of God, so very filled that He reproduces Himself in us, his Characteristics!
Paul is not insisting on any particular order, either.
Peter is deliberately using the imperative verb “add” for emphasis! As in, “add to the one the other,” or ” add to the first the second!” (“Giving all diligence, ADD to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness,” etc.) Yes, here the word order is crucial!
But quickly back to Paul now.
When he writes “faith” as one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit “in” us, “controlling” us … he utilizes the little Greek noun “pistis.” And the word (honestly) often means “belief, reliance, trust.”
But “pistis” can also have the thrust (here not a change in word meaning but in a change in emphasis) of “FAITHFULNESS.” Belief and its resulting behavior (acting on that belief) that lasts and lasts and lasts, a whole lifetime!
I believe that is what Paul is saying.
The Holy Spirit, Who long ago introduced us Christians to “faith,” to “believing faith” (at the very moment we were saved) now (this far into the “list”) seeks to produce in us “faithfulness!” As we grow, develop, mature … this glorious quality of “faithfulness” should become more and more apparent in our lives!
As in: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58, King James Version.
One reputable Bible commentator defines “pistis” here as: “fidelity, loyalty, long range trustworthiness.” Which is identical to saying (what we call) “FAITHFULNESS!”
Being “steady” for Jesus!
Not wavering!
Being able to say, when the end of earthly life comes … “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Paul’s words, quoted from 2 Timothy 4:7.
Wow!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
What a challenge!