2 Peter 1:5-7
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.
As a young man I loved building models. When I put on that last decal or coat of paint there was always a great sense of accomplishment. To this day few things satisfy me more than creating something with my own hands. But I wasn't always a good at it. I was not a great reader, so I didn't want to use the instruction manual that came with the models. I thought I could just figure it out as I went along and build it by looking at the picture of the finished project on the box. But without the details of those small parts put together in the correct order all I had was a pretty shell of a model that was easily crushed when I wanted to play with it.
Today Peter is giving us the instruction manuel for love. Through most of our lives we think of love as a feeling or emotion that can be attained through proximity to someone we are attracted to. But Peter shows us that there is an order of operations to true love. Without the steps in between faith and love we come up short. Yes the picture of love is beautiful, but if we don't have the foundation of faith, virtue, knowledge, self control, endurance, devotion, and mutual affection then we have nothing but a hollow shell that will be crushed as soon as the pressure is on. The good news is that unlike a toy model, it's never too late to begin building a structure for true love in our relationships.
