Earning ≠ Effort
I’ve been studying in 2 Peter 1 lately, which says “In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 NLT
And this has convicted me a lot.
For most of my life, I have struggled to understand the difference between effort and earning. I never wanted to fall into legalism or the mindset that we can somehow earn salvation through good behavior. We can’t. Jesus already paid for what we never could. But at the same time, I think our culture has drifted so far in the other direction that sometimes grace gets treated like permission to stop fighting sin altogether.
I heard a quote recently that’s really stuck with me
“Grace is NOT opposed to effort. Grace is IS opposed to earning.”
I heard someone explain it through a marriage in a way that finally made it click for me.
A husband making breakfast and coffee for his wife, serving her daily, speaking kindly to her, loving her selflessly, none of those things make him married. Technically, he could still be married while treating her terribly.
But if he truly loves her, effort to show her will naturally flow from that love. Not to earn the relationship. But because the relationship truly matters to him.
I think following Jesus works the same way.
We don’t pursue holiness so God will love us. We pursue holiness because He already does.
Scripture never says, “Try harder so God will love you.”
But it also doesn’t say effort is unnecessary.
In fact, later in 2 Peter 1, Peter says to “work hard to confirm” or “make sure” that you truly are among those God has called and chosen.
Not to earn God’s love or to save ourselves through performance but because real faith should produce real fruit.
A changed life doesn’t create salvation, but it does reveal it. When someone truly loves Jesus, transformation should follow. Imperfectly, slowly, and with plenty of stumbling along the way, but always genuinely.
Scripture calls us to examine ourselves, pursue holiness, fight sin, and draw near to God, not to prove our worth to Him, but as evidence that we belong to Him. Not perfectly but intentionally.
One of the biggest areas I’ve felt convicted in lately is what we consume.
The shows we watch, books we read, music we listen to, the things we laugh at. The sin we have slowly become comfortable with allowing into our lives.
We live in a culture where lust, violence, greed, vanity, sexual immorality, and selfishness are celebrated and constantly put in front of us and most of the time we barely even notice anymore. And I’m saying this as someone the Lord has been deeply convicting personally, not from a place of judgment toward anyone else.
I do think many of us have become desensitized though. I heard a statistic that around 75% of Christian men report consuming pornography on some level. What surprised me most was hearing how many believers no longer even view it as spiritually serious. That should probably grieve us more than it does.
Not because we’re supposed to be perfect. But because followers of Jesus should still want conviction. We should want hearts that are sensitive to sin and the correction of the Holy Spirit, not comfortable with it and especially not comfortable doing it.
It reminds me of the verse that says in the last days people would “call evil good and good evil.” We’re watching that happen in real time. Things God calls sin are encouraged now, and people who pursue holiness are often mocked, called judgmental, or told they’re taking faith “too seriously.”
But scripture never tells us to become comfortable with darkness. It tells us to walk in the light. To die to our fleshy desires daily.
Effort isn’t earning. It’s faith responding love and love responding to grace and that grace changing us from the inside out.
💜🤟✝️