Serious Business

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.

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2nd Peter 1:5-11 NKJV

Do we truly know what it means to be diligent? Scripture has much to say about it, so it's best if we do our due diligence in finding out. Pun intended.

Google defines diligent as 'having or showing care and conscientiousness in one's work or duties'.

Merriam-Webster currently defines diligent as 'characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort: painstaking'. 

We all know that definitions tend to change somewhat over the years. The actual oldest dictionary I could put my hands on tonight was Webster's dictionary published by G.&C. Merriam & Co. in 1884. It defined diligent as 'interestedly and perseveringly attentive; steady in application to business; prosecuted with care and constant effort'. 

In 1927, Merriam-Webster defined diligent as 'constant in effort to accomplish something, pursued with persevering attention, painstaking'.

In 1949, Merriam-Webster again defined diligent as 'perseveringly attentive; prosecuted with careful attention; painstaking'.

I have a republished, facsimile edition of Noah Webster's First Edition of an American Dictionary of the English Language, In this 1828 edition, I find it interesting to note that Mr. Webster often used Scripture references to illustrate the use of a word. For instance, for diligence, he used Proverbs 4:23 and 2nd Peter 1:10. The application of diligent to people was 'not idle or negligent', and the Scripture reference was Proverbs 22:29 KJV reads, Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings... No matter the translation, it's either diligent or skillful or some form of excellence in execution; and painstaking - defined as 'done with or employing great care and thoroughness'.

In the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, the Greek for both diligent and diligence have to do with the speed of which it is done, 'by implication eagerness, earnestness'. 

I think it's safe to say to be diligent is to eagerly and with great interest employ great care and thoroughness with excellence to the task at hand. 

So in our Promise for Today, we are to [be even more eager to and with great interest employ great care and thoroughness with excellence to] add to our 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.

Serious business being diligent.

Prayer:

Father,

          Thank You for Your written Word. Thank You for providing the instruction we need to walk out Your purpose for our lives. According to Your Word, help us to be even more diligent in our quest of You. Whatever our hands find to do, grant us Your grace to do it with all our might as unto You and not to men. We want to remain steadfast under trial so that we will receive the crown of life that You have promised to those who love You. Father, let us not grow weary of doing good, knowing that in due season we will reap if we don't give up. We want to be diligent to be found by You without spot or blemish, and at peace. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen