Canadians are famous for being nice. We say sorry when someone else steps on our foot. I’m all for it. But nice is a low bar. Plenty of people clear it with a smile and the right words while internally wanting to punch a coworker in the face.

Nice is easy. Goodness is not.

Near the end of his life, Peter told Christians to “make every effort to add to your faith goodness” (2 Peter 1:5). He meant moral excellence, living the way God lives. It isn’t just believing the right things. It’s doing the right things.

Nice smiles at someone. Goodness loves someone.
Nice says the right thing. Goodness does the right thing.
Nice is free. Goodness costs us.

Nobody shows us goodness better than Jesus. Peter says Jesus “called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). Jesus wasn’t just nice to us, he was good to us. He healed the desperate, touched the untouchable, and called out hypocrisy. He told a woman caught in sin, “Neither do I condemn you,” and then, “Go and sin no more.” He promised paradise to a dying thief and went to the cross for us. Nobody looks at that and thinks, “What a sucker.” We say what Thomas said: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

And don’t tell yourself, “Well, he’s God, of course he did that. I’m just me.” You aren’t just you. You are you with the Spirit of Jesus living in you who has given you everything that you need to live a godly life!

So how do you add goodness to your faith? It takes three things.

1. Moral clarity

You have to know the difference between right and wrong. We live in a time that loves grey and is allergic to words like good and evil. Isaiah warned against that: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). Hebrews says mature Christians “have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

Some of this comes built in. Paul says God’s law is written on human hearts (Romans 2:15), which is why you don’t need a Bible to know cruelty and betrayal are wrong. But consciences can be dulled. So God gave us something more solid. Peter calls Scripture “a light shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19). If you don’t know where to start, read one of the Gospels this week and watch how Jesus lives. Then ask yourself whether there’s any evil in your life you’ve been tolerating.

2. Moral conviction

Moral clarity isn’t enough; you need conviction too. Conviction means holding on to what’s right even when it’s unpopular. It’s costly, and Jesus never hid that: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18).

When the authorities ordered Peter and the apostles to stop talking about Jesus, they answered, “We must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5:29). It got them beaten. They left “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41), and then they kept talking about Jesus. I don’t want you to get beaten. But I do want you to have that kind of spiritual spine. When was the last time doing the right thing cost you something?

3. Moral courage

Knowing what’s good, even believing it deep down, still isn’t enough. You have to do it. James puts it bluntly: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them” (James 4:17).

Maybe you got money dishonestly, and courage means making it right. Maybe you know something is wrong at work and you’ve looked the other way to keep the peace, and courage means stepping in. Maybe a parent is dying and it’s so hard that you’ve been avoiding them, and courage means sitting with them in these last moments.

Peter knew what it was to fail here. At the Last Supper, he told Jesus, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you” (Matthew 26:35). A few hours later, he denied knowing him three times. Peter had the clarity and the conviction. He lacked the courage.

But that’s not where his story ends. Soon after, he stood in front of the same authorities who had sent Jesus to his death, and “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,” said, “Salvation is found in no one else” (Acts 4:8, 12). The leaders saw Peter and John's courage, realized they were ordinary, unschooled men, and “took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

The courage came from the Holy Spirit. Years later, Peter wrote that God’s “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life” (2 Peter 1:3). He wasn’t theorizing. He had lived it. The same God who gave Peter what he needed has given it to you.

Where are you today? Do you have clarity but lack conviction? Maybe you have all the courage in the world, but it's pointed in the wrong direction because you lack biblical clarity. Sit with the Lord, allow Him to search your heart, take an audit of your life and then take the next right step.