Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 9
The speaker’s concrete definitions and illustrations are sharp (virtue as discipline built through difficult people, temperance as not sampling everything at the banquet table, patience as “waiting cheerfully” in traffic or sleepless nights, godliness as “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” daily, kindness removing hard edges, love as pursuing others); which of these definitions most disrupts your current self-assessment, and what specific situation in your week would become a training ground if you took Peter’s list literally?
Another way to ask: Which of the speaker’s definitions (virtue, self-control, patience, godliness, kindness, love) most challenges how you see yourself right now? What situation this week could become practice if you took Peter’s list seriously?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The transcript most sharply disrupts self-assessment by redefining virtues as practiced choices in ordinary pressure—especially patience as “waiting cheerfully,” temperance as refusing to “sample everything,” and love as a pursuing, sacrificial choice. Taking Peter’s list literally turns weekly irritations, conflicts, and limits into training grounds rather than interruptions.
- Virtue: he calls it “the fruit of discipline” and growth through responding properly to “life’s difficult situations,” like learning to work with “a person that’s difficult to work with.”
- Temperance: life is “a banquet table,” but “you can’t do it all,” and if you “sample everything…you end up sick.”
- Patience: not gritting teeth, but “the ability to wait cheerfully,” illustrated by choosing joy in a “traffic jam” or using sleeplessness to “pray” or “read.”
- Godliness: “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ…daily,” and he says real God-like character requires patience and love of the process.
- Kindness/love: kindness “takes the hard edges off,” while charity/love “pursues others…means effort and sacrifice.”