"Faith Comes First" Bible Lesson

It can be common for children who are raised in our churches to profess Christ at a young age and then become wrapped up in living a good life for Jesus.  Slowly their salvation becomes dependent on their good works and they forget the power of the true gospel message.  This lesson from 2 Peter will remind children that their good works must be based upon their faith first.  Faith in Christ is the foundation for everything a Christian does.
Text: 2 Peter 1:5-8
Learning Objective:  The children will learn how faith in Christ is needed before any good works.
Target Age: 3^rd-5^th grade
Time Needed: 20 minutes
Materials Needed:  a glass jar, a sharpie marker, six ping pong balls, one bag of rice

• Another option would be use colored bouncy balls instead of ping pong balls. You could send one home with each kid and challenge them to live out that virtue during the week and report back.

Hook:
“I am going to begin with one very important question.  What needs to happen in a person’s life for them to be saved from their sins and spend their eternal life with God in heaven?” Take answers from the children.
“A person must believe and put their trust in Jesus Christ dying on the cross on their behalf.  They must believe that Jesus’ death saved them from their sins by taking the punishment of God’s wrath for them.  They must put their faith in Jesus.”
“Faith is the beginning of everything in the Christian life.”
Book:

• Open your Bibles to the book of 2 Peter.  We are going to read together from chapter one verses five through eight. Read the passage aloud.

Look:
“In verse five Peter begins by telling us to supplement our faith.  That means our faith in Jesus comes first.  Everything we do comes after our faith in Jesus.”  Place the glass jar on a table where all the children can see it. “This glass jar will be representing our faith in Jesus today.”
“After Peter stated that our faith comes first.  He made a list of good things for us to do and be after we have put our faith in Jesus’ work on the cross.” “What is the first good thing in the list?” Virtue.
“What is virtue?”  Take answers from the children. “Virtue is living a life that is good.  Doing the right thing and making good choices.”
Choose one child to come up and pick a ping pong ball.  Write the word virtue on the ball with the sharpie marker.  Have the child drop the ping pong ball into the glass jar.
“What is the second thing on the list after virtue?” Knowledge. “What is knowledge?” Take answers from the children.
“Knowledge is to know about something, which in this case would to know about God and the Bible.”
Choose one child to come up and pick a ping pong ball.  Write the word knowledge on the ball with the sharpie marker.  Have the child drop the ping pong ball into the glass jar. “After we put our faith in Jesus it is good to have virtue and knowledge, but our faith must come first to hold the virtue and knowledge together in our life.”
“What comes after knowledge in the list?” Self-control. “What is self-control?”  Take answers from the children.  “Self-control is having control of your actions, feelings, and words.”
Choose one child to come up and pick a ping pong ball.  Write the word self-control on the ping pong ball with the sharpie marker. Have the child drop the ping pong ball into the glass jar. “God wants us to have a life full of virtue, knowledge, and self-control, but first we must put our faith in Him.  Without faith in the work of the cross, our good works in our life will fall apart just like these ping pong balls would all roll away without this glass jar to hold them together.”
“What is next on Peter’s list?” Steadfastness. “What is steadfastness?”  Take answers from the children. “Steadfastness is keeping a set direction.  Moving in the right direction at all times and not giving up.”
Choose one child to come up and pick a ping pong ball.  Write the word steadfastness on the ping pong ball with the sharpie marker. Have the child drop the ping pong ball into the glass jar. “In order to be steadfast in our life we must first have faith in Jesus’ work on the cross.  It is hard to keep your life moving in the right direction if you do not know the right direction in which it should go.  Having faith in Jesus helps you to know the right direction.”
“What is next on Peter’s list?” Godliness. “What is godliness?”  Take answers from the children. “Godliness is living in the way God would want you to live.”
Choose one child to come up and pick a ping pong ball.  Write the word godliness on the ping pong ball with the sharpie marker. Have the child drop the ping pong ball into the glass jar. “We cannot know how to live in the way God wants us to unless we first put our faith in Him.  Faith comes before all other good things we do in our life.”
“What is next on Peter’s list?” Brotherly Affection. “What is brotherly affection?” Take answers from the children. “Brotherly affection is caring about the well-being of the people around you.”
Choose one child to come up and pick a ping pong ball.  Write the word brotherly affection on the ping pong ball with the sharpie marker. Have the child drop the ping pong ball into the glass jar. “Understanding how much God cared for us to send Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins will help us to then care for others.  Remembering Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross will help us to make sacrifices in caring for others.  Our faith in Jesus must come first before our brotherly affection.”
“What is the last good thing in Peter’s list?”  Love. “Love is special because love should be a part of every good thing we do in our life.  We should grow in knowledge because we love God.  We should have self-control over our words and actions because we love others.  We should be steadfast out of our love for God and others.” “Turn to 1 Corinthians 16:14.” Read this verse aloud.  “All that we do should be done in love.”
Choose a child to come up and take the bag of rice.  The child will pour the rice into the glass jar covering the ping pong balls. “This rice represents love in your life.  It covers all of the good deeds you do in your life.  Yet even love is held together by your faith in Jesus’ dying on the cross of your behalf.”
Took:
Read aloud 2 Peter 1:5-8 one more time. “Why does God want us to live out this list of good things in our life?”  Take answers from the children. “We live out these good things as a demonstration of our faith in Christ.  These good things are fruit in our Christian life.  They show that we have life within us that wants to live for God.”
“What comes first before we can live any of these good things?  What is the foundation?  What holds all of these good things together?”
“Our faith in Jesus Christ dying on the cross on our behalf to save us from our sins by taking the punishment of God’s wrath for us.” “The Christian life begins with faith and then has love poured all over it!”
Tip:

• This lesson could be a quick introductory lesson to a nine part series about each of these character traits.