1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Confirming One's Calling and Election
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if any of you do not have them, you are nearsighted and blind, and you have forgotten that you have been cleansed from your past sins.
Dig Deeper
Growing up in my hometown, I went to a junior high that I rather enjoyed. As a student, though, there were certain places in that building that I could not go and many things that I could not do. There was always one room in particular that students weren't allowed to go into, and I always wondered what it looked like. I finished my last day at school, however, without ever having seen that room. About ten years later I graduated from college with a degree in education, returned to my hometown, and actually got a job at that same junior high, although it was now a middle school (meaning it was grades 6-8 rather than grades 7-9). Now that I worked at that building I could go into that room, the mysterious teacher's lounge. In fact, there was nowhere in the building that I couldn't go. I could actively go into every part of the building and participate fully.
Although this analogy falls far short of the things that believers have in Christ that Peter is referring to here, it still does help us to understand somewhat the case he is making. Believers are no longer on the outside looking in. Once we have entered into Christ, we have full access to God. There is nothing of His presence that is denied to those in Christ. As Peter begins what we know as his second letter, he reminds the saints of that fact. False teachers had arisen, telling Christians that they could basically live however they wanted and do whatever they wanted. Peter will masterfully remind his readers that they don't need to follow anything as empty and crass as that sort of teaching. What they need is to realize their status in Christ and the fact that because of this, they have full access to every spiritual blessing and full knowledge of the creator God.
There is some controversy among the biblical experts as to whether or not this book of 2 Peter is actually written by Peter. There are significant stylistic and language differences between the two letters ascribed to Peter but it was common in the first century to have someone else record and even add shape and style to the words of one dictating a letter. With that said, this letter which no one argues came out of the first century church somewhere, says that its author is Peter. That's good enough for me, and will be the assumption as we continue on through this letter.
Peter opens this letter in standard first century fashion, mentioning as he did in his first letter that he is an apostle, but also adding that he is a humble servant of Jesus Christ. He is writing to a community of believers who share in the gospel, the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ (some translations give the wrong impression by implying that "God" and "Savior Jesus Christ" are distinct terms, but the TNIV gets it right here when it makes clear that Peter has called Jesus Christ both God and Savior). Their faith and Christian community is every bit as valid as any other and Peter blesses them with a standard Christian blessing of grace and peace in abundance. Peter believes that the abundant aspects of the life of Christ come through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. This knowledge refers, in part to increasing intellectual knowledge, but far more importantly to the knowledge that comes through having an intimate and personal relationship with God. The motivating foundation of the Christian life is to encounter God on a personal basis which then enables us to have a deepening relationship with Him and worship Him in every aspect of our lives.
Peter's opening verses here have confounded some commentators and many Christians over the years and left many spiraling into theological debates over minute points. His overall point, however, is what should be kept in view. God has given believers everything we need for a godly life. We have the tools necessary to succeed in becoming like Christ. How has done this? Through His own glory and goodness, the very life of Christ. This is not something we earn or achieve but something to which we have been called and given by God. The life of Christ is a gracious gift from God and the only thing that can reconcile us to Him. Through the life of Christ, God has fulfilled all of His great promises (2 Cor. 1:20). Everything the Bible ever promised about God fixing the problem of evil and exalting those loyal to Him have been fulfilled and are available to those who would lay down their own lives and take up Christ's.
It is through the fulfillment of these promises that we may participate in the divine nature. This is one of those phrases that have sent theologians scrambling for explanations, but again, if we keep in view the larger point, Peter's words become quite clear. We needn't bog down over what he means by participating in the divine nature beyond knowing that he is thinking of the life of Christ that we all share. What the TNIV doesn't make very clear here, is quite clear in the original language. We participate in the life of Christ only after we have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. This doesn't mean that we take action that earns our status in Christ but Peter refers to the repentance or the willingness to die to self that must be done to receive the life of Christ. A simple analogy might help this make more sense. If I am in a car heading in one direction and am called to get in the only car that is going in the right direction, I must recognize that fact by getting out of the car I'm in and getting into the other one. That doesn't mean I earned my place in the other car, I was simply given the free will to recognize or reject it as the correct car. So it is with the life of Christ. We must first escape the world by repenting and dying to selves so that we can accept God's gracious and free gift.
Once we have entered into that life, however, there are responsibilities that come with that. For the very reason that we have escaped the world through God's gift of salvation, we should make every effort to excel in the life of Christ. The Christian life certainly begins with faith in the life of Christ and the faithfulness of God but it doesn't end there. The word that Peter used which is translated "make every effort," is the root word from which we get our word choreography and it was used when an extravagant effort was put forth to produce a Greek play. His inference is that Christians should be intentional and lavish in the time and effort they spend in developing their Christian virtues rather than just sliding by on the minimum effort.
To faith, Peter charges Christians with growing in seven other aspects of the spirit-directed life. It's not that we create these virtues by our own effort, for as he says in verse 8, that we should increase in these qualities because it is God who has given us everything we need. Our responsibility is to embrace and grow in what God has given us. The virtues that Peter described could rightly be discussed in the ascending order that he lists them, but in giving the list in the way he has, Peter used a device common in the first century world. We should not suppose that he means to imply that each virtue must be mastered before being able to move on to the next. The characteristics he describes are certainly related but in a much more organic and comprehensively connected manner.
After faith, Peter calls for growing goodness, a word which meant for something or someone to fulfill their true purpose; growing knowledge of the divine standard of the life of Christ; growing self-control by submitting to Christ as Lord and avoiding temptation; growing perseverance, a word that is the same word used of Jesus' patient endurance of the cross (Heb. 12:2); growing godliness, a word that carries the meaning of putting loyalty to God above all else; and finally growing in the two great aspects of the Christian life, love of one another (mutual affection) and the agape love of God.
Peter does not question or concern himself with whether or not Christians have these qualities, he assumes that they do. The issue is whether they are growing in these spiritual gifts or rendering themselves ineffective and unproductive due to a lack of growth. If they do not have them, like presumably the false teachers to whom Peter will turn shortly do not have, then they show that they are intentionally nearsighted until it causes them to be spiritually blind. Those who are not growing in the life of Christ also show that they have forgotten that at their baptism, they were cleansed from their past sins and their old life. The entry into the life of Christ at baptism (Rom. 6:1-4) gives one the opportunity to leave their old, sinful life behind and to start afresh and anew in the only life that will ever be in the presence of the Father and experience the resurrection (John 14:6).
Devotional Thought
When you look at Peter's list of eight Christian virtues here and compare it to your life, what do you see? Are you growing increasingly in those areas? In what areas do you need to make a more lavish effort? Have you been a bit stingy lately or are you genuinely making every effort to grow in these important Christian virtues?
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