2 Peter 1:3

According as, &c.--Seeing that [ALFORD]. "As He hath given us ALL things (needful) for life and godliness, (so) do you give us ALL diligence," &c. The oil and flame are given wholly of grace by God, and "taken" by believers: their part henceforth is to "trim their lamps" (compare Pe2 1:3-4 with Pe2 1:5, &c.).

life and godliness--Spiritual life must exist first before there can be true godliness. Knowledge of God experimentally is the first step to life (Joh 17:3). The child must have vital breath. first, and then cry to, and walk in the ways of, his father. It is not by godliness that we obtain life, but by life, godliness. To life stands opposed corruption; to godliness, lust (Pe2 1:4).

called us-- (Pe2 1:10); "calling" (Pe1 2:9).

to glory and virtue--rather, "through (His) glory." Thus English Version reads as one oldest manuscript. But other oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, "By His own (peculiar) glory and virtue"; being the explanation of "His divine power"; glory and moral excellency (the same attribute is given to God in Pe1 2:9, "praises," literally, "virtues") characterize God's "power." "Virtue," the standing word in heathen ethics, is found only once in Paul (Phi 4:8), and in Peter in a distinct sense from its classic usage; it (in the heathen sense) is a term too low and earthly for expressing the gifts of the Spirit [TRENCH, Greek Synonyms of the New Testament].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(3) According as.—Better, seeing that This must not be made to depend on 2Pe_1:2. In the canonical Epistles the address does not go beyond the blessing. Galatians is the only exception; there a relative clause is added to the blessing; but this is solemnly brought to a close with a doxology, so that the exception is one that almost proves the rule. In Hebrews, James, 1 and 3 John, there is no opening blessing; the remark holds good of all the rest. 2Pe_1:3-4 are a brief introduction to the direct exhortations contained 2Pe_1:5-11. The eagerness with which the writer goes direct to his subject is characteristic of St. Peter’s temper.

His divine power.—The pronoun refers to “Jesus our Lord.” The adjective occurs in the New Testament in these two verses (3 and 4) only; elsewhere we have the genitive case, “of God,” “of the Lord,” “of the Father,” and the like.

All things that pertain unto.—All that are necessary for the attainment of. He does not give life and godliness in maturity, but supplies us with the means of winning them for ourselves. “All” is emphatic; nothing that is requisite is grudged us, and nothing is our own, it is all the gift of God.

Godliness.—The Greek word occurs Act_3:12, in a speech of St. Peter, and four times in this Epistle; elsewhere only in those to Timothy and Titus. It belongs to the phraseology of the later books of the New Testament. “Godliness” is the realisation of God’s abiding presence, the fruits of which are reverence and trust: “Thou God seest me;” “I have set God always before me, therefore I cannot fall.” It is introduced here, perhaps, in opposition to the godlessness and irreverence of the false teachers. (Comp. 2Ti_3:5.)

Through the knowledge.—Through learning to know God as One who has called us to salvation. (Comp. 2Pe_1:2.)

To glory and virtue.—Rather, by glory and virtue; or perhaps, by His own glory and virtue, according to another reading. “To” cannot be correct, whichever of the various readings is the right one, Tyndale, Cranmer, and Rheims have “by;” the error comes from Geneva, which has “unto.” “Glory” points to the majesty of God, “virtue” to His activity. “Virtue” as applied to God is unusual, but occurs 1Pe_2:9 (see Note there), a coincidence to be noted. The word is rendered there “praises,” but “virtues” is given in the margin. The whole verse is strikingly parallel to this one, though very differently expressed.

(3-11) Exhortation to progress in spiritual graces in order to win eternal life at Christ’s coming. God has given us all we need for salvation; let us profit by it, and show ourselves worthy of it.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe_1:3-4

His Divine power hath given unto us all things.

The Divine liberality

I. THE FOUNTAIN.

1. The hope of the petitioner. The experience of former mercy works a persuasion of future mercy.

(1) Let us pray in confidence that God will hear us, because He hath heard us. A noble princess asked a courtier when he would leave begging; he answered, when she left giving.

(2) Seeing that God gives more where He hath given much, let us be thankful; for how should God bless us with that we have not if we do not bless Him for that we have?

2. The ability of the Giver. Here is power, yea, Divine power; not only great, but good. For mercy and majesty must meet together in the donation of all things that pertain to life and godliness. The knowledge of this Divine and giving power may comfort the most dejected heart.

(1) Concerning the salvation of others and ourselves; how desperate soever we judge their estates, by reason of their continual habit of sinning, yet this Divine power is able to convert them.

(2) This comforts us in the midst of all afflictions. We are weak in ourselves, unable to stand under the lightest cross; but there is a Divine power that strengthens us. Though it doth not nullify our sorrows, yet it doth fortify our patience (Col_1:11).

(3) This comforts us in prayer.

(4) This comforts us against all opposition, even those principalities that wrestle against us (1Jn_4:4; Rev_12:11).

(5) Let this hearten us to cheerful liberality; because, whatever we lack or lose, there is a Divine power able to requite it (2Co_9:8).

3. The liberty of the action. God does not set, nor let, nor sell, nor lend, but give.

(1) How to judge of all we have; as the Lords gifts, not our own merits (1Co_4:7; 1Co_15:10).

(2) Follow Gods example, in being evermore giving good things.

4. The necessity of the receivers.

(1) We had nothing; miserable beggars.

(2) We deserved nothing.

5. The universality of the gift. All things that pertain--

(1) To life.

(a) Natural. He put a soul to our flesh, gave birth to the child, nourishment after birth; bread when we were hungry, drink when we were thirsty, etc. To the wise man his wisdom, to the strong his might, to the wealthy his riches, etc.

(b) Spiritual; whereby we live to Him, and in Him, and whereby He lives in us.

(2) To godliness. By His grace we come to godliness, and by godliness to life.

II. The cistern. The ever-flowing and over-flowing conduit is Christ, in whom dwells all fulness (Col_1:19). The more capacious a vessel of faith we bring, the greater measure of faith we shall receive.

1. The water of life, which is an effectual calling to glory and virtue.

(1) Who hath called us. Christ alone can call home sinners.

(2) The action. There was a time when Christ came personally to call. He went out from His majesty that is invisible, to His mercy that is manifested in His works. Now He calleth at divers times, in divers places, and after divers manners.

(a) In all ages of the world, and of mens lives.

(b) Some from their ships, others from their shops, etc.

(c) After divers manners. First, by the preaching of the Word; and herein He useth two bells to ring us to church, the treble of mercy and the tenor of judgment. Next, in His sacraments.

(3) Whom hath He called? Us--miserable sinners, that were deaf and could not hear Him, lame and could not meet Him, blind and could not see Him, dead and could not answer Him.

(4) To what? To glory and virtue.

(a) In present being. We must understand by glory the honour of being Christians; by virtue the good life that becometh Christians.

(b) Hereafter we shall come to a perfect and plenary possession. The virtue there is a pure white garment without spot, and the glory a golden crown of eternity.

2. The pipe and bucket to draw and derive all to us. Through the knowledge, etc. One was of opinion that a philosopher excels an ordinary man as much as an ordinary man excels a beast; but every true Christian excels a philosopher as much as a philosopher does a dunce. They scarce knew God in His creatures; we know God in His Christ. There is no pleasure so sweet as knowledge, no knowledge so sweet as that of religion, no knowledge of religion so sweet as that of Christ; for this is eternal life, etc. (Joh_17:3). Let us therefore use the means to get knowledge.

(1) Read the Scripture; that is Gods will, there is knowledge (Joh_5:39).

(2) Frequent the temple; that is Gods house, there is knowledge (Psa_73:16-17).

(3) Resort to the Communion; that is Gods maundy, there is knowledge (1Co_11:26).

(4) Consult His ministers, for the priests lips preserve knowledge. (Thos. Adams.)

The wonders of Divine grace

I. The greatness of Divine grace. His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. The reference here is to our Saviour Jesus Christ.

1. Grace comes by Divine power. It is no angelic effort or human invention. Its wisdom is Divine omniscience. Its power is Divine omnipotence. Its activity is Divine omnipresence. Its resources infinite. Its love the eternal love of God:

2. It supplies every real need. Life is the state and godliness the activity. In the gift of the Holy Spirit every possible want of the soul is met.

II. The method of Divine grace. It comes through the knowledge of Him that calleth us by His own glory and virtue. In knowledge is the spring of life. Our actions are governed by our volitions, our volitions by our emotions, our emotions by our knowledge or belief. Thoughts of Christs love set our hearts all aglow with love to Him, and that love becomes the spring of a new and holy life.

III. The consolation of Divine Grace. Exceeding great and precious promises.

IV. The glory of Divine Grace. That through these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature.

V. The foe of Divine Grace. The corruption that is in the world by lust. There are two great spiritual cities: in the one there is corruption by lust, in the other life by godliness. The Divine new life is in peril in the poisoned air, that life which to the believer is infinitely more precious than all besides. (The Freeman.)

All things that pertain unto life and godliness.--

All things pertaining to life and godliness given unto the saints

I. That the people of God are to live godly lives.

II. That for this life and godliness, Divine power bestows everything necessary.

1. It is necessary that He should give us all things, for we have nothing in ourselves.

2. It is very gracious of Him to give all things. We were told that during the first winter campaign in the Crimea, our armies were subject to many sufferings and privations on account of inadequate provisions. This might have been so; it often has been so in times of war, and no human power can prevent it. But it can never be so with the armies of the Cross. Divine power is our guarantee.

III. The text teaches us that all things are in Christ, and obtained through the knowledge of Him.

IV. That among the all things we have in Christ the promises are especially to be prized.

V. That the possession of these heavenly gifts makes us partakers of the Divine nature. (H. Quick.)

Christ the complement of our life

In the sunshine there is a colour for every plant that seeks its own hue out of sunshine, and in Jesus Christ there is every possible hue which the heart could want. All things that pertain to godliness are in Christ--in other words, Christ is the complement of our nature. When I use that word complement--a mathematical term--I infer that just as a segment of a circle may be a very small thing, and may need the rest of the circumference to be its complement, so, whatever be the segment of your life, Jesus Christ is the complement of all the rest. He just fills out your deficiency and makes you a complete thing. It is no use a man saying he was born deficient in patience, because there is all the patience of Jesus to complete his impatience; no use for a man to complain of weakness or cowardice, when any kind of want comes, which has been permitted to come into his life that he might learn to appropriate the fulness of Christ. So the apostle gloried in his infirmity, because he said--the smaller the segment is the more of a complement I get, and a man may even be proud in a sense of the natural deficiencies of his nature, because he is thrown back upon Jesus Christ, in whom everything is stored to make him a saint. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Called us to glory and virtue.--

A glimpse of glory

I. That whereby a Christian may have title, interest, and comfort, in life and glory. It is not a knowledge of calling in general, but of that particular calling of ourselves to glory and virtue. This doth interest us in the promises of God (Act_2:39). No calling, no promise. Nay, further, without this there is no encouragement to holiness (1Ti_6:12). By our calling, which is by an eternal purpose and grace of God in time, changing and renewing us unto holiness of life, we come to know the eternal decree of God, which otherwise were presumption to look unto. For, as a princes secret mind is made known by edicts and proclamations, which before we durst not search into, neither could know, so when Gods secret counsel to execution is manifested, by changing our hearts, by calling us from the world to an holy calling, in a sanctified life: this, then, is no presumption, but duty in us, by our calling, to judge of our election, and so of our calling to glory and virtue. If you look for an example of this, see that of St. Paul (Gal_2:20).

II. That this knowledge of our particular calling is one of the strongest motives unto all goodness. So we see the apostles in their opinions still urge holiness and sanctification from this ground of the assurance of calling and election (Gal_5:13; Eph_4:2; Col_3:12). He that hath no assurance of this calling can have little comfort in performing of holy duties. A fearful, doubting soul lives in much vexation.

Use 1: The first is against all such as oppose this doctrine, chiefly the Papists, who are for that, that a man should not inquire after the assurance of his salvation.

Use 2. The second is, that every man then must try his title, what calling he hath.

Use 3: The third is for instruction. If this be so, let not then any man dare to confound the external calling of men with the internal calling of God. Further, how precious this calling should be unto us, we may see (Luk_10:20). Here is only cause of true joy. By this then be sure to take thy warrant of rejoicing, fetch it out of this calling, that God hath called thee to glory and virtue, which is the next thing to consider of; our calling to glory and virtue; I mean a consideration of these things whereunto we are called, glory and virtue.

1. Glory. Glory is the end of all. The glory of God is the furthest reach and end of all things, and virtue is the way leading unto glory. This glory then we speak of is the reward of goodness, and is ever attended with virtue. For as shame and sin still go together, so do glory and virtue, even by the testimony of the consciences of all good and ill men. The glory then we speak of is an eternal glory. It is not meant, when he says called to glory, that a Christian is only called unto that, and unto nothing else by the way, but by the way he is called unto virtue, and by occasion unto afflictions. But Gods end of calling us is unto glory; as 1Th_2:12. This glory is only of His mercy, from whence glory floweth unto us; mercy is the ground thereof. What shall I say of

(2) Be thankful to the Giver, not only for spiritual, but even for temporal things. It is not enough to take the whole loaves, but let us even gather up the fragments. And if God gives all to us, let us give something to Him. Not only my goods, but myself.

(3) Be not proud, arrogate not that to thyself which is Gods gift.

5. These promises are signed, sealed, delivered, and bound with an oath.

(1) God hath put His hand to them in the gospel.

(2) The two sacraments are the seals.

(3) They are delivered to us (Rom_8:15). Use: From the stability of Gods promises to us let us learn to be constant in the performance of our promise, both to God and to man.

II. An inheritance. Gods nature may be participated two ways, of quality and of equality.

1. For equality: this is only proper to the three Persons of the Trinity.

2. Our participation must be only qualitative: by nature we understand not substance, but quality, by grace in this world and by glory in the world to come. This communication of the Divine nature to us is by reparation of the Divine image in us (Heb_12:10; Eph_4:24; Rom_8:29).

(1) As servants of a Master; not merely as creatures; so all men partake (Act_17:28).

(2) As subjects of a Prince; and thus we partake with the King of heaven in many benefits.

(3) As sons of a Father: thus we partake many things of the Divine nature.

(4) As members of a Head (1Co_12:27).

(5) As branches of a Vine (Joh_15:1-27.).

III. A deliverance.

1. The discovery of great danger.

(1) The infection, corruption of lust. It gets into the thoughts, senses, tongue, hands, etc.

(2) The dispersion through the world. Consider the villainy, misery, inconstancy, insufficiency of it.

2. The recovery. We have escaped, not by our power, but by His grace that hath delivered us (Psa_124:7). There is a fourfold manner of freeing captives.

(1) By manumission (Joh_8:36).

(2) By commutation. Christ was killed; we escaped.

(3) By ransom (1Ti_2:6; 1Pe_1:19).

(4) By violence (2Ti_4:17). God did all this for us, and shall we do nothing for Him, for ourselves? (Thos. Adams.)

The promises of God

I. The excellency of the Divine promises. The promises of Scripture are generally declarations which God has made of His intention to bestow blessings upon His faithful people. Under the Old Testament dispensation the promises mainly related to the future advent of the Messiah. The Christian covenant is, in fact, one comprehensive promise (Jer_31:33-34; Jer_32:40; Heb_8:6-12). So that illumination, pardon, holiness, and union with God--that is, all imaginable mercies--are included in this one rich and overflowing promise.

II. The design for which these promises are given--that by these you might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The two designs of the promises, then, are a deliverance from the corruptions of the world and a participation of the purity of God. What this corruption is need scarcely be described. Men by their concupiscence and ungoverned passions corrupt each other. The Divine nature stands opposed to all this corruption. We are to be holy as God is holy.

1. That this is the direct tendency of the Divine promises may appear, first, from the consideration that it is in the view of His love and grace as displayed in the gospel of His Son, which God is pleased chiefly to employ to win the heart to His service.

2. The assurances of assistance offered to us in the promises tend also directly to promote holiness. The promise of forgiveness excites us to forsake sin; the promise of inward grace to mortify it.

3. Again, the condition annexed to the promises make them the powerful means of producing in us conformity to the Divine nature. These are frequently expressed. To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God. The meek will He guide in judgment.

4. But I ask once more, What is the matter of Gods promises--what are the blessings themselves which they hold out to us? Do they not all either imply holy obedience or directly include it? Repentance, faith, love, joy, hope, peace, strength, communion with God, are subjects of the promises; and what are these but parts of sanctification?

5. I ask, again, what are the direct and necessary effects of such promises, when they are received? They are the nutriment of faith which worketh by love. They inspire hope which purifies the heart even as God is pure. They work therefore not as an opiate to stupefy, but as a medicine to restore. And all this they do, not by a mere natural process, but by the gracious appointment of God.

III. The test which it furnishes of our state before God. If men will put a general notion of Gods mercy in the place of His promises; if they will substitute a form of godliness for a Divine nature, and a mere decency and good order before others, for an escape from the corruption which is in the world through lust, they must perish. (D. Wilson, M. A.)

Great and precious promises

Did you ever hear the story how, once upon a, time, a dove moaned and mourned to her fellow-birds of the tyranny of the hawk--the doves great foe? One advised her to keep below; but the hawk can stoop for his prey. Another said, Soar aloft; but the hawk could soar as high as she could. Another said, Fly to the woods; but the woods are the very palace and court of the cruel hawk; safety could not be found there. And another said, Fly to the towns; but there she was in danger of being caught by man, who might even make her a sport for the hawk. At last one said, Fly to the holes of the rocks. Violence cannot surprise the dove there. Thus it is with the soul of man distressed and fearful. Come to me, says Riches, and I will shelter you. No, Wealth is only the devils lure, and, by and by, his rein and his spur. Conic to me, says Pleasure; but she is the very Delilah of the soul, to betray you to the Philistines. Honour says, Come to me; but there is no assurance in any of these. No. Oh, ye that dwell in cities and repose in wealth or pleasure or honour, there is safety in Jesus or nowhere. Leave the cities and dwell in the rock--in the Rock of Ages--fly to the promises, and be like the dove that maketh her nest by the side of the holes mouth.

I. Consider the promises. Ah, if we practically realised the might, the majesty, and the meaning of Gods promises, how happy they would often make us l The astronomer, when he knows that the hour of the planet draws nigh, prepares his glasses and climbs his highest towers, and through its bright farseeing eyes he watches and he waits till he beholds it come labouring along its infinite way. And when it has shone through the darkness its hour or its season, then it fades down again into the darkness till another season shall come, and, perhaps, another astronomer hails its beams. So the promises of God are made to conditions, and they shine like constellations. Oh, sweet garden of the promises! But are they not rather like trees--exceeding great and precious promises? It seems to me, when I study the life of the promises, I come as into a vast and stately forest, planted by the glorious men of God in old time by His will and word; and they are, the fir tree, the pine, and the box together. There are the cedars of Lebanon, which He hath planted; and, like all trees, they are fit for meditation and fruit and use. How cool it is to walk amongst the promises! They are quiet places, and sacred and secret ways, where God, in an especial manner, meets with mans soul. When the glorious sun strikes down, how the promises stretch out their cool arms; and when storms are in the heavens they cannot strike through these boughs. And so every promise conceals or reveals some biography--some way of God in a human soul. Poor Bilney, that noble martyr, lost all comfort after he had recanted till he found the words, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Beza found the life of his hope in words which I can never forget: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I will give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. Some of the fathers divided the promises into Pabulum fidei, and Anima fidei--Food of faith, and the Soul of faith. Oh, thou of little faith, see yonder is the state; but do you not see the sunshine falling over it?--those arrowy flakes of gold, they are the promises--the exceeding great and precious promises: when you come to that darkness, fear not, but you shall inherit that light.

II. Exceeding great and precious. Do but think how wonderful it is that God should make Himself known by man. And all Gods works are promises. They are tokens of holiness, and wisdom, and faithfulness. Why do you plant an acorn? Does it not contain a promise? Infinite value is placed here. And methinks if we did but read the works and ways of God in nature aright we should see everywhere the promise of our future. Oh, when I can stand on the great mountain chains of the Bible, what a view I have! And do not promises strengthen? Our whole life is maintained by promise. Without promise we should sink into the deepest places of despair. We need spiritual tonics. We need them to destroy our unhealthy consciousness, which is only another name for weakness. And how glorious that, by these promises, we are able to look beyond the tomb; yes, by them we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust and see our fair inheritance there. But remember one great condition by which you know your relation to the promise--escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. Here, you see, is the great condition. Have you escaped the corruption? Till you breathe in purer air you cannot expect to breathe the sweetness of this promise. Obedience first, then recompense. (E. P. Hood.)

The promises of God

I. Their greatness will appear if we consider their Author. They derive importance and value from the holiness of God in all its glory, from His justice in all its inflexibility. Finally, they must derive importance from His infinite benevolence and mercy in which they originated, of which they are the magnificent expression and all the resources of which they open. Is there not an important sense, then, in which these promises are as precious, as great as God is glorious? Those, therefore, who neglect them despise Jehovah Himself when making the most interesting appeals to their hearts, and involve themselves in guilt and wickedness proportionable to the glories of the Divine character.

II. The greatness and value of the promises will appear if we consider them in their own nature and properties, or, if we attend to their intrinsic worth. In estimating the value of promises, this is the chief consideration. No matter what may be the rank or character of the promiser, or what the relation in which he stands to us. The promise cannot be denominated great and precious if it relates to an insignificant object or to one that does not meet our exigencies. The great consideration here is: suppose the promises to be accomplished, and all the good that is contained in them enjoyed, will all our capacities be filled? Shall we be completely delivered from all dangers and enemies? Shall we be raised to the perfection of our nature? If so, but not otherwise, the promises, the value of which we are endeavouring to estimate, are exceeding great and precious. Now, tried by this criterion, the promises to which the apostle refers will appear to be fully entitled to the epithets under consideration. For when they are all accomplished in heaven, what want will remain unsupplied? what capacity unfilled, even to overflowing? what danger or enemy will threaten, what desirable good will not be possessed? What will then be wanting to complete the dignity and happiness of human nature?

III. Consider the medium through which these promises have been made, or the way in which these blessings are secured and conferred, and they, too, will show that they are indeed exceeding great and precious. God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and, therefore, making all the promises through Him. All the promises of God are in Him yea, and in Him Amen. They are all made and confirmed in Him. In Him who, though He was the brightness of His Fathers glory, and the express image of His Person, the Lord, the Creator of angels, and the object of their worship, became the Babe of Bethlehem, the sufferer on the Cross. In Him who, by the exercise of every grace of which innocent human nature is capable, and the performance of every duty in their very perfection, and that in the most difficult circumstances, met all the demands of an absolutely perfect law. In Him, who, by making His life, His blood, His soul an offering for sin by drinking, to the very dregs, the bitter cup of Divine wrath, secured all the blessings contained in the promises.

IV. Consider the number and variety of the promises. We have given to us not an exceeding great and precious promise merely, but exceeding great and precious promises relating to all the endless variety of the believers wants and circumstances and dangers and duties: to prosperity and to adversity, to the body and to the soul, to time and to eternity, to earth and to heaven.

V. Consider next the suitableness of these promises, and this, too, will prove that they are exceeding great and precious. A promise may be valuable in itself, and as it regards the blessing which it exhibits; and yet it may be to the individuals to whom it is made of no importance because it is not suitable to their circumstances. How valuable to some would be the promise of a large sum of money, of a rich and extensive estate, of a crown! What are they to the man who is the victim of a mortal disease, who has only a few moments longer to live? Behold, he is at the point to die, and what are riches and crowns to him? How valuable is a promise of pardon to a convicted and condemned malefactor! But what is it to the man who glories in his innocence and virtue and claims the protection of the law, and the blessings of life as his right? But the promises of the gospel are as suitable to our circumstances as they are great and wonderful in themselves. They secure light to those who are in darkness, and rich supplies to those who are perishing of hunger, and pardon to those who are guilty and condemned.

VI. Consider the immutability of these promises, and this will show that they are exceeding great and precious. How inexcusable, then, is unbelief!

VII. On account of their influence the promises may well be denominated exceeding great and precious. The promises of men often exert an injurious influence on those to whom they are made. They dazzle the eyes of the mind, enkindle a flame of unhallowed feelings, lead astray from the path of duty, and thus prove the most dangerous temptations to sin. How many have been led by them to act a foolish, a base, a disgraceful part! By seeking the honour that comes from men they have lost all the honour that comes from God. But the influence of the promises of the gospel is always beneficial. They ever enlighten and sanctify and stimulate to act wise and noble part. This must be the case, for they make those who embrace them partakers of the Divine nature and keep from the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now we may infer from what has been advanced--

1. That the Bible is an exceedingly great and precious book, for it contains all these promises.

2. We may learn whether or not we are personally, actually interested in these promises.

3. How great the folly and guilt, how wretched the state of those who despise all these promises and reject all these blessings!

4. Remember that the Bible contains not only exceeding great and precious promises, but exceedingly great and terrible threatenings, and the latter are as dreadful as the former are glorious. (W. Scott.)

Divine promises

I. The means whereby God conveys His grace to us, viz., the promises of the gospel.

1. Their excellency is set forth by two adjuncts. They are exceeding great and precious. The one noteth their intrinsic worth and value; they are exceeding great. The other, our esteem of them; they deserve to be precious to us.

2. Their freeness: given, made freely, made good freely.

II. The end and use of them: that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature; that is, the communicable excellence of God.

1. Because these are communicated to us by God; they are created in us by His Divine power. We have them by virtue of our communion with Him. They flow from God, as the light doth from the sun.

2. Because by these perfections we somewhat resemble God. Therefore it is said (1Pe_2:9), We show forth His praises, His virtues or Divine attributes, His wisdom, goodness, bounty, holiness; for in these we most resemble Him.

III. the way, method, and order how we receive this benefit of the Divine nature. Having first escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. As we die to sin, the Divine nature increaseth in us. There is a putting off before there can be a putting on (Eph_4:22-24).

1. What is to be avoided: The corruption that is in the world through lust. Observe, sin is called corruption as often in Scripture, because it is a blasting of our primitive excellency and purity (Gen_6:12; Psa_14:1). Observe, the seat of this corruption is said to be in the world, where lust and all uncleanness reigneth, therefore called the pollutions of the world (chap. 2:20). The generality of men are defiled with them, corrupted in their faith, worship, and manners; therefore conversion is called for under these terms (Act_2:40). Lastly, observe that this corruption is said to reign in the world through lust. Besides the bait there is the appetite; it is our naughty affections that make our abode in the world dangerous.

2. The manner of shunning, in the word escaping. There is a flying away required, and that quickly, as in the plague, or from a fire which hath almost burned us, or a flood that breaketh in upon us. We cannot soon enough escape from sin (Mat_3:7; Heb_6:18). No motion but flight becomes us in this case. Doctrine: That the great end and effect of the promises of the gospel is to make us partakers of the Divine nature.

I. Let us consider the effect or end.

1. That it is a natural, not a transient effect. There may be such a sense of the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as may produce a sudden passion; as suppose of fear or love. It may only affect us for the present, but inferreth no change of heart and life. But the promises of the gospel are to breed in us such a temper of heart as may be a second nature to us, a habit or constitution of soul that may incline us to live to God. A habit serveth for this use, that a man may act easily, pleasantly, and constantly.

(1) To act easily. There is an inclination and propensity to holiness.

(2) To act pleasantly. They have not only a new bias and tendency, but it is a delight to do what is holy (Psa_40:8), as being in their element when they are thus employed.

(3) It is a constant principle of holy operations, so that a man doth not only obey God easily, but evenly, and without such frequent interruptions of the holy life.

2. It is a Divine nature; that is, not only such as floweth from God, but may carry some resemblance with Him or to Him. It floweth from God, for we are partakers; it is but a ray from His excellency, and it carrieth a likeness to Him, or cometh nearer to the nature of God Himself than anything that a man is capable of. Now this is said for two reasons--

(1) To show the dignity of it. Nothing known to man is so like God as a sanctified soul. The saints have their Makers express image; therefore if God be excellent and holy, they are so. The image and picture of God and Christ is in them, not made by a painter or carver, but by the Holy Ghost (2Co_3:18).

(2) To show the quality and condition of it. You must have a new nature, and such a nature as may be a Divine nature. If you have nothing above natural men or corrupt nature, you are strangers to the promises of the gospel.

3. This Divine nature may be considered three ways. Either--

(1) As begun; when we are first renewed in the spirit of our minds, and regenerated according to the image of God (Eph_4:23-24).

(2) As increased; when more like God in a conspicuous degree.

(3) As it is perfected in heaven; for there we have the nearest communion with God, and so the highest conformity to Him that we are capable of (1Jn_3:2).

II. Let us now see the means by which God doth accomplish this effect: To us are given great and precious promises.

1. It is an instance of Gods love, that He will deal with us in the way of promises.

(1) A promise is more than a purpose; for the purpose and intention of a man is secret and hidden in his own bosom, but a promise is open and manifest. Thereby we get the knowledge of the good intended to us.

(2) It is more than a doctrinal declaration. It is one thing to reveal a doctrine, another to promise a benefit; that maketh a thing known, this maketh a thing sure, and upon certain terms; that gives us notice, but this gives us interest.

(3) It is more than a prophecy or simple prediction. Scripture prophecies will be fulfilled because of Gods veracity; but Scripture promises will be fulfilled, not only because of Gods veracity, but also His fidelity and justice; for by Gods promise man cometh to have a right to the thing promised.

2. The promises of the new covenant are of a most glorious and valuable nature. They are not about small things, or things of little moment, but about worthy and dear-bought blessings.

3. They are precious promises, worthy of our esteem; for they are not about things that we have nothing to do with, but such wherein we are deeply and intimately concerned. In Gods promises there is due provision made for the desires, necessities, and wants of mankind.

4. All this is given to us wretched men without any desert of ours; nay, we had deserved the contrary.

III. The influence of the one upon the other; or, how do these promises promote the Divine nature?

1. From their drift, which is, to draw us from the creature to God, and the world to heaven; to mortify the esteem of the false happiness which corrupteth our natures; and to raise us to those noble objects and ends which dignify and adorn the soul, and make it in a sort Divine. It breedeth an excellent spirit in us, which is carried above the world, and the hopes and fears of it (1Co_2:12).

2. The matter of the promises. Many of which concern the change of our hearts, the cleansing or healing of our natures (Heb_8:10; Eze_36:25-26; Jer_33:8).

3. The conditions or terms on which our right is suspended. Not pardon without repentance (Act_3:19). Not heaven or eternal life without holiness (Heb_12:14).

4. The power with which the promises are accompanied (Col_1:3). The Divine nature is communicated to us by virtue of the promises; for the Spirit is our sanctifier, and He works by congruous means.

Use 1. Believe the promises, for they are most sure and certain. Gods testimony of the good things He will bestow upon us cannot deceive us, or beget a vain and uncertain hope.

Use 2. Esteem them (Heb_11:13).

Use 3. Labour to improve the belief of every promise for the increase of holiness, that we may be like God, pure and holy as He is (2Co_7:1). (T. Manton, D. D.)

Exceeding great and precious promises

I. First, the source of all the promises is shown by this same apostle to be the abundant mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Pe_1:3-5). By whatever name called, in whatever dispensation or method made known, the abundant mercy of the ever-blessed God has been the great original, only source of promise to man.

II. Their character. They are exceeding great, or, as the Rhemish version literally translates it, most great. As the announcements of Divine mercy concerning the provisions of redemption for man, we may expect the promises to be so great as to meet all the wants and woes of our fallen nature.

1. One wide, deep, and long-felt want of our spiritual nature is--light. The most enlightened Pagans but guessed at immortality, and felt after the true God among a rabble of false ones. Need I point out to you how Jesus Christ is thus the Desire of all nations? To Him, as the true Light, gave all the prophets witness. Pleasant to the eyes, cheering to the heart, indispensable to labour, assuring to the traveller, longed for by the watchman, an indispensable condition of all healthy growth, and therefore of life, light is in every language the symbol of truth; and as Jesus Christ is the brightness of the Fathers glory, so His gospel is the light of lights in all these respects to believing souls.

2. Another deep-felt want of the human soul is the craving for peace with God. Wherever the religious instincts have been awakened, their most poignant conscious ness has been that of guilt, a dread of the Invisible, and a fearful looking for of judgment. Hence all the self-torments of superstition, and the altars and offerings of Paganism, past and present. And of all the promises of God, none are more exceeding great and precious than those which invite, intreat, beseech men to be reconciled unto God, on the ground of the great propitiation of Jesus Christ for sin. They are more precious than the royal warrant that releases the death-doomed culprit; they are our passport and safe-conduct into present safety and eternal life.

3. Thus we might proceed in regard to every want of the human spirit. Does the quickened soul pant for self-harmony and purity, crying, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me? Then one of a thousand promises uttered from the heart of God replies, I will sprinkle dean water upon you; from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you; a new heart will I give unto you, and a new spirit will I put within you.

4. Does the heart, pre-designed for Divine love and fellowship, feel restless for its adapted element--a good which it knows not, and without which it must inly burn and pine for ever? To all this multitude of weary, feverish souls there comes from the Father of spirits such exceeding great and precious promises as these: Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: and he that hath no money, come.

5. Again, does the universal soul of man believe in and anticipate immortal life? Does the savage from his instincts, and the sage from his reasonings, expect to live for ever? Does even the bad man inly shudder at the prospect of annihilation, and the good man long for immortality? Then the certainty, the nature, and the path of endless life are the subject-matter of transcendently great and precious promises.

6. Finally, as to the wants of the soul and their Divinely promised supply. The life and immortality--rather incorruptibility--brought to light by the promises of the gospel meet another demand of our nature--the resurrection from the dead. And are they not precious--precious as the free pledges of sovereign, paternal, everlasting grace?--precious as the fruits of Jesus death-enduring love?--precious as the subject of the Comforters ministry to the heart, and the medium of His sanctifying energy therein? They are precious for their past beneficent history in healing wounded spirits and raising fainting hearts. Their greatness and preciousness have been in part realised by the first advent of Christ and this present dispensation of the Spirit. This, however, is but the introduction to the vast volume of good things yet to come. The sons of God are now adopted, but not manifested.

III. This is rendered still more evident by the design of the promises: That we might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

1. This declaration inevitably implies that man has lost that participation in the Divine nature which is called the image of God, and which consisted in spiritual knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness.

2. It also implies that there is in mans nature, however fallen, a constitutional capacity (though we know, alas! a deep disinclination) to receive back and reflect the moral character of God.

3. It suggests that all the needful influences are given by the God of the promises, and lie within our reach for the recovery of the Divine nature; and that God holds us responsible for the earnest, prayerful use of those gracious means whereby we may grow into His likeness, and ascend to fellowship with Himself.

4. And this involves most inspiring views of what redeemed humanity may attain even on earth, much more in heaven.

5. This fellowship with God is the only means of escaping the infectious pollutions of moral evil that abound in the world on every side, and that spring from the desires of the heart turned from God to impure and forbidden objects.

6. The promises, then, are indispensable to the attainment of this end. They reveal the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and assure the gift of the Holy Spirit to renew and inhabit the soul. (John Graham.)

The efficacy of the promises

What is the whereby with which the passage commences? designating, as it appears to do, some channel of communication. There are here several antecedents to which the whereby may be grammatically referred; but, without examining a variety of critical opinions, it appears to me the most obvious course to take the concluding words, glory and virtue, as the antecedent which we are in search of; the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue; whereby--that is, through which glory and virtue--are given to us exceeding great and precious promises. We are called to glory and to virtue--to a warfare that is full of honour, but at the same time full of difficulty, requiring much wisdom and vigour in the combatant. If we obey this calling, and throw ourselves into the conflict, then the struggle in which we are engaged will be the best witness that we are the elect of the Most High. Having this witness, we possess an assurance that the promises of the Bible are spoken specially to ourselves. Now, having thus cleared up the connection between the text and the context, it still remains that I vindicate the description that is here made of the promises given in the Bible. Yet, can this be necessary? If there be a spiritual solicitude for which the Bible contains not a word in season; if there be a doubt which is left without a message to disperse it; if there be an anxiety which is passed by without a whisper to soothe it; and if there be a tear which it dries not; then I will give up the description, and pronounce it overdrawn. But in nothing has God so manifested His wisdom as in the precision with which His Word meets the wants of His people. It were idle to attempt to descend into particulars. Exceedingly great are the promises of the Bible; great in their sweep, for they leave no circumstance unattended to; great in their power, for they bring all the magnificence of eternity to bear on the solicitudes of time. And precious are the promises, as well as great. He who can appropriate them has blessings which no arithmetic can reckon, a security which no contingency can shake, and a help which never can be without use. But there is no need that I insist further on the character that the text gives of the promises. Those who have proved them acknowledge them to be exceeding great and precious; they who have proved them not, want, alas! the spiritual ardour by which their character is to be discerned, and are therefore not to be convinced by the most elaborate description. We all profess to believe that once on the earth the spectacle was exhibited of the human nature adopted into union with the Divine. There was the perfect instance of one of our race being made partaker of the Divine nature: I need scarcely add that the instance will stand for ever by itself; and that the sense in which we alone can share in the nature of God differs from that in which Christ Jesus had share. He had it in essence--we in conformity; He by being God--we only by being renewed after the image of God. The Greek might more strictly be rendered partakers of a Divine nature, and not of the Divine nature. Now, the point which yet remains to be investigated, is the agency of the promises in effecting such a change; for, you will observe, that whilst partaking of the Divine nature is the result, the promises are the means through which it is brought about. Exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature. The machinery exhibited in the Bible when a spiritual transformation is in question, is the influence of the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the blessed Trinity. We may be assured, therefore, that when any other machinery is brought on the stage, we are to understand that it is effectual, not through its inherent energies, but only through its being actuated by that Agent. The promises in themselves have no power to animate; but if I believe in the promise, then the promise becomes a quickening thing; and that which as spoken was merely sound that melted into air is now a radiant star which rules me and guides me by the brilliancy of its light. We shall take for granted, in all we say of the power of the promises, that the power is derived from faith, and faith from the Holy Ghost; and we go on to show in the first place the power which promises wield over men in ordinary things, and in the second place, the influence which they exert over Christians in particular. If you took a rapid survey of the various classes and occupations of men, you would find that almost every one is submitting himself to the power of promise. If you enter the crowded marts of commerce, or pass through the courtly circles of ambition, or sit with the student in his secluded chamber, or accompany the dissolute into the haunts of pleasure, the same pursuit is in each case carried on; they are all hunting after some fancied good, which, though it may cheat them at last, engages them at present. Some busy spirit has been whispering into the ear of every man whom you meet, that if he will but follow this course, or that course, he shall attain the object of his desire. And the greatest marvel is, that although the experience of successive ages has shown there is a lie in each of these promises, they nevertheless attain the same credit as ever. If it could, however, come suddenly to pass that an arrest was put on this circulation of promise, there would be an instant standstill in the busy scenes of human occupation. And I need hardly point out how amplified would be the power of promise if there were anything like an assurance of fulfilment. If men can do such things on chance, what will they do on certainty? Now I turn from this rapid survey of the power which promise wields over men in general; and I ask you whether, if you turn the uncertainty of promise into certainty, you may not expect to find the power a thousand times greater which is wielded over Christians in particular? The defects in promise are here done away With; the result which is desired not only may take place, but shall take place. And if a promise, which is both indefinite in its terms and insecure in its pledges, be the efficient thing we have already described, who shall marvel that where the terms are the noblest, and the pledges are the strongest, it shall lead those who believe to work out their salvation with the fear and trembling of men who know themselves to have eternity at stake? I will seek, however, to dissect this point a little more nicely; for it is both of interest and importance. Escaping the pollution that is in the world, we account to be the same thing as being made partakers of the Divine nature. It is by escaping pollution, by withdrawing from the trammels and habits of sinfulness, that this partnership in the celestial character is procured; and if we can show that it is by the promises that pollution is escaped, it will follow that it is through the promises that conformity to the Divine nature is attained. But whether it be by promises or by threatenings that the work is commenced, assuredly it is by promise that the work is carried on. Is the believer disheartened when he considers the might of his spiritual enemies? the promise is kindly whispered, God shall bruise Satan under thy feet shortly. He takes courage, and wrestles with the enemy. Is he confounded at the view of indwelling corruption? God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able to bear. Are kinsmen and friends alienated from him on account of his profession of godliness? What sustains him but this?--When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Does prayer seem unanswered? Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Do sorrows seem multiplied? All things work together for good to them that love God. Is his progress in the life of faith scarcely perceptible? Where God hath begun a good work, He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. You see, then, that promises are mighty engines in the hands of Gods Spirit. It is by these souls are animated to prayer; it is by these they are prepared for warfare; it is by these they are warmed in love; it is by these they are cheered on in their way after holiness. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Precious promises

What makes a promise precious?

1. The thing promised must be valuable.

2. He who promises must be truthful.

3. He who promises must be able to perform. (W. Lawson, D. D.)

The Divinely assimilating force of Divine promises

Christianity is a system of promises. Even its doctrines and precepts may be regarded as promises. These promises are exceedingly great in their nature, variety, and influences; they are exceedingly precious too;--precious essentially and relatively in themselves and in their bearings on man.

I. These promises tend to assimilate us to God by giving us an attractive view of His character. Two thoughts will illustrate this point:--

1. Mans moral character is formed on the principle of imitation. There are two wrong developments of this instinct.

(1) When it is directed to the natural peculiarities of others.

(2) When directed to the moral faults of others.

2. Mans imitation is ever directed to that which seems to him beautiful. He will not copy that which appears to him unamiable, unlovely, repulsive. If the Infinite appear to us supremely lovely, He will by the laws of our imitative nature mould us into His own image. Now His promises give us this attractive view of Him. A sincere promise reveals the authors disposition. If the promise is trifling where there are large resources, it indicates a niggardly soul, and the reverse. A sincere promise reveals the authors resources. If great things are promised, the possession of great things are implied. According to these criteria, what infinite kindness and inexhaustible resources do the promises of God reveal!

II. These promises tend to assimilate us to Him by bringing us into personal contact with His character. We must be with a being to become like him. Fellowship is absolutely indispensable. There is on the one hand a giving, and on the other a perpetual receiving. Thus the two are brought together. Both minds meet, as it were, in the promise,

III. These promises tend to assimilate us to Him by giving us a living interest in His character. (Homilist.)

The design of the promises of God

I. In the Divine nature are attributes properly incommunicable; such as cannot, in the nature of things, be imparted; such as cannot be even imitated by creatures. It is peculiar to Him to exist in and from Himself; while a creature is a dependent being, and ever must remain so. It is peculiar to Him to be from everlasting to everlasting. It is peculiar to Him to have supreme dominion. Absolute perfection, that which is liable to no injury, admits of no diminution, is capable of no advancement, is peculiar to Him. Finite cannot equal infinite. It is, then, in moral attributes that we are to look for this participation of the Divine nature; in those which, indeed, constitute the very glory of that nature; the others being adorable as they are exercised and employed by a perfect wisdom, rectitude, and love. But let it be here observed that the promise is not that we shall be raised into something like God; sonic mere imitation of what is morally perfect in Him. We are to be partakers of the Divine nature. There is to be a communication on the part of God, and a reception on our own, of those principles on which all that is pure and holy in God may be said to depend; a communication continued to us, on which the growth and permanency of those principles rest. The moral nature of God, thus to be participated by believers, may be summed up in the three terms.

1. Knowledge. The power of knowing is the property of spiritual beings. It is not merely to perceive in the low degree which belongs to irrational animals, but to apprehend, to remember, to compare, to infer, and from particular to bring out general truths, which are to be laid up in the mind for meditation or action. This knowledge is the knowledge of things as good or evil, as right or wrong, as tending or not tending to our own happiness, and that of the whole creation. Infinitely perfect is this knowledge in God. And by the indwelling of His teaching Spirit, opening these truths to our mind, and rendering us discerning to apply them, He makes us partake, in our degree, of His own knowledge, His infallible judgment of things. Then it is that we walk in the light. We find a sure way for our feet, and so are enabled tot escape the snares of death.

2. Holiness. This is essential to God. It is that principle in Him, whatever it may be, which has led Him to prescribe justice, mercy, and truth, and to prohibit their contraries under penalties so severe; that principle, which is more than a mere approval of the things which He enjoins; which makes Him love righteousness. The holiness of a creature as to actions is, conformity to the will of God, which is the visible declaration of His holy nature. That conformity implies justice, a rendering to all their due; a large duty, referring not only to man, but likewise to God, to whom are to be given the honour and worship He requires from us: perfect truth and sincerity in everything, so that all outward acts shall concur with the heart, and the heart with them; and the strict regulation of every temper and appetite, so that they may be kept within the bounds prescribed, beyond which they become impurity and sin. But there must be principle from which all this must flow, or it is only external and imitative; and that principle is found only in the new man, that which conies from this participation of the Divine nature.

3. But the Divine nature is love. Who can doubt this when he sees the happiness of the creatures so manifestly the end of their creation? when we can trace all misery to another source? when we see the mercies He mixes with His judgments, always bringing some good out of evil? when He spared not His own Son, but gave Him freely for us all?

II. We observe, that the value of the promises of the Gospel is specially displayed by their connection with this end. There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature. To raise men to this state is matter of promise, and therefore of grace. We might have been left to the sin and degradation we had sought. And the promises thus given to us, all of them suppose the covenant of grace. And when we consider their great design to make us partakers of the Divine nature, how clearly and brightly does it display their value! They appear to us of unspeakable value; exceeding great and precious.

1. They are so in respect of the honour which this great attainment puts on man.

2. Consider this value in respect to interest. What is the real interest of man but the attainment of the favour and image of God?

3. Consider this value in.respect of peace. There can be no peace to the wicked. Every evil brings its own punishment with it in the disquietude which it occasions.

4. Consider this value in respect of usefulness. Knowledge is a powerful instrument of God when prompted by benevolence and sustained by consistency of character. And where there is this participation of the Divine nature, there we find all these elements of usefulness, knowledge, holiness, and love.

5. And lastly, consider this value in reference to hope. (R. Watson.)

That by these ye might he partakers of the Divine nature.--

Partakers of the Divine nature

The keynote of the passage is the word Divine, which occupies so conspicuous a place at the commencement and the close. To the momentous questions, What is the source and what the nature of true religion? the sum briefly is--It is a Divine life. Its source is traced to the Divine power of the Mediator, and on its features are stamped the impress of the Divine image.

1. Life and godliness is a comprehensive and practical description of true religion. Life alone, in Scripture, often describes the state of grace, and sums up all the blessings of salvation (1Jn_5:12; Act_5:20). Godliness, also, by itself, often denotes the whole of religion--the whole life of faith (1Ti_3:16; 1Ti_4:7). Employed together they modify each others meaning, and give completeness to the delineation of the Christian life. Life points out its inward source in the heart, godliness its outward manifestations in conduct and character. Be it ours to seek this life. Filled with it, it will show itself in the blossoms and fruits of godliness, And, let us not forget, that if there is no godliness of conduct or character, we want the only sure evidence that life from on high has descended into our souls.

2. Have I escaped from the corruption that is in the world? Worldly life apart from God, and opposed to God, is moral and spiritual death; in its most refined as well as in its grosser forms, in its intellectual as well as in its sensual enjoyments, it has the taint of corruption. Its maxims and morality are unsound. The tie that binds us to the world and its corruption is the corruption of our own hearts. That removed, the magnetic attraction of evil is broken. The world and the renewed nature have no affinity, but repel each other. Like the occupant of the diving-bell, breathing air which is replenished and purified by constant supplies from above, and which, by its elastic force, keeps out the water which presses on every side; so the Christian, breathing the vital air of a heaven-derived life, moves unharmed in the midst of the worlds corruption; surrounding him on every side, it cannot overwhelm.

3. Partakers of the Divine nature! At that momentous change, variously spoken of as a resurrection from the dead, as a new creation, as regeneration, there is communicated to the soul a Divine principle of life which, through grace, gradually transforms the whole man. Nothing less will do as a commencing point for the Christian life as a foundation on which to build a new and Godlike character. By Gods overruling providence and restraining grace and favourable circumstances the worst outbreaks of sin are often prevented, as by the physicians skill the maladies of an unsound constitution may be mitigated. But only by a renewal of the soul, by the communication of the life of God, can we obtain true spiritual health and vigour. Christ then becomes our life. We are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and thus are made partakers of the Divine nature in the only sense possible for creatures. But the fellowship of the renewed soul with God is also embraced in that participation of the Divine nature of which the apostle speaks. Converse with God is the highest bliss of which we are capable. The life that has descended from God into our hearts rises up to Him again in desire and love, and the new nature in us subsists by communion with the source whence it is derived. (W. Wilson, M. A.)

The promises designed to make men holy

I. The scriptures often declare this to be a principal design of the Divine promises. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Whatever is necessary to encourage, to cheer, to strengthen, to prompt in the course of holy obedience, is derived by constant appeals and illustrations from the promises of God.

II. We argue the same thing from the character of man as a moral being, and the purpose of God toward him. The great purpose of God toward man is to perfect his moral character through moral influence. But where is this influence furnished? in what are these motives presented, if not in the blessings promised as the reward of obedience? If God by these promises intended merely to comfort His people by quieting their fears and awakening their hopes, why are not His promises absolute and unconditional securities?

III. From the direct practical tendency of the promises of God. There is no higher evidence of the design to be answered by the appointments of God than the true tendency of such appointments.

1. Such is the tendency of the Divine promises, as they remove every obstacle to personal holiness. To rouse man to holy activity the promise of God is indispensable. You may show him an opening hell, but without a promise revealing a pardoning God and opening heaven he will never stir. With such promises all the hopelessness and despair of escaping the curse is taken away by the assurance of favour and reward to obedience. Without the promises there would remain also another obstacle of paralysing influence--the impracticability of obedience without the grace of God. But with the promise of a faithful God sounding in his ears, My grace is sufficient for thee, how will he rise, as it were, in the consciousness of that strength, which shall be perfected in his weakness, and enter the career of obedience with the inspiration of hope!

2. This tendency is apparent in the nature of the blessings promised. Whether we look at the general or specific nature of the Divine promises we see that they cannot become effectual as motives without producing holiness. What are the promises of God? Peace of conscience is promised. But who can think of escaping the reproaches of this inward monitor except by the practice of holiness? Is justification unto life promised? But who can be influenced by this blessing as a motive, and still wish to incur the guilt and the condemnation of sin? Is heaven promised? but what is there in heaven but an influence of transformation into the likeness of the God who reigns there?

3. The same tendency is apparent in the circumstances or mode of the Divine promises. Such is the manner of Gods promises as to secure to the utmost their full energy on the soul. While the holiness of man is their ultimate end, there is no sensibility or interest of man to which they do not appeal, and aim to render subservient to that end. They create no interference, but insure a perfect coincidence between mans temporal and eternal well-being.

4. The same tendency is apparent from the number and magnitude of the blessings promised.

Remarks:

1. We see the error of those who aim to derive comfort only from the Divine promises. To say nothing of the prostration of the Divine law thus involved, the notion is a direct perversion of the very promises of God, which are pleaded as its warrant. Where is the promise of life except to patient continuance in well-doing? Others there are who make the application of the promises to depend on the belief of their own personal interest in them, us if to believe ones self to be interested in the promises of God really made us so. This perversion is equally gross. The promises of God given to promote holiness, and made to nothing but holiness, do these secure an interest in their blessings to him who has no holiness? There is yet another error nearly allied to these, and still more common. There are those who, though they deny not that the only warrant for the hopes of the gospel is obedience to the gospel, yet seem practically to disregard the conviction. Their concern is to discover the evidence of an interest in the promises, rather than to create that evidence, by increasing their holiness.

2. How great are the obligations of the people of God to holy obedience! (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)

The influence of the promises of the gospel

Not that we can partake of the essence and nature of God, as some have blasphemously affirmed. For this would be for men to become gods, and to be advanced to the state and perfection of the Deity.

I. By way of internal efficacy and assistance. And this influence the promise of Gods Holy Spirit, and of His gracious help, hath upon the minds of men, inclining them to that which is good, and enabling them to do it. For the Holy Spirit is promised to us, in consideration and commiseration of that impotency which we have contracted.

II. By way of motive and argument, to encourage us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God. For--

1. A full pardon and indemnity for what is past is a mighty encouragement for us to return to our duty, and a forcible argument to keep us to it for the future.

2. The promise of Gods grace and Holy Spirit is likewise a very powerful encouragement to holiness, encouraging us hereto by this consideration, that we have so unerring a guide to counsel and direct us, so powerful an assistant to strengthen us with all might in the inner man.

3. The promise of eternal life and happiness, if duly considered, hath a mighty force in it, to take us off from the love and practice of sin, and to encourage our obedience and patient continuance in well-doing.

All that now remains is to make some useful reflections upon what hath been discoursed upon these two heads.

1. If we expect the benefits of these exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel, we must be careful to perform the conditions which are indispensably required on our parts.

2. From hence we learn that if the promises of the gospel have not this effect upon us, to make us partakers of a Divine nature, it is our own fault, and because we are wanting to ourselves.

3. If the promises of the Christian religion are apt in their own nature to work this great effect upon us, to make us like to God, to make us good, and just, and merciful, how doth this upbraid the degenerate state of the Christian world at this day, which does so abound in all kind of wickedness and impiety; so that we may cry out, upon reading the gospel: Either this is not the gospel which we read and the Christian religion which we profess, or we are no Christians. (Abp. Tillotson.)

Partakers of the Divine nature

Partakers of the Divine nature, which is to say, taking part in the Divine nature. Not simply like God, but in a way shareholders in Him; something, possibly, as the waves of the sea are partakers in the sea, something, it may be, as the leaves of a tree share in the life of the tree. We are not afraid of widening out the area of our humanity along the line of its upward frontier. Man differs in one very peculiar regard from the brute; not only in moving in a higher range of life and experience, but in not being tethered to any fixed condition. The brute is a brute, and always a brute. Improve your dog, and he will still be brutal; debase your dog, and he will still be brutal, and evince no symptoms of dropping to a lower grade of being. Once a dog, always a dog! On the contrary, there is a just sense in which you can say of humanity, that it is not so much a condition as it is a position of poise between two alternative conditions. It is like standing at the halfway point on the Gemmi Pass in Switzerland. You look down to the profound depths beneath you, or you turn and look up to the superb heights above you, but you are not going to stop there, nor to live there. It is not a place to remain, but a place from which to look off. You are either on your way down the pass to Leuker-Bad, or you are on your way up the pass to the Wild-strubel; it is merely a position of poise between two alternative destinations. Ye are partakers of the Divine nature. Our thought now is particularly up the pass, not down. There is more danger in a theology that differences man from God than in one which assimilates man to God. There is, as a rule, more quickening stimulus in the prospect of victory than there is in the danger of defeat. Few men ever become great through fear of remaining small. There is more incentive in trying to get to the top of the class than in trying to keep away from the bottom of it. If God can humanise the Divine to the point of its becoming man, as in the instance of Jesus, what is to hinder Him, in the exercise of the same omnipotence, from deifying man to the point of his becoming Divine? It is no farther from the bottom of the mountain to the top than it is from the top to the bottom. Now that, as we read the gospel, is exactly what the blessed Spirit is trying to do with us. God became like us that we might become like God. He is seeking to lead us back over the same road that tie came down. Partakers of the Divine nature. Now are we the sons of God. It is all in that word sons. There is community through identity. You cannot get sonship in any other way. A loyal son is governed by his father; but it is the best element of that loyalty, not that the son does what the father bids him do, or makes him do, but that the son has his fathers spirit so reproduced in himself, and so become a part of himself and he so a partaker in his fathers nature, that his one act is at the same instant both his act and his fathers act. And when we pray that God will control us by His Spirit, we certainly hardly expect that He is going to put His personality behind us, so as to push us onward; or put His personality in front of us, so as to hold us backward. We would rather mean, would we not, that as children of His, we are bound in the bundle of one life with Him, moving therefore at the impulse of energies that are ours without their ceasing to be His--somewhat, perhaps, as each separate storm-wave rolls in the expression of its own might, which is at the same time a part of the might of the sea; somewhat, perhaps, as each separate leaf or branch grows green in the expression of its own life, which is at the same time a part of the life of the vine. I in you, you in me. Frontier lines gone. One in each other, A single bundle of life, human or Divine, either or both; a shareholder in God; up the Gemmi Pass toward the indistinguishable summit. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)

Partakers of the Divine nature

I. Look, first, at this lofty purpose which is here presented as being the very aim and end of Gods gift in the gospel. The human nature and the Divine are both kindred and contrary. There are no gods of the heathen so far away from their worshippers, and there are none so near them, as our God. The arched heaven, though high, is not inaccessible in its cloudless beauty, but it touches earth all round the horizon; and man is made in the image of God. True, that Divine nature of which the ideal man is the possessor has faded away from humanity. But still the human is kindred with the Divine. The tiniest spark of flame is of the same nature as those leaping, hydrogen spears of illuminated gas that spring hundreds of thousands of miles high in a second or two in the great central sun. But,that kindred, belonging to every soul of man, abject as well as loftiest, is not the partaking of which my text speaks, though it is the basis and possibility of it; for my text speaks of men as becoming partakers. What, then, is it? No mere absorption, as extravagant mystics have dreamed, into that Divine nature, as a drop goes back into the ocean and is lost. There will always be I and thou, or else there were no blessedness, nor worship, nor joy. We must so partake of the Divine nature as that the bounds between the bestowing God and the partaking man shall never be broken down. But that being presupposed, union as close as possible is the great hope that all Christian men and women ought consciously to cherish. Only mark, the beginning of the whole is the communication of a Divine life which is manifested mainly in what we call moral likeness. Partakers we shall be in the measure in which by our faith we have drawn from Him the pure and the hearty love of whatsoever things are fair and noble; the measure in which we love righteousness and hate iniquity. And then, remember also that this lofty purpose which is here set forth is a purpose growingly realised in man. The apostle puts great stress upon that. He is not talking about a being, but about a becoming. That is to say, God must ever be passing, moment by moment, into our hearts if there is to be anything godly there. Cut off the sunbeam from the sun and it dies, and the house is dark; cut off the life from the root and it withers, and the creature shrivels. The Christian man lives only by continual derivation of life from God; and for ever and ever the secret of his being and of his blessedness is not that he has become a possessor, but that he has become a partaker, of the Divine nature. By daily increase we shall be made capable of daily increase.

II. Look, next, at the costly and sufficient means employed for the realisation of this great purpose. Promises here must necessarily, I think, be employed in the sense of fulfilment of the promises. And so we might think of all the great and wondrous words which God has spoken in the past, promises of deliverance, of forgiveness, and the like; but I believe that by these exceeding great and precious promises is meant the unspeakable gift of Gods own Son, and the gift therein and thereafter of Gods life-giving Spirit. For is not this the meaning of the central fact of Christianity, the incarnation--that the Divine becomes partaker of the human in order that the human may partake of the Divine? Contrariety vanishes; the difference between the creature and the Creator disappears.

III. Let me say, lastly, that this great text adds a human accompaniment of that Divine gift, Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Corruption is initial destruction, though of course other forms of life may come from it; destruction is complete corruption. The word means both. A man either escapes from lust and evil, or he is destroyed by it. And the root of this rotting fungus is in lust, which word, of course, is used in a much wider meaning than the fleshly sense in which we employ it in modern times. It means desire of all sorts. The root of the worlds corruption is my own and my brothers unbridled and godless desires. So there are two states--a life plunged in putridity, or a heart touched with the Divine nature. Which is it to be? It cannot be both. A man that has got the life of God, in however feeble measure, in him, will flee away from this corruption like Lot out of Sodom. And how will he flee out of it? By subduing his own desires; not by changing position, not by shirking duty, not by withdrawing himself into unwholesome isolation from men and mens ways. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

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Depravity

I. The source of a tremendous evil. Lust--of flesh, eye, and pride of life.

II. The nature of this evil.

1. Corruption of the physical nature--health damaged, disease engendered.

2. Corruption of the intellect judgment biased, mental powers enfeebled.

3. Corruption of the moral nature--heart polluted.

4. Corruption of the life--the corruption of the intellect and heart having its full development.

III. The escape from the evil.

1. From its tyrannical power and authority.

2. From its baneful effects, both in time and eternity. (Homilist.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe 1:3-4. As his divine power hath given us all things — There is a wonderful cheerfulness in this exordium, which begins with the exhortation itself; that pertain to life and godliness — To the present natural life, and to the continuance and increase of spiritual life, termed here godliness; through the knowledge — The divine and saving knowledge; of him — Christ; that hath called us to glory — Eternal glory hereafter, as the end; and to virtue — Or holiness, as the way leading thereto. Or fortitude, one particular branch of holiness, (frequently meant by the word αρετη,) may be here intended, as it is by the same word, 2Pe 1:5. The original phrase, however, δια δοξης και αρετης, is literally, by, or through glory and virtue; that is, as some understand it, by his glorious power; or the glorious and powerful effusion of the Spirit, as Whitby understands the words. Whereby — By means of which glorious power, or illustrious seal set to the declaration of the gospel; or, as some would render δι ων, for the sake of which things; that is, that we might attain to this glory and virtue; are given unto us great and precious promises — Namely, the promises of the gospel, which he calls great and precious, because the things promised are the grandest that can be conceived by the human mind, and infinitely more valuable than any present enjoyments or expectations: promises of the pardon of sin, of acceptance with God, of his peculiar favour, adoption into his family, and being treated as his sons and daughters; favoured with liberty of access to him, and intercourse with him; with direction in difficulties, protection in dangers, succour in temptations, comfort in troubles, a supply of all our wants, and an assurance that all things shall work for our good; promises of the Spirit of adoption, of regeneration and sanctification, to be sent into our hearts as a pledge and earnest of our future felicity; and, to crown the whole, the promise of everlasting life, felicity, and glory. Both the promises and the things promised, which follow in their due season, are here intended; that by these — By the consideration of, and faith in, these true and faithful promises, and the great and glorious blessings exhibited in, and ensured to, true and persevering believers thereby, you might be encouraged and induced to renounce the world and sin, with every corrupt inclination and affection, design and desire, and be made partakers of the divine nature — Of a new, holy, and heavenly nature, derived from God, through the influence of his Spirit renewing you in his image, and giving you communion with himself so as to dwell in God, and God in you; having escaped the corruption that is in the world — The corrupt customs and habits, principles and practices, that are found in worldly men, εν επιθυμια, through desire, namely, irregular and inordinate desire, the desire of unlawful things, or the immoderate desire of things lawful, that fruitful source of sin and misery.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. God’s great gifts and promises call for rich Christian culture and graces, 2Pe_1:3-9.

3. A proper punctuation commences here a new sentence, which extends through 2Pe_1:7.

According as—Rather, Forasmuch as; laying the foundation for the exhortation in 2Pe_1:5-7.

Given… us all things— Whatever pertains to the work of salvation and the life of holiness is God’s gracious gift, originating in, and bestowed by, him. The all things is, in the Greek, emphatic, and must be taken in the broadest sense, as including whatever is in any way connected with raising us up from the death and ruin of sin to the fulness of the glory of heaven. They are brought to us by his divine power; probably referring less to its operation in their provision, as in the incarnation and resurrection, than to it in the actual gift of salvation.

Life—Spiritual life.

Godliness—Reverential piety toward God. The two words express inward and outward holiness.

Through the knowledge—No mystical rites or superstitious observances can obtain the least of the all things: the declared and successful instrument is knowledge, the coming to a full knowledge. Grace and power are the supernatural essentials to holiness, but they work through the truth received, and in accord with our rational nature.

Him that hath called us—God, yet, nevertheless, our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, as in 2Pe_1:1, and especially because 2Pe_1:8 defines the knowledge as of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To glory and virtue—The best texts agree in reading, By his own glory and virtue. Glory belongs to his Godhead: virtue is, as in the Greek of 1Pe_2:9, his moral excellence and perfections. By all the attributes of his nature he called us to the blessings of the gospel.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According as his Divine power; better, seeing that, as in the Revised Version. The construction is the genitive absolute with wJv. The words are to be closely connected with verse 2: "We need not fear, for God has given us all things that are necessary for our salvation; grace and peace will be multiplied unto us, if only we seek the knowledge of God." This is better than, with Huther and others, to make a full stop after verse 2, and to connect verses 3 and 4 closely with verse 5. The word for "Divine" (qeiov) is unusual in the Greek Testament; it occurs only in two other places verse 4 andomai) Act_17:29. Hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness; rather, as in the Revised Version, hath granted. St. Peter does not here use the ordinary verb for "to give," but one (dwre) which in the New Testament occurs only in this Epistlev) Mar_15:45. "God hath given us all things for (pro) life," i.e., all things necessary for life. By "life" St. Peter means the spiritual life of the soul; that life which consists in union with Christ, which is the life of Christ living in us. "Godliness" (eujsebeia) is a word of the later apostolic age; besides this Epistle (in which it occurs four times) and a speech of St. Peter"s insrwv) Act_3:12, it is found only in St. Paul"s pastoral Epistles; it means reverence, true piety towards God. Through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue; literally, through the full knowledge (ejpignw) of him that called us. (comp. Joh_17:3, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God. and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent The best-supported reading seems to be that followed by the Revised Version, "By his own glory and virtue (ijdia doxh kai ajreth). Bengel says, "Ad gloriam referuntur attributa Dei naturalia, ad virtutem ea quae dicuntur moralia; intime unum sunt utraque." All his glorious attributes make up his glory; ajreth, virtue, is the energy, the activity of those attributes. The other reading, also well supported (diaxhv kai ajrethv, "through glory and virtue"), would mean nearly the same (comp. sav Gal_1:15) kale diaritov aujtou. God calls us through his attributes; his glorious perfections invite us, the revelation of those perfections calls us to his service. The word ajreth, with one exception, (Php_4:8) occurs in the New Testament only in St. Peter"s Epistles. (see 1Pe_2:9; 2Pe_1:3 and 5) This is, so far, an argument in favour of identity of authorship. Vers. 3, 4.

The bounty of God.

The lot of the primitive Christians whom the apostles addressed in their spoken and written utterances must, for the most part, have appeared to ordinary observers far from desirable. Not only were they drawn from the lowly and unconsidered classes of society, but they often had much to endure as a consequence of their reception of the gospel and their fidelity to Christ. Especially did they meet with the contempt of the great, on account of their adhesion to what the world deemed an unreasonable superstition, and with the hostility, now of a mob, and again of a governor, who attacked them with the weapons of persecution. Yet these primitive Christians took an independent view of their own position, and judged themselves very differently from the world"s judgment. They were taught by their inspired instructors and counselors as by St. Peter in this passage to consider themselves objects of the Divine favour, recipients of the Divine bounty nay, even partakers of the Divine life. Such an appreciation of their position and spiritual endowments might be deemed by their unenlightened and worldly neighbours mere fanaticism. But events proved that the Church of Christ was under no illusion in cherishing a profound conviction that all its true members were enriched with incomparable wealth, and called to a glorious destiny. High thoughts of privilege prepared for deeds of daring and of endurance; and the world which could not comprehend the Church"s faith and claims was constrained to feel and to acknowledge the Church"s power.

I THE DIVINE GIVER.

1. His boundless power accounts for the plenitude and variety of God"s bestowments upon his people. If we speak of him as "the Almighty," when considering his material creation and all its illimitable extent, and its teeming wonders, much more evidently is such an appellation justified when we turn to regard those higher manifestations of creative energy which are furnished in transformations wrought in the individual and the social life of man.

"Twas great to speak a world from naught, "Twas greater to redeem.

2. His wonderful generosity. The endowments of the Church arc said to be "granted" or "given." And this must have been so; for they are altogether beyond human acquirement, whilst nothing that man could do could earn such blessings. And when the sinfulness of the whole race of men is considered, the generosity which was expressed in the bestowment of such gifts upon such recipients must be acknowledged to be wonderful indeed.

II THE SPIRITUAL GIFT. There are two parties to every gift, and in order to appreciate it, it is necessary to look at the gift in relation to him who gives and to those who receive.

1. Looked at on their Divine side, these gifts are the fulfillment of"promises precious and exceeding great." It would be absurd and sinful to suppose that what God bestows upon his creatures is flung to them in a momentary and capricious fit of liberality. As a matter of fact, from the earliest periods of human history, from the time of man"s "fall," the revelation of God had been one intended to inspire hope of salvation; and the primaeval promise had been renewed, both by language and by symbol, from age to age. These promises might not always be fully understood, clear as they are to us when we read them in the light of their fulfillment. But they were glorious with a glory exceeding any human assurances of help and blessing. And the purport of them all was to reveal a Divine intention to provide spiritual blessings knowledge, deliverance, and life for a needy and a sinful race. Great as were the promises, the fulfillmentwas greater still. A Saviour was promised, and in the fullness of time a Saviour came; the incarnation and advent of Christ were the accomplishment of the predictions and the purposes of eternal wisdom and eternal love. The diffusion of the Spirit throughout a society which needed enlightenment and healing and fertilization was the accomplishment of some of the most striking and poetical prophecies of Old Testament Scripture.

2. Looked at on their human side, these Divine gifts include "all things thatpertain unto life and godliness." A marvelously comprehensive description! Spiritual death and ungodliness prevailed in the world. And there was no human means by which their power could be destroyed and the salvation of men secured. But in the fulfillment of the Divine promises, in the mediatorial dispensation, in the coming of the Son of God, and of the Spirit of life and holiness, the amplest provision was made for the highest and immortal welfare of men. We may compare this declaration with the reasoning of Paul, who argues that he who spared not his Son, but gave him up for us all, will with him also freely give us all things.

III THE MEANS BY WHICH THE DIVINE GIFT IS APPRECIATED BY THE HUMAN RECIPIENT.

1. There is a call, a summons, an invitation of God. Very fine, veryelevating and encouraging, is St. Peter"s representation of the method adopted by Divine wisdom to secure that the gift shall not be lost. It is "by his own glory and virtue" that God calls us to salvation, i.e., by an exhibition of his natural and moral attributes eminently fitted to reveal himself to our hearts, and to produce upon those hearts a deep impression, winning them to faith, devotion, gratitude, and love. The beginning of good must be, and is, a movement on the part of the Almighty Ruler and Saviour.

2. There is a consequent "knowledge" of our redeeming God, which therevelation makes possible to us, furnishing us with an object of knowledge. Such teaching as this is directly opposed to the agnosticism with which so many are content. Our Lord himself, in his intercessory prayer, laid the greatest stress upon the knowledge of himself and of the Father. Doubtless this is a knowledge of a higher kind than is our knowledge of nature; and it is far more powerful to affect the character, to mould the life. Yet it is knowledge which is within the reach of the lowliest and the least cultured. To know God in Christ is life eternal. J.R.T.

Vers. 3, 4.

The beginning of soul-salvation.

These words, read in connection with what immediately follows (specially if we, following Ellicott and Farrar, place a period at the end of the second verse), distinctly predicate certain things about the beginning of soul-salvation.

I GOD HAS GIVEN ALL THINGS NECESSARY for soul-salvation. Note:

1. The idea of soul-salvation. "Life and godliness." Observe the order. Vitality, then external piety.

2. The means of soul-salvation.

(1) Many: "all things." So that first there is no room for excuse; second, the "all" of God challenges the "all" of man.

(2) Divinely bestowed. "By his Divine power." What a use of infinite power to save!

II God calls the soul TO A KNOWLEDGE OF HIMSELF as the beginning of soul-salvation. The "all things" come to us:

1. Through the call of God. God is the great Caller. Whence? To What?how?

2. Through knowing him who calls us. Not knowing about him, butdirectly knowing him. Probably Peter again has a reminiscence of the Last Supper: "This is life eternal, to know thee.

III God"s call comes to souls BY THE REVELATION OF HIMSELF. "Called by his own glory and virtue." "Glory," majesty: what he is. "Virtue," energy: what he does. Both combined give the full revelation of God.

IV God"s call comes to souls WITH INSPIRING PROMISES. "Precious." Note Peter"s frequent word, meaning rare, prized. "Exceeding great.

1. In their origin.

"The voice that rolls the stars along Speaks all the promises.

1. In their substance.

2. In the multitudes to whom they are addressed.

V God"s PURPOSE in soul-salvation is the HIGHEST we can conceive of. There is a twofold end.

1. "Escape the corruption that is in the world.

1. "Corruption," deadly evil;

2. "in the world," near, mighty;

3. "through lust." No evil can harm except through our own evil desires.

4. The other and higher end, nobler than the negative one just mentioned,is "become par. takers of the Divine nature;" i.e., share in the very righteousness of God. Not mere forgiveness of sins, not mere remission of penalty, not safety from external perils, but the blessed and holy purpose of God"s love accomplished in our restoration to the Divine image. U.R.T.

Vers. 3-11.

The Christian virtues in their completeness.

I FOUNDATION OF EXHORTATION.

1. Grant. "Seeing that his Divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." The grant has reference to life and godliness. The first of these words is to be understood of healthful condition; the other is to be understood of that supreme regard to God, on which healthful condition depends. The grant is not of life and godliness, but of all things that pertain unto life and godliness, by which we are to understand the gracious influences that have been liberated by Christ the Holy Spirit in his manifold gifts, the benefit of Christian institutions. Who is to be thought of as the Granter here? The nearer reference is to Jesus our Lord, and it is not superfluous to say of him, as it would be to say of God, that it was his Divine power that made the grant. It was the Divine power of him who afterward became man that was exercised when man was created and was then granted all that was necessary for securing life by godly conduct. The requirements were greater when man fell. Jesus bore what man as involved in sin deserved, so as to be constituted our Lord with Divine power to grant unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. When he has such power to grant, nothing can be wanting of what is needed for our spiritual prosperity and the production of a godly type of character.

2. Communication of the grant.

(1) Knowledge. "Through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue." This is the second introduction of knowledge in the intensive sense. It is here regarded as the channel through which are communicated to us "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." Thus it is that knowledge is power. To know God is to have a way of being supplied with all that we need. It is to have an inexhaustible fountain of blessing. It is to feel the quickening and transforming power of his perfections. But it will be noticed that it is the knowledge of God under a particular aspect, viz. of him that called us. Weiss says, "appointed us to the consummation of salvation;" but this is brought into view afterwards. Here it is what in God causes our calling. For "called us to glory and virtue" is a great blunder: it is "called us by glory and virtue," i.e., these in God. It was a desire to manifest himself, or a regard for his own glory, that led him to call us. That is the first declaration of the cause; the second declaration is that it was his virtue or moral excellence, on which his glory in calling us rests. It is the same word which is used in the plural in 1Pe_2:9, translated "excellences." The singular here points us to the sum of all that is excellent in God, of which there comes to be glorious manifestation. "Praise him," says the writer of the hundred and fiftieth psalm, "according to his excellent greatness." It was the transcendent character of his excellence, for which it becomes us to praise him, that led to his calling such as we were. Archangelic excellence would have passed us by; but there was an excellence in God far above all created excellence that led to his making use of the vilest materials.

(2) The reflection of God in the promises. "Whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises." It is through knowledge that the grant is communicated to us; it is well to have the grant also in definite written form, which we have in the promises. These promises are characterized as precious, which characterization more naturally comes first, as in the Revised Version. They contain all that we need of light for our minds, of solace for our hearts, of strength for our wills, of stimulus for our desires. They are not only precious, but exceeding great, i.e., precious in the superlative degree. It is in Ephesians that we are directed to God as "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." God has promised to open the windows of heaven, and pour us out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. But let it be noticed that there is given an explanation of the promises being exceeding great in their preciousness. It is because they are granted by God"s glory and virtue. They are, therefore, to be regarded as the reflection of what he is. They express all that he would bestow upon us how, with his fullness, he would fill our emptiness, with his riches our poverty.

(3) Aim of the promises.

(a) Positively. "That through these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature.

The teaching here is not with regard to our God-like constitution ("For we are also his offspring"), but with regard to what with our God-like constitution we may become. The language employed is strong and peculiarly attractive to some minds. We are not to think of deification, or absorption into God. But let us form no mean conception of what, encouraged by the promises, we may become. By the nature of God we understand those qualities which exist in him in an infinite degree. We are to become, in the last result, partakers of the Divine nature; i.e., we are to have the same qualities up to our measure. Even now we can think the same thoughts, be thrilled with the same joy. "God becomes a real Being to us in proportion as his own nature is unfolded within us. True religion desires and seeks supremely the assimilation of the mind to God, or the perpetual unfolding and enlarging of those powers and virtues by which it is constituted his glorious image. The mind, in proportion as it is enlightened and penetrated by true religion, thirsts and labours for a Godlike elevation. Let it not be inferred that we place religion in unnatural effort, in straining after excitements which do not belong to the present state, or in anything separate from the clear and simple duties of life" (Channing).

(b) Negatively. "Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust." In the world we do not find that healthful action, those attractive forms, which God intended for society; we have instead diseased action, forms from which we are repelled. This corruption is in the world by lust, i.e., the prevalence of the lower over the higher principles of our nature. Where there is the inversion of the Divine order, society must go to corruption. From this corruption we have not entirely escaped, inasmuch as lust is not entirely subdued in us; but with our becoming in the last result partakers of the Divine nature, it will be our privilege to have escaped for ever from the blighting, putrefying influences that prevail in the world.

II EXHORTATION TO CULTIVATION OF THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES.

1. Condition of development. "Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence." There is a great improvement in the translation here. One idea which is brought out is that what we are to do is to be in answer to the Divine doing. Christ does his part in granting all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and through the knowledge of God, who promises all that is needful for our being partakers of the Divine nature; we are to bring in by the side of, i.e., contribute our part. It is also distinctly brought out that the Divine doing is no reason for our doing nothing, but the very opposite a reason for our doing. What we have to contribute on our side is diligence, i.e., in connection with opportunities for the exercise of the Christian virtues which are to be named. This is only in accordance with analogy. God supplies the qualities of the soil and the heavenly influences; and the farmer supplies diligence. Because God sends the sunshine and the rain, man is to be up and doing, not allowing his opportunity to slip by; so because Christ is so liberal in granting, because the promises are precious in the superlative degree, for that very reason we are to bestir ourselves.

2. Order of development from faith.

(1) Virtue. "In your faith supply virtue." The faith is here regarded as already present. If we have not yet believed, what we have got to do is to cooperate with God in believing. "This is the work of God required by God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." Faith is here specially to be thought of as the laying hold on the Divine power in Christ that grants, or the laying hold on the Divine promises. "Be not afraid, only believe, Christ said; that saying, however, is not to be pressed to mean that faith, undeveloped, is everything. We are here taught that faith is only the root, and it must be carried out into its proper development. There are seven virtues needed to make it complete; and there is a certain order in which they follow each other. The connection is closer than is brought out by the "add to" of the old translation. The proper connecting, words are "supply in," the idea being, in each case, of that which goes before being incomplete, unless there is supplied in it as its complement that which follows after. Beginning with faith, we have to supply in our faith virtue, which is to be understood in the special sense of moral energy, or "a strenuous tone and vigour of mind." Faith is leaning on God, or allowing God to work. When there is only that side of things, there is the quietism to which Madame Guyon gives expression, "I can no longer will anything." To quiet leaning on God, passivity under the working of God, there is necessary, as its complement, personal force.

(2) Knowledge. "And in your virtue knowledge." Let us suppose that we have supplied in our faith personal force: is that enough? Where there is a stopping at this, there is a zealotism, the expression of which is," Let us be on fire: let us only be forcible." But in forcibleness there must be supplied, as its necessary complement, knowledge. There is a different word here from what was formerly used. The idea is that there must be enlightened judgment an apprehension in every moment of what is the right application of the force.

(3) Temperance. "And in your knowledge temperance." Let us suppose that we have supplied in our force knowledge: is that enough? Where there is a stopping at this, there is scientism, the expression of which is, "Let us have abundance of light; let us not be imposed on; let us know the right way of things." But in this knowledge there must be supplied, as its necessary complement, temperance, i.e., the subjection of our appetites, desires, affections, tempers, to knowledge, which is very difficult, seeing that we are strongly tempted from within to be guided, not by what we know, but by what is pleasing to us.

(4) Patience. "And in your temperance patience." Let us suppose that we have supplied in our knowledge self-restraint: is that enough? Where there is a stopping at this, there is a rigorism, of which the expression is, "Let us abstain; let us mortify self." But in this self-restraint there must be supplied, as its necessary complement, p atience, which is a sustaining by self, or putting one"s shoulder under the burdens, and especially the hardships of life.

(5) Godliness. "And in your patience godliness." Let us suppose that we have supplied in our self-restraint patience: is that enough? Where there is a stopping at this, there is a stoicism, of which the expression is, "Let us be insensible to pain; let us be heedless of difficulties." But in this patience there must be supplied, as its necessary complement, godliness, or a God-regarding, especially God-fearing, disposition, without which there cannot be subduedness, sweetness, or stay, in patience.

(6) Love of the brethren. "And in your godliness love of the brethren." Let us suppose that we have supplied in our patience godliness: is that enough? Where there is a stopping at this, there is a one-sided religiousness, of which the expression is, "Let us pray; let us attend conscientiously on the public means of grace." But in this godliness there must be supplied, as its necessary complement, love of the brethren, i.e., of those who are our brethren in Christ. "For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"; (1Jn_4:20) "And every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of. (1Jn_5:1)

(7) Love. "And in your love of the brethren love." Let us suppose that we have supplied in our godliness love of the brethren: is that enough? Where there is a stopping at this, there is a narrow-heartedness, of which the expression is, "Let us make the Christian circle our home; let us choose the society of those who have the same thoughts and the same hopes." But in this love of the brethren there must be supplied love or philanthropy love for all that bear the Divine image and for whom Christ died.

3. Importance of development with reference to knowledge.

(1) Positively. "For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." By "these things" we are to understand the seven virtues which are to be supplied in faith. These are regarded as actually subsisting in us or belonging to us. There is a difference between their thus being in us and their abounding in us. There is a difference between an infant"s finding of strength and the consciousness of a giant"s strength. There is a difference between a rudimentary knowledge and a knowledge that can be effectually applied to every question of duty that comes up. There is a difference between the mastery of a single appetite and the full mastery of all our appetencies and tempers. There is a difference between a patience that is untried and a patience that can stand the severest test. There is a difference between a sense of the Being of God and the deepest awe in the realization of his perfections. There is a difference between a sense of brotherhood in Christ and the full flood of Christian brotherliness. There is a difference between an interest in a single case of reclamation and a large-hearted philanthropy. Given, then, that these virtues are not merely in us, but abound, they make us, literally, put us in a position, to be not idle nor unfruitful. If there are certain elements in a tree, they make it to be not idle; i.e., it discharges its functions, it puts forth fresh shoots and leaves and blossoms. And making it not idle, they also make it not unfruitful; i.e., in due season it is laden with fruit. So if these virtues are in us, and in abundant measure, they make us to be not idle; i.e., we do in the right manner. And making us not idle, they also make us not unfruitful; i.e., there are good results. The goal toward which we are to be fruitful is the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not the knowledge that is mentioned as one of the seven virtues, but the mature knowledge that has been twice mentioned. It has been regarded as the means; now it is regarded as the end. Showing diligence in the practice of the seven virtues, we are to come to a rich appreciative knowledge of Jesus Christ (who interprets God to us). Paul takes our aim to be the being able "to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." Peter brings into view the knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Lord, i.e., able in his surpassing power to accomplish all things for us.

(2) Negatively. "For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins." We are to practice the virtues; for there is a great disadvantage in lacking them. The lacking here is not merely the not having them in abundance, but the not having them at all. James says that "faith without works is dead." Peter says here that "he who has not supplied the seven virtues in his faith, instead of appreciating Christ, he is blind," i.e., to his real worth. His idea of blindness he brings to this focus that he is shortsighted. The word is taken from a certain contracting of the eyelids in order to see. He sees what is near, but does not see what is far off. The things of this world bulk largely in his eyes; the distant realities of the eternal world do not come within his vision. The explanation of this kind of blindness is his having lapsed. There was a time when he was baptized. Then he was regarded as cleansed from his old sins; and did not that seem to indicate a certain appreciation of Christ? But having forgotten his cleansing, Christ has not worth in his eyes.

III RESUMPTION OF EXHORTATION.

1. Condition restated. "Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure." This is the only use of the address "brethren" in the Epistles of Peter. It indicates greater closeness and urgency in his exhortation. He proceeds in "wherefore the more" on the advantage of having the seven virtues in abundance, and the disadvantage of lacking them. What he exhorts them to is increased diligence. The tense used points to their making this diligence a lifelong thing. They were to give diligence with regard to their calling and election, i.e., by God into his kingdom, the latter word referring to the actual separation of the called from the world. This calling and election, looked at from the lower side, was a matter of uncertainty; they are exhorted to make it a matter of certainty to allow no doubt to rest on their interest in Christ and title to the kingdom. It is not said how they are to make their calling and election sure; but the very want of specification points to what was formerly specified, viz. the practice of the seven virtues; and this is confirmed by what follows.

2. Importance.

(1) Negatively. "For if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble." In "for" there is a falling back on the condition. "Doing these things" may refer to making their calling and election sure; but it is to it as a multiform act, viz. as covering the practice or the seven virtues. If they did these things with due diligence, they would never make such a stumble as would prevent their entrance into the kingdom.

(2) Positively. "For thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." It is here that there comes into view the full scope of the condition laid down. It is a condition upon which their interest in a kingdom depends. It is no mean kingdom; for it is the kingdom presided over by their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The kingdom of Christ is essentially the same in the present and in the future; but in its present outward conditions it is to come to an end, in its future conditions it is to be eternal. It is the entrance into the eternal kingdom that is here promised. Coming to a kingdom is usually celebrated; so the entrance here must be regarded as a glorious event. This entrance is a gift; and yet it corresponds to previous diligence. This is strikingly brought out in the form of the language. To those who have supplied the seven virtues in their faith it is promised that there shall be supplied unto them this glorious entrance. But stress is laid upon the kind of entrance. There is a difference between reaping sparingly and reaping bountifully. There is a difference between a righteous man"s reward and a prophet"s reward. There is a difference between being saved as by fire, and being saved with a golden reward or a silver reward or a reward to be compared to precious stones. So there is a difference between a bare entrance and an entrance that is richly supplied. The richly supplied entrance is only for those who have in the highest degree been diligent in the practice of the seven virtues. Let this highest prize be the object of our ambition. Let us not be content with a bare entrance; let us, by increased diligence, enrich the entrance that we are to have. R.F.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2 Peter

MAN SUMMONED BY GOD’S GLORY AND ENERGY

2Pe 1:3.

‘I knew thee,’ said the idle servant in our Lord’s parable, ‘that thou wert an austere man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou hadst not strewed. I was afraid, and went and hid my talent in the earth.’ Our Lord would teach us all with that pregnant word the great truth that if once a man gets it into his head that God’s principal relation to him is to demand, and to command, you will get no work out of that man; that such a notion will paralyse all activity and cut the nerve of all service. And the converse is as true, namely, that the one thought about God, which is fruitful of all blessing, joy, spontaneous, glad activity, is the thought of Him as giving, and not of demanding, of bestowing, and not of commanding. Teach a man that he is, as the book of James has it,’the giving God,’ and let that thought soak into the man’s heart and mind, and you will get any work out of him. And only when that thought is deep in the spirit will there be true service.

Now that is the connection in which the words of my text come; for they are laid as the broad foundation of the great commandment that follows: ‘Beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge,’ and so on, all the round of the ladder by which the Apostle represents us as climbing up to God. The foundation of this injunction is--God has given you everything. You have got it to begin with, and so do you set yourselves to work, and see that you make the thing that is yours your own, and incorporate into your being and into the very substance of your soul, and work out in all the blessed activities of a Christian life, the gifts that His royal and kingly hand has bestowed upon you. Take for granted that God loves you and gives you His whole self, and work on in the fulness of His possessed gift.

That is the connection of the words before us. I take them just as they lie in our passage, dealing first of all with this question--God’s call to you and me; how it is done. Now I do not know if I can venture to indulge any remarks about Biblical criticism, but you will perhaps bear with me just for a moment whilst I say that the people who know a great deal more about such subjects than either you or I, agree with one consent that the proper way of reading this verse of my text is not as our Bible has it; ‘Him that has called us to glory and virtue,’ but ‘Him that hath called us by--by his own glory and virtue.’ Do you see the difference? In one case the language expresses the things in imitation of the Divine nature to which God summons you and me when He calls us. That is how our Bible has taken it; but the deeper thought still is the things in that Divine nature and activity itself which constitute His great summons and invitation of men to His side; and these are the two, whatever they might be, which the Apostle here describes in that rather peculiar and unusual language for Scripture, ‘Who has called us by His own glory and His own virtue.’ I venture to dwell on these two points for a moment or two.

Now, first of all, God’s glory. Threadbare and consequently vague as the expression is in the minds of a great many people who have heard it with their ears ever since they were little children, God’s glory has a very distinct and definite meaning in Scripture, and all starts, as I think, from the Old Testament use of the expression, which was the distinct specific name for the supernatural light that lay between the cherubim, and brooded over the ark on the mercy-seat. The word signifies specifically and originally the glory of God, and irradiation of a material, though supernatural, symbol of His Divine and spiritual presence. Very well, lay hold of that material picture, for God teaches us as we do our children, with pictures. Take the symbol and lift it up into the spiritual region, and it is just this: the glory of God in its deepest meaning is the irradiation and the perpetual pouring out and out and out from Himself, as the rays of the sun stream out from its great orb, pouring out from Himself the light and the perfectness and the beauty of His own self revelation. And I think we may fairly translate and paraphrase the first words of my text into this: God’s great way of summoning men to Himself is by laying out His love upon them and letting the fulness of that ineffable and uncreated light, in which is no darkness at all, stream into the else blinded and hopeless lives and hearts of men. Then the other side of the Apostle’s thought seems to me--if we will only strip it of the threadbare technicalities associated with it--as great and wonderful, God’s glory and God’s virtue. A heathenish kind of smack lingers about that word, both as applied to men and as applied to God, and so seldom found in the New Testament; but meaning here, as I venture to say, without stopping to show it--meaning here substantially the same thing that we mean by that word energy or power. You know old women in country places talk about the virtues of plants. They do not mean by this the goodness of plants, but they mean the occult powers which they suppose them able to put forth. We read in one of the gospels that our Lord Himself said at one singular period of His life that virtue had gone out of Him, meaning thereby not goodness but energy. So I think we get a sufficient equivalent to the Apostle’s meaning if for the second two words of my text we read, ‘He hath called us by the glory, the raying out of his love, and He hath called us by the activity and the energy, the power in action of His great and illustrious Spirit.’ So you see these two things, the light that streams out of an energy which is born of the streaming light. These two things are really at bottom but one, various aspects of one idea. Modern physicists tell us that all the activity in the system comes from the sun, and in the higher region all the activity comes from the sun, and there is no mightier force in the physical universe than the sunlight. Lightnings are vulgar, noisy, and limited in contrast. The all-conquering force is the light that streams out, and so says Peter in his vivid picturesque way--not meaning the mere talk of philosophy or theology--the manifestation of the glory of God is the mightiest force in the whole universe. It is not like the play of the moonbeam upon an iceberg, ineffectual, cold, merely touching the death without melting or warming it, but it rays out like the sun in the heavens, and the work done by the light is mightier than all our work. By His glory, and by the transcendent energies which reside in that illustrious manifestation of the uncreated light, God summons men to Himself. Well, if that is anything like fair exposition of the words before us, let me just ask you before I go further to stop on them for one moment. If I may venture to say so, put off your theological spectacles for a minute, and do not let us harden this thought down with any mere dogma that can be selected in the language of the creeds. Let us try and put it into words a little less hackneyed. Suppose, instead of talking about calling, you were to talk about inviting, summoning, beckoning; or I might use tenderer words still--beseeching, wooing, entreating; for all that lies in the thought. God summoning and calling, in that sense, men to Himself, by the raying out of His own perfect beauty, and the might with which the beams go forth into the darkness. Ah! is not that beautiful, dear brethren; that there is nothing more, indeed, for God to do to draw us to Himself than to let us see what He is? So perfectly fair, so sweet, so tender, so strong, so absolutely corresponding to all the necessities of our beings and the hunger of our hearts, that when we see Him we cannot choose but love Him, and that He can do nothing more to call wandering hearts back to the light and sweetness of His own heart than to show them Himself. And so from all corners of His universe, and in every activity of His hand and heart and spirit, we can hear a voice saying, ‘Son, give me thine heart.’ ‘Oh! taste and see that God is good.’ ‘Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee.’

But great and wonderful as such a thought seems to be when we look at it in the freshness which belongs to it, do you suppose that that was all that Peter was thinking about? Do you think that a wide, general, and if you leave it by itself, vague utterance like that which I have been indulging in, would give all the specific precision and fulness of the meaning of the word before us? I think not. I fancy that when this Apostle wrote these words he remembered a time long, long ago, when somebody stood by the little fishing-cobble there, and as the men were up to their knees in slush and dirt, washing their nets, said to them, ‘Follow Me.’ I think that was in Peter’s estimate God’s call to him by God’s glory and by God’s virtue. And so I pause there for a moment to say that all the lustrous pouring out of light, all that transcendent energy of active love, is not diffused nebulous through a universe; it is not even spread in that sense over all the deeds of His hand; but whilst it is everywhere, it has a focus and a centre and a fire. The fire is gathered into the Son, Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ in His manhood and in His Deity; Jesus Christ in His life, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and kingly reign. The whole creation, as this New Testament proclaims Him to us, is God’s glory and God’s virtue, whereby He draws men to Himself. I cannot stay to dwell on that thought as I should be glad to do. Let me just remind you of the two parts into which it splits itself up; and I commend it, dogmatically as I have to state it in such an audience as this--I commend it to the multitudes of young men here present. The highest form of the Divine glory is Jesus Christ, not the attributes with which men clothe the Divinity, not those abstractions which you find in books of theology. All that is but the fringe of the glory. And I tell you, dear friends, the living white light at the centre and heart of all the radiance of the flame is the light of life which is conveyed into the gentle Christ. As the Apostle John has it, ‘We beheld His glory.’ Yes, and taking and binding together the two words which people have so often treated against each other, ‘We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,’ the highest light in Him that says, ‘I am the light of the world’--very light of very light. As a much maligned document has it,’very light of very light,’ the brightness of His glory, the irradiation of His splendour, and the express image of His person. And as the light so the power. Christ the power; power in its highest, noblest form, the power of patient gentleness and Divine suffering; power in its widest sweep, ‘unto every one that believeth’; power in its most wondrous operation, ‘the power of God unto salvation.’ So I come to you, I hope, with one message on my lips and in my heart. If you want light, look to Christ. If you want to behold that unveiled face, the glory of the Lord, turn to Him, and let His sunshine smite you on the face as the light smote Stephen, and then you can say, ‘He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father.’ My brother, the highest, noblest, perfect, and, as I believe, final form in which all God’s glory, all God’s energy, are gathered together, and make their appeal to you and me, was when a Galilean peasant stood up in a little knot of forgotten Jews and said to them, and through them to you and me, ‘Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ He calls by His glory and by His virtue.

Now still further. Confining myself as before to the words as they lie here in this text, let me ask you to think, and that for a moment or two only, on the great and wondrous purpose which this Divine energy and light had in view in summoning us to itself. His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and all things that pertain to godliness. Look at that! One of the old Psalms says: ‘Gather my saints together unto me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice; assemble them all before my throne, and I will judge my people.’ Is that the last and final revelation of God’s purpose of drawing men to Him? Is that why He sends out His heralds and summons through the whole intelligent creation? Nay, something better. Not to judge, not to scourge, not to chastise, not to avenge. To give. This is the meaning of that summons that comes out through the whole earth, ‘Come up hither,’ that when we get there we may be flooded with the richness of His mercy, and that He may pour His whole soul out over us in the greatness of His gifts. This is God, and the perpetual activity summoning men to Himself that there He may bless them. He makes our hearts empty that He may fill them. He shapes us as we are that we may need Him and may recreate ourselves in Him. He says, ‘Bring all your vessels and I will fill them full.’ Now look in this part of my subject at what I may venture to call the magnificent confidence that this Peter has in the--what shall I say?--the encyclopædical--if I may use a long word--and universal character of God. All things that pertain to life, all things that pertain to godliness. And somebody says, ‘Yes, that is tautology, that is saying the same thing twice over in different language.’ Never mind, says Peter, so much the better, it will help to express the exuberant abundance and fulness. He takes a leaf out of his brother Paul’s book. He is often guilty when he speaks of God’s gifts of that same sin of tautology, as for instance, ‘Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all’--there are four of them--’all that we can ask or think.’ Yes, in all forms language is but faint and feeble, weak and poor in the presence of that great miracle of a love that passeth knowledge and that we may know the heights and depths. And so says our Apostle, ‘All things that pertain to life, all things that pertain to godliness.’ The whole circle all round, all the 360 degrees of it, God’s love will come down and lie on the top of it as it were, superimposed, so that there should not be a single gift where there is a flaw or a defect. Everything you want of life, everything you want for godliness. Yes, of course, the gift must bear some kind of proportion to the giver. You do not expect a millionaire to put down half a crown to a subscription list if he gives anything at all. And God says to you and me, ‘Come and look at My storehouses, count if you can those golden vases filled with treasure, look at those massive ingots of bullion, gaze into the vanishing distances of the infiniteness of My nature and of My possessions, and then listen to Me. I give thee Myself--Myself, that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God. All things that pertain to life, all things that pertain to godliness. But I cannot pass on from this part of my subject without venturing one more remark. It is this: I do not suppose it is too minute, verbal criticism. This great encyclopædiacal gift is represented in my text, not as a thing that you are going to get, Christian men and women, but as a thing that you have gotten. And any of you that are able to test the correctness of my assertion will see I have thought the form of language used in the original is such as to point still more specifically than in our translation, to some one definite act in the past in which all that fulness of glory and virtue of life and godliness was given to us men. Is there any doubt as to what that is? We talk sometimes as if we had to ask God to give us more. God cannot give you any more than He gave you nineteen hundred years ago. It was all in Christ. Get a very vulgar illustration which is altogether inadequate for a great many purposes, but may serve for one. Suppose some man told you that there was a thousand pounds paid to your credit at a London bank, and that you were to get the use of it as you drew cheques against it. Well, the money is there, is it not? The gift is given, and yet for all that you may be dying, and half-dead, a pauper. I was reading a book only the other day which contained a story that comes in here. An Arctic expedition, some years ago, found an ammunition chest that Commander Parry had left fifty years ago, safe under a pile of stones. The wood of the chest had not rotted yet; the provisions inside of it were perfectly sweet, and good, and eatable. There it had lain all those years. Men had died of starvation within arm’s length of it. It was there all the same. And so, if I might venture to vulgarise the great theme that I try to speak about, God has given us His Son, and in Him, all that pertains to life and all that pertains to godliness. My brother, take the things that are freely given to you of God.

And so that leads me to one last word, and it shall only be a word, in regard to what our text tells us of the way by which on our side we can yield to this Divine call, and receive this Divine fulness of gifts, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory. Through the knowledge! Yes, well there are two kinds of knowledge, are there not? There is the knowledge by which you know a book, for instance, on the subject of study, and there is the knowledge by which you know one another; and the kind of thing I mean when I say, ‘I know mathematics,’ is entirely different to what I mean when I say, ‘I know John, Thomas,’ or whoever he may be. And I venture to say that the knowledge, which is the condition of receiving the whole fulness of the glory and the whole fulness of the light, is a great deal more like the thing we mean when we talk of knowing one another than when we talk of knowing a book. That is to say, a man may have all the creeds and confessions of faith clear in his head, and yet none of the life, none of the light, none of the power, and none of the godliness. But if we know Him as our brother, know Him as our friend, our sacrifice, our Redeemer, Lord, all in all; know Him as our heaven, our righteousness, and our strength; if we know Him with the knowledge which is possession; if we know Him with the knowledge which, as the profoundest of the Apostles says, ‘hath the truth in life’; if we know Him, see then, ‘This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.’

Now, friends, my words are done. God is calling you. No, let us put it a little more definitely than that--God is calling thee. There is no speech nor language where His voice is not heard. His words are gone out to the end of the world, and have reached even thyself. He calls thee, oh! brother, sister, friend, that you and I may turn round to Him and say, ‘When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’ Amen.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:3-11 An explanation of all that God has given us in Christ (1:3-4) forms the basis for an urgent exhortation to grow in the knowledge of Christ (1:5-11).

1:3 By his divine power, God has (literally His divine power has): The name of God does not occur in the Greek text; Peter could be referring to the divine power of “Jesus our Lord” (1:2).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Pe 1:3. Ὡς πάντα ἡμῖν, as all things to us) There is a wonderful cheerfulness in this exordium, beginning with the exhortation itself, add, etc., 2Pe 1:5. For this is the object of the Epistle; 2Pe 1:13; 2Pe 3:1. All things, in this passage, and all, 2Pe 1:5, have reference to one another; for as the Protasis is here, so is the Apodosis there. As has the effect of explaining, as 2Co 5:20. Comp. altogether the parable of the ten virgins, Matthew 25. The flame is that which is imparted to us by God and from God, without any labour on our part: but the oil is that which man ought to add by his own diligence and faithfulness, that the flame may be fed and increased. Thus the matter is set forth without a parable in this passage of Peter: in 2Pe 1:3-4, we have the flame; but in 2Pe 1:5-6, and those which follow, we have that which man himself ought to add [lit. to pour upon it], the presence of Divine grace being presupposed.—τῆς θείας δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ, the Divine power of Him) of Him, that is, God: for this is to be repeated from the word divine. From the power of God proceeds all power to life and godliness.—τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ εὐσέβειαν) those things which pertain unto life from God, and earnestness towards God. Observe, it is plainly not by godliness that we obtain life. The Divine glory imparts life (comp. Rom 6:4, note); His power, godliness. To the one corruption is opposed, to the other lust; 2Pe 1:4.—δεδωρημένης, has given) Thus δεδώρηται, He hath given: used twice in an active sense. Thus Gen 30:20, Septuagint, δεδώρηται ὁ Θεός μοι δῶρον καλόν, God hath given me a goodly gift.—τοῦ καλέσαντος, of Him that called us) To this refer the calling in 2Pe 1:10. The calling and knowledge are correlative terms. It is the knowledge of God which is meant; and to this God calls us.—ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ καὶ ἀρετῇ, by His own glory and virtue) This is an explanation of what His Divine power is: so that the natural attributes of God have reference to His glory; those attributes which are called moral, have reference to His virtue. The two are closely united.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe_1:3. The first paragraph, extending as far as 2Pe_1:11, contains exhortations. The first of these is expressed in 2Pe_1:5-7, and to it 2Pe_1:3-4 serve as an introduction.

ὡς] Lachmann connects ὡς directly with what precedes, and puts a full stop after φθορᾶς at the end of 2Pe_1:4; thus also Vulg., Beza, Erasmus, Hornejus, Grotius. This combination, however, is against the analogy of the N. T. epistles, in which the superscription closes with the benediction (in the Epistle to the Galatians alone a relative clause is subjoined, ending, however, with a doxology that marks the conclusion), and is also opposed to the contents of 2Pe_1:3-4, which serve as the basis for 2Pe_1:5 (Wiesinger). Gerhard and others consider ὡς as equivalent to καθώς (which Gerhard explains by ἐπεί, i.e. postquam vel siquidem), and supply οὕτως to 2Pe_1:5; arbitrarily: ὡς belongs much more to the genitive absolute (not pleonastically, Pott). The objective reason expressed in this phrase for the exhortation contained in 2Pe_1:5 is by ὡς characterized as a subjective motive; Winer: convinced (considering) that the divine power, etc.; Dietlein: in the consciousness that; so, too, de Wette, and the more recent commentators generally; the construction in 1Co_4:18, 2Co_5:20, is similar; cf. Matthiä, ausf. Gr. 1825, § 568, p. 1120.

πάντα … δεδωρημένης] The Vulg. incorrectly: quomodo omnia vobis divinae virtutis sunt, quae ad vitam et pietatem, donata est (another reading is: sunt); and Luther: since everything of His divine power, that pertains unto life and godliness, is given us; δεδωρημένης is here not passive, but middle (cf. Gen_30:20, LXX.; Mar_15:45), and τῆς θ. δυνάμεως: does not depend on πάντα, but is the subject (thus all modern commentators).

According to the position of the words, αὐτοῦ refers back to Ἰησ. τ. κυρίου ἡμῶν (Calvin, Schott, Steinfass), and not to Θεοῦ;[22] if it be applied to Θεοῦ (de Wette-Brückner, Wiesinger), then θείας (which occurs here only and in 2Pe_1:4; Act_17:29 : τὸ θεῖον, as subst.) is pleonastic. Dietlein and Fronmüller refer αὐτοῦ to God and Jesus, which linguistically cannot be justified.[23]

τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ εὐσέβειαν] the ζωὴ καὶ εὐσέβεια are not spoken of as the object, but: τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν κ.τ.λ. For the attainment of the former is conditioned by the Christians conduct; but in order that it may be put within his reach, everything is granted him which is serviceable to ζωή and εὐσέβεια (cf. Luk_19:42 : τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην σου). The difference between the two ideas is in itself clear; ζωή: blessedness, indicates the condition; εὐσέβεια: godliness (except in Act_3:12, occurring only in the Pastoral Epistles and Second Peter), the conduct. Grotius incorrectly interprets ζωή as equivalent to vita alterius seculi, and εὐσέβεια as pietas in hoc seculo. Both together they form the antithesis to ἡ ἐν κόσμῳ ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ φθορά. πάντα is by way of emphasis placed first, in order to show distinctly that everything, which is in any way serviceable to ζωή and εὐσέβ., has been given us by the divine power of the Lord. Hofmann is wrong in defining this πάντα as faith, hope, and charity, for this triad does not pertain πρὸς εὐσέβειαν, but is the εὐσέβεια itself.

διὰ τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως τοῦ καλέσαντος ἡμᾶς] states the medium through which the gift is communicated to us; with ἐπίγνωσις, cf. 2Pe_1:2. God is here designated as ὁ καλέσας ἡμᾶς, since it is only by the knowledge of the God who calls us that the πάντα τὰ πρ. ζ. κ.τ.λ. are appropriated by us,the calling being the actual proof of His love to us. The subject to καλεῖν is not Christ (Vorstius, Jachmann, Schott, etc.), but God (Aretius, Hemming, de Wette, Hofmann, etc.), as almost always in the N. T.[24] Of course καλεῖν does not mean the mere outward, but the inward, effectual calling,

ἸΔΊᾼ ΔΌΞῌ ΚΑῚ ἈΡΕΤῇ] ΔΌΞΑ denotes the being, ἈΡΕΤΉ the activity; Bengel: ad gloriam referuntur attributa Dei naturalia, ad virtutem ea, quae dicuntur moralia; intime unum sunt utraque. It is arbitrary to understand δόξα as meaning: that side the nature of the Almighty One that liveth, which is directed outwards, and by ἈΡΕΤΉ: the holy loving-kindness of God (as opposed to Hofmann).

The nature of God represented as the instrumentality, as in Gal_1:15 : ΚΑΛΈΣΑς ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ΧΆΡΙΤΟς ΑὙΤΟῦ; too, Rom_6:4. A wrong application is given to the words, if they be taken as referring to the miracles of Christ. It must be observed that this ἘΠΊΓΝΩΣΙς itself, too, is to be looked upon as wrought by Christ in us.

[22] Hofmann, indeed, applies it also to Christ, but by passing over ver. 2 to ver. 1, where, as already observed, he considers that it is not God and Christ, but Christ alone who is referred to.

[23] The application to Jesus is also supported by the fact, that otherwise this whole argument would contain no reference to Him; the application to both contains the correct idea, that the gift imparted by Jesus is the gift of God the Father.

[24] De Wette (with whom Brückner agrees) is accordingly wrong in supposing that τοῦ καλέσαντος ἡμ. stands in place of the simple pron. αὐτοῦ, and is inserted because by this circumlocution of the active subject the address gains in matter and range.Schotts remarks, in which he attempts to justify his assertion that τοῦ καλέσαντος applies to Christ, are only in so far correct, that καλεῖν might indeed be understood of an activity of Christ; cf. Mat_9:13; Mar_2:17; on the other hand, it is certain that ὁ καλέσας is never applied to Christ, but always to God.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe 1:3-4 . The Promises and their Source . “Inasmuch as His Divine Power has granted us all things that are needed for life and piety, by means of the personal knowledge of One who called us by the impression of his own glory and excellency; and through this glory and excellency have been granted promises that are precious to us and glorious, in order that, by means of these, ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world owing to lust.”

Throughout this passage, the contrast between ἡμῖν , ἡμᾶς , and 2 p. plur. in γένησθε (2Pe 1:4 ) must be preserved. ἡμῖν implies the apostolic circle, who, by virtue of their own experience of the δόξα and ἀρετή of Christ, are able to transmit to these readers certain promises “precious to us, and glorious.” (So Spitta, Van Soden).

2Pe 1:3 . τῆς θείας δυνάμεως is originally a philosophic term (Plato, Ion. 534 C., Arist. Pol. vii. 4) cf. τὸ θεῖον as used by St. Paul in speaking to philosophers at Athens (Act 17:29 ). The subject is Christ ( cf. δύναμις κυρίου , Luk 10:17 ; 1Co 5:4 ; 2Co 12:9 ; and 2Pe 1:16 , of this chapter). The phrase θεία δύναμις is contained in an inscription of Stratonicea in Caria in honour of Zeus Panhemerios and Hekate, belonging to the early Imperial period. 2 Peter would thus be availing himself of one of “the familiar forms and formulæ ol religious emotion” (Deissmann, Bible Studies , p. 367). αὐτοῦ is taken as referring to Κυρίου in 2Pe 1:2 , which would confirm the reading adopted. πάντα … τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ εὐσέβειαν . ζωή is the new life that belongs to believers in Christ. εὐσέβεια is also found in the inscription quoted above. This word and its cognates are found in N.T. only in Acts, ihis Epistle, and in the Pastoral Epistles. They are also common in inscriptions of Asia Minor, and were apparently familiar terms in the religious language of the Imperial period. In εὐσέβεια , the emphasis of meaning lies towards “godliness” in its practical, rather than its devotional aspect, i.e. , what God requires of man “pious conduct”. In 1Ti 3:16 Christ is spoken of as “the secret of piety” ( τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας μυστήριον ). The conjunction of the two ideas ζωή and εὐσέβεια is significant. Religion does not narrow, but expand the province of life. The life in Christ is not “a little province of peculiar emotion.… If we fear that it may lose itself in the vast and often lawless universe of life beneath, the danger is to be averted not by wilfully contracting it within a narrower field, but by seeking greater intensity of life in deeper and more submissive communion with the Head Himself in the heavens” (Hort, The Way, the Truth, and the Life , p. 147). δεδωρημένης (= “gifted” or “granted”). This word and its cognates always carry a certain regal sense describing an act of large-handed generosity. Cf. Mar 15:45 of the giving by Pilate of the body of Jesus to Joseph; Joh 4:10 ; Jas 1:17 . The same sense is found in Gen 30:20 , Pro 4:2 , Isa 62:3 ; and O.G.I.S. 517 7 (iii. A.D.) with reference to the gift by Marcus Aurelius of a new law-court, ὁπότε ἐδω [ ρ ] ήσατο τῆι πατρίδι ἡμῶν [ τ ] ὴν ἀγορὰν τῶν δικῶν . τοῦ καλέσαντος ἡμᾶς . Judging from usage elsewhere in N.T., the reference would here be to God, who is always the Caller. 2 Peter, however, shows great independence of thought in other directions, and it is more likely that the reference is to Christ, especially as ἐπίγνωσις is used consistently in relation to Christ (2Pe 1:8 , 2Pe 2:20 ). (So Spitta, Von Soden, Mayor). “Cognitionem dei praesupponit haec epistula, 2Pe 1:3 . Cognitionem autem Domini nostri, nempe Jesu Christi urget proprie” (Bengel). Cf. 2. Clem. ix. 5. χριστὸς … ἐγένετο σὰρξ καὶ οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἐκάλεσεν . ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ καὶ ἀρετῇ . Has ἰδίᾳ an intensive force here, or has it an exhausted sense merely equivalent to a personal pronoun? The emphasis conveyed in the former interpretation would better carry on the sense of πάντα . δόξα is used in sense of Joh 1:14 . ἀρετή is an interesting word. There is considerable evidence to prove that it is not used here in the ordinary Greek philosophical sense of “virtue,” although the combination of δόξα and ἀρετή is not infrequently found in philosophical writings ( cf. Plat. Symp. 208 D. Plut. Mor. 535). Deissmann, following the Stratonicean inscription already mentioned, renders “manifestation of power,” i.e. , in miracle ( op. cit. pp. 95 97). In 1Pe 2:9 it is used in plural, in LXX sense = “praises” תּהִלָּה . ( Cf. Thuc. i. 33.) In P. Hib. xv. 3 ff. (iii. B.C.) the younger men are exhorted to employ their bodies εὐκαίρως τὴν ἀπόδειξιν ποιησαμένους τῆς αὐτῶν ἀρετῆς , “in a timely display of their prowess” (G. and H.). In later papyri ἀρετή is used as title of courtesy, e.g. , P. Oxy. 71, ii. 18 (iv. A.D.). εἴ σου δόξειεν τῇ ἀρετῇ = “if it please your Excellency”. Foucart defines ἀρετή as “vim divinam quae mirabilem in modum hominibus laborantibus salutem afferret” ( cf. Hort’s note, 1 Peter, p. 129 and MME, Sept. 1908).

The phrase τοῦ καλέσαντος … ἀρετῃ contains one of the finest ideas in the N.T. What could be a more effective answer to the intellectualism of the Gnostic teachers or its modern equivalent, than the impression produced on the lives of men, and especially the early disciples, by the Personality of Jesus? They beheld His glory in the evidences of miraculous knowledge and power which Jesus showed at the time of their call (Joh 1:42 ; Joh 1:47-51 ; Luk 5:4 ). Their sense of His moral greatness overcame all resistance on their part (Luk 5:8 ; Joh 1:49 ). If 2 Pet. is lacking in devotional expression, his apologetic for the person of Christ is cast on most effective lines. Reason can only compass the facts of Revelation, in terms of antinomies, and it is vain to meet inadequate theories of the person of Christ by dogmatic subtlety. The Life and Death of our Lord, if its significance is to be fully understood, must be looked upon largely as an acted parable, and Christian experience the impression of δόξα καὶ ἀρετή is an indispensable constituent of dogmatic expression .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He speaketh of Christ, whom he maketh God, and the only Savior.

Christ setteth forth himself to us plainly in the Gospel, and that by his only power, and giveth us all things which are requisite both to eternal life, wherein he hath appointed to glorify us, and also to godliness, in that he doth furnish us with true virtue.

Unto salvation.

This is the sum of true Religion, to be led by Christ to the Father, as it were by the hand.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 3. As his Divine power] His power, which no power can resist, because it is Divine-that which properly belongs to the infinite Godhead.

Hath given unto us] δεδωρημενης. Hath endowed us with the gifts; or, hath gifted us, as Dr. Macknight translates it, who observes that it refers to the gifts which the Holy Spirit communicated to the apostles, to enable them to bring men to life and godliness; which were, 1. A complete knowledge of the doctrines of the Gospel. 2. Power to preach and defend their doctrines in suitable language, which their adversaries were not able to gainsay or resist. 3. Wisdom to direct them how to behave in all cases, where and when to labour; and the matter suitable to all different cases, and every variety of persons. 4. Miraculous powers, so that on all proper and necessary occasions they could work miracles for the confirmation of their doctrines and mission.

By life and godliness we may understand, 1. a godly life; or, 2. eternal life as the end, and godliness the way to it; or, 3. what was essentially necessary for the present life, food, raiment, c., and what was requisite for the life to come. As they were in a suffering state, and most probably many of them strangers in those places, one can scarcely say that they had all things that pertained to life and yet so had God worked in their behalf, that none of them perished, either through lack of food or raiment. And as to what was necessary for godliness, they had that from the Gospel ministry, which it appears was still continued among them, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit which were not withdrawn; and what was farther necessary in the way of personal caution, comfort, and instruction, was supplied by means of these two epistles.

That hath called us to glory and virtue] To virtue or courage as the means; and glory-the kingdom of heaven, as the end. This is the way in which these words are commonly understood, and this sense is plain enough, but the construction is harsh. Others have translated διαδοξηςκαιαρετης, by his glorious benignity, a Hebraism for διατηςενδοξουαρετης. and read the whole verse thus: God by his own power hath bestowed on us every thing necessary for a happy life and godliness, having called us to the knowledge of himself, by his own infinite goodness. It is certain that the word αρετη, which we translate virtue or courage, is used, 1Pet 2:9, to express the perfection of the Divine nature: That ye may show forth ταςαρετας, the virtues or PERFECTIONS, of him who hath called you from darkness into his marvellous light.

But there is a various reading here which is of considerable importance, and which, from the authorities by which it is supported, appears to be genuine: τουκαλεσαντοςημαςιδιαδοξη καιαρετη, through the knowledge of him who hath called us by his own glory and power, or by his own glorious power. This is the reading of AC, several others; and, in effect, of the Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, AEthiopic, Vulgate, Cyril, Cassiodorus, &c.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. According as his divine power. He refers to the infinite goodness of God which they had already experienced, that they might more fully understand it for the future. For he continues the course of his benevolence perpetually to the end, except when we ourselves break it off by our unbelief; for he possesses exhaustless power and an equal will to do good. Hence the Apostle justly animates the faithful to entertain good hope by the consideration of the former benefits of God. For the same purpose is the amplification which he makes; for he might have spoken more simply, “As he has freely given us all things.” But by mentioning “divine power,” he rises higher, that is, that God has copiously unfolded the immense resources of his power. But the latter clause may be referred to Christ as well as to the Father, but both are suitable. It may however be more fitly applied to Christ, as though he had said, that the grace which is conveyed to us by him, is an evidence of divinity, because it could not have done by humanity.

That pertain to life and godliness, or, as to life and godliness. Some think that the present life is meant here, as godliness follows as the more excellent gift; as though by those two words Peter intended to prove how beneficent and bountiful God is towards the faithful, that he brought them to light, that he supplies them with all things necessary for the preservation of an earthly life, and that he has also renewed them to a spiritual life by adorning them with godliness. But this distinction is foreign to the mind of Peter, for as soon as he mentioned life, he immediately added godliness, which is as it were its soul; for God then truly gives us life, when he renews us unto the obedience of righteousness. So Peter does not speak here of the natural gifts of God, but only mentions those things which he confers peculiarly on his own elect above the common order of nature.

That we are born men, that we are endued with reason and knowledge, that our life is supplied with necessary support, — all this is indeed from God. As however men, being perverted in their minds and ungrateful, do not regard these various things, which are called the gifts of nature, among God's benefits, the common condition of human life is not here referred to, but the peculiar endowments of the new and Spiritual life, which derive their origin from the kingdom of Christ. But since everything necessary for godliness and salvation is to be deemed among the supernatural gifts of God, let men learn to arrogate nothing to themselves, but humbly ask of God whatever they see they are wanting in, and to ascribe to him whatever good they may have. For Peter here, by attributing the whole of godliness, and all helps to salvation, to the divine power of Christ, takes them away from the common nature of men, so that he leaves to us not even the least particle of any virtue or merit.

Through the knowledge of him. He now describes the manner in which God makes us partakers of so great blessings, even by making himself known to us by the gospel. For the knowledge of God is the beginning of life and the first entrance into godliness. In short, spiritual gifts cannot be given for salvation, until, being illuminated by the doctrine of the gospel, we are led to know God. But he makes God the author of this knowledge, because we never go to him except when called. Hence the effectual cause of faith is not the perspicacity of our mind, but the calling of God. And he speaks not of the outward calling only, which is in itself ineffectual; but of the inward calling, effected by the hidden power of the Spirit when God not only sounds in our ears by the voice of man, but draws inwardly our hearts to himself by his own Spirit.

To glory and virtue, or, by his own glory and power. Some copies have ἰδία δόξὟ, “by his own glory," and it is so rendered by the old interpreter; and this reading I prefer, because the sentence seems thus to flow better For it was Peter's object expressly to ascribe the whole praise of our salvation to God, so that we may know that we owe every thing to him. And this is more clearly expressed by these words, — that he has called us by his own glory and power. However, the other reading, though more obscure, tends to the same thing; for he teaches us, that we are covered with shame, and are wholly vicious, until God clothes us with glory and adorns us with virtue. He further intimates, that the effect of calling in the elect, is to restore to them the glorious image of God, and to renew them in holiness and righteousness.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

3. According as his divine power] Better, Seeing that.… The Greek word for “divine” is found elsewhere in the New Testament only in 2Pe_1:4 and Act_17:29.

life and godliness] The words at first suggest the union of outward and spiritual blessings, the things needful for body and soul. The words that follow shew, however, that “life” must be taken in its higher sense, as extending to the eternal life which “standeth” in the knowledge of God. The word for “godliness” is found elsewhere in the New Testament only in this Epistle (2Pe_1:6-7, 2Pe_3:11), and in Act_3:12, where it is used by St Peter, and in the Pastoral Epistles (1Ti_2:2; 1Ti_3:16; 1Ti_4:7-8, et al.), and like that for “knowledge” in 2Pe_1:2 is characteristic of the later period of the Apostolic age. In the LXX. of Pro_1:7 a kindred word appears as an equivalent for “the fear of the Lord.” Its strict meaning is that of “true reverence for God,” and so far answers more to “religion” than to “godliness,” the state of one who is “godly” or “like God.”

through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue] The word for “knowledge” is the same as in 2Pe_1:2, and fixes, as has been said, the meaning of “life” in the previous verse. In the last four words the English text mistranslates the preposition, and we have to read “by (or through) His own glory and virtue.” Some MSS. give the simple dative of the instrument (ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ), and others the preposition with the genitive (διὰ δόξης). For the word “virtue” see note on 1Pe_2:9. Its recurrence three times in this Epistle (here and in 2Pe_1:5) and so rarely elsewhere in the New Testament (Php_4:8 only) is, so far as it goes, in favour of identity of authorship. Taking the true rendering, the thought expressed is that the attributes of God manifested by Him are the means by which He calls men to the knowledge of the truth.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According as his divine power,.... Meaning either the power of God the Father, to whom belong eternal power and Godhead; and he is sometimes called by the name of power itself; see Mat 26:64 being all powerful and mighty; or rather the power of Christ, since he is the next and immediate antecedent to this relative; and who, as he has the fulness of the Godhead in him, is almighty, and can do all things; and is "El-shaddai", God all-sufficient, and can communicate all things whatsoever he pleases, and does, as follows: for he

hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness; referring not so much to a temporal life, though he gives that and preserves it, and furnishes with all the mercies and comforts of it; and which come to us, from him, in a covenant way, as his left hand blessings, and in great love; but rather a spiritual life, which he is the author and maintainer of, all the joys, pleasures, blessings, and supports of it, being given by him; as also eternal life, for that, and everything appertaining to it, are from him; he gives a meetness for it, which is his own grace, and a right unto it, which is his own righteousness; and he has power to give that itself to as many as the Father has given him, and he does give it to them; and likewise all things belonging to "godliness", or internal religion; and which is the means of eternal life, and leads on to it, and is connected with it, and has the promise both of this life, and of that which is to come; and everything relating to it, or is in it, or it consists of, is from Christ: the internal graces of the Spirit, as faith, hope, and love, which, when in exercise, are the principal parts of powerful godliness, are the gifts of Christ, are received out of his fulness, and of which he is the author and finisher; and he is the donor of all the fresh supplies of grace to maintain the inward power of religion, and to assist in the external exercise of it; all which things are given

through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. The call here spoken of is not a bare outward call, by the ministry of the word, but an internal, special, and powerful one, which springs from the grace, and is according to the purpose of God, and is inseparably connected with justification and glorification; and is either of God the Father, who, as the God of all grace, calls to eternal glory by Christ; or rather of Christ himself, who calls by his Spirit and grace; and hence the saints are sometimes styled, the called of Jesus Christ, Rom 1:6 what they are called unto by him is, "glory and virtue"; by the former may be meant, the glorious state of the saints in the other world, and so answers to "life", eternal life, in the preceding clause; and by the latter, grace, and the spiritual blessings of grace here, and which answers to "godliness" in the said clause; for the saints are called both to grace and glory, and to the one, in order to the other. Some render it, "by glory and virtue"; and some copies, as the Alexandrian and others, and so the Vulgate Latin version, read, "by his own glory and virtue"; that is, by his glorious power, which makes the call as effectual, and is as illustrious a specimen of the glory of his power, as was the call of Lazarus out of the grave; unless the Gospel should rather be intended by glory and virtue, which is glorious in itself, and the power of God unto salvation, and is the means by which persons are called to the communion of Christ, and the obtaining of his glory: so then this phrase, "him that hath called us to glory and virtue", is a periphrasis of Christ, through a "knowledge" of whom, and which is not notional and speculative, but spiritual, experimental, fiducial, and practical, or along with such knowledge all the above things are given; for as God, in giving Christ, gives all things along with him, so the Spirit of Christ, which is a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, when he makes him known in the glory of his person, grace, and righteousness, also makes known the several things which are freely given of God and Christ: and this is what, among other things, makes the knowledge of Christ preferable to all other knowledge, or anything else.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Ver. 3. To glory and virtue] To glory as the end, to virtue as the means. The very heathens made their passage to the temple of honour through the temple of virtue. Do worthily, and be famous, Rth 4:11.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According as his divine power hath given unto us - All the effects of the gospel on the human heart are, in the Scriptures, traced to the power of God. See the notes at Rom 1:16. There are no moral means which have ever been used that have such power as the gospel; none through which God has done so much in changing the character and affecting the destiny of man.

All things that pertain unto life and godliness - The reference here in the word “life” is undoubtedly to the life of religion; the life of the soul imparted by the gospel. The word “godliness” is synonymous with piety. The phrase “according as” (ὡς hōs) seems to be connected with the sentence in 2Pe 1:5, “Forasmuch as he has conferred on us these privileges and promises connected with life and godliness, we are bound, in order to obtain all that is implied in these things, to give all diligence to add to our faith, knowledge,” etc.

Through the knowledge of him - By a proper acquaintance with him, or by the right kind of knowledge of him. Notes, Joh 17:3.

That hath called us to glory and virtue - Margin: “by.” Greek, “through glory,” etc. Doddridge supposes that it means that he has done this “by the strengthening virtue and energy of his spirit.” Rosenmuller renders it, “by glorious benignity.” Dr. Robinson (Lexicon) renders it, “through a glorious display of his efficiency.” The objection which anyone feels to this rendering arises solely from the word “virtue,” from the fact that we are not accustomed to apply that word to God. But the original word (ἀρετή aretē) is not as limited in its signification as the English word is, but is rather a word which denotes a good quality or excellence of any kind. In the ancient classics it is used to denote manliness, vigor, courage, valor, fortitude; and the word would rather denote “energy” or “power” of some kind, than what we commonly understand by virtue, and would be, therefore, properly applied to the “energy” or “efficiency” which God has displayed in the work of our salvation. Indeed, when applied to moral excellence at all, as it is in 2Pe 1:5, of this chapter, and often elsewhere, it is perhaps with a reference to the “energy, boldness, vigor,” or “courage” which is evinced in overcoming our evil propensities, and resisting allurements and temptations. According to this interpretation, the passage teaches that it is “by a glorious Divine efficiency” that we are called into the kingdom of God.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Glory and virtue.[1] By the Greek text, virtue is not here the same as power, as commonly in other places, but signifies God’s goodness, mercy, and clemency. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Et virtute, Greek: kai aretes.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

According as; this may refer either:

1. To what goes before: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, & c., according as his divine power hath given unto us, &c.; and then in these words the apostle shows what reason there was to hope, that grace and peace should be multiplied to them, and perfected in them, viz. because God hath already given them all things pertaining to life and godliness; q.d. He that hath done thus much for you, will do more, and finish his work in you. Or:

2. To what follows; and then the Greek phrase rendered according as, is not a note of similitude, but of illation, and may be rendered, since, or seeing that, and so the words are not a part of the salutation, but the beginning of the body of the Epistle, and relate to 2Pe 1:5; Seeing that his Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain, & c., add to your faith virtue, & c.; as God hath done his part, so do you yours in the diligent performance of what he hath enabled you unto.

Divine power may relate either to God, or rather to Christ, immediately going before; and then it tends to the confirming their hope of the multiplication of grace and peace to them, not only from God, but from Christ, in that they had already experienced his Divine power in giving them all things pertaining to life and godliness, i.e. whatever may be helpful to it, the Spirit, faith, repentance, &c., Joh 7:39; 2Co 4:6; 2Ti 2:25.

Unto life; either:

1. Spiritual life, and then godliness may be added by way of explication, that life which consists in godliness, or a godly life; or, by life may be meant the inward, permanent principle of spiritual acts, and the exercise of them may be called godliness, as the perfection of that principle is called glory. Or:

2. Eternal life, to which we attain through godliness, as the way; and then likewise they are understood distinctly, life as the end, and godliness as the means; and so life in this verse is the same as peace in the former, and godliness the same as grace.

To glory and virtue: according to our translation, glory may be the same as life before, and virtue the same with godliness; and then the words set forth the end of God’s calling us, viz. unto glory or life hereafter, as well as virtue or godliness now. But the Greek preposition δια is no where (as some observe) in the New Testament found to signify to; for in Rom 6:4 (which some allege) it is best rendered by, glory being there put for God’s power; and therefore our margin here reads it by glory and virtue; which may either be, by an hendiadis, for glorious virtue, taking virtue for power, that glorious power of God which is put forth in calling us, Eph 1:18,19, or his goodness and mercy which appear in the same calling, in which sense the word may be understood; see Tit 3:4,5; 1Pe 2:9; or, (which comes to the same), glory being often taken for powe Joh 2:11, by glory and virtue may be meant God’s powe and goodness, or mercy.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

As his divine power has given us all things - There is a wonderful cheerfulness in this exordium, which begins with the exhortation itself. That pertain to life and godliness - To the present, natural life, and to the continuance and increase of spiritual life. Through that divine knowledge of him - Of Christ. Who hath called us by - His own glorious power, to eternal glory, as the end; by Christian virtue or fortitude, as the means.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The Obligations Imposed upon the Believers by the Rich Promises of God.

God’s promises and the Christian virtues:

v. 3. According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue;

v. 4. whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

v. 5. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge;

v. 6. and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness;

v. 7. and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.

Peter assumes from the outset that his readers are, without exception, believers, that they have all become partakers of the grace and peace of God through faith. Upon this fact he bases his entire discussion: Forasmuch as His divine power has given us all things that are necessary for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His glory and divine virtue, through which He has given to us the precious and greatest promises, that by means of these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world in lust. The apostle enumerates some of the wonderful gifts of God, as the Christians are enjoying them. It is God, whose divine power, working through the Gospel, has freely given us, donated to us, everything that serves and aids us in the new spiritual life, as it shows itself in godliness. His grace and mercy is so full and complete that there is nothing missing which might serve our spiritual needs. God presented us with all these wonderful gifts by working the saving knowledge of Himself in us, when He called us through the Gospel. The knowledge of God which the natural man possesses is at best one which makes Him fear the almighty power of the great Lord of the universe. But we have learned that God is our kind, merciful, loving Father in Christ Jesus. To this knowledge of faith God has brought us through the glory and virtue that is peculiar to Him, through His majesty as well as through His unassailable perfection, through His goodness, kindness, mercy, and grace, 2Ti 1:9; Rom 3:25-26. At the same time, and through the same perfection of His essence, God has imparted to us another gift, namely, the precious, the immeasurably great and beautiful and incomprehensible promises. His purpose in doing this was and is that He might so strengthen our faith as thereby to make us partakers of His divine nature, to give us the spiritual power to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us. It is in this way that we are enabled to be consecrated to Him and to flee from the corruption, from the degeneration, decay, and death which is in the world and is brought about by the evil lust, by the natural deceitfulness of the human heart in consequence of sin. Thus all the benefits of conversion and sanctification are here briefly outlined, in order to give a solid foundation to the appeal which the apostle is about to make.

For since these facts are as stated, therefore Peter has every reason to continue: But for this very reason use all your diligence and exhibit in your faith virtue; and in your virtue, knowledge; in knowledge, self-control; in self-control, steadfastness; in steadfastness, godliness; in godliness, brotherly love; and in brotherly love, universal love. The apostle delineates the growth and the expansion of the Christian’s life of sanctification as a gradual, but steady progress. Because they are enjoying such wonderful gifts of God in spiritual blessings, therefore the believers will naturally contrive in every possible way, by the application of all zeal and diligence, to give evidence of the divine nature that has been recreated in them. Faith is the root from which all virtues and good works proceed as the rich fruits of spirituality. Faith will bring virtue, manly courage, and strength, that attitude of mind which will seek to please the Lord in all things. This attitude is accompanied by knowledge, understanding of that which pleases the Lord, insight, circumspection, discernment, Christian wisdom. This, in turn, is shown in the proper self-control, not a mere product of fear and slavish submission to authority, but the willing, deliberate ruling of the body and all its members, and of the mind and all its faculties, in accordance with the will of God. This cannot be a matter of mere whim or caprice, of an occasional good thought or deed, but it must be done with patient endurance and steadfastness, in spite of all temptations from within and without. This will next result in godliness, in a life which will at all times and in all conditions be pleasing to the Lord. The chief outward evidence, moreover, of godliness is brotherly love, affection toward the brethren of the same Christian congregation or community. And this love is to extend also beyond the immediate neighborhood and interests and show itself toward all men, even toward the enemies, See 1Th 3:12; Gal 6:10. What a high ideal for the Christians to hold before their eyes at all times!

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In these words our apostle shews, what reason they had to believe and hope, that grace and peace should be multiplied unto them, namely, because almighty God had already given them all things which conduced to make them holy in this life, and happy in the next, by the knowledge of Christ.

Others, by life and godliness, understand all things conducing to the reservation of natural life, likewise of grace here, and glory hereafter; and whereas it is said they were called to glory and virtue, by glory understand the honour of being Christians; by virtue, the good life that becomes Christians. To both these they were called with a glorious calling, as being attended with the glorious effusion of the Holy Ghost. If by glory and virtue be understood grace here, and glory hereafter, it shews our privilege, that we have both at present in a way of incoation, and shall ere long enjoy both in a way of consummation; and and it points out also to us our duty, we must have virtue, if we would have glory; if we be not like Christ, we can never love him, nor may we ever expect to live with him.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 1

THE ABUNDANT ENTRANCE.

This is the glorious antithesis of the extremely difficult entrance of the justified man (1Pe 4:18). This abundant entrance is for the soul who has been not only regenerated and sanctified, but who has added the beautiful, bright, and glorious constellation of Christian graces given in this chapter, constituting the establishing enduements of the Holy Ghost.

3. “Life and godliness.” We receive life in regeneration and godliness in sanctification, which expurgates the heart from all fear, and makes us like God. “Through the knowledge.” Greek epignoosis, i.e., perfect knowledge, sanctification, in contradistinction to gnosis, regeneration.

4. “In order that through these promises you may be partakers of the divine nature,” i.e., regenerated by the Holy Ghost, “having escaped the corruption that is in the world, through lust,” i.e., having all depraved lusts taken out of you, which is precisely the work of sanctification. Hagiazoo from gee, the world, and alpha, not, i.e., to take the world out of you. Hence you see those people here reported by Peter are already regenerated and sanctified.

“The God of all grace, having called you into His own everlasting glory in Christ will make you perfect, having suffered a little while, will establish, strengthen and settle you.” (1Pe 5:10)

In this wonderful argument Peter specifies the graces by which people who have been regenerated and sanctified are established, strengthened and settled in holiness, so they may never fall, but secure the abundant entrance into heaven.

5. Now we reach that beautiful constellation of establishing graces which has served to fortify His people against apostasy, establish them in holiness to secure to them the abundant entrance. Virtue is first in the constellation. The Greek is aretee, from arees, the Grecian war-god who stirred up all of the battle and led the combatants in deadly conflict, delighting in rivers of blood and mountains of slain. Hence it is the strongest possible revelation of that redoubtable Christian heroism which always seeks the hottest conflict, the front of battle and thickest of the fight. It is real bull-dog courage which never lets go. It makes you brave enough to fight a regiment of devils. Since you have to hew your way every step to the celestial gate, you must have this grace. Without it you will fall soon or late. God help you to add it. “And to heroism, knowledge.” The Greek is gnosis, one of the spiritual gifts imparted by the Holy Ghost to the sanctified to establish and make them efficient soul-savers. You can not keep sanctified and remain ignorant. Salvation is for fools, but you can not keep it and remain fools. You must be an assiduous student in the school of Christ, sitting meek and lowly at the feet of Jesus, taught by the Holy Ghost the deep things of God. The Holy Ghost will use the saints of God and good books to teach you, yet He Himself is the Great Teacher. You in utter abandonment to God, all your creeds, means, enterprises forever abnegated, learn how to be taught by the Holy Ghost. This divine gnosis, knowledge, is insight into divine truth, which none but the Spirit who made the world can give. Without this grace you will never be a preacher of the Word. You may fill the pulpit and preach theology, literature, science, and Biblical history, but you will never preach the Gospel, nor receive the crown of a soul-saver. You should be homo unius libre, a man of one book, and that book the Bible. Of course, you should use all other books which explain the Bible in harmony with the Holy Ghost.

6. “To knowledge, temperance.” The Greek is egkrateian, from ego, I, and kratos , government. Hence it means self-government in harmony with the will of God, i.e., practical holiness. Sanctification gives you experimental holiness, but to this you must add practical holiness, otherwise your experience will prove evanescent. It is temperance in that high sense which absolutely abstains from everything that is not for the glory of God. If we are going up to live in heaven we must learn to live in this world as we will live in heaven. “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” Thus is practical holiness the life we are to lead. “To temperance, patience.” “Let patience have its perfect work.” Without perfect patience you can not keep your experience. Sanctification takes all the fret and worry out of you. You can not keep your experience and give way to them. All sorts of annoyances and temptations will be a blessing to you, strengthen and confirm your patience, if you do not let the enemy impart impatience.

Perfect patience is not the greatest enduement of patience, but simply patience without impatience. If you can, by the help of God, keep all impatience out of your heart, your patience will grow with marvelous rapidity, reaching up into gianthood, and bidding defiance to all sorts of annoyances, becoming actually imperturbable. “To patience, godliness,” i.e., godlikeness. God has lived and died on this earth, teaching us the entire problem of humanity by precept and example — how to live and how to die. Four faithful historians have given us His biography. Oh, what a blessing! By the time we study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we all learn how to live and how to die, encompassing the entire problem of human probation, responsibility and destiny. Sinners follow Satan, not always willingly, but blinded by him, and led captive at his will. Unsanctified Christians follow Jesus but not with a perfect heart. They very largely follow human leaders. Wholly sanctified people follow Jesus only, with all the heart. For that reason the secular clergy have always opposed the sanctification of their people, lest they will lose their hold on them. If we are going to heaven, we must get saved from human leadership, so we will follow the Lord alone. As all men are fallible, God never purposed that we should follow them. Therefore He came on the earth, lived and died, giving us a perfect example throughout, corroborated by His plain and unmistakable teachings.

7. “To godliness, brotherly kindness.” This word is philadelphia in the Greek. George Fox preached entire sanctification in England a hundred years before John Wesley. Flooded with the Holy Ghost, he quaked as he stood before the people. Hence they called him “The Quaker.” When William Penn was sanctified under his preaching with the sword buckled round him, the insignia of his office in the British Government, he asked Fox, “How long shall I wear this sword?” “Just so long as the Lord will let you,” was the answer. He soon laid it off when sent to America with his sanctified Quaker followers to found a colony. They all came unarmed. Meeting the Indian chiefs under the great elm trees, they were unutterably astonished, for the first time in their lives to see white men unarmed. Penn said, “We are all children of the same loving heavenly Father, who wants us to live together in peace. Now, where shall we found a settlement?” The savages break and weep, saying, “You are the very people we want to live with and teach us how to worship the Great Spirit as we ought. So our land is before you. Settle where you will.” Penn choose that very spot and called it Philadelphia, the very Greek word used by the Holy Ghost in this passage and translated “brotherly love.” It means the mutual love of the white man and the Indian in case of the Pennsylvania metropolis. In our text it means the mutual love of all mankind. You see how it won the hearts of the savages. Amid the dark, bloody massacres of the pioneer ages, not a drop of Quaker blood was shed by an Indian. Experimental sanctification obliterates race, color, and sectarian and national lines, so far as the affections of the heart are concerned. Then we must faithfully live in harmony, with artesian wells of universal philanthropy, springing up in the heart and overflowing the world. Otherwise our experience will evanesce. “And to brotherly kindness, charity,” i.e., the divine agapee, a much stronger word than charity. It is not simply the philia, human love for all the world, but the love which God gives us. He has plenty of it, and will so flood us as to inundate us with an ocean without banks or bottom, so we will have an ample supply, not only for every human being, but for every poor animal that has feeling, and is capable of suffering.

8. “These things are in you, in regeneration and abound” in sanctification. Therefore you will grow in grace and bear an abundance of fruit through knowledge of God. The Greek is epignoosis, i.e., perfect knowledge, peculiar to the sanctified, involving experimental certainty, in contradistinction to the foggy experiences so prevalent in the churches.

9. This verse reveals the sad apostasy of those who do not add these establishing graces to their experience of regeneration and sanctification. This is the great delinquency, filling up the ranks not only of church members, but of holiness people, with backsliders, bring mountains of reproach on the cause of God, laying a stumbling-block before the ignorant.

10. Here we are taught how to “make our calling and election sure,” i.e., get born of the Spirit, and thence sanctified, proceeding with all enthusiasm to add this beautiful constellation of establishing graces. “For doing these things you may never fall.” Here is the true, final perseverance of the saints, so prominent in the Calvinistic creeds. Get regenerated and sanctified; add these establishing graces. While you do these things there is no collapse. So here is a title deed to heaven, free to all who want to make heaven a certainty.

11. “For thus an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Oh, what a contrast with “scarcely saved, justified man” (1Pe 4:18). Do not risk the tight squeeze into heaven, least you be squeezed out instead of in. God flood your heart with aspirations after the abundant entrance, in which there is no conceivable risk. Surely we can not afford to take any risk on heaven. Get regenerated and sanctified, and add these glorious establishing graces and you “will never fall” while you do them. Then rest assured you will have no difficulty, but the abundant entrance. Valentine Cook was a pioneer preacher in Kentucky, under Bishop Asbury. One day while riding along the horse-path through the primeval forest, Satan put his hand on his shoulder. “Valentine Cook, you are a great man, a big preacher,” thus doing his utmost to inflate his vanity and upset his experience. After a number of unsuccessful efforts to expel the adversary, he sees he must go to his knees, turns out the path, hitches his horse, down on his knees he falls and cries to God. Then retorts the wily enemy, “Now you get it. Don’t you see that hunter drawing a bead on you, mistaking your bear skin overcoat for a bear. Run for your life.” “Well, devil, if he shoots me, the bullet will be God’s way to open heaven’s gate and let me in. Glory to God!” Now he pours out his soul in prayer. God floods him from the heavenly ocean. He rises with a great shout and goes on his way, the devil skedaddling. The very night of his death, a venerable comrade-in-arms enjoyed a notable heavenly vision. Enraptured in contemplation of the ineffable celestial glory, gazing upon the effulgent throne, an angel comes flying rapidly from the gate, ringing the news, “Valentine Cook is dying.” Immediately God commands them to ring all the bells of heaven and blow all the trumpets. Forthwith all heaven is in commotion, processions are parading in all directions, moving toward the gate, which is thrown wide open.

Meanwhile myriads of angels sweep out, shouting aloud, “Welcome home, Valentine Cook.” God grant that you and I may have the abundant entrance.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. Seeing that his divine power. It has granted us all things needful to live godly lives. Through the knowledge of him. These all come through the knowledge of God. By his own glory and virtue (Revision). God's power is manifested in his glory and virtue. It is his moral excellency and glory that move upon men, not physical power.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Peter begins to teach the believers about living godly lives.

for life and godliness

Here "godliness" describes the word "life." AT: "for a godly life" (See: Hendiadys)

who called us

Here the word "us" refers to Peter and his audience. (See: Inclusive "We")

Through these

Here "these" refers to "his own glory and virtue."

you might be sharers

"you might share"

the divine nature

what God is like

having escaped the corruption in the world that is caused by evil desires

Peter speaks of people not suffering from the corruption that wicked desires cause as if they were escaping from that corruption. The word "corruption" is an abstract noun that can be translated with a verbal phrase. AT: "and so that the wicked desires in this world will no longer corrupt you" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)

translationWords

divine

power

life

godly

know

God

call

glory

precious

promise

divine

corrupt

world

evil

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

3. ὡς. It is a question whether we ought to place a comma or a full stop immediately before this word. If a comma, then we must take this sentence with the preceding one and translate, “May grace and peace be multiplied, etc.… (as it surely will) seeing that His divine power has given, etc.” and come to a full stop at the end of 2Pe 1:4. If a full stop, we must render thus, “Seeing that His divine power has given, etc.… you must give all diligence, etc.” The next full stop will then be at the end of 2Pe 1:5. It is, however, awkward in this case to give a proper sense to the words καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο δὲ in 2Pe 1:5. They are better suited to the beginning of a Greek sentence. I think the comma is to be preferred.

This is a case in which the early MSS., devoid of punctuation, do not help us.

θεία δύναμις does not occur elsewhere in N.T., but is very common in philosophical writings. It is also found (along with several other coincidences of language with 2 Peter) in an inscription of Stratonicea in Caria, mentioned in the Introduction (p. xxv, not[18]).

[18] e.g. in the case of ἀρετή used of God.

The divine power has supplied us with all that is needed for life and godliness (ζωή is probably life in this world, not in the next) by means of the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Probably us means the Apostles. Christ called them to Him by showing them His glory (as at the Transfiguration), and His ἀρετή, His inner perfection, in His life and teaching. Thus, if the readers of the Epistle come to know Him, they will be in a position to live soberly and godly in this present world.

διὰ δόξης κ. ἀρετῆς. So BKL and a few other authorities: אACP and most versions read ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ κ. ἀρετῇ. A majority of editors (including the most recent) prefer the latter reading.

ἀρετή is rare in N.T. It only occurs in 1Pe 2:9 ὅπως τὰς ἀρετὰς ἐξαγγείλητε τοῦ ἐκ σκότους ὑμᾶς καλέσαντος, where it may be rendered by “mighty works” or “praises”: in Php 4:8 εἴ τις ἀρετὴ καὶ εἴ τις ἔπαινος, ταῦτα λογίζεσθε: and in 2Pe 1:5 of this chapter.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3-11.] Exhortation to advance in the graces of the spiritual life: introduced (vv. 3, 4) by a consideration of the rich bestowal from God of all things belonging to that life by the knowledge of Him, and the aim of His promises, viz. that we should partake in the divine nature.

3.] Seeing that (the connexion with the greeting which precedes must not be broken: it is characteristic of this Epistle, to dilate further when the sense seems to have come to a close. The sense of ὡς with a gen. absolute is, “assuming that,” “seeing that;” cf. Plato, Alcib. i. p. 10, οὐκοῦν ὡς διανοουμένου σου ταῦτα ἐρωτῶ, ἀφίημί σε διανοεῖσθαι: Xen. Cyr. iii. 1. 9, ἀλλʼ ἐρώτα, ἔφη, ὦ Κῦρε, ὅτι βούλει, ὡς τἀληθῆ ἐροῦντος. See Matthiæ, § 568. 2. Winer, § 65. 9. The latter explains the usage thus, “ὡς with a participle in the gen. absolute construction, gives to the idea of the verb a subjective character, of assumption, or intention”) His divine (θεῖος, a word peculiar in N. T., as an adjective, to this Epistle: see reff.) power hath given (δεδωρημένης, middle in signification, as perfect passives so often: so προσκέκλημαι αὐτούς, Act 13:2, Act 16:10, Act 25:12: ὃ ἐπήγγελται, Rom 4:21; Heb 12:26: see Winer, § 39. 3) us all things (πάντα is prefixed by way of emphasis) which are (requisite) for (reff.) life and godliness (εὐσέβεια is a mark of the later apostolic period: reff.), through (by means of, as the medium of attainment: “Dei cognitio principium est vitæ (Joh 17:3) et primus in pietatem ingressus.” Calv.) the knowledge (ἐπιγν. see above) of Him that called us (i. e. of God, who is ever the Caller in the N. T.: see e. g. 1Pe 2:9) by (dat. of the instrument, as in Act 2:33, Act 2:5:31; Jas 3:7) His own glory and virtue (αἱ ἀρεταί are predicated of God in ref. 1 Pet. However these words be read, whether as in text, or διὰ δόξης κ. ἀρετῆς, both substantives belong to God, not to us: still less must we render, as in E. V., “called us to glory and virtue,” of which meaning there is not a trace in either reading. Bengel seems to give the meaning well, “ad gloriam referuntur attributa Dei naturalia, ad virtutem ea quæ dicuntur moralia: intime unum sunt utraque” Cf. Gal 1:15, καλέσας διὰ τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ),

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hath granted [δεδωρημενης] . This is the only word which Peter and Mark alone have in common in the New Testament; a somewhat singular fact in view of their intimate relations, and of the impress of Peter upon Mark's gospel : yet it tells very strongly against the theory of a forgery of this epistle. The word is stronger than the simple didwmi, to give, meaning to grant or bestow as a gift. Compare Mr 14:45.

Godliness [ευσεβειαν] . Used only by Peter (Act 3:12), and in the Pastoral Epistles. It is from euj, well, and sebomai, to worship, so that the radical idea is worship rightly directed. Worship, however, is to be understood in it etymological sense, worth - ship, or reverence paid to worth, whether in God or man. So Wycliffe's rendering of Mt 6:2, "that they be worshipped of men;" and "worship thy father and thy mother," Mt 19:19. In classical Greek the word is not confined to religion, but means also piety in the fulfilment of human relations, like the Latin pietas. Even in classical Greek, however, it is a standing word for piety in the religious sense, showing itself in right reverence; and is opposed to dussebeia, ungodliness, and ajnosiothv, profaneness. "The recognition of dependence upon the gods, the confession of human dependence, the tribute of homage which man renders in the certainty that he needs their favor - all this is eujsebeia, manifest in conduct and conversation, in sacrifice and prayer." (Nagelsbach, cited by Cremer). This definition may be almost literally transferred to the Christian word. It embraces the confession of the one living and true God, and life corresponding to this knowledge. See on ver. 2.

Called [καλεσαντος] . Also used of the divine invitation, 1Pe 2:9, 21; 1Pe 3:9; 1Pe 5:10.

To glory and virtue [ιδια δοξη και αρετη] . Lit., and properly, by his own glory and virtue, though some read dia doxhv kai ajrethv, through glory and virtue. Rev. adopts the former. The meaning is much the same in either case.

His own [ιδια] . Of frequent occurrence in Peter, and not necessarily with an emphatic force, since the adjective is sometimes used merely as a possessive pronoun, and mostly so in Peter (1Pe 3:1, 5; 2Pe 2:16, 22, etc.).

Virtue. See on 1Pe 2:9. Used by Peter only, with the exception of Phi 4:8. The original classical sense of the word had no special moral import, but denoted excellence of any kind - bravery, rank, nobility; also, excellence of land, animals, things, classes of persons. Paul seems to avoid the term, using it only once.

On glory and virtue Bengel says, "the former indicates his natural, the latter his moral, attributes."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.