2 Peter 1:1-11 (CSB)
1 Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ:
To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. 11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Having finished our study on 1 Peter, now it’s time to move on to his second letter. Surprisingly, there are quite a few scholars who debate about whether Peter wrote this letter. I honestly don’t understand why. He clearly states, as you will see, that this is his second letter. The main reason they doubt his authorship is because they say his style of writing differs vastly from his first letter. To address this, I want to make two points, though there could be many other reasons as well. First, the first letter was possibly written by Silas (Silvanus). Peter could have dictated it to Silas who could have reworded it for style. Second, this letter was clearly written later than the first. If you read my sermons from a few years ago and now read these recent ones, I think you would see that there is a difference in my writing style. God-willing, many more years from now, if you read those future sermons and then compared them to my earliest, there will be an even greater difference. I know I said two points, but let me add a third. We also must remember with all of scripture that the Holy Spirit is who is ultimately directing and shaping all these words. While we see some of each person’s personality in the books, ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit who is orchestrating the words. Peter is just an instrument, and God is speaking through him. Any change of style is, most likely, simply a result of that. So, all that to say, I don’t see any reason to doubt that Peter is the one who wrote this second letter.
Beyond any of those points, though, we have the word of God telling us Peter wrote it. In 2 Peter 3:1, he says this is his second letter. It says, “Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you; in both letters, I want to stir up your sincere understanding by way of reminder.” That alone should be enough “evidence” that Peter wrote both letters. This mention of this being his second also gives us the answer to the question of to whom he is writing to: it’s the same group of believers as he wrote to in his first letter. This is also why I believe that 1 Peter was not written to Jewish believers alone, but to Gentile believers. For this letter seems even clearer that his audience included Gentiles. Let’s start with verse 1 and see why I make that point.
Verse 1 says, “Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” I think Peter is specifically addressing the Gentile believers who had received an equal faith as him through Jesus Christ. As we know, there were people who felt Gentile believers were not equal to Jewish believers. I also think it’s possible he is including the Jewish believers in this statement. Perhaps he’s clarifying that even though he is an apostle, he is not extra special. Those who are believers but are not apostles can have faith equal to the apostles’ faith.
The other important point he’s making, though it’s easy to pass over, is that Jesus is both God and Savior. As it is today, it was the same then: some people did not think Jesus was God but was only a prophet. Peter’s statement should be more than adequate proof to all people that Jesus is not just a prophet, He was and is our God and Savior.
Then, we see a very similar statement to what he prayed at the beginning of 1 Peter, which says, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” Verse 2 says, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Now, here he tells us how it is multiplied: through the knowledge of God. The more knowledge we have about God, the more grace and peace will we have. Grace and peace aren’t just added to us, but are multiplied to us through knowledge.
This knowledge is not a basic knowing that God exists. The Greek word used is epignosis and as HELPS Word-studies defines this word, it means, “properly, ‘contact-knowledge’ that is appropriate (‘apt, fitting’) to first-hand, experiential knowing.”
There is a big difference between knowing God and having general knowledge about Him. Later, in verses 5 and 6, the word for knowledge is gnosis, and it means “a knowing, knowledge,” but it is not as strong of a knowing as epignosis. The prefixed preposition ‘epi’ means upon, above, or in addition to, so epignosis is an intensified knowledge, or a complete knowledge. This is the epignosis knowledge mentioned in verse 3, which says, “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge (epignosis) of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” When we have this deep knowledge of God, then God divinely gives us everything required for life and godliness.
In other words, it’s when we come to faith, not just a basic knowledge of God, that we receive everything required for life and godliness. Simply knowing a lot of theology is not what this means. It’s not knowing a lot about the Bible necessarily. If you think about it, a lot of atheists “know” a lot about the Bible, but they do not know God experientially. Does that mean that knowledge of God is subjective? No, for we know God does not change. He is steadfast. I think we all approach Him a little differently, but as we read the Bible and talk to Him in prayer, the God we discover is consistent and the same. Without the knowledge of God, or rather without faith in Jesus, we cannot obtain all that is required. Knowing God is the key to everything else. It is the starting point. This is what Jesus said in the Gospels, isn’t it? He said, ‘seek first the kingdom of God, and then all these other things will be added to us.’ First, we have to seek the Kingdom of God: we have to find out who God is. We must have faith.
The world wants to obtain all the things required for life by any and all means other than epignosis knowledge of God. Just look at the field of psychology. Rather than knowing God, the focus is on knowing thy self. What good does it do anybody to know themselves if they don’t have knowledge of the God who created them? Philippians 3:10 says, “My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death.” It is only when we discover who God is, and have faith in Him, that we know who we are.
Next, Peter is going to give us a set of instructions, much like a recipe, for how to live a godly life, as well as firm warnings about how not to be deceived or fall away from the faith. Let’s look again at what Peter tells us to do first. Peter started off by saying that God has given us “everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” Then in verse 4 he says, “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
Through God’s glory and goodness, He has given us promises. Through these promises, we can take part in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world by evil desires. He’s going to clarify in the next chapter that we have “escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
That means that if we have epignosis knowledge of Jesus, then we do not have to be controlled by the corruption of the world. Through God’s divine glory and goodness, He has given us promises. Very great and precious promises, in fact. Through these great promises, given to us because He is so good, we may share in His divine nature, escaping the ruin that results from living not by the divine nature but by evil desires. Part of this promise is a promise to help us escape the corruption.
How exactly do we escape the corruption that is in the world? Now we get to the recipe/ specific instructional part. Verses 5-7 tell us exactly what to do. It says, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”
We must make the effort, every effort Peter says, to supplement or add to our faith these seven specific things: goodness, then knowledge, then self-control, then endurance, then godliness, then brotherly affection, and then love. These qualities are to be added, one to another.
Let’s look at each of these qualities. The first thing we need to add to faith is goodness. The Greek word is areté, and according to Strong’s Concordance, goodness means “moral goodness, virtue.” We are to be virtuous. That is a word I rarely hear anymore, but it means to be honorable, trustworthy, pure, honest, upright. In other words, we are to behave with moral integrity.
How different would our society be if people acted with integrity? No, scratch that. How different would our society be if all Christians acted virtuously, acted with moral integrity? After all, these are instructions to people of faith. I think we all see the effects within society when believers don’t live virtuously. Some other synonyms for virtuous are righteousness, honor, uprightness, or honesty. That means that once we have true knowledge of God and have faith in Him, then we are to live with moral goodness. In 1 Peter 2:1 Peter writes a similar directive. He says, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.” Those things he says to get rid of are the opposites of goodness. We are to behave in accordance with God’s directives on how we are to live. Once we come to the knowledge of who God is and we place our faith in Jesus, then we are to change how we are living to reflect our faith.
After we have added goodness to our faith, then we are to add the second quality, which is knowledge. This is where reading the original Greek is so helpful. The word is gnosis, and it means “a knowing, knowledge.” This is basic knowledge. Once we know God, we are to keep learning. I think we are, of course, meant to learn more about God and His Word, but we are also supposed to learn more in general. The Christian should not shy away from learning. When we become Christians, we are not to leave intellectualism behind us. We should pursue knowledge and learning. God is the author of all truth. The more we learn, the more we see that God is real and the mastermind behind all good things. God wants us to use our brains and learn and grow. When we approach learning through the starting point of truly knowing who God is, we don’t have to fear that intellectualism will weaken our faith as some people fear. No, as long as we are adding intellectualism to our foundation of faith in Jesus, what we learn will add to our faith and strengthen it. The Word of God is not weakened through careful study. It can withstand all scrutiny, for it is true and trustworthy.
Next, we are to add self-control. Why is self-control important? If we already have added goodness, is this redundant? I think it’s taking goodness a step further. This word for self-control is egkrateia, and it means, “mastery, self-control, self-restraint.” We need self-control in order to resist temptation, do we not? Once we know God, behave morally, and gain knowledge, then we should add self-control. It also speaks to our response to difficulties. If we have self-control, we can keep our emotions under control. Instead of losing our temper, we have self-control. We need self-discipline over everything from our anger to our appetites. Self-control means that nobody or nothing is our master. It means moral integrity when no one else is watching, and that we do not give in to temptation or evil desires. This will keep us from hurting ourselves and other people, too, for it puts limits on our behavior. Self-control is necessary for healthy living. Without self-control, we would have no self-discipline. Self-control helps in everything from eating too much or watching too much tv to losing our tempers. It keeps our actions and words in check.
To those things, then we are to add perseverance. In the Greek, it is hupomoné, and it means “a remaining behind, a patient enduring, steadfastness.” I think endurance is self-control that has matured. Someone who can endure much has much self-control. The New Testament talks about endurance a lot: there are more than fifty verses telling us about the need to endure or have endurance. We need endurance so that we do not give up and lose faith. James 1:2-4 tells us how we develop endurance. It says, “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
If we have endurance or perseverance, that means that we don’t give up. We don’t quit. I looked up this word in an online dictionary and a synonym was grit. I love that word. Grit is fortitude or determination when faced with difficulty. Of all people, we believers should exhibit the most grit. For when we have faith in Jesus, we know He is with us. The following verse in Isaiah 41:10 is true, so we should never despair and give up, for this is one of those promises by which we take part in the divine nature of God. It says, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.” If God is with us, He will be our help. He will strengthen us so we can persevere.
And then, to perseverance, we are to add godliness. How is godliness different from goodness? The Greek word is eusebeia, which, according to Strong’s Concordance, is defined as “piety, reverence, respect; piety toward God, godliness.” If we exhibit godliness, we will be pious, which simply means devotion. Is our heart devoted to God? Do we desire to be with God? Do we respect God? Do we respect the word of God? Is God given our highest honor?
I think piety, or godliness, is when we behave with reverence and devotion toward God through acts of righteousness. This would include things like giving to the poor, tithing, fasting, prayer, Bible reading, and worship. Jesus says in His sermon on the mount, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1). He’s telling us we are to practice piety and godliness, but we are not to do so in a self-righteous manner. We are to humbly be devoted to God in word and deed, honoring Him and worshiping Him by giving back to Him what He has given us. And we are to spend time in prayer and in His word, worshiping Him. In other words, we are to be devoted to God, which means that we hold God dearer than any other.
To those things, then we can add brotherly affection, which is the Greek word philadelphia, which means, “the love of brothers, brotherly love.” We need to possess all the aforementioned qualities in order to love other people. Without goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance or devotion to God, we cannot truly love others. If we don’t love others, then that is proof we don’t actually know God. But if we have brotherly love for one another, then we will treat people appropriately. We will be kind and fair in our dealings with people. We will be generous and treat each other like family. Or rather, like family who loves each other.
Which leads us to the last quality we are to add. To all these things, we are to add love. This is no ordinary love. This is the Greek word agape. This is the love that God has for us. It is love which lays its life down for another. It is not emotional love or brotherly love. It is love that flows from God and is shown by its actions. It is the love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, which says, “Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
All these qualities are to be added, one to another. Back to our text for today, verses 8-9 tell us, “If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the [epignosis] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.”
That means that if we have those character traits, then we will be effective and productive. If we don’t have faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love, then we will be ineffective and unproductive in following Jesus. If we don’t have those traits as Christians, it’s proof we’ve forgotten what Jesus has done for us. As the verse says, we are nearsighted and blind, meaning we’ve forgotten that Jesus has cleansed us from past sins. That is because if we remember what Jesus has done for us, if we remember why we became a Christian, if we remember what Jesus forgave us of, then we will want to live with moral integrity. We will want to grow closer to Jesus and experience His presence in our lives more. We will want to behave properly in private and not have anything or anyone but Jesus control our lives. We will be able to persevere when trouble comes because we will know Jesus is with us. We will gladly make Him the most important thing in our lives. We will be able to love our fellow Christians and share the love that God has poured out on us. If we remember what Jesus did for us on the Cross, those things become a joy to us, not a burden. When we forget what Jesus did for us, then it’s easy to fix our eyes on ourselves and troubles. We are nearsighted, meaning we are only looking at ourselves. We look at our immediate situation and at the world and what it is offering us and we think that looks better. However, when we keep our eyes on what Jesus did, then the world can’t deceive us. Then we see the bigger picture.
Finally, verse 10 says, if we practice these qualities, then we will never fall. It says, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.” That is because if we do the opposite of these qualities, we are sinning, and unchecked, unrepented sinning will lead to us falling away. Whereas verse 11 says, “For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.”
Verse 10 also says we are to “make every effort to confirm your calling and election,” and I know that those who are of a reformed or Calvinist persuasion will see this as proof of their doctrine of election. I disagree. Peter says to make every effort to confirm what God has chosen and elected you to. God has established a new covenant, a new way to bring people into His family when Jesus died on the cross and rose again. God has chosen this way of salvation: that all who would believe in Him are welcomed into His family by faith. If you are born again into this family of God through faith, then you are part of the people whom God has chosen and elected to ‘epignosis’ know Him. Then you can confirm your calling and election into this group of believers and share this message of salvation with others so they too may be a part of this chosen or elect way of knowing God. And then, they too, may gain entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord.
Which is our ultimate goal, is it not? I always tell my children my number one goal is to be a Christian my whole life. I’ve seen too many of my friends and acquaintances fall away and leave the faith. This section of 2 Peter is a perfect instruction manual for how not to fall away. It’s a perfect recipe for how to keep the faith. All we have to do is follow it. And there is even more good news. Peter doesn’t mention this, but Jesus gave us a helper and enabler in this effort. We have the Holy Spirit who comes alongside us and helps us to do all these things. He grows all these traits inside of us. This is another amazing promise that Jesus made to us: John 14:26 records Jesus’ promise to us, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.”
This is how we live a godly life and follow Jesus: faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love, all added together. Maybe we should memorize those traits the same way we memorize the fruit of the Spirit.
Pray: Thank You Lord, for Your divine promises. Thank You for promising to always be with us, for strengthening us, for loving us. Thank You for living inside of us and growing and changing us to be more like You. Help us follow You. Please grow us in our faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love. Keep reminding us of all that You have done for us, so we never fall away. We love You so very much. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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