2 Peter 1

2 Peter 1:1

I. SALUTATION (1:1, 2) 1:1 Simon Peter introduces himself as a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ. At once we are struck by his simplicity and humility. He was a bondslave by choice; an apostle by divine appointment. He uses no pompous titles or symbols of status. He has only a grateful acknowledgment of his obligation to serve the risen Savior. All we are told about those to whom the Letter was written is that they had obtained the same precious faith as Peter and his colleagues. This may indicate that he was writing to Gentile believers, the point being that they had received the same kind of faith as believing Jews, a faith that was in no way deficient. All who are saved by the grace of God enjoy equal acceptance before Him, whether they are Jews or Gentiles, male or female, slave or free. Faith means the sum total of all they had received when they embraced the Christian faith. He goes on to explain that this faith is by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. He means that it was a righteous thing for God to give this faith of equal standing to those who believe on the Lord Jesus. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection provide a just basis upon which God can show grace to sinners through faith. The debt of sin has been fully paid and now God can justify the ungodly sinner who believes on His Son. The title our God and Savior Jesus Christ is one of many in the NT which indicate the absolute deity of the Lord Jesus. If He is not God, then these words have no meaning. 1:2 The apostle’s lofty prayer for his readers is that grace and peace might be multiplied to them in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. He wants them to have this knowledge by the sustaining, empowering grace of God in their everyday lives. He wants their hearts to be guarded by the peace of God that passes all understanding. But this is not to be given in small doses! He desires these blessings to be multiplied in volume, not added in small segments. How can these blessings be multiplied? It is in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. The better we know God, the more we experience grace and peace. We do better by dwelling in the secret place of the Most High than by making occasional visits there. Those who live in the sanctuary rather than in the suburbs find the secret of God’s grace and peace.

2 Peter 1:3

II. CALL TO DEVELOP STRONG CHRISTIAN CHARACTER (1:3-21) 1:3 This passage should be of immense interest to every Christian because it tells how we can keep from falling in this life and how we can be assured of a triumphal entry into the next. First we are assured that God has made full provision for us to have a life of holiness. This provision is said to be an evidence of His power: His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Just as His power saves us in the first place, so His power energizes us to live holy lives from then on. The order isfirst life, then godliness. The gospel is the power of God to save from the penalty of sin and from its power, from damnation and from defilement. The all things that pertain to life and godliness include the high priestly work of Christ, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the activity of angelic agencies on our behalf, the new life we receive at conversion, and the instruction of the word of God. The power to live a holy life comes through the knowledge of Him who called us. Just as His divine power is the source of holiness, so the knowledge of Him is the channel. To know Him is eternal life (Joh_17:3) and progress in knowing Him is progress in holiness. The better we get to know Him, the more we become like Him. Our calling is one of Peter’s favorite themes. He reminds us that: (1) We have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light (1Pe_2:9). (2) We have been called to follow Christ in a pathway of suffering (1Pe_2:21). (3) We have been called to return blessing for reviling (1Pe_3:9). (4) We have been called to his eternal glory (1Pe_5:10). (5) We have been called by glory and virtue (2Pe_1:3). This last reference means that He called us by revealing to us the wonders of His Person. Saul of Tarsus was called on the road to Damascus when he saw the glory of God. A later disciple testified, I looked into His face and was forever spoiled for anything that was unlike Him. He was called by His glory and excellence. 1:4 Included among the all things which God’s power has given to promote a life of holiness are His exceedingly great and precious promises in the word. It is estimated that there are at least 30,000 promises in the Bible. John Bunyan once said, The pathway of life is strewn so thickly with the promises of God that it is impossible to take one step without treading upon one of them.The promises of God are the last of seven precious things mentioned by Peter in his Letters. Our faith is more precious than gold (1Pe_1:7). The blood of Christ is precious (1Pe_1:19). Christ, the Living Stone, is precious in God’s sight (1Pe_2:4).

He is precious also as the Cornerstone (1Pe_2:6). To all who believe, He is precious (1Pe_2:7). The imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit is very precious in God’s sight (1Pe_3:4). And finally, the promises of God are precious (2Pe_1:4). Think of some of the promises that relate to the life of holiness. (1) Freedom from sin’s dominion (Rom_6:14). (2) Grace that is sufficient (2Co_12:9). (3) Power to obey His commands (Phi_4:13). (4) Victory over the devil (Jam_4:7). (5) Escape when tempted (1Co_10:13). (6) Forgiveness when we confess our sins (1Jo_1:9)and forgetfulness too (Jer_31:34). (7) Response when we call (Psa_50:15). No wonder Peter says the promises of God are precious and very great! These promises enable the believer to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. God has promised all that we need to resist temptation. When passionate cravings come, we can claim the promises. They enable us to escape from the world’s corruptionits sexual sin, its drunkenness, its filth, its misery, its treachery, and its strife. The positive side is that by these same promises we may be partakers of the divine nature. This takes place primarily at the time of conversion. Then as we live in the practical enjoyment of what God has promised, we become more and more conformed to His image. For instance, He has promised that the more we think about Him, the more we will become like Him (2Co_3:18). We make this promise a reality by reading the word, studying Christ as He is revealed in it, and following Him. As we do this, the Holy Spirit changes us into His likeness from one degree of glory to another. 1:5 Verses 3 and 4 show that God has given us all that is necessary for the divine life. Because He has, we must be diligent in cultivating it. God does not make us holy against our will or without our involvement. There must be desire, determination, and discipline on our part. In the development of Christian character, Peter assumes faith. After all, he is writing to Christiansto those who have already exercised saving faith in the Lord Jesus. So he does not tell them to furnish faith; he assumes that they already have it. What is necessary is that faith be supplemented by seven elements of holiness, not adding these one after another, but manifesting all the graces all the time. Tom Olson’s father used to read the passage to his sons as follows: Add to your faith the virtue or courage of David; and to the courage of David the knowledge of Solomon; and to the knowledge of Solomon the patience of Job; and to the patience of Job the godliness of Daniel; and to the godliness of Daniel the brotherly kindness of Jonathan; and to the brotherly kindness of Jonathan the love of John. Lenski suggests: The list of seven is arranged with reference to the pseudo-prophets (2Pe_2:1) and to the way in which they live according to their pretended faith. For praise they supply disgrace; for knowledge, blindness; for self-control, libertinistic license; for perseverance in good, perseverance in evil; for godliness, ungodliness; for fraternal friendliness, dislike for God’s children; for genuine love, its terrible absence. The first characteristic is virtue. This may mean piety, goodness of life, or moral excellence, though these seem to be covered later by the word godliness. It may also be that virtue here means spiritual courage before a hostile world, the strength to stand for what is right. We think of the courage of the martyrs. Archbishop Cranmer was ordered to sign a recantation or be burned at the stake. At first he refused, but then under enormous pressure, his right hand signed the recantation. Later he realized his mistake and notified his executioners to start the fire. At his own request, his hands were untied. Then he held his right hand in the fire and said, This is the hand that wrote it, and therefore it shall suffer punishment first. This hand hath offended! Perish this unworthy right hand!Courage is to be supplemented with knowledge, especially the knowledge of spiritual truth. This emphasizes the importance of studying the word of God and obeying its sacred precepts. More about Jesus in His Word, Holding communion with my Lord. Hearing His voice in every line, Making each faithful saying mine.Eliza E. Hewitt Through an experiential knowledge of the Bible we develop what Erdman calls practical skills in the details of Christianity.1:6 God calls every Christian to a life of discipline. Someone has defined this as the controlling power of the will under the operation of the Spirit of God. There must be discipline in prayer, discipline in Bible study, discipline in the use of time, discipline in curbing bodily appetites, discipline in sacrificial living. Paul exercised such self-control. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified (1Co_9:26-27). Audubon, the great naturalist, was willing to undergo prolonged discomfort to learn more of the world of birds. Let Robert G. Lee tell it: He counted his physical comforts as nothing compared with success in his work. He would crouch motionless for hours in the dark and fog, feeling himself well-rewarded, if, after weeks of waiting he secured one additional fact about a single bird. He would have to stand almost to his neck in the nearly stagnant water, scarcely breathing, while countless poisonous moccasin snakes swam past his face, and great alligators passed and repassed his silent watch. It was not pleasant, he said, as his face glowed with enthusiasm, but what of that? I have the picture of the bird. He would do that for the picture of the bird. Because of the example of others, the urgent needs of a perishing world, the personal peril of wrecking our testimony, we should discipline ourselves so that Christ will have the best of our lives. Self-control should be supplemented with perseverance, that is, patient endurance of persecution and adversity. We need to be constantly reminded that the Christian life is a challenge to endure. It is not enough to start off in a blaze of glory; we must persevere in spite of difficulties. The idea that Christianity is an unending round of mountaintop experiences is unrealistic. There is the daily routine, the menial task, the disappointing circumstance, the bitter grief, the shattered plan. Perseverance is the art of bearing up and pressing on in the face of all that seems to be against us. The next virtue is godliness. Our lives should be like God, with all that means in the way of practical holiness. There should be such a supernatural quality in our conduct that others will know we are children of the heavenly Father; the family likeness should be unmistakable. Paul reminds us, … godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come (1Ti_4:8). 1:7 Brotherly kindness identifies us to the world as Christ’s disciples: By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (Joh_13:35). Love of the brethren leads to love for all mankind. This is not primarily a matter of the emotions but of the will. It is not a sentimental exhilaration to experience but a commandment to obey. In the NT sense, love is supernatural. An unbeliever cannot love as the Bible commands because he does not have divine life. It takes divine life to love one’s enemies and to pray for one’s executioners. Love manifests itself in giving. For instance, God so loved the world, that He gave … (Joh_3:16). Christ also loved the church and gave … (Eph_5:25). We can show our love by giving our time, our talents, our treasures, and our lives for others. T. E. McCully was the father of Ed McCully, one of five young missionaries slain by Auca Indians in Ecuador. One night as we were on our knees together, he prayed, Lord, let me live long enough to see those fellows saved who killed our boys, that I may throw my arms around them and tell them I love them because they love my Christ. That is Christian lovewhen you can pray like that for the guilty murderers of your son. These seven graces make a full-orbed Christian character. 1:8 There is either advance or decline in the pathway of discipleshipno standing still. There is strength and security in moving forward; danger and failure in retreat. Failure to persevere in the development of Christian character leads to barrenness, unfruitfulness, blindness, shortsightedness, and forgetfulness. Barrenness. Only the life lived in fellowship with God can be truly effective. The guidance of the Holy Spirit eliminates barren activity and insures maximum efficiency. Otherwise, we are shadow-boxing, or sewing without thread. Unfruitfulness. It is possible to have considerable knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and yet to be unfruitful in that knowledge. Failure to practice what we know leads inevitably to barrenness. Inflow without outgo killed the Dead Sea, and it kills productivity in the spiritual realm as well. 1:9 Shortsightedness. There are various degrees of impaired vision which are spoken of as blindness. Shortsightedness here specifies the form of blindness in which man lives for the present rather than the future. He is so occupied with material things that he neglects the spiritual. Blindness. Whoever lacks the seven characteristics listed in verses 5-7 is blind. He is not aware of what is central in life. He lacks discernment of true spiritual values. He lives in a dark world of shadows. Forgetfulness. Finally, the man who lacks the seven virtues has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. The truth of his redemption has lost its grip on him. He is going back in the direction from which he was once rescued. He is toying with sins that caused the death of God’s Son. 1:10 And so Peter exhorts his readers to confirm their call and election. These are two facets of God’s plan of salvation. Election refers to His sovereign, eternal choice of individuals to belong to Himself. Call refers to His action in time by which the choice is made evident. Our election took place before the world was made; our call takes place when we are converted. Chronologically, there is first election, then call. But in human experience we first become aware of His call, then we realize we were chosen in Christ from all eternity. We cannot make our call and election more sure than they already are; God’s eternal purposes can never be thwarted. But we can confirm them by growing in likeness to the Lord. By manifesting the fruit of the Spirit, we can provide unmistakable evidence that we truly belong to Him. A holy life proves the reality of our salvation. Living a holy life will keep us from stumbling. It is not a question of falling into eternal perdition; the work of Christ delivers us from that. Rather, it refers to falling into sin, disgrace, or disuse. If we fail to progress in divine things, we are in danger of wrecking our lives. But if we walk in the Spirit, we will be spared from being disqualified for His service. God guards the Christian who moves forward for Him. The peril lies in spiritual idleness and blindness. 1:11 Not only is there safety in constant spiritual progress, there is also the promise of a richly-provided entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Peter refers here not to the fact of our entry but to the manner of it. The only basis of admission to the heavenly kingdom is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But some will have a more abundant entrance than others. There will be degrees of reward. And the rewards are here said to depend on the degree of one’s conformity to the Savior. 1:12 As he considered the present and eternal implications of this subject, Peter determined to keep on reminding the believers of the importance of the development of Christian character. Even if they already knew it, they needed to be constantly reminded. And so do we. Even though we are established in the present truth, there is always the danger of a preoccupied moment or a forgetful hour. So the truth must be constantly repeated. 1:13 Not only was it Peter’s intention, but it was his duty to stir the saints up through frequent reminders as long as he lived. He felt the fitness of keeping them from spiritual drowsiness as he approached the close of his life. 1:14 The Lord had already revealed to Peter the fact that he would die and the manner in which he would die (Joh_21:18-19). Many years had elapsed since then. The aging apostle knew that in the normal course of events, his death was near. This knowledge gave added impetus to his determination to care for the spiritual welfare of God’s people during whatever time remained. He speaks of his death as laying aside his earthly dwelling or putting off his body or tent. Just as a tent is a temporary dwelling for travelers, so the body is the structure in which we dwell during our pilgrimage on earth. In death the tent is taken down. At the Rapture, the body will be raised and changed. In its eternal, glorified form the body is spoken of as a building and a house (2Co_5:1). The fact that Peter knew he would die does not negate the truth of the imminent Return of Christ for His saints, as is sometimes argued. The true church has always expected that Christ may come at any moment. Only by a special revelation did Peter know that he would not be alive when the Lord returned. 1:15 Not only did the apostle determine personally to remind the saints of the importance of spiritual progress, he also arranged to leave a reminder behind in permanent written form. Through his writings, the believers would be able to remind themselves at any time. As a result, Peter’s Letters have shed light on the path of men and women now for over nineteen centuries, and will continue doing so till the Coming of our Savior. Also, reliable ancient tradition says that the Gospel of Mark is essentially the eyewitness reminiscences of his spiritual leader, the Apostle Peter. The importance of written ministry is clear here. It is the written word that lasts. Through the written word, a man’s ministry goes on while his body is lying in the grave. The word Peter uses for decease here is the word from which we get exodus. It is the same word used to describe the death of Christ in Luk_9:31. Death is not the cessation of being but the departure from one place to another. These verses have special value to us as they show what is important to a man of God who is living in the shadow of death. These things occurs four timesverses 8, 9, 12 and 15. The great, basic truths of the Christian faith have enormous value when seen from the borders of the eternal world. 1:16 The closing verses of chapter 1 deal with the certainty of Christ’s coming in glory. Peter deals first with the certainty of the apostolic witness, then with the certainty of the prophetic word. It is as if Peter joins the NT and the OT, and tells his readers to cling to this united testimony. He emphasizes that the apostles’ testimony was based on fact, not on myth. They did not follow cleverly devised fables or myths when they made known to the readers the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The specific event to which he refers is the Transfiguration of Christ on the mount. It was witnessed by three of the apostlesPeter, James, and John. The power and coming is a literary way of saying the coming in power, or powerful coming. The Transfiguration was a preview of Christ’s coming in power to reign over all the earth. This is made clear in Matthew’s account of the event. In Mat_16:28 Jesus said, Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

The very next verses (17:1-8) describe the Transfiguration. On the mount, Peter, James, and John saw the Lord Jesus in the same glory He will have when He reigns for one thousand years. Before they died, those three apostles saw the Son of Man in the glory of His coming kingdom. Thus the Lord’s words in Mat_16:28 were fulfilled in 17:1-8. Now Peter is emphatic that the apostolic account of the Transfiguration was not based on fables (in Greek, myths). This is the word that some modern theologians are using in their attack on the Bible. They are suggesting that we should demythologize the Scriptures. Bultmann spoke of the mythological element in the NT. John A. T. Robinson called on Christians to recognize that much of the Bible contains myths: In the last century a painful but decisive step forward was taken in the recognition that the Bible does contain myth, and that this is an important form of religious truth. It was gradually acknowledged, by all except extreme fundamentalists, that the Genesis stories of the Creation and Fall were representations of the deepest truths about man and the universe in the form of myth rather than history, and were none-the-less valid for that. Indeed, it was essential to the defense of Christian truth to recognize and assert that these stories were not history, and not therefore in competition with the alternative accounts of anthropology or cosmology. Those who did not make this distinction were, we can now see, playing straight into the hands of Thomas Huxley and his friends. To refute the charge of myths, Peter gives three proofs of the Transfiguration: the testimony of sight; the testimony of hearing; and the testimony of physical presence. As to sight, the apostles were eyewitnesses of the Lord’s majesty. John testified, We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father (Joh_1:14). 1:17 Then there was the testimony of hearing. The apostles heard the voice of God saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This audible expression of honor for the Lord Jesus came to Him from the Excellent Glory, that is, from the bright, shining glory cloud, called the Shekinah, which symbolized the presence of God. 1:18 Speaking of James, John, and himself, Peter emphasizes that they distinctly heard the voice of God when they were with the Lord on the holy mountain. Here is the testimony of three witnesses, which according to Mat_18:16 is authoritative and competent. Finally, Peter adds the testimony of physical appearance: we were with Him on the holy mountain. It was a real-life situation; there could be no question about that. We do not know the mountain on which the Transfiguration took place. If it were identifiable, it would probably be littered with shrines by now. It is called the holy mountain not because it was intrinsically sacred but because it was set apart as the site for a sacred event. 1:19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed. The OT prophets had predicted Christ’s coming in power and great glory. The events on the mount of Transfiguration confirmed those prophecies. What the apostles saw did not set aside the OT prophecies or make them any more certain, but simply added confirmation to the predictions. The apostles were given an advance glimpse of the glory of Christ’s future kingdom. F. W. Grant’s translation of the rest of verse 19 is helpful. … to which ye do well in taking heed (as to a lamp that shineth in an obscure place, until the day dawn and the morning star ariseth) in your hearts. Notice Grant’s use of the parenthesis. According to his translation, we should link heed with in your hearts. In other words, we should pay attention in our hearts. In the NKJV and many other versions, the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, and this presents practical difficulties of interpretation. The prophetic word is the shining light. The dismal or dark place is the world. The dawning of day signals the end of this present Church Age (Rom_13:12). The rising of the morning star pictures Christ’s coming for His saints. Thus the sense of the passage is that we should always keep the prophetic word before us, treasuring it in our hearts, for it will serve as a light in this dark world until the age is ended and Christ appears in the clouds to take His waiting people home to heaven. 1:20 In the final two verses of the chapter, Peter emphasizes that the prophetic Scriptures originated with God and not with man; they were divinely inspired. No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation (or origin, margin). This statement has given rise to a great variety of interpretations. Some are absurd, such as the view that interpretation of the Bible is the right of the church alone and that individuals should not study it! Other explanations may be true statements, although not the meaning of this passage. For instance, it is true that no verse should be interpreted by itself, but in the light of the context and of all the rest of Scripture. But Peter here is dealing with the origin of the prophetic word, and not with the way men interpret it after it has been given. The point is that when the prophets sat down to write, they did not give their own private interpretation of events or their own conclusions. In other words interpretation does not refer to the explaining of the word by those of us who have the Bible in written form; rather it refers to the way in which the Word came into being in the first place. D. T. Young writes: So the text, rightly understood … asserts that Scripture is not human in its ultimate origin. It is God’s interpretation, not man’s. We often hear of certain statements of Scripture as representing David’s opinion, or Paul’s opinion, or Peter’s opinion. Yet, strictly speaking, we have no man’s opinion in those Holy Writings. It is all God’s interpretation of things. No prophecy of the Scripture represents an individual’s interpretation: men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The translation in the NKJV margin, origin, is thus quite accurate, and, we believe, superior in context. 1:21 This verse confirms the explanation just given in verse 20. For prophecy never came by the will of man. As someone has said, What they wrote was not a concoction of their own ideas, and it was not the result of human imagination, insight, or speculation.The fact is that holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In some way which we cannot fully understand, God directed these men as to the very words to write, and yet He did not destroy the individuality or style of the writers. This is one of the key verses in the Bible on divine inspiration. In a day when many are denying the authority of the Scriptures, it is important that we stand firmly for the verbal, plenary inspiration of the inerrant word. By verbal inspiration we mean that the words as originally penned by the forty or more human writers were God-breathed (see 1Co_2:13). God did not give a general outline or some basic ideas, then let the writers phrase them as they wished. The very words they wrote were given by the Holy Spirit. By plenary inspiration we mean that all the Bible is equally God-given from Genesis through Revelation. It is the word of God (see 2Ti_3:16). By inerrant we mean that the resultant word of God is totally without error in the original, not only in doctrine, but in history, science, chronology, and all other areas.