2 Peter Chapter 1
1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
Peter considered himself as a bond-servant of Jesus. That is, he served Jesus out of love and gratitude, and not for any payment. We should be like that too.
Peter also identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus. This was because he was one of the founders of the church in Jerusalem.
Peter’s letter is not for everyone, but for believers – for those who received the same kind of faith as he did. This faith that he received was made available by the righteousness of Jesus i.e. Jesus’ payment for sin, and His sinless life. His faith was based on what God said and did and wanted, and not on his own fanciful thinking.
Different people have different kinds of faith. Some have faith for financial prosperity, some for physical healing, and all sorts of other things. Peter’s faith was not of that kind – his faith was concerning applying the knowledge of God and the promises of God to become more like Jesus, as we will see below.
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
If you are not happy with God regarding something then you are at war with God and it will hinder you from acquiring the knowledge of God and Jesus and you will not be able to use such knowledge effectively.
If God is opposing you, then God is at war with you, and not at peace with you. You cannot win any war with God. And you will not get any useful knowledge of God and Jesus.
Whom does God oppose? God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and so, the first step is to become humble. The humble receive grace from God (i.e. help to overcome all kinds of sin).
Therefore, unless you have God on your side in the matter of overcoming sin you will fail to overcome sin, and your knowledge of God is useless. So Peter is saying that as you go about acquiring knowledge of God, you need to learn to be, and remain, humble for all that knowledge to work for your benefit.
3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
God uses His power to give us everything we need to be like Jesus (i.e. to be godly) and live life the way Jesus lived. He does that by making certain promises to us (see the next verse) and then using His power to keep those promises.
Therefore, if we know God and His promises we can become like Jesus.
The fact that God makes this possible for us shows what a wonderful and excellent person He is, and we need to remember that and be grateful as we go about partaking of the divine nature.
This humility and gratitude are prerequisites for acquiring and effectively using the knowledge of God.
4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of {the} divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
An example of His precious and magnificent promise is His promise to not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Cor 10:13).
Another example is His promise to cause all things to work out for our good (Rom 8:28-30).
A third example is His promise to avenge us and to repay those who do evil to us (Rom 12:19, Heb 10:30).
By believing in these promises we can overcome all kinds of sin. When we overcome sin we become like Jesus (i.e. we become partakers of the divine nature) and escape the corruption i.e. the practice of sin that we see all around us.
When you learn how to use these promises correctly, you can handle anything that comes your way. Disappointment, failure, treachery, loss of a loved one, loss of friends, loss of a job, loss of health, loss of money or property, theft, loss of reputation – anything!
5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in {your} moral excellence, knowledge,
6 and in {your} knowledge, self-control, and in {your} self-control, perseverance, and in {your} perseverance, godliness,
7 and in {your} godliness, brotherly kindness, and in {your} brotherly kindness, love.
Because we have been given the opportunity to acquire the divine nature, we need to be diligent to acquire it. Here is the process by which we acquire it and keep it…
First, we must believe that it is possible. That is we must have faith – faith that opens our eyes to see what we can be. For example, suppose we want to be godly in the area of anger. That is, we want to live a life that is free of ungodly anger. To achieve this, we must first believe that we can live a life that is free of anger.
Next, to that faith we must add moral excellence – that is, we must have a great desire to be what faith shows us is possible. For example, we must have a great desire to be free from anger.
Next, to that moral excellence we must add knowledge – that is, we must learn how to go about being free from anger. Specifically, we must know which of God’s magnificent promises to apply when tempted to be angry. This of course will depend on why we are tempted to be angry and what we are tempted to be angry about.
Next, to that knowledge we must add self-control – that is, we must endure the pain and suffering that comes with not giving in to anger. This is where the rubber hits the road. We must learn how to channel our thoughts to other places to quell the anger.
Next, to that self-control we must add perseverance – that is, we must keep working at controlling our anger until we achieve consistent success.
As we do that we will acquire godliness in the realm of anger – that is, we will stop getting angry about things that God doesn’t want us to get angry.
Then we must focus on adding brotherly kindness – that is, when we see someone who hasn’t conquered his or her anger we don’t look down at them. Rather, we identify ourselves as sinners in the same category as them.
Finally, we must add love – that is, we bear with those who don’t yet know how to overcome anger, and we gently show others who are interested how to overcome anger.
8 For if these {qualities} are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you live like this you will really become more and more like Jesus.
9 For he who lacks these {qualities} is blind {or} short-sighted, having forgotten {his} purification from his former sins.
If you don’t live like this then you are spiritually blind or short-sighted (i.e. almost blind).
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
Therefore, you really need to ensure that you live like this. In doing so you will know for sure that you are indeed a child of God, and you will not have trouble overcoming sin; rather, you will find that you are able to overcome sin after sin as the years go by and then finally when you die you will be with Jesus.
12 Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you {already} know {them,} and have been established in the truth which is present with {you.}
13 I consider it right, as long as I am in this {earthly} dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder,
14 knowing that the laying aside of my {earthly} dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
15 And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.
Given the value of God’s promises Peter plans to do everything he can to make sure that his readers understand what they are and how to use them. He will make sure that they will have access to this information even after he dies (which will be very soon).
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased" –
18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 {So} we have the prophetic word {made} more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
The promises of God are not just stuff made up by men. They are all backed by the power of God. The promises that God makes to us are not just fluff. Rather, they actually work, and the proof that they work is demonstrated in Jesus. Peter himself saw God testify that Jesus, who showed us how to use the promises of God, was without sin. So we need to really carefully study Scripture to see what promises are available and how to use them.
20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is {a matter} of one's own interpretation,
21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
When you try to understand God’s word and live by the promises in it you must understand that you cannot interpret God’s word however you want. It is not a matter of how you interpret it but a matter of what the Holy Spirit (who inspired the person writing that word) meant.
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