2nd Peter Chapter 1

From The Open Bible Project

Peter's Second Letter

1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

• (1) A greeting, in which he gives them to understand that he deals with them as Christ’s ambassadors, and otherwise agrees with them in the same faith which is grounded on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour.
• (a) In that God, in standing by his promises, showed himself faithful, and therefore just to us.

1:2 Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

• (2) Faith is the acknowledging of God and Christ, from which all our blessedness issues and flows.

1:3 seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue;

• (3) Christ sets forth himself to us plainly in the Gospel, and that by his only power, and gives us all things which are required both for eternal life, in which he has appointed to glorify us, and also to godliness, in that he furnishes us with true virtue.
• (b) He speaks of Christ, whom he makes God and the only Saviour.
• (c) To salvation.
• (d) This is the sum of true religion, to be led by Christ to the Father, as it were by the hand.

1:4 by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.

• (4) An explanation of the former sentence, declaring the causes of so great benefits, that is, God and his free promise, from which all these benefits proceed, I say, these most excellent benefits, by which we are delivered from the corruption of this world, (that is, from the wicked lusts which we carry about in us) and are made like God himself.
• (e) By the divine nature he means not the substance of the Godhead, but the partaking of those qualities, by which the image of God is restored in us.

1:5 Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;

• (5) Having laid the foundation (that is, having declared the causes of our salvation and especially of our sanctification) now he begins to exhort us to give our minds wholly to the true use of this grace. He begins with faith, without which nothing can please God, and he warns us to have it fully equipped with virtue (that is to say, with good and godly manners) being joined with the knowledge of God’s will, without which, there is neither faith, neither any true virtue.
• (h) Supply also, and support or aid.

1:6 and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control patience; and in patience godliness;

• (6) He brings up certain and other principal virtues, of which some pertain to the first table of the law, others to the last.

1:7 and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love.

1:8 For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• (7) As those fruits do spring from the true knowledge of Christ, so in like sort the knowledge itself is fostered and grows by bringing forth such fruits, in so much that he that is unfruitful, did either never know the true light, or has forgotten the gift of sanctification which he has received.

1:9 For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.

• (i) He that has not an effectual knowledge of God in him, is blind concerning the kingdom of God, for he cannot see things that are afar off, that is to say, heavenly things.

1:10 Therefore, [1] brothers, [See 2nd Peter Footnotes 1] be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.

• (8) The conclusion: Therefore seeing our calling and election is approved by those fruits, and is confirmed in us, and moreover seeing this is the only way to the everlasting kingdom of Christ, it remains that we set our minds wholly on that way.

1:11 For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

1:12 Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth.

• (9) An amplifying of the conclusion joined with a modest excuse, in which he declares his love towards them, and tells them of his death which is at hand.

1:13 I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you;

• (k) In this body.

1:14 knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

1:15 Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these things even after my departure.

1:16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

• (10) Another amplification taken from both the great certainty and also the excellency of his doctrine, of which our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is author, whose glory the apostle both saw and heard.

1:17 For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."[2]

1:18 We heard this voice come out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

1:19 We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts:

• (11) The truth of the gospel is by this revealed, in that it agrees wholly with the foretellings of the prophets.
• (12) The doctrine of the apostles does not contradict the doctrine of the prophets, for they confirm each other by each others testimonies, but the prophets were like candles which gave light to the blind, until the brightness of the gospel began to shine.
• (l) A more full and open knowledge, than was under the shadows of the law.
• (m) That clearer doctrine of the gospel.

1:20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation.

• (13) The prophets are to be read, but so that we ask of God the gift of interpretation, for he who is the author of the writings of the prophets, is also the interpreter of them.
• (n) He joins the Scripture and prophecy together, to distinguish true prophecies from false.
• (o) For all interpretation comes from God.

1:21 For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

• (p) The godly interpreters and messengers.
• (q) Inspired by God: their actions were in very good order, and not as the actions of the profane soothsayers, and foretellers of things to come.