2nd Peter

Chapter 1

2 Peter 1:1-9

While the voice and tone of this letter is greatly different from 1st Peter, we are safe in declaring the author has stated his name and title from the beginning  

2Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Having experienced Paul’s letters in circulation, Peter addresses this second effort to a wider audience and writes to all the elect who will read this, both in his day and in the future.  

2Pe 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, It is through study of the scriptures that we obtain the knowledge of God and of Jesus that multiplies grace and peace, as we see in the verses below. 

2Pe 1:3 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:  We were not left here without instruction.  We were not left comfortless.  We have the Holy Spirit within us, the church without and the scriptures as a lamp to guide our feet.  What we think we lack, we can obtain through intercession and prayer, so indeed, his divine power hath given us all things. 

2Pe 1:4 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.  We get a foretaste of these precious promises in worship, an earnest of our inheritance, and when in fellowship with the Lord among his people, the love that flows from breast to breast is our divine nature, shining though, if but for a moment in time. 

2Pe 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, an earnest effort

add to your faith virtue;  modesty

and to virtue knowledge; a deeper wisdom regarding Christ 

2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; self control over passions

and to temperance patience; being steadfast and consistent

and to patience godliness;  godly reverence  

2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; loving affection

and to brotherly kindness charity.  love and good will 

2Pe 1:8  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Having these attributes and seeking to add to them, reveals a person to be single-minded and devoted to the cause of Christ, studying to obtain knowledge and benefitting from it. 

2Pe 1:9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.  One who lacks these attributes is likely in such a condition where his priority is not Christ and the kingdom, but himself. Such a person would be blind to the mercies of God, blind to the benefits of fellowship, blind to the knowledge that Christ has paid a great sacrifice on his behalf. 

and cannot see afar off,  his vision blocked by the trappings and temptations of the world and riches of the moment, he is not focused on the kingdom and eternity to come, but living for the moment, for himself, and not others. 

and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.  It’s a miserable state when a child of God has forgone the joys of the grace of God.  Our poetic writers remind us that departing Zion’s Hill is downhill all the way, and leaving a garden enclosed puts one onto dangerous pathways.  Forgetting you were purged from your sinful past, disregarding the precious blood that bought you gives one over to misery in this lifetime.  

Mat 25:30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Heb 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? 

Peter will summarize this condition for us in the next chapter:  2 Pe 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.