Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 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, 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.
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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: Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 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, 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. Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control perseverance; and in perseverance godliness; and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Parallel Translations
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Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
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,
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.
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Grace with you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Iesus oure Lorde.
Accordinge as his godly power hath geven vnto vs all thinges that pertayne vnto lyfe and godlynes thorow the knowledge of him that hath called vs by vertue and glory
by the meanes whereof are geven vnto vs excellent and moste greate promises that by the helpe of them ye shuld be partakers of the godly nature in that ye flye the corrupcion of worldy lust.
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Grace and peace be multiplied to you, through the acknowledging of God, and of Iesus our Lord,
According as his diuine power hath giuen vnto vs all things that perteine vnto life and godlinesse, through the acknowledging of him that hath called vs vnto glory and vertue.
Whereby most great and precious promises are giuen vnto vs, that by them ye should be partakers of the diuine nature, in that ye flee the corruption, which is in the worlde through lust.
Cross-references (70)
- 1 Peter 5:10 (v3) But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect,…
- 2 Timothy 1:9 (v3) who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to…
- Romans 8:28-30 (v3) We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he…
- 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 (v3) Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or…
- Psalms 84:11 (v3) For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.
Show all 70 cross-references
- Ephesians 4:23-24 (v4) and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness…
- Romans 8:32 (v3) He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
- Ephesians 1:19-21 (v3) and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he…
- Ezekiel 36:25-27 (v4) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. I will…
- 2 Corinthians 3:18 (v4) But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even…
- 2 Corinthians 12:9 (v3) He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in…
- 1 Peter 2:21 (v3) For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps,
- 1 Peter 2:9 (v3) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
- Colossians 3:10 (v4) and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
- 2 Thessalonians 2:14 (v3) to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Hebrews 12:10 (v4) For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
- 2 Corinthians 6:17–7:1 (v4) Therefore “ ‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be to you a…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:12 (v3) to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.
- Galatians 6:8 (v4) For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:7 (v3) For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.
- 1 John 3:2 (v4) Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for…
- 1 Corinthians 1:9 (v3) God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
- Ephesians 4:1 (v3) I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,
- 1 Peter 1:15 (v3) but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;
- John 1:12-13 (v4) But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: who were born not of…
- John 17:2-3 (v3) even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. This is eternal life, that they…
- 2 Peter 1:2 (v3) Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
- 2 Peter 1:5 (v3) Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge;
- Colossians 1:16 (v3) For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or…
- 1 Peter 3:9 (v3) not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult; but instead blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a…
- 2 Peter 2:18-20 (v4) For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping…
- 1 Timothy 4:8 (v3) For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which…
- Matthew 28:18 (v3) Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
- Ephesians 4:4 (v3) There is one body and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling,
- 2 Peter 3:18 (v2) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
- Philippians 4:8 (v3) Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever…
- Psalms 110:3 (v3) Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your…
- John 17:3 (v2) This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
- Philippians 3:8 (v2) Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered…
- Hebrews 1:3 (v3) His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had…
- 1 John 2:25 (v4) This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
- Romans 9:24 (v3) us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
- Hebrews 8:6-12 (v4) But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has…
- 1 Peter 1:5 (v3) who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- 1 Peter 4:2-3 (v4) that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough…
- 1 Peter 1:2 (v2) according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his…
- 1 John 2:15-16 (v4) Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him. For all that is in the…
- Numbers 6:24-26 (v2) ‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you. Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up his face toward you, and give…
- Ruth 3:11 (v3) Now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do to you all that you say; for all the city of my people knows that you are a worthy woman.
- Isaiah 53:11 (v2) After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of…
- 2 Corinthians 1:20 (v4) For however many are the promises of God, in him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through him is the “Amen”, to the glory of God through us.
- Hebrews 9:15 (v4) For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under…
- 2 Peter 1:1 (v4) 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…
- Proverbs 12:4 (v3) A worthy woman is the crown of her husband, but a disgraceful wife is as rottenness in his bones.
- Jude 1:2 (v2) Mercy to you and peace and love be multiplied.
- Romans 1:7 (v2) to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Galatians 3:16 (v4) Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, “To descendants”, as of many, but as of one, “To your…
- Daniel 4:1 (v2) Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all the peoples, nations, and languages, who dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you.
- Luke 10:22 (v2) Turning to the disciples, he said, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and…
- Proverbs 31:29 (v3) “Many women do noble things, but you excel them all.”
- Romans 9:4 (v4) who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 (v2) seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory…
- James 4:1-3 (v4) Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust, and don’t have.…
- 1 John 5:20-21 (v2) We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in…
- Proverbs 31:10 (v3) Who can find a worthy woman? For her price is far above rubies.
- 2 Peter 1:3 (v2) 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…
- 2 Peter 1:8 (v2) For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- 2 Peter 2:20 (v2) For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again…
- Revelation 1:4 (v2) John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven…
- Daniel 6:25 (v2) Then king Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages, who dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2. Grace and peace. By grace is designated God’s…
2. Grace and peace. By grace is designated God’s paternal favor towards us. We have indeed been once for all reconciled to God by the death of Christ, and by faith we come to the possession of this so great a benefit; but as we perceive the grace of God according to the measure of our faith, it is said to increase according to our perception when it becomes more fully known to us.
Peace is added; for as the beginning of our happiness is when God receives us into favor; so the more he confirms his love in our hearts, the richer blessing he confers on us, so that we become happy and prosperous in all things,
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Through the knowledge, literally, in the knowledge; but the preposition ἐν often means “through” or “with:” yet both senses may suit the context. I am, however, more disposed to adopt the former. For the more any one advances in the knowledge of God, every kind of blessing increases also equally with the sense of divine love. Whosoever then aspires to the full fruition of the blessed life which is mentioned by Peter, must remember to observe the right way. He connects together at the same time the knowledge of God and of Christ; because God cannot be rightly known except in Christ, according to that saying,
“No one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27)
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Faith is the acknowledging of God and Christ, from…
Faith is the acknowledging of God and Christ, from whence all our blessedness issueth and showed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through…
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
Ver. 2. Through the knowledge] There is not a new notion, or a further enlargement of saving knowledge, but it brings some grace and peace with it. All the grace that a man hath, it passeth through the understanding; and the difference of stature in Christianity grows from different degrees of knowledge. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," Joh 1:17.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Through the knowledge of God; or acknowledgment, i.e. faith,…
Through the knowledge of God; or acknowledgment, i.e. faith, whereby we are made partakers of all the saving graces of the Spirit; and whereby being justified, we are at peace with God, Rom 5:1.
And of Jesus our Lord; there being no saving knowledge of God, or faith in him, but by Christ.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv2–4 The person saluting, and the parties saluted, were mentioned…
The person saluting, and the parties saluted, were mentioned in the former verse; here we have the salutation itself, 1. The matter of it, Grace and peace; grace to free us from God’s wrath, and reinstate us in his favour; peace to quiet our own consciences, and reconcile us to ourselves.
Observe,2. The measure of it, grace and peace be multiplied; they had both grace and peace already, yet the apostle prays for the farther increase of them; there is no complete perfection in grace attainable in this life. The best of saints must be multiplying and increasing their stores; for they are but imperfectly perfect, when at the best.
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Observe, 3. The means for multiplying grace and peace, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Learn, That the knowledge of God, in, by, and through our Lord Jesus Christ, is the special mean of multiplying grace and peace in our hearts; and indeed there is no comfortable knowledge of God, but in and through Christ, This is life eternal , &c Joh 17:3. Out of Christ God is a revenger, in Christ a reconciled Father.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you,.... By a…
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you,.... By a multiplication of grace may be meant a larger discovery of the love and favour of God; which though it admits of no degrees in itself, being never more or less in God's heart, yet, as to the manifestations of it, it is different, and capable of being increased, and drawn out to a greater length; or else an increase of the internal graces of the Spirit of God, as to the actings and exercise of them; or a larger measure of the gifts of the Spirit, for greater usefulness among them; or a clearer view, and a more enlarged knowledge of the Gospel of the grace of God, and the truths of it; and indeed, the word grace may take in all these senses: and by a multiplication of peace, which the apostle in this salutation also wishes for, may be designed an affluence of all kind of prosperity, temporal, and spiritual, external and internal; and more especially an increase of spiritual peace, a fulness of joy and peace in believing, arising from a sense of free justification by Christ's righteousness, and full pardon and atonement by his blood and sacrifice:
through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord; which is to be understood, not of a natural, but of a spiritual and evangelical knowledge; of a knowledge of God, not as the God of nature and providence, but as the God of all grace, as in Christ, and a covenant God in him, and of the person, offices, and grace of Christ; and which designs true faith in him, by which means larger discoveries of the grace of God are made, and a greater enjoyment of spiritual peace is had: or it may be rendered, "with the knowledge of God", &c. and the sense then is, that the apostle prays, as for a multiplication of grace and peace, so along with it, an increase of spiritual and evangelical knowledge; which in the best is imperfect, but may be increased by the blessing of God on those means which he has appointed for that end, such as the word and ordinances. The Syriac version renders this clause, "through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ", leaving out the word "God", and the copulative "and", and adding the word "Christ"; and the Ethiopic version reads, "in the knowledge of our God, Christ Jesus our Lord", without any distinction. After the inscription and salutation begins the epistle, with an account of various special favours bestowed upon these persons; and are mentioned by the apostle to encourage his faith and theirs, in expectation of enjoying what he here wishes unto them, since already such great and good things had been bestowed upon them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Through the divine, experimental knowledge of God and of…
Through the divine, experimental knowledge of God and of Christ.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Verse 2. Grace] God's favour; peace-the effects of that…
Verse 2. Grace] God's favour; peace-the effects of that favour in the communication of spiritual and temporal blessings.
Through the knowledge of God] ενεπιγνωσει. By the acknowledging of God, and of Jesus our Lord. For those who acknowledge him in all their ways, he will direct their steps. Those who know Christ; and do not acknowledge him before men, can get no multiplication of grace and peace.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v3 2Pe 1:3-4. As his divine power hath given us…
2Pe 1:3-4. As his divine power hath given us all things — There is a wonderful cheerfulness in this exordium, which begins with the exhortation itself; that pertain to life and godliness — To the present natural life, and to the continuance and increase of spiritual life, termed here godliness; through the knowledge — The divine and saving knowledge; of him — Christ; that hath called us to glory — Eternal glory hereafter, as the end; and to virtue — Or holiness, as the way leading thereto. Or fortitude, one particular branch of holiness, (frequently meant by the word αρετη,) may be here intended, as it is by the same word, 2Pe 1:5. The original phrase, however, δια δοξης και αρετης, is literally, by, or through glory and virtue; that is, as some understand it, by his glorious power; or the glorious and powerful effusion of the Spirit, as Whitby understands the words. Whereby — By means of which glorious power, or illustrious seal set to the declaration of the gospel; or, as some would render δι ων, for the sake of which things; that is, that we might attain to this glory and virtue; are given unto us great and precious promises — Namely, the promises of the gospel, which he calls great and precious, because the things promised are the grandest that can be conceived by the human mind, and infinitely more valuable than any present enjoyments or expectations: promises of the pardon of sin, of acceptance with God, of his peculiar favour, adoption into his family, and being treated as his sons and daughters; favoured with liberty of access to him, and intercourse with him; with direction in difficulties, protection in dangers, succour in temptations, comfort in troubles, a supply of all our wants, and an assurance that all things shall work for our good; promises of the Spirit of adoption, of regeneration and sanctification, to be sent into our hearts as a pledge and earnest of our future felicity; and, to crown the whole, the promise of everlasting life, felicity, and glory. Both the promises and the things promised, which follow in their due season, are here intended; that by these — By the consideration of, and faith in, these true and faithful promises, and the great and glorious blessings exhibited in, and ensured to, true and persevering believers thereby, you might be encouraged and induced to renounce the world and sin, with every corrupt inclination and affection, design and desire, and be made partakers of the divine nature — Of a new, holy, and heavenly nature, derived from God, through the influence of his Spirit renewing you in his image, and giving you communion with himself so as to dwell in God, and God in you; having escaped the corruption that is in the world — The corrupt customs and habits, principles and practices, that are found in worldly men, εν επιθυμια, through desire, namely, irregular and inordinate desire, the desire of unlawful things, or the immoderate desire of things lawful, that fruitful source of sin and misery.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the…
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord - That is, grace and peace abound to us, or may be expected to be conferred on us abundantly, if we have a true knowledge of God and of the Saviour. Such a knowledge constitutes true religion: for in that we find “grace” - the grace that pardons and sanctifies; and “peace” - peace of conscience, reconciliation with God, and calmness in the trials of life. See the notes at Joh 17:3.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3–4 Glory and virtue.[1] By the Greek text, virtue is…
Glory and virtue.[1] By the Greek text, virtue is not here the same as power, as commonly in other places, but signifies God’s goodness, mercy, and clemency. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Et virtute, Greek: kai aretes.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Grace . . . peace-- (Pe1 1:2).
Grace . . . peace-- (Pe1 1:2).
through--Greek, "in": the sphere IN which alone grace and peace can be multiplied.
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knowledge--Greek, "full knowledge."
of God, and of Jesus our Lord--The Father is here meant by "God," but the Son in Pe2 1:1 : marking how entirely one the Father and Son are (Joh 14:7-11). The Vulgate omits "of God and"; but oldest manuscripts support the words. Still the prominent object of Peter's exhortation is "the knowledge of Jesus our Lord" (a phrase only in Rom 4:24), and, only secondarily, of the Father through Him (Pe2 1:8; Pe2 2:20; Pe2 3:18).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2. Grace—In which the believer lives.
2. Grace—In which the believer lives.
Peace—Its fruit.
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Be multiplied— With this prayer for increase agrees the final exhortation to growth, in chap. 2Pe_3:18.
Through the knowledge—’Επιγνωσις, knowledge upon, full knowledge; the keynote of the epistle. It occurs, also, in 2Pe_1:3; 2Pe_1:8, and 2Pe_2:20.
Of God—The Father, who is truly known only as revealed in the Son.
Of Jesus our Lord—The Saviour, who is also supreme Lord. This unusual expression, found only here and in Rom_4:24, lifts the standard against the deniers of 2Pe_2:1. This knowledge is both doctrinal and experimental. It lies at the foundation of all true religion, and is the element in which all grace and peace begin and grow. Moreover, increase of the knowledge is the indispensable condition of increase in the grace.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you] Here…
2. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you] Here the writer falls into the phraseology of the First Epistle (see note on 1Pe_1:2), but adds to the simple benediction the words “through (better in) the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.” The word for “knowledge” (epignosis) hovers between the meaning of “complete knowledge” and the recognition which implies love. It does not occur in the First Epistle. In St Paul’s Epistles it meets us first in Rom_1:28; Rom_3:20, and occurs more or less frequently in most of the subsequent Epistles. In 1Co_13:8; 1Co_13:12 the verb from which it is formed is contrasted with the less perfect knowledge expressed by gnosis. Looking to the history of the words, it would seem probable that in proportion as rash and self-asserting teaching boasted of the higher gnosis, the “science, falsely so called,” of 1Ti_6:20, which afterwards developed into the heresies of the Gnostic sect, the true teachers set up the other word as expressing something nobler and more excellent. “Not gnosis,” they seem to say, “but epignosis, not an abstract speculative knowledge, but that which implies a fulness of contemplation, loving as well as knowing.” St Peter’s use of the word in this Epistle, obviously written after closer contact with false teachers of this kind than is traceable in the First, admits, probably, of this explanation.
Jesus our Lord] The peculiar construction, as distinct from “Christ Jesus” and “the Lord Jesus,” occurs elsewhere only in Rom_4:24.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–4 (2) Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.—Identical with…
(2) Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.—Identical with the last clause of 1Pe_1:2, and with no other greeting in any Epistle. What follows here is peculiar to this Epistle, which begins and ends with grace and knowledge. (Comp. 2Pe_3:18.)
Through the knowledge.—Better, as before, in. The preposition indicates the sphere or element in which the action takes place, or the aspect in which it is contemplated. Tyndale and the Rhemish version have “in.”“ Knowledge” is not quite strong enough. In the original we have a compound word, which implies fuller, riper, more minute knowledge. But any of these expressions would be a little too strong, as the simple word is a little too weak. The same compound recurs 2Pe_1:3. It is rare in St. Paul’s earlier letters, but is more common in the later ones. This fact, coupled with its appearance here, agrees well with the more contemplative aspect in which the Gospel began gradually to be presented; a change which finds its fullest expression in the transition from the first three Gospels to the fourth. The word is introduced here with telling emphasis; “in the fuller knowledge of God” anticipates the attack that is coming upon the godless speculations of the “false teachers” in 2 Peter 2.
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And of Jesus our Lord.—Deliberately added. These false teachers “denied the Lord that bought them” (2Pe_2:1), and promised all kinds of high-sounding benefits to their followers (2Pe_2:18). The Apostle assures his readers that only in fuller knowledge of their Lord can grace and peace be multiplied to them. The combination “Jesus our Lord” is unusual; elsewhere only Rom_4:24. Another small indication of independence (see first Note). There should be a fullstop at “Lord;” so Tyndale, Cranmer, and Geneva.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you. The order…
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you. The order of the words in the Greek is the same as ingnwsiv) 1Pe_1:2. The exact correspondence should be noticed. The writer of the Second Epistle, if not St. Peter himself, must have been attempting to imitate of set purpose the opening salutation of the First Epistle. Through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord; rather, in the knowledge. The knowledge of God is the sphere in which grace and peace are communicated to the soul; they cannot be found outside that sphere. "Full knowledge" (ejpi) may be regarded as the key-note of this Epistle, as "hope" is of the first. jEpignwsiv is a stronger word than gnwsiv; it means "knowledge" directed towards an object, gradually approaching nearer and nearer to it, concentrated upon it, fixed closely upon it. So it comes to mean the knowledge, not merely of intellectual apprehension, but rather of deep contemplation; the knowledge which implies love for only love can concentrate continually the powers of the soul in close meditation upon its object.
Comp. 1Co 13, where, after saying in verse 8 that "knowledge (gnwsiv) shall be done away," St. Paul continues, in verse 12, "Now I know (ginwskw) in part, but then I shall know (ejpignwsomai) even as also I am known (ejpegnwsqhn)." He contrasts our present imperfect knowledge with the full knowledge which the blessed will have in heaven, and which God now has of us, using the verb ejpiginwdkw of that fuller knowledge, as he had used gnwsiv of the imperfect knowledge. The word ejpignwsiv occurs several times in the Gospels, and is common in St. Paul"s Epistles; it seems to imply a sort of protest against the knowledge that "puffeth up", (1Co_8:1) and especially against the knowledge "falsely so called", (1Ti_6:20) which was claimed by the false teachers, who were the precursors of the coming Gnosticism. (Col_1:9, 10 2:2 3:10) St. Peter had learned mere of the doings of these false teachers since he wrote the First Epistle, and this may perhaps be a reason for his frequent use of the word ejpignwsiv in the second. "Jesus our Lord" is a variation of the more common form, such as "the Lord Jesus;" it occurs only here and in Rom_4:24.
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HOMILIES BY C. NEW
Vers. 2, 3.
Increase of spiritual life dependent on the knowledge of God.
Our text strikes the key-note of the Epistle the need of watchfulness against error. Scripture demands a clear knowledge of revealed truth. On this the maintenance of spiritual life depends; to swerve from Divine truth is to suffer spiritual loss.
I A GREAT INCREASE OF SPIRITUAL BLESSING IS POSSIBLE TO THE BELIEVER. "Grace and peace" we may take as including all spiritual good. Grace is God"s part therein; peace is man"s. God"s attitude towards us is grace; our attitude towards him, for that is the end of righteousness, is to be peace. Between these two lies all that pertains to life and godliness. And the apostle says this may be multiplied to the Christian.
1. Because of the great capacity of his nature. The life imparted in regeneration has almost unlimited possibilities; it is Heaven"s germ, from which will be developed the pure and perfect spirit which will gaze on the face of God, and reflect his glory. The believer is joint-heir with Christ; where Christ is, he is to be. Heaven will be a constant advance into the character of God; that is the capacity of spiritual life in the soul, "filled with all the fullness of God.
2. Because God has already given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. The power which God is prepared to manifest towards his people is equal to that which raised Christ from the helplessness of the grave to the supreme dominion of the universe. And in what way, but in giving us all things that pertain to life and godliness? Who can enumerate what is included in that "all things"? We do not always realize that with Christ God has already "freely given us all things." True, he holds them still, but it is on our behalf.
3. Because what we receive is through the Divine glory and virtue. In the Revised Version the third verse reads thus: "He hath called us by his own glory and virtue;" and that is the ground of our hopes, and triumphs over our sense of ill desert. God"s glory is his mercy, and it is set free to exercise itself by Christ in the atonement; and he finds there the reason why he should enrich us.
II THIS INCREASE OF BLESSING DEPENDS ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. God does not give us mature spiritual blessings, but rather supplies us with the means of acquiring them. When we can do anything to secure the answer to our prayers, God gives the answer by blessing our own efforts, and, apart from the effort, the answer does not come. He will not give spiritual enrichment to spiritual inaction. In answer to our prayers for grace and peace to be multiplied, God shows us how we may have it.
1. The means of spiritual increase is the knowledge of himself. Scripture invariably makes spiritual good to rest on the knowledge of God. For instance: Security have escaped the corruptions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Peace now thyself with him, and be at peace." Strength people that do know their God shall be strong." Obedience we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." Love that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is Love." Our Lord Jesus Christ sums it up in one sentence, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent? But there is a difference between knowing about God, and knowing God, and the difference is vital; the one knowledge is fruitful, the other barren. There is a natural connection between the increase of knowledge and the increase of grace.
2. Knowledge quickens desire. We cannot know God without longing to possess more of him and of what he has to give; and that longing means prayer for more, which will be answered, and effort for more, which will be successful.
3. Knowledge increases faith. Faith being the hand by which we appropriate and so possess. Why do we not take God as our own, with a confidence nothing can shake? To a great extent because we do not know him how real he is, how vast his love, how infinitely trustworthy his nature. If we only knew more of him, we should hold him in the embrace of a strong, restful assurance.
4. Knowledge tends to participation. Personal acquaintance with God must have incalculable results. We should have a new power constraining us to righteousness. The grace and peace of his own nature would reflect themselves in us.
III THIS INCREASE OF KNOWLEDGE SHOULD BE THE BELIEVER"S AIM. The difference in spiritual stature comes from different degrees of spiritual knowledge: then how can we know God better?
1. Greater knowledge is granted as the result of obedience. Unless God reveal himself, we cannot know him; and he reveals himself to him who lives in his fear. Sin blinds and deafens us; to do wrong is to put ourselves further from the knowledge of God; to do right is to thin the veil that hides him from us. If you would know him, obey him.
2. Greater knowledge is granted as the fruit of study and fellowship. It is only in face-to-face communion with God, such as is possible through the teaching of his Word, that we can really know him; therein he speaks to us, and in prayer we speak to him.
3. Greater knowledge is granted as the end of Divine discipline. That we may know him is the object of many of our sorrows. Sickness is often God shutting the busy soul up to himself. Trouble is often God showing us how tender a Father he is. Darkness is often God compelling us to look up
Darkness revealing worlds of light We never saw by day.
Presently the need of discipline will be ended, and from knowing God in part, we shall enter into his presence. C.N.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v3 His Divine power hath given unto us all things.
2Pe_1:3-4
His Divine power hath given unto us all things.
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The Divine liberality
I. THE FOUNTAIN.
1. The hope of the petitioner. The experience of former mercy works a persuasion of future mercy.
(1) Let us pray in confidence that God will hear us, because He hath heard us. A noble princess asked a courtier when he would leave begging; he answered, when she left giving.
(2) Seeing that God gives more where He hath given much, let us be thankful; for how should God bless us with that we have not if we do not bless Him for that we have?
2. The ability of the Giver. Here is power, yea, Divine power; not only great, but good. For mercy and majesty must meet together in the donation of all things that pertain to life and godliness. The knowledge of this Divine and giving power may comfort the most dejected heart.
(1) Concerning the salvation of others and ourselves; how desperate soever we judge their estates, by reason of their continual habit of sinning, yet this Divine power is able to convert them.
(2) This comforts us in the midst of all afflictions. We are weak in ourselves, unable to stand under the lightest cross; but there is a Divine power that strengthens us. Though it doth not nullify our sorrows, yet it doth fortify our patience (Col_1:11).
(3) This comforts us in prayer.
(4) This comforts us against all opposition, even those principalities that wrestle against us (1Jn_4:4; Rev_12:11).
(5) Let this hearten us to cheerful liberality; because, whatever we lack or lose, there is a Divine power able to requite it (2Co_9:8).
3. The liberty of the action. God does not set, nor let, nor sell, nor lend, but give.
(1) How to judge of all we have; as the Lords gifts, not our own merits (1Co_4:7; 1Co_15:10).
(2) Follow Gods example, in being evermore giving good things.
4. The necessity of the receivers.
(1) We had nothing; miserable beggars.
(2) We deserved nothing.
5. The universality of the gift. All things that pertain--
(1) To life.
(a) Natural. He put a soul to our flesh, gave birth to the child, nourishment after birth; bread when we were hungry, drink when we were thirsty, etc. To the wise man his wisdom, to the strong his might, to the wealthy his riches, etc.
(b) Spiritual; whereby we live to Him, and in Him, and whereby He lives in us.
(2) To godliness. By His grace we come to godliness, and by godliness to life.
II. The cistern. The ever-flowing and over-flowing conduit is Christ, in whom dwells all fulness (Col_1:19). The more capacious a vessel of faith we bring, the greater measure of faith we shall receive.
1. The water of life, which is an effectual calling to glory and virtue.
(1) Who hath called us. Christ alone can call home sinners.
(2) The action. There was a time when Christ came personally to call. He went out from His majesty that is invisible, to His mercy that is manifested in His works. Now He calleth at divers times, in divers places, and after divers manners.
(a) In all ages of the world, and of mens lives.
(b) Some from their ships, others from their shops, etc.
(c) After divers manners. First, by the preaching of the Word; and herein He useth two bells to ring us to church, the treble of mercy and the tenor of judgment. Next, in His sacraments.
(3) Whom hath He called? Us--miserable sinners, that were deaf and could not hear Him, lame and could not meet Him, blind and could not see Him, dead and could not answer Him.
(4) To what? To glory and virtue.
(a) In present being. We must understand by glory the honour of being Christians; by virtue the good life that becometh Christians.
(b) Hereafter we shall come to a perfect and plenary possession. The virtue there is a pure white garment without spot, and the glory a golden crown of eternity.
2. The pipe and bucket to draw and derive all to us. Through the knowledge, etc. One was of opinion that a philosopher excels an ordinary man as much as an ordinary man excels a beast; but every true Christian excels a philosopher as much as a philosopher does a dunce. They scarce knew God in His creatures; we know God in His Christ. There is no pleasure so sweet as knowledge, no knowledge so sweet as that of religion, no knowledge of religion so sweet as that of Christ; for this is eternal life, etc. (Joh_17:3). Let us therefore use the means to get knowledge.
(1) Read the Scripture; that is Gods will, there is knowledge (Joh_5:39).
(2) Frequent the temple; that is Gods house, there is knowledge (Psa_73:16-17).
(3) Resort to the Communion; that is Gods maundy, there is knowledge (1Co_11:26).
(4) Consult His ministers, for the priests lips preserve knowledge. (Thos. Adams.)
The wonders of Divine grace
I. The greatness of Divine grace. His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. The reference here is to our Saviour Jesus Christ.
1. Grace comes by Divine power. It is no angelic effort or human invention. Its wisdom is Divine omniscience. Its power is Divine omnipotence. Its activity is Divine omnipresence. Its resources infinite. Its love the eternal love of God:
2. It supplies every real need. Life is the state and godliness the activity. In the gift of the Holy Spirit every possible want of the soul is met.
II. The method of Divine grace. It comes through the knowledge of Him that calleth us by His own glory and virtue. In knowledge is the spring of life. Our actions are governed by our volitions, our volitions by our emotions, our emotions by our knowledge or belief. Thoughts of Christs love set our hearts all aglow with love to Him, and that love becomes the spring of a new and holy life.
III. The consolation of Divine Grace. Exceeding great and precious promises.
IV. The glory of Divine Grace. That through these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature.
V. The foe of Divine Grace. The corruption that is in the world by lust. There are two great spiritual cities: in the one there is corruption by lust, in the other life by godliness. The Divine new life is in peril in the poisoned air, that life which to the believer is infinitely more precious than all besides. (The Freeman.)
All things that pertain unto life and godliness.--
All things pertaining to life and godliness given unto the saints
I. That the people of God are to live godly lives.
II. That for this life and godliness, Divine power bestows everything necessary.
1. It is necessary that He should give us all things, for we have nothing in ourselves.
2. It is very gracious of Him to give all things. We were told that during the first winter campaign in the Crimea, our armies were subject to many sufferings and privations on account of inadequate provisions. This might have been so; it often has been so in times of war, and no human power can prevent it. But it can never be so with the armies of the Cross. Divine power is our guarantee.
III. The text teaches us that all things are in Christ, and obtained through the knowledge of Him.
IV. That among the all things we have in Christ the promises are especially to be prized.
V. That the possession of these heavenly gifts makes us partakers of the Divine nature. (H. Quick.)
Christ the complement of our life
In the sunshine there is a colour for every plant that seeks its own hue out of sunshine, and in Jesus Christ there is every possible hue which the heart could want. All things that pertain to godliness are in Christ--in other words, Christ is the complement of our nature. When I use that word complement--a mathematical term--I infer that just as a segment of a circle may be a very small thing, and may need the rest of the circumference to be its complement, so, whatever be the segment of your life, Jesus Christ is the complement of all the rest. He just fills out your deficiency and makes you a complete thing. It is no use a man saying he was born deficient in patience, because there is all the patience of Jesus to complete his impatience; no use for a man to complain of weakness or cowardice, when any kind of want comes, which has been permitted to come into his life that he might learn to appropriate the fulness of Christ. So the apostle gloried in his infirmity, because he said--the smaller the segment is the more of a complement I get, and a man may even be proud in a sense of the natural deficiencies of his nature, because he is thrown back upon Jesus Christ, in whom everything is stored to make him a saint. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Called us to glory and virtue.--
A glimpse of glory
I. That whereby a Christian may have title, interest, and comfort, in life and glory. It is not a knowledge of calling in general, but of that particular calling of ourselves to glory and virtue. This doth interest us in the promises of God (Act_2:39). No calling, no promise. Nay, further, without this there is no encouragement to holiness (1Ti_6:12). By our calling, which is by an eternal purpose and grace of God in time, changing and renewing us unto holiness of life, we come to know the eternal decree of God, which otherwise were presumption to look unto. For, as a princes secret mind is made known by edicts and proclamations, which before we durst not search into, neither could know, so when Gods secret counsel to execution is manifested, by changing our hearts, by calling us from the world to an holy calling, in a sanctified life: this, then, is no presumption, but duty in us, by our calling, to judge of our election, and so of our calling to glory and virtue. If you look for an example of this, see that of St. Paul (Gal_2:20).
II. That this knowledge of our particular calling is one of the strongest motives unto all goodness. So we see the apostles in their opinions still urge holiness and sanctification from this ground of the assurance of calling and election (Gal_5:13; Eph_4:2; Col_3:12). He that hath no assurance of this calling can have little comfort in performing of holy duties. A fearful, doubting soul lives in much vexation.
Use 1: The first is against all such as oppose this doctrine, chiefly the Papists, who are for that, that a man should not inquire after the assurance of his salvation.
Use 2. The second is, that every man then must try his title, what calling he hath.
Use 3: The third is for instruction. If this be so, let not then any man dare to confound the external calling of men with the internal calling of God. Further, how precious this calling should be unto us, we may see (Luk_10:20). Here is only cause of true joy. By this then be sure to take thy warrant of rejoicing, fetch it out of this calling, that God hath called thee to glory and virtue, which is the next thing to consider of; our calling to glory and virtue; I mean a consideration of these things whereunto we are called, glory and virtue.
1. Glory. Glory is the end of all. The glory of God is the furthest reach and end of all things, and virtue is the way leading unto glory. This glory then we speak of is the reward of goodness, and is ever attended with virtue. For as shame and sin still go together, so do glory and virtue, even by the testimony of the consciences of all good and ill men. The glory then we speak of is an eternal glory. It is not meant, when he says called to glory, that a Christian is only called unto that, and unto nothing else by the way, but by the way he is called unto virtue, and by occasion unto afflictions. But Gods end of calling us is unto glory; as 1Th_2:12. This glory is only of His mercy, from whence glory floweth unto us; mercy is the ground thereof. What shall I say of
(2) Be thankful to the Giver, not only for spiritual, but even for temporal things. It is not enough to take the whole loaves, but let us even gather up the fragments. And if God gives all to us, let us give something to Him. Not only my goods, but myself.
(3) Be not proud, arrogate not that to thyself which is Gods gift.
5. These promises are signed, sealed, delivered, and bound with an oath.
(1) God hath put His hand to them in the gospel.
(2) The two sacraments are the seals.
(3) They are delivered to us (Rom_8:15). Use: From the stability of Gods promises to us let us learn to be constant in the performance of our promise, both to God and to man.
II. An inheritance. Gods nature may be participated two ways, of quality and of equality.
1. For equality: this is only proper to the three Persons of the Trinity.
2. Our participation must be only qualitative: by nature we understand not substance, but quality, by grace in this world and by glory in the world to come. This communication of the Divine nature to us is by reparation of the Divine image in us (Heb_12:10; Eph_4:24; Rom_8:29).
(1) As servants of a Master; not merely as creatures; so all men partake (Act_17:28).
(2) As subjects of a Prince; and thus we partake with the King of heaven in many benefits.
(3) As sons of a Father: thus we partake many things of the Divine nature.
(4) As members of a Head (1Co_12:27).
(5) As branches of a Vine (Joh_15:1-27.).
III. A deliverance.
1. The discovery of great danger.
(1) The infection, corruption of lust. It gets into the thoughts, senses, tongue, hands, etc.
(2) The dispersion through the world. Consider the villainy, misery, inconstancy, insufficiency of it.
2. The recovery. We have escaped, not by our power, but by His grace that hath delivered us (Psa_124:7). There is a fourfold manner of freeing captives.
(1) By manumission (Joh_8:36).
(2) By commutation. Christ was killed; we escaped.
(3) By ransom (1Ti_2:6; 1Pe_1:19).
(4) By violence (2Ti_4:17). God did all this for us, and shall we do nothing for Him, for ourselves? (Thos. Adams.)
The promises of God
I. The excellency of the Divine promises. The promises of Scripture are generally declarations which God has made of His intention to bestow blessings upon His faithful people. Under the Old Testament dispensation the promises mainly related to the future advent of the Messiah. The Christian covenant is, in fact, one comprehensive promise (Jer_31:33-34; Jer_32:40; Heb_8:6-12). So that illumination, pardon, holiness, and union with God--that is, all imaginable mercies--are included in this one rich and overflowing promise.
II. The design for which these promises are given--that by these you might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The two designs of the promises, then, are a deliverance from the corruptions of the world and a participation of the purity of God. What this corruption is need scarcely be described. Men by their concupiscence and ungoverned passions corrupt each other. The Divine nature stands opposed to all this corruption. We are to be holy as God is holy.
1. That this is the direct tendency of the Divine promises may appear, first, from the consideration that it is in the view of His love and grace as displayed in the gospel of His Son, which God is pleased chiefly to employ to win the heart to His service.
2. The assurances of assistance offered to us in the promises tend also directly to promote holiness. The promise of forgiveness excites us to forsake sin; the promise of inward grace to mortify it.
3. Again, the condition annexed to the promises make them the powerful means of producing in us conformity to the Divine nature. These are frequently expressed. To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God. The meek will He guide in judgment.
4. But I ask once more, What is the matter of Gods promises--what are the blessings themselves which they hold out to us? Do they not all either imply holy obedience or directly include it? Repentance, faith, love, joy, hope, peace, strength, communion with God, are subjects of the promises; and what are these but parts of sanctification?
5. I ask, again, what are the direct and necessary effects of such promises, when they are received? They are the nutriment of faith which worketh by love. They inspire hope which purifies the heart even as God is pure. They work therefore not as an opiate to stupefy, but as a medicine to restore. And all this they do, not by a mere natural process, but by the gracious appointment of God.
III. The test which it furnishes of our state before God. If men will put a general notion of Gods mercy in the place of His promises; if they will substitute a form of godliness for a Divine nature, and a mere decency and good order before others, for an escape from the corruption which is in the world through lust, they must perish. (D. Wilson, M. A.)
Great and precious promises
Did you ever hear the story how, once upon a, time, a dove moaned and mourned to her fellow-birds of the tyranny of the hawk--the doves great foe? One advised her to keep below; but the hawk can stoop for his prey. Another said, Soar aloft; but the hawk could soar as high as she could. Another said, Fly to the woods; but the woods are the very palace and court of the cruel hawk; safety could not be found there. And another said, Fly to the towns; but there she was in danger of being caught by man, who might even make her a sport for the hawk. At last one said, Fly to the holes of the rocks. Violence cannot surprise the dove there. Thus it is with the soul of man distressed and fearful. Come to me, says Riches, and I will shelter you. No, Wealth is only the devils lure, and, by and by, his rein and his spur. Conic to me, says Pleasure; but she is the very Delilah of the soul, to betray you to the Philistines. Honour says, Come to me; but there is no assurance in any of these. No. Oh, ye that dwell in cities and repose in wealth or pleasure or honour, there is safety in Jesus or nowhere. Leave the cities and dwell in the rock--in the Rock of Ages--fly to the promises, and be like the dove that maketh her nest by the side of the holes mouth.
I. Consider the promises. Ah, if we practically realised the might, the majesty, and the meaning of Gods promises, how happy they would often make us l The astronomer, when he knows that the hour of the planet draws nigh, prepares his glasses and climbs his highest towers, and through its bright farseeing eyes he watches and he waits till he beholds it come labouring along its infinite way. And when it has shone through the darkness its hour or its season, then it fades down again into the darkness till another season shall come, and, perhaps, another astronomer hails its beams. So the promises of God are made to conditions, and they shine like constellations. Oh, sweet garden of the promises! But are they not rather like trees--exceeding great and precious promises? It seems to me, when I study the life of the promises, I come as into a vast and stately forest, planted by the glorious men of God in old time by His will and word; and they are, the fir tree, the pine, and the box together. There are the cedars of Lebanon, which He hath planted; and, like all trees, they are fit for meditation and fruit and use. How cool it is to walk amongst the promises! They are quiet places, and sacred and secret ways, where God, in an especial manner, meets with mans soul. When the glorious sun strikes down, how the promises stretch out their cool arms; and when storms are in the heavens they cannot strike through these boughs. And so every promise conceals or reveals some biography--some way of God in a human soul. Poor Bilney, that noble martyr, lost all comfort after he had recanted till he found the words, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Beza found the life of his hope in words which I can never forget: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I will give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. Some of the fathers divided the promises into Pabulum fidei, and Anima fidei--Food of faith, and the Soul of faith. Oh, thou of little faith, see yonder is the state; but do you not see the sunshine falling over it?--those arrowy flakes of gold, they are the promises--the exceeding great and precious promises: when you come to that darkness, fear not, but you shall inherit that light.
II. Exceeding great and precious. Do but think how wonderful it is that God should make Himself known by man. And all Gods works are promises. They are tokens of holiness, and wisdom, and faithfulness. Why do you plant an acorn? Does it not contain a promise? Infinite value is placed here. And methinks if we did but read the works and ways of God in nature aright we should see everywhere the promise of our future. Oh, when I can stand on the great mountain chains of the Bible, what a view I have! And do not promises strengthen? Our whole life is maintained by promise. Without promise we should sink into the deepest places of despair. We need spiritual tonics. We need them to destroy our unhealthy consciousness, which is only another name for weakness. And how glorious that, by these promises, we are able to look beyond the tomb; yes, by them we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust and see our fair inheritance there. But remember one great condition by which you know your relation to the promise--escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. Here, you see, is the great condition. Have you escaped the corruption? Till you breathe in purer air you cannot expect to breathe the sweetness of this promise. Obedience first, then recompense. (E. P. Hood.)
The promises of God
I. Their greatness will appear if we consider their Author. They derive importance and value from the holiness of God in all its glory, from His justice in all its inflexibility. Finally, they must derive importance from His infinite benevolence and mercy in which they originated, of which they are the magnificent expression and all the resources of which they open. Is there not an important sense, then, in which these promises are as precious, as great as God is glorious? Those, therefore, who neglect them despise Jehovah Himself when making the most interesting appeals to their hearts, and involve themselves in guilt and wickedness proportionable to the glories of the Divine character.
II. The greatness and value of the promises will appear if we consider them in their own nature and properties, or, if we attend to their intrinsic worth. In estimating the value of promises, this is the chief consideration. No matter what may be the rank or character of the promiser, or what the relation in which he stands to us. The promise cannot be denominated great and precious if it relates to an insignificant object or to one that does not meet our exigencies. The great consideration here is: suppose the promises to be accomplished, and all the good that is contained in them enjoyed, will all our capacities be filled? Shall we be completely delivered from all dangers and enemies? Shall we be raised to the perfection of our nature? If so, but not otherwise, the promises, the value of which we are endeavouring to estimate, are exceeding great and precious. Now, tried by this criterion, the promises to which the apostle refers will appear to be fully entitled to the epithets under consideration. For when they are all accomplished in heaven, what want will remain unsupplied? what capacity unfilled, even to overflowing? what danger or enemy will threaten, what desirable good will not be possessed? What will then be wanting to complete the dignity and happiness of human nature?
III. Consider the medium through which these promises have been made, or the way in which these blessings are secured and conferred, and they, too, will show that they are indeed exceeding great and precious. God is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and, therefore, making all the promises through Him. All the promises of God are in Him yea, and in Him Amen. They are all made and confirmed in Him. In Him who, though He was the brightness of His Fathers glory, and the express image of His Person, the Lord, the Creator of angels, and the object of their worship, became the Babe of Bethlehem, the sufferer on the Cross. In Him who, by the exercise of every grace of which innocent human nature is capable, and the performance of every duty in their very perfection, and that in the most difficult circumstances, met all the demands of an absolutely perfect law. In Him, who, by making His life, His blood, His soul an offering for sin by drinking, to the very dregs, the bitter cup of Divine wrath, secured all the blessings contained in the promises.
IV. Consider the number and variety of the promises. We have given to us not an exceeding great and precious promise merely, but exceeding great and precious promises relating to all the endless variety of the believers wants and circumstances and dangers and duties: to prosperity and to adversity, to the body and to the soul, to time and to eternity, to earth and to heaven.
V. Consider next the suitableness of these promises, and this, too, will prove that they are exceeding great and precious. A promise may be valuable in itself, and as it regards the blessing which it exhibits; and yet it may be to the individuals to whom it is made of no importance because it is not suitable to their circumstances. How valuable to some would be the promise of a large sum of money, of a rich and extensive estate, of a crown! What are they to the man who is the victim of a mortal disease, who has only a few moments longer to live? Behold, he is at the point to die, and what are riches and crowns to him? How valuable is a promise of pardon to a convicted and condemned malefactor! But what is it to the man who glories in his innocence and virtue and claims the protection of the law, and the blessings of life as his right? But the promises of the gospel are as suitable to our circumstances as they are great and wonderful in themselves. They secure light to those who are in darkness, and rich supplies to those who are perishing of hunger, and pardon to those who are guilty and condemned.
VI. Consider the immutability of these promises, and this will show that they are exceeding great and precious. How inexcusable, then, is unbelief!
VII. On account of their influence the promises may well be denominated exceeding great and precious. The promises of men often exert an injurious influence on those to whom they are made. They dazzle the eyes of the mind, enkindle a flame of unhallowed feelings, lead astray from the path of duty, and thus prove the most dangerous temptations to sin. How many have been led by them to act a foolish, a base, a disgraceful part! By seeking the honour that comes from men they have lost all the honour that comes from God. But the influence of the promises of the gospel is always beneficial. They ever enlighten and sanctify and stimulate to act wise and noble part. This must be the case, for they make those who embrace them partakers of the Divine nature and keep from the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now we may infer from what has been advanced--
1. That the Bible is an exceedingly great and precious book, for it contains all these promises.
2. We may learn whether or not we are personally, actually interested in these promises.
3. How great the folly and guilt, how wretched the state of those who despise all these promises and reject all these blessings!
4. Remember that the Bible contains not only exceeding great and precious promises, but exceedingly great and terrible threatenings, and the latter are as dreadful as the former are glorious. (W. Scott.)
Divine promises
I. The means whereby God conveys His grace to us, viz., the promises of the gospel.
1. Their excellency is set forth by two adjuncts. They are exceeding great and precious. The one noteth their intrinsic worth and value; they are exceeding great. The other, our esteem of them; they deserve to be precious to us.
2. Their freeness: given, made freely, made good freely.
II. The end and use of them: that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature; that is, the communicable excellence of God.
1. Because these are communicated to us by God; they are created in us by His Divine power. We have them by virtue of our communion with Him. They flow from God, as the light doth from the sun.
2. Because by these perfections we somewhat resemble God. Therefore it is said (1Pe_2:9), We show forth His praises, His virtues or Divine attributes, His wisdom, goodness, bounty, holiness; for in these we most resemble Him.
III. the way, method, and order how we receive this benefit of the Divine nature. Having first escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. As we die to sin, the Divine nature increaseth in us. There is a putting off before there can be a putting on (Eph_4:22-24).
1. What is to be avoided: The corruption that is in the world through lust. Observe, sin is called corruption as often in Scripture, because it is a blasting of our primitive excellency and purity (Gen_6:12; Psa_14:1). Observe, the seat of this corruption is said to be in the world, where lust and all uncleanness reigneth, therefore called the pollutions of the world (chap. 2:20). The generality of men are defiled with them, corrupted in their faith, worship, and manners; therefore conversion is called for under these terms (Act_2:40). Lastly, observe that this corruption is said to reign in the world through lust. Besides the bait there is the appetite; it is our naughty affections that make our abode in the world dangerous.
2. The manner of shunning, in the word escaping. There is a flying away required, and that quickly, as in the plague, or from a fire which hath almost burned us, or a flood that breaketh in upon us. We cannot soon enough escape from sin (Mat_3:7; Heb_6:18). No motion but flight becomes us in this case. Doctrine: That the great end and effect of the promises of the gospel is to make us partakers of the Divine nature.
I. Let us consider the effect or end.
1. That it is a natural, not a transient effect. There may be such a sense of the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as may produce a sudden passion; as suppose of fear or love. It may only affect us for the present, but inferreth no change of heart and life. But the promises of the gospel are to breed in us such a temper of heart as may be a second nature to us, a habit or constitution of soul that may incline us to live to God. A habit serveth for this use, that a man may act easily, pleasantly, and constantly.
(1) To act easily. There is an inclination and propensity to holiness.
(2) To act pleasantly. They have not only a new bias and tendency, but it is a delight to do what is holy (Psa_40:8), as being in their element when they are thus employed.
(3) It is a constant principle of holy operations, so that a man doth not only obey God easily, but evenly, and without such frequent interruptions of the holy life.
2. It is a Divine nature; that is, not only such as floweth from God, but may carry some resemblance with Him or to Him. It floweth from God, for we are partakers; it is but a ray from His excellency, and it carrieth a likeness to Him, or cometh nearer to the nature of God Himself than anything that a man is capable of. Now this is said for two reasons--
(1) To show the dignity of it. Nothing known to man is so like God as a sanctified soul. The saints have their Makers express image; therefore if God be excellent and holy, they are so. The image and picture of God and Christ is in them, not made by a painter or carver, but by the Holy Ghost (2Co_3:18).
(2) To show the quality and condition of it. You must have a new nature, and such a nature as may be a Divine nature. If you have nothing above natural men or corrupt nature, you are strangers to the promises of the gospel.
3. This Divine nature may be considered three ways. Either--
(1) As begun; when we are first renewed in the spirit of our minds, and regenerated according to the image of God (Eph_4:23-24).
(2) As increased; when more like God in a conspicuous degree.
(3) As it is perfected in heaven; for there we have the nearest communion with God, and so the highest conformity to Him that we are capable of (1Jn_3:2).
II. Let us now see the means by which God doth accomplish this effect: To us are given great and precious promises.
1. It is an instance of Gods love, that He will deal with us in the way of promises.
(1) A promise is more than a purpose; for the purpose and intention of a man is secret and hidden in his own bosom, but a promise is open and manifest. Thereby we get the knowledge of the good intended to us.
(2) It is more than a doctrinal declaration. It is one thing to reveal a doctrine, another to promise a benefit; that maketh a thing known, this maketh a thing sure, and upon certain terms; that gives us notice, but this gives us interest.
(3) It is more than a prophecy or simple prediction. Scripture prophecies will be fulfilled because of Gods veracity; but Scripture promises will be fulfilled, not only because of Gods veracity, but also His fidelity and justice; for by Gods promise man cometh to have a right to the thing promised.
2. The promises of the new covenant are of a most glorious and valuable nature. They are not about small things, or things of little moment, but about worthy and dear-bought blessings.
3. They are precious promises, worthy of our esteem; for they are not about things that we have nothing to do with, but such wherein we are deeply and intimately concerned. In Gods promises there is due provision made for the desires, necessities, and wants of mankind.
4. All this is given to us wretched men without any desert of ours; nay, we had deserved the contrary.
III. The influence of the one upon the other; or, how do these promises promote the Divine nature?
1. From their drift, which is, to draw us from the creature to God, and the world to heaven; to mortify the esteem of the false happiness which corrupteth our natures; and to raise us to those noble objects and ends which dignify and adorn the soul, and make it in a sort Divine. It breedeth an excellent spirit in us, which is carried above the world, and the hopes and fears of it (1Co_2:12).
2. The matter of the promises. Many of which concern the change of our hearts, the cleansing or healing of our natures (Heb_8:10; Eze_36:25-26; Jer_33:8).
3. The conditions or terms on which our right is suspended. Not pardon without repentance (Act_3:19). Not heaven or eternal life without holiness (Heb_12:14).
4. The power with which the promises are accompanied (Col_1:3). The Divine nature is communicated to us by virtue of the promises; for the Spirit is our sanctifier, and He works by congruous means.
Use 1. Believe the promises, for they are most sure and certain. Gods testimony of the good things He will bestow upon us cannot deceive us, or beget a vain and uncertain hope.
Use 2. Esteem them (Heb_11:13).
Use 3. Labour to improve the belief of every promise for the increase of holiness, that we may be like God, pure and holy as He is (2Co_7:1). (T. Manton, D. D.)
Exceeding great and precious promises
I. First, the source of all the promises is shown by this same apostle to be the abundant mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Pe_1:3-5). By whatever name called, in whatever dispensation or method made known, the abundant mercy of the ever-blessed God has been the great original, only source of promise to man.
II. Their character. They are exceeding great, or, as the Rhemish version literally translates it, most great. As the announcements of Divine mercy concerning the provisions of redemption for man, we may expect the promises to be so great as to meet all the wants and woes of our fallen nature.
1. One wide, deep, and long-felt want of our spiritual nature is--light. The most enlightened Pagans but guessed at immortality, and felt after the true God among a rabble of false ones. Need I point out to you how Jesus Christ is thus the Desire of all nations? To Him, as the true Light, gave all the prophets witness. Pleasant to the eyes, cheering to the heart, indispensable to labour, assuring to the traveller, longed for by the watchman, an indispensable condition of all healthy growth, and therefore of life, light is in every language the symbol of truth; and as Jesus Christ is the brightness of the Fathers glory, so His gospel is the light of lights in all these respects to believing souls.
2. Another deep-felt want of the human soul is the craving for peace with God. Wherever the religious instincts have been awakened, their most poignant conscious ness has been that of guilt, a dread of the Invisible, and a fearful looking for of judgment. Hence all the self-torments of superstition, and the altars and offerings of Paganism, past and present. And of all the promises of God, none are more exceeding great and precious than those which invite, intreat, beseech men to be reconciled unto God, on the ground of the great propitiation of Jesus Christ for sin. They are more precious than the royal warrant that releases the death-doomed culprit; they are our passport and safe-conduct into present safety and eternal life.
3. Thus we might proceed in regard to every want of the human spirit. Does the quickened soul pant for self-harmony and purity, crying, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me? Then one of a thousand promises uttered from the heart of God replies, I will sprinkle dean water upon you; from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you; a new heart will I give unto you, and a new spirit will I put within you.
4. Does the heart, pre-designed for Divine love and fellowship, feel restless for its adapted element--a good which it knows not, and without which it must inly burn and pine for ever? To all this multitude of weary, feverish souls there comes from the Father of spirits such exceeding great and precious promises as these: Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: and he that hath no money, come.
5. Again, does the universal soul of man believe in and anticipate immortal life? Does the savage from his instincts, and the sage from his reasonings, expect to live for ever? Does even the bad man inly shudder at the prospect of annihilation, and the good man long for immortality? Then the certainty, the nature, and the path of endless life are the subject-matter of transcendently great and precious promises.
6. Finally, as to the wants of the soul and their Divinely promised supply. The life and immortality--rather incorruptibility--brought to light by the promises of the gospel meet another demand of our nature--the resurrection from the dead. And are they not precious--precious as the free pledges of sovereign, paternal, everlasting grace?--precious as the fruits of Jesus death-enduring love?--precious as the subject of the Comforters ministry to the heart, and the medium of His sanctifying energy therein? They are precious for their past beneficent history in healing wounded spirits and raising fainting hearts. Their greatness and preciousness have been in part realised by the first advent of Christ and this present dispensation of the Spirit. This, however, is but the introduction to the vast volume of good things yet to come. The sons of God are now adopted, but not manifested.
III. This is rendered still more evident by the design of the promises: That we might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
1. This declaration inevitably implies that man has lost that participation in the Divine nature which is called the image of God, and which consisted in spiritual knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness.
2. It also implies that there is in mans nature, however fallen, a constitutional capacity (though we know, alas! a deep disinclination) to receive back and reflect the moral character of God.
3. It suggests that all the needful influences are given by the God of the promises, and lie within our reach for the recovery of the Divine nature; and that God holds us responsible for the earnest, prayerful use of those gracious means whereby we may grow into His likeness, and ascend to fellowship with Himself.
4. And this involves most inspiring views of what redeemed humanity may attain even on earth, much more in heaven.
5. This fellowship with God is the only means of escaping the infectious pollutions of moral evil that abound in the world on every side, and that spring from the desires of the heart turned from God to impure and forbidden objects.
6. The promises, then, are indispensable to the attainment of this end. They reveal the Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and assure the gift of the Holy Spirit to renew and inhabit the soul. (John Graham.)
The efficacy of the promises
What is the whereby with which the passage commences? designating, as it appears to do, some channel of communication. There are here several antecedents to which the whereby may be grammatically referred; but, without examining a variety of critical opinions, it appears to me the most obvious course to take the concluding words, glory and virtue, as the antecedent which we are in search of; the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue; whereby--that is, through which glory and virtue--are given to us exceeding great and precious promises. We are called to glory and to virtue--to a warfare that is full of honour, but at the same time full of difficulty, requiring much wisdom and vigour in the combatant. If we obey this calling, and throw ourselves into the conflict, then the struggle in which we are engaged will be the best witness that we are the elect of the Most High. Having this witness, we possess an assurance that the promises of the Bible are spoken specially to ourselves. Now, having thus cleared up the connection between the text and the context, it still remains that I vindicate the description that is here made of the promises given in the Bible. Yet, can this be necessary? If there be a spiritual solicitude for which the Bible contains not a word in season; if there be a doubt which is left without a message to disperse it; if there be an anxiety which is passed by without a whisper to soothe it; and if there be a tear which it dries not; then I will give up the description, and pronounce it overdrawn. But in nothing has God so manifested His wisdom as in the precision with which His Word meets the wants of His people. It were idle to attempt to descend into particulars. Exceedingly great are the promises of the Bible; great in their sweep, for they leave no circumstance unattended to; great in their power, for they bring all the magnificence of eternity to bear on the solicitudes of time. And precious are the promises, as well as great. He who can appropriate them has blessings which no arithmetic can reckon, a security which no contingency can shake, and a help which never can be without use. But there is no need that I insist further on the character that the text gives of the promises. Those who have proved them acknowledge them to be exceeding great and precious; they who have proved them not, want, alas! the spiritual ardour by which their character is to be discerned, and are therefore not to be convinced by the most elaborate description. We all profess to believe that once on the earth the spectacle was exhibited of the human nature adopted into union with the Divine. There was the perfect instance of one of our race being made partaker of the Divine nature: I need scarcely add that the instance will stand for ever by itself; and that the sense in which we alone can share in the nature of God differs from that in which Christ Jesus had share. He had it in essence--we in conformity; He by being God--we only by being renewed after the image of God. The Greek might more strictly be rendered partakers of a Divine nature, and not of the Divine nature. Now, the point which yet remains to be investigated, is the agency of the promises in effecting such a change; for, you will observe, that whilst partaking of the Divine nature is the result, the promises are the means through which it is brought about. Exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature. The machinery exhibited in the Bible when a spiritual transformation is in question, is the influence of the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the blessed Trinity. We may be assured, therefore, that when any other machinery is brought on the stage, we are to understand that it is effectual, not through its inherent energies, but only through its being actuated by that Agent. The promises in themselves have no power to animate; but if I believe in the promise, then the promise becomes a quickening thing; and that which as spoken was merely sound that melted into air is now a radiant star which rules me and guides me by the brilliancy of its light. We shall take for granted, in all we say of the power of the promises, that the power is derived from faith, and faith from the Holy Ghost; and we go on to show in the first place the power which promises wield over men in ordinary things, and in the second place, the influence which they exert over Christians in particular. If you took a rapid survey of the various classes and occupations of men, you would find that almost every one is submitting himself to the power of promise. If you enter the crowded marts of commerce, or pass through the courtly circles of ambition, or sit with the student in his secluded chamber, or accompany the dissolute into the haunts of pleasure, the same pursuit is in each case carried on; they are all hunting after some fancied good, which, though it may cheat them at last, engages them at present. Some busy spirit has been whispering into the ear of every man whom you meet, that if he will but follow this course, or that course, he shall attain the object of his desire. And the greatest marvel is, that although the experience of successive ages has shown there is a lie in each of these promises, they nevertheless attain the same credit as ever. If it could, however, come suddenly to pass that an arrest was put on this circulation of promise, there would be an instant standstill in the busy scenes of human occupation. And I need hardly point out how amplified would be the power of promise if there were anything like an assurance of fulfilment. If men can do such things on chance, what will they do on certainty? Now I turn from this rapid survey of the power which promise wields over men in general; and I ask you whether, if you turn the uncertainty of promise into certainty, you may not expect to find the power a thousand times greater which is wielded over Christians in particular? The defects in promise are here done away With; the result which is desired not only may take place, but shall take place. And if a promise, which is both indefinite in its terms and insecure in its pledges, be the efficient thing we have already described, who shall marvel that where the terms are the noblest, and the pledges are the strongest, it shall lead those who believe to work out their salvation with the fear and trembling of men who know themselves to have eternity at stake? I will seek, however, to dissect this point a little more nicely; for it is both of interest and importance. Escaping the pollution that is in the world, we account to be the same thing as being made partakers of the Divine nature. It is by escaping pollution, by withdrawing from the trammels and habits of sinfulness, that this partnership in the celestial character is procured; and if we can show that it is by the promises that pollution is escaped, it will follow that it is through the promises that conformity to the Divine nature is attained. But whether it be by promises or by threatenings that the work is commenced, assuredly it is by promise that the work is carried on. Is the believer disheartened when he considers the might of his spiritual enemies? the promise is kindly whispered, God shall bruise Satan under thy feet shortly. He takes courage, and wrestles with the enemy. Is he confounded at the view of indwelling corruption? God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able to bear. Are kinsmen and friends alienated from him on account of his profession of godliness? What sustains him but this?--When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Does prayer seem unanswered? Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Do sorrows seem multiplied? All things work together for good to them that love God. Is his progress in the life of faith scarcely perceptible? Where God hath begun a good work, He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. You see, then, that promises are mighty engines in the hands of Gods Spirit. It is by these souls are animated to prayer; it is by these they are prepared for warfare; it is by these they are warmed in love; it is by these they are cheered on in their way after holiness. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Precious promises
What makes a promise precious?
1. The thing promised must be valuable.
2. He who promises must be truthful.
3. He who promises must be able to perform. (W. Lawson, D. D.)
The Divinely assimilating force of Divine promises
Christianity is a system of promises. Even its doctrines and precepts may be regarded as promises. These promises are exceedingly great in their nature, variety, and influences; they are exceedingly precious too;--precious essentially and relatively in themselves and in their bearings on man.
I. These promises tend to assimilate us to God by giving us an attractive view of His character. Two thoughts will illustrate this point:--
1. Mans moral character is formed on the principle of imitation. There are two wrong developments of this instinct.
(1) When it is directed to the natural peculiarities of others.
(2) When directed to the moral faults of others.
2. Mans imitation is ever directed to that which seems to him beautiful. He will not copy that which appears to him unamiable, unlovely, repulsive. If the Infinite appear to us supremely lovely, He will by the laws of our imitative nature mould us into His own image. Now His promises give us this attractive view of Him. A sincere promise reveals the authors disposition. If the promise is trifling where there are large resources, it indicates a niggardly soul, and the reverse. A sincere promise reveals the authors resources. If great things are promised, the possession of great things are implied. According to these criteria, what infinite kindness and inexhaustible resources do the promises of God reveal!
II. These promises tend to assimilate us to Him by bringing us into personal contact with His character. We must be with a being to become like him. Fellowship is absolutely indispensable. There is on the one hand a giving, and on the other a perpetual receiving. Thus the two are brought together. Both minds meet, as it were, in the promise,
III. These promises tend to assimilate us to Him by giving us a living interest in His character. (Homilist.)
The design of the promises of God
I. In the Divine nature are attributes properly incommunicable; such as cannot, in the nature of things, be imparted; such as cannot be even imitated by creatures. It is peculiar to Him to exist in and from Himself; while a creature is a dependent being, and ever must remain so. It is peculiar to Him to be from everlasting to everlasting. It is peculiar to Him to have supreme dominion. Absolute perfection, that which is liable to no injury, admits of no diminution, is capable of no advancement, is peculiar to Him. Finite cannot equal infinite. It is, then, in moral attributes that we are to look for this participation of the Divine nature; in those which, indeed, constitute the very glory of that nature; the others being adorable as they are exercised and employed by a perfect wisdom, rectitude, and love. But let it be here observed that the promise is not that we shall be raised into something like God; sonic mere imitation of what is morally perfect in Him. We are to be partakers of the Divine nature. There is to be a communication on the part of God, and a reception on our own, of those principles on which all that is pure and holy in God may be said to depend; a communication continued to us, on which the growth and permanency of those principles rest. The moral nature of God, thus to be participated by believers, may be summed up in the three terms.
1. Knowledge. The power of knowing is the property of spiritual beings. It is not merely to perceive in the low degree which belongs to irrational animals, but to apprehend, to remember, to compare, to infer, and from particular to bring out general truths, which are to be laid up in the mind for meditation or action. This knowledge is the knowledge of things as good or evil, as right or wrong, as tending or not tending to our own happiness, and that of the whole creation. Infinitely perfect is this knowledge in God. And by the indwelling of His teaching Spirit, opening these truths to our mind, and rendering us discerning to apply them, He makes us partake, in our degree, of His own knowledge, His infallible judgment of things. Then it is that we walk in the light. We find a sure way for our feet, and so are enabled tot escape the snares of death.
2. Holiness. This is essential to God. It is that principle in Him, whatever it may be, which has led Him to prescribe justice, mercy, and truth, and to prohibit their contraries under penalties so severe; that principle, which is more than a mere approval of the things which He enjoins; which makes Him love righteousness. The holiness of a creature as to actions is, conformity to the will of God, which is the visible declaration of His holy nature. That conformity implies justice, a rendering to all their due; a large duty, referring not only to man, but likewise to God, to whom are to be given the honour and worship He requires from us: perfect truth and sincerity in everything, so that all outward acts shall concur with the heart, and the heart with them; and the strict regulation of every temper and appetite, so that they may be kept within the bounds prescribed, beyond which they become impurity and sin. But there must be principle from which all this must flow, or it is only external and imitative; and that principle is found only in the new man, that which conies from this participation of the Divine nature.
3. But the Divine nature is love. Who can doubt this when he sees the happiness of the creatures so manifestly the end of their creation? when we can trace all misery to another source? when we see the mercies He mixes with His judgments, always bringing some good out of evil? when He spared not His own Son, but gave Him freely for us all?
II. We observe, that the value of the promises of the Gospel is specially displayed by their connection with this end. There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature. To raise men to this state is matter of promise, and therefore of grace. We might have been left to the sin and degradation we had sought. And the promises thus given to us, all of them suppose the covenant of grace. And when we consider their great design to make us partakers of the Divine nature, how clearly and brightly does it display their value! They appear to us of unspeakable value; exceeding great and precious.
1. They are so in respect of the honour which this great attainment puts on man.
2. Consider this value in respect to interest. What is the real interest of man but the attainment of the favour and image of God?
3. Consider this value in.respect of peace. There can be no peace to the wicked. Every evil brings its own punishment with it in the disquietude which it occasions.
4. Consider this value in respect of usefulness. Knowledge is a powerful instrument of God when prompted by benevolence and sustained by consistency of character. And where there is this participation of the Divine nature, there we find all these elements of usefulness, knowledge, holiness, and love.
5. And lastly, consider this value in reference to hope. (R. Watson.)
That by these ye might he partakers of the Divine nature.--
Partakers of the Divine nature
The keynote of the passage is the word Divine, which occupies so conspicuous a place at the commencement and the close. To the momentous questions, What is the source and what the nature of true religion? the sum briefly is--It is a Divine life. Its source is traced to the Divine power of the Mediator, and on its features are stamped the impress of the Divine image.
1. Life and godliness is a comprehensive and practical description of true religion. Life alone, in Scripture, often describes the state of grace, and sums up all the blessings of salvation (1Jn_5:12; Act_5:20). Godliness, also, by itself, often denotes the whole of religion--the whole life of faith (1Ti_3:16; 1Ti_4:7). Employed together they modify each others meaning, and give completeness to the delineation of the Christian life. Life points out its inward source in the heart, godliness its outward manifestations in conduct and character. Be it ours to seek this life. Filled with it, it will show itself in the blossoms and fruits of godliness, And, let us not forget, that if there is no godliness of conduct or character, we want the only sure evidence that life from on high has descended into our souls.
2. Have I escaped from the corruption that is in the world? Worldly life apart from God, and opposed to God, is moral and spiritual death; in its most refined as well as in its grosser forms, in its intellectual as well as in its sensual enjoyments, it has the taint of corruption. Its maxims and morality are unsound. The tie that binds us to the world and its corruption is the corruption of our own hearts. That removed, the magnetic attraction of evil is broken. The world and the renewed nature have no affinity, but repel each other. Like the occupant of the diving-bell, breathing air which is replenished and purified by constant supplies from above, and which, by its elastic force, keeps out the water which presses on every side; so the Christian, breathing the vital air of a heaven-derived life, moves unharmed in the midst of the worlds corruption; surrounding him on every side, it cannot overwhelm.
3. Partakers of the Divine nature! At that momentous change, variously spoken of as a resurrection from the dead, as a new creation, as regeneration, there is communicated to the soul a Divine principle of life which, through grace, gradually transforms the whole man. Nothing less will do as a commencing point for the Christian life as a foundation on which to build a new and Godlike character. By Gods overruling providence and restraining grace and favourable circumstances the worst outbreaks of sin are often prevented, as by the physicians skill the maladies of an unsound constitution may be mitigated. But only by a renewal of the soul, by the communication of the life of God, can we obtain true spiritual health and vigour. Christ then becomes our life. We are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and thus are made partakers of the Divine nature in the only sense possible for creatures. But the fellowship of the renewed soul with God is also embraced in that participation of the Divine nature of which the apostle speaks. Converse with God is the highest bliss of which we are capable. The life that has descended from God into our hearts rises up to Him again in desire and love, and the new nature in us subsists by communion with the source whence it is derived. (W. Wilson, M. A.)
The promises designed to make men holy
I. The scriptures often declare this to be a principal design of the Divine promises. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Whatever is necessary to encourage, to cheer, to strengthen, to prompt in the course of holy obedience, is derived by constant appeals and illustrations from the promises of God.
II. We argue the same thing from the character of man as a moral being, and the purpose of God toward him. The great purpose of God toward man is to perfect his moral character through moral influence. But where is this influence furnished? in what are these motives presented, if not in the blessings promised as the reward of obedience? If God by these promises intended merely to comfort His people by quieting their fears and awakening their hopes, why are not His promises absolute and unconditional securities?
III. From the direct practical tendency of the promises of God. There is no higher evidence of the design to be answered by the appointments of God than the true tendency of such appointments.
1. Such is the tendency of the Divine promises, as they remove every obstacle to personal holiness. To rouse man to holy activity the promise of God is indispensable. You may show him an opening hell, but without a promise revealing a pardoning God and opening heaven he will never stir. With such promises all the hopelessness and despair of escaping the curse is taken away by the assurance of favour and reward to obedience. Without the promises there would remain also another obstacle of paralysing influence--the impracticability of obedience without the grace of God. But with the promise of a faithful God sounding in his ears, My grace is sufficient for thee, how will he rise, as it were, in the consciousness of that strength, which shall be perfected in his weakness, and enter the career of obedience with the inspiration of hope!
2. This tendency is apparent in the nature of the blessings promised. Whether we look at the general or specific nature of the Divine promises we see that they cannot become effectual as motives without producing holiness. What are the promises of God? Peace of conscience is promised. But who can think of escaping the reproaches of this inward monitor except by the practice of holiness? Is justification unto life promised? But who can be influenced by this blessing as a motive, and still wish to incur the guilt and the condemnation of sin? Is heaven promised? but what is there in heaven but an influence of transformation into the likeness of the God who reigns there?
3. The same tendency is apparent in the circumstances or mode of the Divine promises. Such is the manner of Gods promises as to secure to the utmost their full energy on the soul. While the holiness of man is their ultimate end, there is no sensibility or interest of man to which they do not appeal, and aim to render subservient to that end. They create no interference, but insure a perfect coincidence between mans temporal and eternal well-being.
4. The same tendency is apparent from the number and magnitude of the blessings promised.
Remarks:
1. We see the error of those who aim to derive comfort only from the Divine promises. To say nothing of the prostration of the Divine law thus involved, the notion is a direct perversion of the very promises of God, which are pleaded as its warrant. Where is the promise of life except to patient continuance in well-doing? Others there are who make the application of the promises to depend on the belief of their own personal interest in them, us if to believe ones self to be interested in the promises of God really made us so. This perversion is equally gross. The promises of God given to promote holiness, and made to nothing but holiness, do these secure an interest in their blessings to him who has no holiness? There is yet another error nearly allied to these, and still more common. There are those who, though they deny not that the only warrant for the hopes of the gospel is obedience to the gospel, yet seem practically to disregard the conviction. Their concern is to discover the evidence of an interest in the promises, rather than to create that evidence, by increasing their holiness.
2. How great are the obligations of the people of God to holy obedience! (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)
The influence of the promises of the gospel
Not that we can partake of the essence and nature of God, as some have blasphemously affirmed. For this would be for men to become gods, and to be advanced to the state and perfection of the Deity.
I. By way of internal efficacy and assistance. And this influence the promise of Gods Holy Spirit, and of His gracious help, hath upon the minds of men, inclining them to that which is good, and enabling them to do it. For the Holy Spirit is promised to us, in consideration and commiseration of that impotency which we have contracted.
II. By way of motive and argument, to encourage us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God. For--
1. A full pardon and indemnity for what is past is a mighty encouragement for us to return to our duty, and a forcible argument to keep us to it for the future.
2. The promise of Gods grace and Holy Spirit is likewise a very powerful encouragement to holiness, encouraging us hereto by this consideration, that we have so unerring a guide to counsel and direct us, so powerful an assistant to strengthen us with all might in the inner man.
3. The promise of eternal life and happiness, if duly considered, hath a mighty force in it, to take us off from the love and practice of sin, and to encourage our obedience and patient continuance in well-doing.
All that now remains is to make some useful reflections upon what hath been discoursed upon these two heads.
1. If we expect the benefits of these exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel, we must be careful to perform the conditions which are indispensably required on our parts.
2. From hence we learn that if the promises of the gospel have not this effect upon us, to make us partakers of a Divine nature, it is our own fault, and because we are wanting to ourselves.
3. If the promises of the Christian religion are apt in their own nature to work this great effect upon us, to make us like to God, to make us good, and just, and merciful, how doth this upbraid the degenerate state of the Christian world at this day, which does so abound in all kind of wickedness and impiety; so that we may cry out, upon reading the gospel: Either this is not the gospel which we read and the Christian religion which we profess, or we are no Christians. (Abp. Tillotson.)
Partakers of the Divine nature
Partakers of the Divine nature, which is to say, taking part in the Divine nature. Not simply like God, but in a way shareholders in Him; something, possibly, as the waves of the sea are partakers in the sea, something, it may be, as the leaves of a tree share in the life of the tree. We are not afraid of widening out the area of our humanity along the line of its upward frontier. Man differs in one very peculiar regard from the brute; not only in moving in a higher range of life and experience, but in not being tethered to any fixed condition. The brute is a brute, and always a brute. Improve your dog, and he will still be brutal; debase your dog, and he will still be brutal, and evince no symptoms of dropping to a lower grade of being. Once a dog, always a dog! On the contrary, there is a just sense in which you can say of humanity, that it is not so much a condition as it is a position of poise between two alternative conditions. It is like standing at the halfway point on the Gemmi Pass in Switzerland. You look down to the profound depths beneath you, or you turn and look up to the superb heights above you, but you are not going to stop there, nor to live there. It is not a place to remain, but a place from which to look off. You are either on your way down the pass to Leuker-Bad, or you are on your way up the pass to the Wild-strubel; it is merely a position of poise between two alternative destinations. Ye are partakers of the Divine nature. Our thought now is particularly up the pass, not down. There is more danger in a theology that differences man from God than in one which assimilates man to God. There is, as a rule, more quickening stimulus in the prospect of victory than there is in the danger of defeat. Few men ever become great through fear of remaining small. There is more incentive in trying to get to the top of the class than in trying to keep away from the bottom of it. If God can humanise the Divine to the point of its becoming man, as in the instance of Jesus, what is to hinder Him, in the exercise of the same omnipotence, from deifying man to the point of his becoming Divine? It is no farther from the bottom of the mountain to the top than it is from the top to the bottom. Now that, as we read the gospel, is exactly what the blessed Spirit is trying to do with us. God became like us that we might become like God. He is seeking to lead us back over the same road that tie came down. Partakers of the Divine nature. Now are we the sons of God. It is all in that word sons. There is community through identity. You cannot get sonship in any other way. A loyal son is governed by his father; but it is the best element of that loyalty, not that the son does what the father bids him do, or makes him do, but that the son has his fathers spirit so reproduced in himself, and so become a part of himself and he so a partaker in his fathers nature, that his one act is at the same instant both his act and his fathers act. And when we pray that God will control us by His Spirit, we certainly hardly expect that He is going to put His personality behind us, so as to push us onward; or put His personality in front of us, so as to hold us backward. We would rather mean, would we not, that as children of His, we are bound in the bundle of one life with Him, moving therefore at the impulse of energies that are ours without their ceasing to be His--somewhat, perhaps, as each separate storm-wave rolls in the expression of its own might, which is at the same time a part of the might of the sea; somewhat, perhaps, as each separate leaf or branch grows green in the expression of its own life, which is at the same time a part of the life of the vine. I in you, you in me. Frontier lines gone. One in each other, A single bundle of life, human or Divine, either or both; a shareholder in God; up the Gemmi Pass toward the indistinguishable summit. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)
Partakers of the Divine nature
I. Look, first, at this lofty purpose which is here presented as being the very aim and end of Gods gift in the gospel. The human nature and the Divine are both kindred and contrary. There are no gods of the heathen so far away from their worshippers, and there are none so near them, as our God. The arched heaven, though high, is not inaccessible in its cloudless beauty, but it touches earth all round the horizon; and man is made in the image of God. True, that Divine nature of which the ideal man is the possessor has faded away from humanity. But still the human is kindred with the Divine. The tiniest spark of flame is of the same nature as those leaping, hydrogen spears of illuminated gas that spring hundreds of thousands of miles high in a second or two in the great central sun. But,that kindred, belonging to every soul of man, abject as well as loftiest, is not the partaking of which my text speaks, though it is the basis and possibility of it; for my text speaks of men as becoming partakers. What, then, is it? No mere absorption, as extravagant mystics have dreamed, into that Divine nature, as a drop goes back into the ocean and is lost. There will always be I and thou, or else there were no blessedness, nor worship, nor joy. We must so partake of the Divine nature as that the bounds between the bestowing God and the partaking man shall never be broken down. But that being presupposed, union as close as possible is the great hope that all Christian men and women ought consciously to cherish. Only mark, the beginning of the whole is the communication of a Divine life which is manifested mainly in what we call moral likeness. Partakers we shall be in the measure in which by our faith we have drawn from Him the pure and the hearty love of whatsoever things are fair and noble; the measure in which we love righteousness and hate iniquity. And then, remember also that this lofty purpose which is here set forth is a purpose growingly realised in man. The apostle puts great stress upon that. He is not talking about a being, but about a becoming. That is to say, God must ever be passing, moment by moment, into our hearts if there is to be anything godly there. Cut off the sunbeam from the sun and it dies, and the house is dark; cut off the life from the root and it withers, and the creature shrivels. The Christian man lives only by continual derivation of life from God; and for ever and ever the secret of his being and of his blessedness is not that he has become a possessor, but that he has become a partaker, of the Divine nature. By daily increase we shall be made capable of daily increase.
II. Look, next, at the costly and sufficient means employed for the realisation of this great purpose. Promises here must necessarily, I think, be employed in the sense of fulfilment of the promises. And so we might think of all the great and wondrous words which God has spoken in the past, promises of deliverance, of forgiveness, and the like; but I believe that by these exceeding great and precious promises is meant the unspeakable gift of Gods own Son, and the gift therein and thereafter of Gods life-giving Spirit. For is not this the meaning of the central fact of Christianity, the incarnation--that the Divine becomes partaker of the human in order that the human may partake of the Divine? Contrariety vanishes; the difference between the creature and the Creator disappears.
III. Let me say, lastly, that this great text adds a human accompaniment of that Divine gift, Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Corruption is initial destruction, though of course other forms of life may come from it; destruction is complete corruption. The word means both. A man either escapes from lust and evil, or he is destroyed by it. And the root of this rotting fungus is in lust, which word, of course, is used in a much wider meaning than the fleshly sense in which we employ it in modern times. It means desire of all sorts. The root of the worlds corruption is my own and my brothers unbridled and godless desires. So there are two states--a life plunged in putridity, or a heart touched with the Divine nature. Which is it to be? It cannot be both. A man that has got the life of God, in however feeble measure, in him, will flee away from this corruption like Lot out of Sodom. And how will he flee out of it? By subduing his own desires; not by changing position, not by shirking duty, not by withdrawing himself into unwholesome isolation from men and mens ways. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
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Depravity
I. The source of a tremendous evil. Lust--of flesh, eye, and pride of life.
II. The nature of this evil.
1. Corruption of the physical nature--health damaged, disease engendered.
2. Corruption of the intellect judgment biased, mental powers enfeebled.
3. Corruption of the moral nature--heart polluted.
4. Corruption of the life--the corruption of the intellect and heart having its full development.
III. The escape from the evil.
1. From its tyrannical power and authority.
2. From its baneful effects, both in time and eternity. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv2–4 2. Grace and peace. The usual apostolic benediction. These…
2. Grace and peace. The usual apostolic benediction. These come through the knowledge, etc. Those who have learned to know God and his Son have eternal life (John 17:3). This knowledge is one that comes from fellowship with Christ.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv2–3 2. “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you in…
2. “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you in the perfect knowledge of Jesus our Lord.” This beautiful verse contains the paradoxical problem of spiritual mathematics. Conversion is addition; sanctification, subtraction; the filling of the Holy Ghost, multiplication; and soul-saving benefaction, division. We do not teach four works of grace in salvation, but only two, as in arithmetic. Multiplication is but a rapid form of addition, while division is simply a wonderfully expeditious method of subtraction. No teacher is tolerated in the public schools who does not understand the elementary rules. Well did Jesus say, “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” How deplorable to find teachers everywhere in the school of Christ, i.e., the churches, who have never so much as reached subtraction, i.e., sanctification, to say nothing of multiplication and division. Good Lord, have mercy.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv3–4 2 Peter
2 Peter
MAN SUMMONED BY GOD’S GLORY AND ENERGY
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2Pe 1:3.
‘I knew thee,’ said the idle servant in our Lord’s parable, ‘that thou wert an austere man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou hadst not strewed. I was afraid, and went and hid my talent in the earth.’ Our Lord would teach us all with that pregnant word the great truth that if once a man gets it into his head that God’s principal relation to him is to demand, and to command, you will get no work out of that man; that such a notion will paralyse all activity and cut the nerve of all service. And the converse is as true, namely, that the one thought about God, which is fruitful of all blessing, joy, spontaneous, glad activity, is the thought of Him as giving, and not of demanding, of bestowing, and not of commanding. Teach a man that he is, as the book of James has it,’the giving God,’ and let that thought soak into the man’s heart and mind, and you will get any work out of him. And only when that thought is deep in the spirit will there be true service.
Now that is the connection in which the words of my text come; for they are laid as the broad foundation of the great commandment that follows: ‘Beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge,’ and so on, all the round of the ladder by which the Apostle represents us as climbing up to God. The foundation of this injunction is--God has given you everything. You have got it to begin with, and so do you set yourselves to work, and see that you make the thing that is yours your own, and incorporate into your being and into the very substance of your soul, and work out in all the blessed activities of a Christian life, the gifts that His royal and kingly hand has bestowed upon you. Take for granted that God loves you and gives you His whole self, and work on in the fulness of His possessed gift.
That is the connection of the words before us. I take them just as they lie in our passage, dealing first of all with this question--God’s call to you and me; how it is done. Now I do not know if I can venture to indulge any remarks about Biblical criticism, but you will perhaps bear with me just for a moment whilst I say that the people who know a great deal more about such subjects than either you or I, agree with one consent that the proper way of reading this verse of my text is not as our Bible has it; ‘Him that has called us to glory and virtue,’ but ‘Him that hath called us by--by his own glory and virtue.’ Do you see the difference? In one case the language expresses the things in imitation of the Divine nature to which God summons you and me when He calls us. That is how our Bible has taken it; but the deeper thought still is the things in that Divine nature and activity itself which constitute His great summons and invitation of men to His side; and these are the two, whatever they might be, which the Apostle here describes in that rather peculiar and unusual language for Scripture, ‘Who has called us by His own glory and His own virtue.’ I venture to dwell on these two points for a moment or two.
Now, first of all, God’s glory. Threadbare and consequently vague as the expression is in the minds of a great many people who have heard it with their ears ever since they were little children, God’s glory has a very distinct and definite meaning in Scripture, and all starts, as I think, from the Old Testament use of the expression, which was the distinct specific name for the supernatural light that lay between the cherubim, and brooded over the ark on the mercy-seat. The word signifies specifically and originally the glory of God, and irradiation of a material, though supernatural, symbol of His Divine and spiritual presence. Very well, lay hold of that material picture, for God teaches us as we do our children, with pictures. Take the symbol and lift it up into the spiritual region, and it is just this: the glory of God in its deepest meaning is the irradiation and the perpetual pouring out and out and out from Himself, as the rays of the sun stream out from its great orb, pouring out from Himself the light and the perfectness and the beauty of His own self revelation. And I think we may fairly translate and paraphrase the first words of my text into this: God’s great way of summoning men to Himself is by laying out His love upon them and letting the fulness of that ineffable and uncreated light, in which is no darkness at all, stream into the else blinded and hopeless lives and hearts of men. Then the other side of the Apostle’s thought seems to me--if we will only strip it of the threadbare technicalities associated with it--as great and wonderful, God’s glory and God’s virtue. A heathenish kind of smack lingers about that word, both as applied to men and as applied to God, and so seldom found in the New Testament; but meaning here, as I venture to say, without stopping to show it--meaning here substantially the same thing that we mean by that word energy or power. You know old women in country places talk about the virtues of plants. They do not mean by this the goodness of plants, but they mean the occult powers which they suppose them able to put forth. We read in one of the gospels that our Lord Himself said at one singular period of His life that virtue had gone out of Him, meaning thereby not goodness but energy. So I think we get a sufficient equivalent to the Apostle’s meaning if for the second two words of my text we read, ‘He hath called us by the glory, the raying out of his love, and He hath called us by the activity and the energy, the power in action of His great and illustrious Spirit.’ So you see these two things, the light that streams out of an energy which is born of the streaming light. These two things are really at bottom but one, various aspects of one idea. Modern physicists tell us that all the activity in the system comes from the sun, and in the higher region all the activity comes from the sun, and there is no mightier force in the physical universe than the sunlight. Lightnings are vulgar, noisy, and limited in contrast. The all-conquering force is the light that streams out, and so says Peter in his vivid picturesque way--not meaning the mere talk of philosophy or theology--the manifestation of the glory of God is the mightiest force in the whole universe. It is not like the play of the moonbeam upon an iceberg, ineffectual, cold, merely touching the death without melting or warming it, but it rays out like the sun in the heavens, and the work done by the light is mightier than all our work. By His glory, and by the transcendent energies which reside in that illustrious manifestation of the uncreated light, God summons men to Himself. Well, if that is anything like fair exposition of the words before us, let me just ask you before I go further to stop on them for one moment. If I may venture to say so, put off your theological spectacles for a minute, and do not let us harden this thought down with any mere dogma that can be selected in the language of the creeds. Let us try and put it into words a little less hackneyed. Suppose, instead of talking about calling, you were to talk about inviting, summoning, beckoning; or I might use tenderer words still--beseeching, wooing, entreating; for all that lies in the thought. God summoning and calling, in that sense, men to Himself, by the raying out of His own perfect beauty, and the might with which the beams go forth into the darkness. Ah! is not that beautiful, dear brethren; that there is nothing more, indeed, for God to do to draw us to Himself than to let us see what He is? So perfectly fair, so sweet, so tender, so strong, so absolutely corresponding to all the necessities of our beings and the hunger of our hearts, that when we see Him we cannot choose but love Him, and that He can do nothing more to call wandering hearts back to the light and sweetness of His own heart than to show them Himself. And so from all corners of His universe, and in every activity of His hand and heart and spirit, we can hear a voice saying, ‘Son, give me thine heart.’ ‘Oh! taste and see that God is good.’ ‘Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee.’
But great and wonderful as such a thought seems to be when we look at it in the freshness which belongs to it, do you suppose that that was all that Peter was thinking about? Do you think that a wide, general, and if you leave it by itself, vague utterance like that which I have been indulging in, would give all the specific precision and fulness of the meaning of the word before us? I think not. I fancy that when this Apostle wrote these words he remembered a time long, long ago, when somebody stood by the little fishing-cobble there, and as the men were up to their knees in slush and dirt, washing their nets, said to them, ‘Follow Me.’ I think that was in Peter’s estimate God’s call to him by God’s glory and by God’s virtue. And so I pause there for a moment to say that all the lustrous pouring out of light, all that transcendent energy of active love, is not diffused nebulous through a universe; it is not even spread in that sense over all the deeds of His hand; but whilst it is everywhere, it has a focus and a centre and a fire. The fire is gathered into the Son, Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ in His manhood and in His Deity; Jesus Christ in His life, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and kingly reign. The whole creation, as this New Testament proclaims Him to us, is God’s glory and God’s virtue, whereby He draws men to Himself. I cannot stay to dwell on that thought as I should be glad to do. Let me just remind you of the two parts into which it splits itself up; and I commend it, dogmatically as I have to state it in such an audience as this--I commend it to the multitudes of young men here present. The highest form of the Divine glory is Jesus Christ, not the attributes with which men clothe the Divinity, not those abstractions which you find in books of theology. All that is but the fringe of the glory. And I tell you, dear friends, the living white light at the centre and heart of all the radiance of the flame is the light of life which is conveyed into the gentle Christ. As the Apostle John has it, ‘We beheld His glory.’ Yes, and taking and binding together the two words which people have so often treated against each other, ‘We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,’ the highest light in Him that says, ‘I am the light of the world’--very light of very light. As a much maligned document has it,’very light of very light,’ the brightness of His glory, the irradiation of His splendour, and the express image of His person. And as the light so the power. Christ the power; power in its highest, noblest form, the power of patient gentleness and Divine suffering; power in its widest sweep, ‘unto every one that believeth’; power in its most wondrous operation, ‘the power of God unto salvation.’ So I come to you, I hope, with one message on my lips and in my heart. If you want light, look to Christ. If you want to behold that unveiled face, the glory of the Lord, turn to Him, and let His sunshine smite you on the face as the light smote Stephen, and then you can say, ‘He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father.’ My brother, the highest, noblest, perfect, and, as I believe, final form in which all God’s glory, all God’s energy, are gathered together, and make their appeal to you and me, was when a Galilean peasant stood up in a little knot of forgotten Jews and said to them, and through them to you and me, ‘Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ He calls by His glory and by His virtue.
Now still further. Confining myself as before to the words as they lie here in this text, let me ask you to think, and that for a moment or two only, on the great and wondrous purpose which this Divine energy and light had in view in summoning us to itself. His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and all things that pertain to godliness. Look at that! One of the old Psalms says: ‘Gather my saints together unto me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice; assemble them all before my throne, and I will judge my people.’ Is that the last and final revelation of God’s purpose of drawing men to Him? Is that why He sends out His heralds and summons through the whole intelligent creation? Nay, something better. Not to judge, not to scourge, not to chastise, not to avenge. To give. This is the meaning of that summons that comes out through the whole earth, ‘Come up hither,’ that when we get there we may be flooded with the richness of His mercy, and that He may pour His whole soul out over us in the greatness of His gifts. This is God, and the perpetual activity summoning men to Himself that there He may bless them. He makes our hearts empty that He may fill them. He shapes us as we are that we may need Him and may recreate ourselves in Him. He says, ‘Bring all your vessels and I will fill them full.’ Now look in this part of my subject at what I may venture to call the magnificent confidence that this Peter has in the--what shall I say?--the encyclopædical--if I may use a long word--and universal character of God. All things that pertain to life, all things that pertain to godliness. And somebody says, ‘Yes, that is tautology, that is saying the same thing twice over in different language.’ Never mind, says Peter, so much the better, it will help to express the exuberant abundance and fulness. He takes a leaf out of his brother Paul’s book. He is often guilty when he speaks of God’s gifts of that same sin of tautology, as for instance, ‘Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all’--there are four of them--’all that we can ask or think.’ Yes, in all forms language is but faint and feeble, weak and poor in the presence of that great miracle of a love that passeth knowledge and that we may know the heights and depths. And so says our Apostle, ‘All things that pertain to life, all things that pertain to godliness.’ The whole circle all round, all the 360 degrees of it, God’s love will come down and lie on the top of it as it were, superimposed, so that there should not be a single gift where there is a flaw or a defect. Everything you want of life, everything you want for godliness. Yes, of course, the gift must bear some kind of proportion to the giver. You do not expect a millionaire to put down half a crown to a subscription list if he gives anything at all. And God says to you and me, ‘Come and look at My storehouses, count if you can those golden vases filled with treasure, look at those massive ingots of bullion, gaze into the vanishing distances of the infiniteness of My nature and of My possessions, and then listen to Me. I give thee Myself--Myself, that ye may be filled with all the fulness of God. All things that pertain to life, all things that pertain to godliness. But I cannot pass on from this part of my subject without venturing one more remark. It is this: I do not suppose it is too minute, verbal criticism. This great encyclopædiacal gift is represented in my text, not as a thing that you are going to get, Christian men and women, but as a thing that you have gotten. And any of you that are able to test the correctness of my assertion will see I have thought the form of language used in the original is such as to point still more specifically than in our translation, to some one definite act in the past in which all that fulness of glory and virtue of life and godliness was given to us men. Is there any doubt as to what that is? We talk sometimes as if we had to ask God to give us more. God cannot give you any more than He gave you nineteen hundred years ago. It was all in Christ. Get a very vulgar illustration which is altogether inadequate for a great many purposes, but may serve for one. Suppose some man told you that there was a thousand pounds paid to your credit at a London bank, and that you were to get the use of it as you drew cheques against it. Well, the money is there, is it not? The gift is given, and yet for all that you may be dying, and half-dead, a pauper. I was reading a book only the other day which contained a story that comes in here. An Arctic expedition, some years ago, found an ammunition chest that Commander Parry had left fifty years ago, safe under a pile of stones. The wood of the chest had not rotted yet; the provisions inside of it were perfectly sweet, and good, and eatable. There it had lain all those years. Men had died of starvation within arm’s length of it. It was there all the same. And so, if I might venture to vulgarise the great theme that I try to speak about, God has given us His Son, and in Him, all that pertains to life and all that pertains to godliness. My brother, take the things that are freely given to you of God.
And so that leads me to one last word, and it shall only be a word, in regard to what our text tells us of the way by which on our side we can yield to this Divine call, and receive this Divine fulness of gifts, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory. Through the knowledge! Yes, well there are two kinds of knowledge, are there not? There is the knowledge by which you know a book, for instance, on the subject of study, and there is the knowledge by which you know one another; and the kind of thing I mean when I say, ‘I know mathematics,’ is entirely different to what I mean when I say, ‘I know John, Thomas,’ or whoever he may be. And I venture to say that the knowledge, which is the condition of receiving the whole fulness of the glory and the whole fulness of the light, is a great deal more like the thing we mean when we talk of knowing one another than when we talk of knowing a book. That is to say, a man may have all the creeds and confessions of faith clear in his head, and yet none of the life, none of the light, none of the power, and none of the godliness. But if we know Him as our brother, know Him as our friend, our sacrifice, our Redeemer, Lord, all in all; know Him as our heaven, our righteousness, and our strength; if we know Him with the knowledge which is possession; if we know Him with the knowledge which, as the profoundest of the Apostles says, ‘hath the truth in life’; if we know Him, see then, ‘This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.’
Now, friends, my words are done. God is calling you. No, let us put it a little more definitely than that--God is calling thee. There is no speech nor language where His voice is not heard. His words are gone out to the end of the world, and have reached even thyself. He calls thee, oh! brother, sister, friend, that you and I may turn round to Him and say, ‘When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’ Amen.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv2, 4 Grace (imparted). Rom 6:1; 2Pe 3:18
grace
Grace (imparted). Rom 6:1; 2Pe 3:18
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v3 The Obligations Imposed upon the Believers by the Rich…
The Obligations Imposed upon the Believers by the Rich Promises of God.
God’s promises and the Christian virtues:
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v. 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;
v. 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.
v. 5. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge;
v. 6. and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness;
v. 7. and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.
Peter assumes from the outset that his readers are, without exception, believers, that they have all become partakers of the grace and peace of God through faith. Upon this fact he bases his entire discussion: Forasmuch as His divine power has given us all things that are necessary for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His glory and divine virtue, through which He has given to us the precious and greatest promises, that by means of these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world in lust. The apostle enumerates some of the wonderful gifts of God, as the Christians are enjoying them. It is God, whose divine power, working through the Gospel, has freely given us, donated to us, everything that serves and aids us in the new spiritual life, as it shows itself in godliness. His grace and mercy is so full and complete that there is nothing missing which might serve our spiritual needs. God presented us with all these wonderful gifts by working the saving knowledge of Himself in us, when He called us through the Gospel. The knowledge of God which the natural man possesses is at best one which makes Him fear the almighty power of the great Lord of the universe. But we have learned that God is our kind, merciful, loving Father in Christ Jesus. To this knowledge of faith God has brought us through the glory and virtue that is peculiar to Him, through His majesty as well as through His unassailable perfection, through His goodness, kindness, mercy, and grace, 2Ti 1:9; Rom 3:25-26. At the same time, and through the same perfection of His essence, God has imparted to us another gift, namely, the precious, the immeasurably great and beautiful and incomprehensible promises. His purpose in doing this was and is that He might so strengthen our faith as thereby to make us partakers of His divine nature, to give us the spiritual power to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created us. It is in this way that we are enabled to be consecrated to Him and to flee from the corruption, from the degeneration, decay, and death which is in the world and is brought about by the evil lust, by the natural deceitfulness of the human heart in consequence of sin. Thus all the benefits of conversion and sanctification are here briefly outlined, in order to give a solid foundation to the appeal which the apostle is about to make.
For since these facts are as stated, therefore Peter has every reason to continue: But for this very reason use all your diligence and exhibit in your faith virtue; and in your virtue, knowledge; in knowledge, self-control; in self-control, steadfastness; in steadfastness, godliness; in godliness, brotherly love; and in brotherly love, universal love. The apostle delineates the growth and the expansion of the Christian’s life of sanctification as a gradual, but steady progress. Because they are enjoying such wonderful gifts of God in spiritual blessings, therefore the believers will naturally contrive in every possible way, by the application of all zeal and diligence, to give evidence of the divine nature that has been recreated in them. Faith is the root from which all virtues and good works proceed as the rich fruits of spirituality. Faith will bring virtue, manly courage, and strength, that attitude of mind which will seek to please the Lord in all things. This attitude is accompanied by knowledge, understanding of that which pleases the Lord, insight, circumspection, discernment, Christian wisdom. This, in turn, is shown in the proper self-control, not a mere product of fear and slavish submission to authority, but the willing, deliberate ruling of the body and all its members, and of the mind and all its faculties, in accordance with the will of God. This cannot be a matter of mere whim or caprice, of an occasional good thought or deed, but it must be done with patient endurance and steadfastness, in spite of all temptations from within and without. This will next result in godliness, in a life which will at all times and in all conditions be pleasing to the Lord. The chief outward evidence, moreover, of godliness is brotherly love, affection toward the brethren of the same Christian congregation or community. And this love is to extend also beyond the immediate neighborhood and interests and show itself toward all men, even toward the enemies, See 1Th 3:12; Gal 6:10. What a high ideal for the Christians to hold before their eyes at all times!
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 General Information:
General Information:
Peter begins to teach the believers about living godly lives.
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for life and godliness
Here "godliness" describes the word "life." AT: "for a godly life" (See: Hendiadys)
who called us
Here the word "us" refers to Peter and his audience. (See: Inclusive "We")
Through these
Here "these" refers to "his own glory and virtue."
you might be sharers
"you might share"
the divine nature
what God is like
having escaped the corruption in the world that is caused by evil desires
Peter speaks of people not suffering from the corruption that wicked desires cause as if they were escaping from that corruption. The word "corruption" is an abstract noun that can be translated with a verbal phrase. AT: "and so that the wicked desires in this world will no longer corrupt you" (See: Metaphor and Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
divine
power
life
godly
know
God
call
glory
precious
promise
divine
corrupt
world
evil
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–4 1:3-11 An explanation of all that God has given…
1:3-11 An explanation of all that God has given us in Christ (1:3-4) forms the basis for an urgent exhortation to grow in the knowledge of Christ (1:5-11).
1:3 By his divine power, God has (literally His divine power has): The name of God does not occur in the Greek text; Peter could be referring to the divine power of “Jesus our Lord” (1:2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.