Bible Truth #357 - 2 Peter 1:1-11

2 Peter 1:1-11

1  Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

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

3  seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

4  For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

5  Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,

6  and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,

7  and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

8  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9  For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

10  Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

11  for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

Verse one identifies the author and those to whom he is writing - those who have received the same kind of faith that the apostles received, i.e. saving faith. This faith is not the kind of faith that man could acquire or earn because of his desire or actions like accepting Jesus or calling out to God to be saved. These are works, and a man is not saved because of anything he does (2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:5) whether the Arminian wants to classify these human efforts “works” or not. Saving faith is received by His Elect solely by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Verse 3 states His Divine power has granted to us... who? Us, His Elect, those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), not them, those not chosen. Throughout the remainder of these verses you can look at how many times Peter uses the words representative of personal pronouns.

...granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him... the true knowledge of Him. Not the knowledge that the world wants to impart and not the knowledge of God gained through tradition or emotion, any knowledge that is NOT found in His Word. God, through the pen of Peter, is writing of knowledge that is unadulterated and pure, taken straight from His Word, not read into His Word.

...who called us by His own glory and excellence. As I have in so many other Bible Truths, I would like to point out Christians are called by God. Every man is not called (1 Corinthians 1:26), man is not involved whatsoever in the salvation process. Those whom God calls, He also justifies and glorifies, no ifs, ands, or buts. (Romans 8:29-30)

Now for the verse I was led to write about in this passage, verse 10. Some seize this verse and use it to support their idea that Christians can lose their salvation, or that we can actually gain our salvation by behavior. Peter is not writing as to how we should live so that we can make our salvation sure, as if we maintain our salvation - he is writing as to how we should live so as to make it certain in the minds of our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are saved, that we are among God’s Elect.

Does that guarantee if a man displays the characteristics Peter outlined in verses 5-8 that he’s saved? Of course not. But it’s almost a “sure thing” that if he ISN’T living as Peter described, he ISN’T saved.