Spiritual Perspective Series

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

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, in order that by them you might 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.

The first four verses of 2 Peter 1 are about what God does. The next three are about what we do. Then the last four are an explanation and exhortation of the results of putting all this together.

For a simple fisherman, Peter had a way with words. We know that this is inspired by the Holy Spirit, but it also reflects Peter’s thoughts and style of communication and I don’t know about you but I find it very impressive.

This whole piece is a jewel, and especially that first section in verses 1-4.

Just look at it again… It’s all about what God does for us. 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, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Bear with me as I pick out the key words here. Faith, righteousness, grace, peace, knowledge of God, His divine power, everything… life and godliness, glory and excellence, precious and magnificent promises, partakers of divine nature, escaped corruption.

There’s a year’s worth of sermons right here in these four verses.

Peter has piled up a high and holy line of heavenly presents here. It’s like a Christian’s shower. A host of Christian supplies hand delivered by the Lord to the door of your heart! And when I read this I can’t help but think of the different reactions such a resource stirs in the hearts of those that hear this.

If you are not a Christian and do not have heavenly interests as the top priority of your life, then Peter’s words here will appear bland and tasteless. One man’s treasure is another man’s trash! A person who has no taste for heavenly things would see what Peter says here as boring and insignificant religious words. Paul describes this well in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2 when he shows how the wisdom of God appears as foolishness to the worldly minded. The spiritual minded Christian thrills over the things of God, but the unspiritual minded has neither understanding nor desire for these things.

Let me illustrate: When I was 16 years old, I came to grips with my deep need to follow Jesus Christ faithfully. Up until that time I had always gone to church. My family never missed any services of the church. But I had friends in the neighborhood and from school who had no interest whatever in spiritual matters of the Christian faith. Church was a requirement, not a delight. We went because we had to. I had been baptized when I was 12 because I knew that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that if he returned and I was in sin I would go to hell. I knew God made me and the Bible was His word and that there was a heaven and a hell and that Jesus death on the cross had made it possible for all to have forgiveness of sins and be saved if they believed and obeyed the gospel. I knew the basics, but what I needed was a relationship with Jesus beyond that of simply one who could deliver me from sin and hell.