- 2 Peter
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The Second Epistle of
PETER
1
To fellow believers
1 Simon Peter, slave* That is right, “slave”—Jude (v. 1), James (1:1) and Paul (Romans 1:1) also call themselves slaves of Jesus Christ. and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained† The verb here suggests receiving something by lot or appointment; in this case the source would be God's will: this faith is something God apportioned to them. with us the same kind of faith in the righteousness‡ That is right, faith in Christ's righteousness: 1) that Jesus was righteous, not dying for any wrongdoing of His own; 2) that being intrinsically righteous He can impart His righteousness to us. of our God and Savior,§ “God and Savior” refer to a single person, the Son. Jesus Christ: 2 may grace and peace be multiplied to you* “Multiplied”—not just a little, lots. In his first letter Peter ended the salutation here, but now he fleshes out the means. through a real knowledge of God† As our genuine knowledge of God grows, so the amount or degree of grace and peace we receive also grows. and of our Lord Jesus,‡ Here the reference is to two persons, Father and Son—although the grammar could be taken to indicate a single person, in which case I would render ‘of God, even our Lord Jesus’ (or ‘Jesus our Lord’). But looking at the next verse, “His divine power” refers to the Father, because “the One who called” refers to the Son. 3 in that His divine power has granted to us all things pertaining to life and godliness, through the real knowledge of the One§ Again, we only appropriate the complete provision for “life and godliness” to the degree that we grow in our genuine knowledge of God. As Creator He made everything upon which life depends, including life itself, but our understanding of and appreciation for His provision is measured by our relationship with Him. who called us by glory and excellence,* I take it that Peter is saying that it is the glory and moral excellence of Christ that attracts us, but there is the extraordinary promise that we can share in those qualities, as he spells out in verse 4. Instead of “by glory”, perhaps 19% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘by His own glory’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). 4 through which† “Which” is plural and presumably refers back to “glory and excellence”. He has granted to us such precious and extraordinary promises, so that through these‡ The promises—but of course we have to appropriate them. you may become partakers of a divine nature,§ There is no definite article with “divine nature”; “become” indicates a process—the more like Christ we become, the more divine will our nature be. having escaped the depravity that is in the world because of lust.* At times Peter's syntax seems to be almost as convoluted as Paul's; the first four verses form a single sentence. The precise interrelationship of the dependent clauses is not transparent. The notes above give my understanding of Peter's intent. It is the inordinate desire (lust) for anything in this world that leads to depravity. The proper amount of food, drink, pleasure, money, power or whatever is a good thing. It is when people want more that they get into trouble.
Take the Truth seriously!
Our ‘entrance’ depends on us
5 So for this very reason, making every effort,† Here Peter emphasizes human responsibility, heavily. to your faith add excellence,‡ The word used here can refer to excellence in any area, but in this context the emphasis is presumably on moral excellence. and to the excellence knowledge, 6 and to the knowledge self-control, and to the self-control perseverance, and to the perseverance godliness, 7 and to the godliness brotherly affection, and to the brotherly affection love.§ Do these qualities have to be added in this sequence, or can we tackle them in any order, or even all at once? If this sequence must be followed I do not understand how it works. I believe spiritual growth moves in an upward spiral; the Holy Spirit makes the rounds of all areas, progressively increasing the level of excellence, or Christ-likeness. I take this to be the point of the “increasing” in verse 8. 8 Because with these things existing and increasing in you, it makes you to be neither useless nor unfruitful in the real knowledge* I have used “real knowledge” repeatedly because I take that to be the intent of the Text. Real knowledge of God contrasts with human ideas about God and false ‘knowledge’ furnished by demonic prophecies, visions, etc. It also contrasts with true theoretical knowledge about God—real knowledge must be experiential, as well as being true. Notice that we are supposed to be useful, to be fruitful. If we do not grow, something is definitely wrong, as verse 9 makes clear. of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is blind, being so myopic, having forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.† Peter says that someone who lacks the qualities listed in verses 5-7 has forgotten his cleansing and become myopic to the point of being practically blind. If we do not walk with God, do not study His Word, do not listen to the Holy Spirit, Satan will cheerfully take care of the rest.
10 Therefore, brothers, you should be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure,‡ As in his first letter, Peter emphasizes both divine sovereignty and human responsibility, only this verse is especially bothersome to certain theological systems. If we can make our election sure, then we can also make it unsure, or words have no meaning. Since both truths are clearly presented from cover to cover of the Bible, theological systems that emphasize only one of the two do not do justice to the Sacred Text. To emphasize only one is to hop on one foot—to walk, run and work efficiently you really need both feet. To our limited human logic the two truths appear to be incompatible, but to God's infinite logic they obviously are not. Those who are wise will bow to God's logic. for if you do these things you will never stumble.§ The verb used is ‘to stumble’, not ‘to fall’, but the tense used suggests a permanent consequence. 11 Because in this way you will be granted the abundant entrance* The Text has the definite article; I take the point to be that there will be different levels or kinds of “entrance”; some will have many rewards, others some, others none (1 Corinthians 3:15). Those who follow the orientation in these verses will receive many rewards, they will get “the abundant entrance”. (I suppose we will all agree that it is better to get in by the skin of your teeth [1 Corinthians 3:15] than not to get in at all, but would it not be better yet to have some rewards? The amount is up to us.) into the unending kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.† To participate in that “unending Kingdom” is surely worth whatever effort is required of us. The difficulty is that all such effort must be expended in faith.
Peter's death is imminent
12 So then, I will not neglect to keep reminding you about these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. 13 Yes, I think it right to stir you up by a reminder, as long as I am in this ‘tent’, 14 knowing that the shedding of my ‘tent’ is imminent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.‡ The Lord told Peter his time was up, and evidently did the same for Paul (2 Timothy 4:6). “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). A servant of God dies only at the appointed time. 15 Moreover I will take pains to provide a reminder of these things for you to have,§ Verses 12 & 13 refer to repeated reminders while he is still in his ‘tent’, which would be his own ongoing activity; so why the ‘moreover’ in verse 15? In the NKJV verse 15 reads: “Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease”. Well, how can you ‘ensure’ that someone will ‘always have a reminder’ of something? It seems clear to me that the something has to be written down; a reminder has to be in writing, to be guaranteed. So what is Peter's intention? He specifies “a reminder of these things”, so what are the ‘these things’? They are evidently the things he will discuss in this letter. But he must be referring to something more than the initial draft of the letter (or the verse becomes meaningless)—hence, multiple copies. For more on the subject of multiple copies, please see the article “Multiple Autograph Copies”, available from my website: www.prunch.org. as needed, after my exit.
The prophetic Word is trustworthy
16 Now then, we did not follow craftily devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; rather we were attentive eyewitnesses of His majesty 17 —because He received from God the Father honor and glory when that Voice* Peter never forgot that VOICE; he even coined the phrase, Magnificent Glory, to describe the source. Evidently what happened on that mountain was totally overwhelming. What happened there turned an ordinary mountain into a “holy” one. was directed to Him by the Magnificent Glory, “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am always well pleased”— 18 yes, we heard this Voice being uttered from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.† Verses 16-18 have to do with the transfiguration experience: those present had a foretaste of “the power and coming” (verse 16) of the Lord; they experienced a microcosm of the Messianic Millennial Kingdom.
19 And so we have the most reliable prophetic Word,‡ “Reliable prophetic Word” about what? About the Messianic Millennial Kingdom—the mount of transfiguration event confirmed all the OT prophecies that there would be such a Kingdom. to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place,§ In this dark world we need the light of God's Word, but when all prophecies are fulfilled and we are glorified, when we are basking in the light of the Lamb (Revelation 21:23), the prophetic Word we now know will belong to ancient history. until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;* An interesting figure of speech—I imagine that “the day dawning” and “the morning star rising” are basically synonymous, since the morning star heralds the new day. But the new day happens in our hearts; eternal life is a quality of life that we can start enjoying right now, in this world. However, Peter's use of “until” points to the future Glorious Day. 20 knowing this first, that no Prophecy of Scripture comes to be from private release;† The word rendered “release” occurs only here in the New Testament, but the basic meaning of the root is ‘to loose’ or ‘release’. With reference to a prophetic word it could refer either to its enunciation/origination or to its interpretation. Verse 21 makes clear that here it is the origination. False or fake prophecies derive from the will of the ‘prophet’ (or demonic influence), but true prophecy never does. 21 for no Prophecy ever came by the will of man, rather holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.‡ Here we have an impressive description of the process of Inspiration.

- 2 Peter
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*1:1 That is right, “slave”—Jude (v. 1), James (1:1) and Paul (Romans 1:1) also call themselves slaves of Jesus Christ.

†1:1 The verb here suggests receiving something by lot or appointment; in this case the source would be God's will: this faith is something God apportioned to them.

‡1:1 That is right, faith in Christ's righteousness: 1) that Jesus was righteous, not dying for any wrongdoing of His own; 2) that being intrinsically righteous He can impart His righteousness to us.

§1:1 “God and Savior” refer to a single person, the Son.

*1:2 “Multiplied”—not just a little, lots. In his first letter Peter ended the salutation here, but now he fleshes out the means.

†1:2 As our genuine knowledge of God grows, so the amount or degree of grace and peace we receive also grows.

‡1:2 Here the reference is to two persons, Father and Son—although the grammar could be taken to indicate a single person, in which case I would render ‘of God, even our Lord Jesus’ (or ‘Jesus our Lord’). But looking at the next verse, “His divine power” refers to the Father, because “the One who called” refers to the Son.

§1:3 Again, we only appropriate the complete provision for “life and godliness” to the degree that we grow in our genuine knowledge of God. As Creator He made everything upon which life depends, including life itself, but our understanding of and appreciation for His provision is measured by our relationship with Him.

*1:3 I take it that Peter is saying that it is the glory and moral excellence of Christ that attracts us, but there is the extraordinary promise that we can share in those qualities, as he spells out in verse 4. Instead of “by glory”, perhaps 19% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘by His own glory’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

†1:4 “Which” is plural and presumably refers back to “glory and excellence”.

‡1:4 The promises—but of course we have to appropriate them.

§1:4 There is no definite article with “divine nature”; “become” indicates a process—the more like Christ we become, the more divine will our nature be.

*1:4 At times Peter's syntax seems to be almost as convoluted as Paul's; the first four verses form a single sentence. The precise interrelationship of the dependent clauses is not transparent. The notes above give my understanding of Peter's intent. It is the inordinate desire (lust) for anything in this world that leads to depravity. The proper amount of food, drink, pleasure, money, power or whatever is a good thing. It is when people want more that they get into trouble.

†1:5 Here Peter emphasizes human responsibility, heavily.

‡1:5 The word used here can refer to excellence in any area, but in this context the emphasis is presumably on moral excellence.

§1:7 Do these qualities have to be added in this sequence, or can we tackle them in any order, or even all at once? If this sequence must be followed I do not understand how it works. I believe spiritual growth moves in an upward spiral; the Holy Spirit makes the rounds of all areas, progressively increasing the level of excellence, or Christ-likeness. I take this to be the point of the “increasing” in verse 8.

*1:8 I have used “real knowledge” repeatedly because I take that to be the intent of the Text. Real knowledge of God contrasts with human ideas about God and false ‘knowledge’ furnished by demonic prophecies, visions, etc. It also contrasts with true theoretical knowledge about God—real knowledge must be experiential, as well as being true. Notice that we are supposed to be useful, to be fruitful. If we do not grow, something is definitely wrong, as verse 9 makes clear.

†1:9 Peter says that someone who lacks the qualities listed in verses 5-7 has forgotten his cleansing and become myopic to the point of being practically blind. If we do not walk with God, do not study His Word, do not listen to the Holy Spirit, Satan will cheerfully take care of the rest.

‡1:10 As in his first letter, Peter emphasizes both divine sovereignty and human responsibility, only this verse is especially bothersome to certain theological systems. If we can make our election sure, then we can also make it unsure, or words have no meaning. Since both truths are clearly presented from cover to cover of the Bible, theological systems that emphasize only one of the two do not do justice to the Sacred Text. To emphasize only one is to hop on one foot—to walk, run and work efficiently you really need both feet. To our limited human logic the two truths appear to be incompatible, but to God's infinite logic they obviously are not. Those who are wise will bow to God's logic.

§1:10 The verb used is ‘to stumble’, not ‘to fall’, but the tense used suggests a permanent consequence.

*1:11 The Text has the definite article; I take the point to be that there will be different levels or kinds of “entrance”; some will have many rewards, others some, others none (1 Corinthians 3:15). Those who follow the orientation in these verses will receive many rewards, they will get “the abundant entrance”. (I suppose we will all agree that it is better to get in by the skin of your teeth [1 Corinthians 3:15] than not to get in at all, but would it not be better yet to have some rewards? The amount is up to us.)

†1:11 To participate in that “unending Kingdom” is surely worth whatever effort is required of us. The difficulty is that all such effort must be expended in faith.

‡1:14 The Lord told Peter his time was up, and evidently did the same for Paul (2 Timothy 4:6). “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). A servant of God dies only at the appointed time.

§1:15 Verses 12 & 13 refer to repeated reminders while he is still in his ‘tent’, which would be his own ongoing activity; so why the ‘moreover’ in verse 15? In the NKJV verse 15 reads: “Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease”. Well, how can you ‘ensure’ that someone will ‘always have a reminder’ of something? It seems clear to me that the something has to be written down; a reminder has to be in writing, to be guaranteed. So what is Peter's intention? He specifies “a reminder of these things”, so what are the ‘these things’? They are evidently the things he will discuss in this letter. But he must be referring to something more than the initial draft of the letter (or the verse becomes meaningless)—hence, multiple copies. For more on the subject of multiple copies, please see the article “Multiple Autograph Copies”, available from my website: www.prunch.org.

*1:17 Peter never forgot that VOICE; he even coined the phrase, Magnificent Glory, to describe the source. Evidently what happened on that mountain was totally overwhelming. What happened there turned an ordinary mountain into a “holy” one.

†1:18 Verses 16-18 have to do with the transfiguration experience: those present had a foretaste of “the power and coming” (verse 16) of the Lord; they experienced a microcosm of the Messianic Millennial Kingdom.

‡1:19 “Reliable prophetic Word” about what? About the Messianic Millennial Kingdom—the mount of transfiguration event confirmed all the OT prophecies that there would be such a Kingdom.

§1:19 In this dark world we need the light of God's Word, but when all prophecies are fulfilled and we are glorified, when we are basking in the light of the Lamb (Revelation 21:23), the prophetic Word we now know will belong to ancient history.

*1:19 An interesting figure of speech—I imagine that “the day dawning” and “the morning star rising” are basically synonymous, since the morning star heralds the new day. But the new day happens in our hearts; eternal life is a quality of life that we can start enjoying right now, in this world. However, Peter's use of “until” points to the future Glorious Day.

†1:20 The word rendered “release” occurs only here in the New Testament, but the basic meaning of the root is ‘to loose’ or ‘release’. With reference to a prophetic word it could refer either to its enunciation/origination or to its interpretation. Verse 21 makes clear that here it is the origination. False or fake prophecies derive from the will of the ‘prophet’ (or demonic influence), but true prophecy never does.

‡1:21 Here we have an impressive description of the process of Inspiration.

© 2016 Wilbur N. Pickering, ThM, PhD