Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
IN the salutation of this second letter the Apostle describes himself in fuller form than in the first: "Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ." Some have seen in this description a testamentary character, as though the Epistle contained his parting counsels. The words form an epitome of his whole life. As Simon, son of Jonas, he lived his life in Judaism until Christ’s call summoned him to be a fisher of men. "Peter" is the Christ-given name, which marked an advance in spiritual illumination, an advance that fitted him to be one of the chief heralds of God manifest in the flesh. As a servant (or rather, bondservant) of Jesus Christ, he stands on the same level with those to whom he writes, though the service to which he has been called may be in character different from theirs. Jesus had said to the Twelve, and through them to the whole body of believers, "One is your Master, even the Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant". {Matthew 23:10-11} And here comes forward that other aspect of Christian service. The servants of Christ are, for His sake, servants to all the brotherhood. {2 Corinthians 4:5} As an apostle he speaks with authority, an authority greater than can be possessed by any future age. The solemn character of the office is stamped by Christ’s words, "As My Father sent Me, even so send I you"; and the Churches are reminded, as they think of the apostolic office, that the Lord who commissioned the Twelve to be His servants said, "He that heareth you heareth Me, and He that despiseth you despiseth Me."
St. Peter does not, as in his former letter, name the Churches to which he is writing; but afterwards {2 Peter 3:1} he states that this is his second letter to them. We may therefore conclude that the same persons are addressed as before. Here he speaks of them as "them that have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ." Some have thought that here the Apostle’s words are specially addressed to those among the converts who had been won from heathendom, and now were made partakers of the same faith with himself and others who, like him, had been born Jews, and so heirs in part to God’s precious promises. But, as he has just made mention of his apostolic office, it seems easier to refer "us" to the Apostles. If this be the sense, then-though in the allusion to his office and authority they must have recognized the points wherein his communing with Christ had made him to differ from them-these words set forward that aspect of the Christian life wherein all the faithful are equal. The graces, gifts, and opportunities which God bestows are according to men’s power to improve them; but faith, in its saving efficacy and preciousness, is the same for every believer. And when he speaks of this faith as being in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, we see that he is thinking of righteousness in that sense in which he uses the word afterwards in this Epistle: {2 Peter 3:13} as that perfect righteousness which belongs to the new heavens and the new earth, and hence to God Himself.
To this righteousness each "stranger and sojourner" in the world is striving to attain by faith, and by each exercise thereof he is raised nearer to his lofty aim. His faith, like the patriarch’s of old, is counted unto him for righteousness. The fruit of each man’s faith will be ισοτιμος -"alike precious"-when the journey is ended. For it will be salvation in the presence of the perfect righteousness. As in the Savior’s parable the welcome was the same to him who had rightly used his two talents as to him who had done the like with five, so each faithful servant of Christ, working righteousness according to his power here, shall be called up into the joy of his Lord. For the joys of heaven all will not have the same capacity; but for each, according to his power to receive it, there will be fullness of joy. Nor should the word "obtained" pass unnoticed. It is the word used of Judas, {Acts 1:17} who obtained part of the apostolic ministry on the call of Jesus. So here, too, the call into the faith is of God; and it is when men obey it that they progress in Divine graces and go forward unto righteousness.
"Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." The first words are the same with the Apostle’s prayer in the opening of the First Epistle. And to no stage of the Christian life can such a wish be inappropriate. To grow in grace, and so in peace, is the Christian’s daily bread; and the thought of this seems to be uppermost in St. Peter’s mind in this letter, that thus the falling away, to which he sees the converts are likely to be exposed, may be counteracted. The danger was arising from the boastful parade of a knowledge (γνωσις) falsely so called. {1 Timothy 6:20} Before this letter was written teachers had risen within the Church who professed to have a deeper and more mysterious interpretation of the doctrines of the Gospel. This esoteric enlightenment they specially named "knowledge," and led men astray by profitless inquiries concerning the absolute nature of God and the manner of His communication with the world. To this teaching St. Paul is referring when he speaks of "foolish questions" and "endless genealogies," and it is this which St. Peter rebukes so vehemently in the next chapter of this letter. As an antidote for the poison, he urges the converts to seek after a true and full knowledge (επιγνωσις) of the Father and the Son. No single word can adequately represent this term, which became the watchword of all the Christian teachers. It is that knowledge of the truth which St. Paul so often commends to Timothy {1 Timothy 2:42 Timothy 3:7} and speaks of as that acknowledging of the truth, allowing it to be effective on the life, which follows repentance; {2 Timothy 2:25} it is specially the knowledge of God and of things Divine; it is that knowledge which must temper religious zeal {Romans 10:2} that it may be effective; it is the knowledge against which if a man sin {Hebrews 10:26} he is verily reprobate. And this true knowledge can only come of faithful service. He shall know the Lord who loves to do His will. Do the works, and ye shall know of the doctrine.
"Seeing that His Divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." The work, though great, becomes not impossible; the dangers and difficulties, though abundant, are not insurmountable. For it is not on us that the victory depends. God hath begotten us again unto a lively hope through Christ’s resurrection; and Christ has promised to be with His servants all the days, even unto the end of the world. There is a free gift of Divine power for all our needs, everything to foster the spiritual life and to guide into the way of holiness. Wisdom will be given that we may understand God’s will and choose aright, strength to persevere in the midst of trial, boldness to make confession of the Lord before men, and watchfulness lest we, as did the teachers of error, wax overconfident. All things are granted; all things may be ours.
"Through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue." Here the same full knowledge (επιγνωσις) of which the Apostle has just been speaking is to become the channel of all our blessings: to know God, who has made Himself to be known through Christ Jesus. God’s glory and virtue-that is, His Divine power-have been manifested in Him. The disciples beheld them in Christ’s miracles. "This beginning of His signs did Jesus, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed on Him," {John 2:2} and of His whole life St. John says, "We beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father. He dwelt among us full of grace and truth". {John 1:14} This is what St. Peter means by "virtue." And still in the hearts of men through the Spirit the same manifestation is given. He illumines them, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
"Whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises." In Christ God has offered men all the blessings of the new covenant: repentance; faith; justification; eternal life. He, with the Son and the Spirit, comes unto the faithful and makes His abode with them. Thus they are made members of Christ’s mystical body. He dwells in their hearts by faith; He gives them power to become sons of God; they are adopted of God, who sent His only-begotten Son into the world that they might live through Him. These are the precious promises granted, but not forced upon men, set forth in all their greatness in the life and love of Jesus; and men are invited to choose them. And the choice is made by patiently doing the will of God so far as it is revealed to each man; after that we shall receive the promises. {Hebrews 10:36}
"That through these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature." This is the Divine scheme for man’s restoration; this is the change of which St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians, {2 Corinthians 2:1-8} and which he illustrates by the glorified face of Moses. The prophet was called up into Mount Horeb, and drew near to the presence of Jehovah; the Lord spake with him face to face out of the midst of the fire, and his countenance was illumined by the eternal glory. But the radiance was bestowed on Moses alone; the people might not draw near; and the glory shed on him was transient, so that he veiled his face lest the people should mark its passing away. But since the manifestation of God in Christ all men may draw near, and be made partakers of unfading glory. It is not with Zion as with Sinai. The way is open to all, nor will the glory pass away from those who have been blessed with it. For now we all, with unveiled face, reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord, and, with progress in holiness, are transformed into the same image, as from the Lord the Spirit. Thus men become-for it is a gradual process-partakers of the Divine nature, and being drawn more near to God while they live here, are fitted through His mercy, when the last call comes, to go up higher and sit down at the marriage-supper of the Lamb, their life having been a constant putting on of the wedding garment.
"Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust." This is the victory that overcometh the world, but it is a conquest which men cannot win unaided, nay, where the truest bravery, the surest hope, is in speedy flight. Like Lot from Sodom must the Christian hasten away from the lusts of the world, casting no look behind him, nor tarrying to dally with them for a moment. For the flesh is weak, and the prince of this world is mighty in his evil domain, and, that he may lead men astray, will ofttimes transform himself into an angel of light; and within the soul of man he has his confederate powers, the cravings of this human nature, which thinks the baits of the enemy are pleasant to the eyes, and it may be they look fit to make one wise. And so in the eyes of the tempted ones, as in the eyes of the senseless bird of the Proverbs, the net seems spread in vain; in their own fancy they seem able to go on without being entangled, and Satan encourages the delusion. After that the stages are easy, but they are all down hill. Men first walk after their own lusts; then they are led by them, then obey them, and at last become their slaves. This is the corruption, the ruin, from which the Christian is aided to flee through seeking the glory of God as it is set before him in the Savior’s works and words. Drawn by these, he turns away his gaze from the world and its lusts; his eyes no longer behold vanity to love it. He has begun to learn of Jesus, and every new lesson makes him stronger in the faith; and by degrees he is enabled to bring forth into light, and bear witness to, the knowledge which he has gained of the glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ. So not he alone, but those who behold his escape and mark his growth in grace, may give God the praise, saying, "This hath God wrought," for they shall perceive that it is His work.
THE Apostle has just set forth in all their fullness the riches of Divine grace: the precious faith, followed by the bestowal of all helps toward life and godliness, and with the large promises of God to rely on for the future, promises whereby those who seek to renounce the things which are not of the Father, but of the world, may become partakers of the Divine nature. These blessings are assured, are in store, but only for those who manifest a desire to receive them. How this desire shall be shown, how it shall constantly grow stronger and be ever fulfilling, until it attain perfect fruition in Christ’s eternal kingdom, is the next instruction. "Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue." The plenteousness of the Divine bounty is proclaimed that it may evoke an earnest response from all who receive it. What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits which He hath done, and is doing, unto me? is to be the heart’s cry of the feeblest of God’s saints. For the boundless Ocean of grace asks that there should be mingled with it some drops of human duty. God will heal the bite of the serpents in the wilderness, but to gain the blessing the wounded ones, even in their suffering, must turn their eyes to the appointed symbol of healing. Christ’s power will cure ten lepers, but He first sends them away to do their little in the path of obedience: "Go, show yourselves to the priest." Thus the Apostle’s exhortation here, "Adding on your part all diligence." The diligence of which he speaks is that sort of endeavor which springs from a sense of duty: an earnest zeal and will to accomplish whatever it finds to do; that does not linger till some great work offers, but hastens to labor in the immediate present. This is the spirit in which Christian advance will be made. And the lines on which such progress will go he now describes as though each new step were evolved from, and were a natural development of, that which preceded it. The faith which the Christian holds fast is the gift of God, and it contains the germs of every grace that can follow. These the believer is to foster with diligence.
St. Peter begins his scale of graces thus: "In your faith supply virtue." Here virtue means the best development of such power as a man possesses. It may be little or great, but in its kind it is to be made excellent. And here it is that the Christian workers in every sphere must surpass others. They work from a higher motive. What they do is a constant attestation of their faith, is done as in God’s sight, and in the confidence that in every act it is possible to give Him glory. There can be no carelessness in such lives, for they are filled with a sense of responsibility, which is the first fruit of a living faith. And in St. Peter’s figurative word the believer is said to supply each grace in turn because he contributes by his careful walk to wake it into life, to make it active, and let it shine as a light before men. "And in your virtue knowledge," he continues. For, with duty rightly done, there comes illumination over the path of life: men understand more of God’s dealings, and hence bring their lives into closer harmony with His will. And we have Christ’s own assurance, "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching". {John 7:17} And the same is true not only of the Lord’s own lessons, but of all the promptings of the Spirit in men’s hearts. If they hearken to the voice which whispers, "This is the way," it will become at every stage plainer, and there will be shown to them not only the how, but the wherefore.
"And in your knowledge temperance." There is a knowledge which puffeth up, giving not humility, which is the fruit of true knowledge, but self-conceit. Of the evil effects thereof the Apostle knew much. Out of it grew extravagance in thought, and word, and action; and its mischief was threatening the infant Churches. Against it the temperance which he commends is to be the safeguard, and it is a virtue which can be manifested in all things. He who possesses it has conquered himself, and has won his way thus to stability of mind and consistency of conduct. "His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord," and so he can go forward to the Apostle’s next stage of the heavenward journey: "And in your temperance patience." This is the true sequence of spiritual self-control. Life is sure to supply for the godly man trials in abundance. But he is daily striving to die unto the world. The effort fixes his mind firmly on the Divine purposes, and lifts him above the circumstances of time. He is a pilgrim and sojourner amidst them, but is in no bondage to them, nor will he be moved, even by great afflictions, to waver in his trust. He can look on, as seeing Him that is invisible, and can persevere without being unduly cast down.
"And in your patience godliness." The mystery of godliness-that is, Godlikeness-was made known by the Incarnation. The Son of God became man, that men might through Him be made sons of God. And godliness in the present world is Christ made manifest in the lives of His servants. Toward this imitation of Christ the believer will aspire through his patience. He takes up the dross and bears it after his Master, and thus begins his discipleship, of which the communion with Christ waxes more intimate day by day. Such was the godliness of St. Paul. It was because he had followed the Lord in all that He would have him to do that the Apostle was bold to exhort the Corinthians, "Be ye imitators of me"; but he adds at once, "as I am of Christ". {1 Corinthians 11:1} And when he sends Timothy to recall his teaching to their minds he says, "He shall put you in remembrance of my ways which are in Christ." By such a walk with Christ His servants are helped forward towards the fulfillment of the two tables of the moral law, to which St. Peter alludes in his next words: "And in your godliness love of the brethren; and in your love of the brethren love." The last-named love (αγαπη) is that highest love, the love of God to men, which is set up as the grand ideal towards which His servants are constantly to press forward; but from this the love of the brethren cannot be severed; nay, it must be made the stepping-stone unto it. For, as another Apostle says, "he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, cannot love God, whom he hath not seen". {1 John 4:20} But love of the brethren is not to be narrowed, in the verse before us, or elsewhere, to love of those who are already known to the Churches as brethren in the Lord. The Gospel of Christ knows no such limits. The commission of the Master was, "Go ye forth into all the world." All mankind are to be won for Him; all are embraced in the name of brethren. For if they be not so now, it is our bounden duty to endeavor that they shall be so. And in thus interpreting we have the mind of Christ with us, who came to seek and to save them that were lost, to die for the sins of the whole world, and who found His brethren among every class who would hear His words and obey them. We have with us, too, the acts of God Himself, who would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth, and who, with impartial love, maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth His rain upon the just and the unjust, that thus even the evil and unjust may be won to own His Fatherhood. Such Divine love is the end of the commandment, {1 Timothy 1:5} and terminates the list of those graces the steps whereto St. Paul has more briefly indicated when he says the love which is most like God’s springs from a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. In this way shall men be borne upward into the hill of the Lord.
The knowledge of Christ is a lesson in which we cannot be perfected till we behold Him as He is, but yet through it from the first we receive the earnest and pledge of all that is meant by life and godliness, and the culture of the Divine gifts, will yield a rich increase of the same knowledge. "For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Men in this life can draw nearer unto this full knowledge, and the bliss of each new gain prompts to more zealous exertion. There can be no relaxation of effort, no remissness, in such a quest. For hope is fostered by the constant experience of a deepening knowledge, and receives continual pledges that the glory to be revealed is far above what is already known. The enlightened vision grows wider and ampler; and the path, which began in faith, shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The world offers other lights to its votaries, but they lead only into darkness. "For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins." He who has taken no heed to foster within him the light which is kindled by faith, and which can only be kept alive by the grace of the Divine Spirit, is blind-yea, blind indeed, for he is self-blinded. He has quenched the inward light which was of God’s free gift, and made the light within him to be darkness, a darkness, like Egypt’s, which may be felt. Such a man has no insight into the glories of the celestial vision, no joy of the widening prospect which captivates the gaze of the spiritual man. He can see only things close at hand, and is as one bowed downward to the earth, groping a dreary way, with neither hope nor exaltation at the end. For he has forgotten-nay, St. Peter’s words are stronger and very striking-ληθην λαβων-he has taken hold upon forgetfulness, made a deliberate choice of that course which obliterates all remembrance of God’s initial gift of grace to cleanse him from his old sins. Unmindful of this purification, he has admitted into the dwelling where the Spirit of God would have made a home other spirits more wicked than those first cast out. They have entered in, and dwell there. There is a marked contrast between this expression and the word used for God’s gift of faith (2 Peter 1:1). That a man receives (λαχων) as the bounty of his Lord’s love; and if treasured and used, it proves itself the light of life for this world and the next. The wrong path he chooses for himself (λαβων), and its close is the blackness of the dark.
"Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure." "Wherefore, brethren"-because such terrible blindness as this has fallen upon some, who left their first grace unimproved and allowed even the memory of it to fade away-do you give the more diligence in your religious life. The true way to banish evil is to multiply good, leaving neither room nor time for bad things to spread themselves. When the peril of such things is round about you, it is no time for relaxed effort. Your enemy never relaxes his. He is always active, seeking whom he may devour, and employs not the day only, but the night, when men sleep, to sow his tares. Let him find you ever watchful, ever diligent to hold fast and make abundant the gifts which God has already bestowed upon you. In the foreknowledge of the Father, you are elect from the foundation of the world; and your call is attested by the injunction laid upon you, "Ye shall be holy, for I am holy." Your inheritance is in store where nothing can assail it. God only asks that you should manifest a wish, a longing, for His blessings; and He will pour them richly upon you. He has made you of a loftier mould than the inanimate and irrational creation. The flower turns to the sun by a law which it cannot resist. From the Sun of righteousness men can turn away. But the Father’s will is that your eyes should be set on the hope which He offers. Then of a certainty it will be realized. Lift up your eyes to the eternal hills, for from thence your help will come. The promise is sure. Strive to keep your hope equally steadfast. For now you belong to the household of Christ; now you are through Him children of the heavenly Father; to this sonship you are elect and have been called, and to it you shall attain if you hold fast your boldness and the glorying of your hope unto the end.
"For if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble." The way will be hard, and may be long, the obstacles in your path many and rugged, heaped up by the prince of this world to bar you from advancing and make you fainthearted; but down into there a ray which shall illumine the darkness and make clear for you the steps in which you ought to tread, and the rod and staff of God’s might will support and comfort you.
"For thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." In his first words in this passage the Apostle exhorted the believers to supply something, as it were, of their own towards their spiritual advancement; but when the demand was fully understood, behold God had made ready the means for doing everything which was asked for! Within the precious faith which He bestowed was enfolded the potentiality of every other grace. There they lay, as seeds in a seed-plot. All that men were bidden to do was to give them culture. Then God’s Spirit would operate as the generous sunshine, and cause each hidden power to unfold itself in its time and bloom into beauty and strength. In this verse the Divine assistance is more clearly promised. What men bestow shall be returned unto them manifold. Do your diligence, says the Apostle, and there shall be supplied unto you from the rich stores of God all that can help you forward in your heavenward journey. The kingdom of God shall begin for you while you are passing through this present life. For it can be set up within you. It has been prepared from all eternity in heaven, and will be enjoyed in full fruition when this life is ended. But it is a state, and not a place. The entrance thereto is opened here. The believer is beckoned into it; and with enraptured soul he enjoys through faith a foretaste of the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man conceived, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. Over those joys Christ is King, but He is also the door; and those who enter through Him shall go in and out, and shall surely find pasture, even life for evermore.
UP to this point the Apostle has spoken of God’s abundant grace and the consequent duties of believers. And he has set forth these duties in the most encouraging language. He has pictured first the gift of Divine power, and the precious promises of God, whereby men may be helped to walk onward and upward; and when the labor is ended he has pointed to the door of Christ’s eternal kingdom, open to admit the saint to His everlasting rest. Now he turns to describe the duty which he feels to be laid upon himself, and faithful is he in the discharge thereof. "Strengthen thy brethren," is constantly ringing in his ears. "Wherefore," he says, "I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things." He dreads that taking hold of forgetfulness-that ληθην λαβων-of which he has spoken before, and against which constant diligence is needed. So far as in him lies, the perilous condition shall come upon none of them. The verb in the best texts expresses far more than that which is rendered in the Authorized Version, "I will not be negligent." It implies a sense of duty and the intention of fulfilling it; it bears within it, too, the thought (which is strengthened by the word "always") that there may be need for such reminding, if not from internal weakness, yet by reason of external dangers. And to bring to the mind of the Churches the gracious bounty of God in Christ, and to set down the steps whereby the graces bestowed should be fostered and increased, is a subject worthy of an Apostle, a theme which no amount of exhortation can exhaust, and one which ought to prompt the hearers to gratitude and obedience.
"Though ye know them, and are established in the truth which is with you." Knowledge of things that pertain unto godliness is barren unless it be wrought out in the life. Yet knowledge and practice do not always go hand in hand. This was one of the lessons taught by Jesus as He washed the disciples’ feet: "If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them." {John 13:17} St. Peter longs that the converts should make this blessedness their own. His life’s work is to watch for them, that they be not remiss in doing. To none can such a duty more peculiarly belong than to him who holds Christ’s special commission to feed the flock. By "the truth which is with you" the Apostle appears to be alluding to the varying degrees of advancement which there must be among the members of the Churches. All have traveled some way along the road which he has shown them; all have some of the truth within their grasp. They have set their feet on the path, though they be planted with different degrees of firmness. What is needed for each and all is to press forward, not to rest in the present, but to hasten to what lies beyond. For the truth of God is inexhaustible.
Perhaps, too, he thought, as he spake of the truth present with them, that he was of necessity absent and would soon be removed altogether, and the only way by which he could serve them was by his epistle. He could never forget that among those to whom he was writing were the Galatians, over whose falling back from the truth St. Paul had so greatly lamented: who had run well, but had fainted ere the course was over; who had received some truth to be present with them, even the faith of the crucified Jesus, but had been beguiled into letting it slip. Thought of these things shapes his words as he writes, "I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance." He rejoices that they are "established," but yet sends them an admonition. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
"And I think it right." The word marks the solemn estimate which the Apostle takes of his duty. It is a just and righteous work. Danger is abroad, and he has been made one of Christ’s shepherds. Many motives prompt him to write his words of counsel and warning. First, his love for them as his brethren, some of them, perhaps, his children in Christ. Like St. Paul, he has them in his heart. Then, he will fulfill to the utmost the charge which the Lord gave him. He is conscious, too, that opportunities for the fulfillment of his trust will soon come to an end. "As long as I am in this tabernacle," he says. It is but a frail home, the body; and with St. Peter age was drawing on. He saw that the time of his departure could not be far off, and this left no excuse for remitting his admonitions. He must be urgent so long as he can. "To stir you up by putting you in remembrance." The work of the Apostle will be thoroughly done(διεγειρειν), and be of that nature for which the Holy Ghost was promised to himself and his fellows. "He shall bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you". Thus {John 14:26} would St. Peter, like St. Paul, impart unto the converts some spiritual gift, that he, with them, may be comforted, strengthened, each by the other’s faith. So he proceeds to dwell on that Divine manifestation by which his own belief had been confirmed. And there would be memories of St. Paul’s lessons also to call to their minds, and many of these would be awakened by an appeal like this. The falling away of the Galatians had been from a different cause, but the memory of the past would warn, and might strengthen, them all in the future against their new dangers.
"Knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ signified unto me." Such a motive makes the appeal most touching. He will soon be removed. To this he looks forward without alarm. His concern is for them, not for himself. He regards his death as the stripping off of a dress: when its use is past it is parted with without regret. To him, as to his brother Apostle, to die would be gain. But he must have had constantly in mind the Master’s prophecy, "When thou art old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not". {John 21:18} And in the word "swiftly" he ‘no doubt alludes, not only to the old age in which the end would naturally come, but also to some sharp stroke by which his departure would be brought to pass. The stretching out of his hands would be a preliminary to the prison and the cross. In the Gospel it is said that Christ’s words give the sign (σημαινων) the indication, by what death he should die, The Apostle employs a stronger word (εδηλωσε) here: "made it evident." The English version renders both verbs by "signify," but St. Peter’s own expression marks how growing age had made clearer to him the manner in which his death should be accomplished. And the mention of Jesus brings vividly before him the thought of the scene he is about to describe, so vividly that some of the language of the Transfiguration scene is reproduced by him.
"Yea, I will give diligence that at every time ye may be able after my decease to call these things to remembrance." Jesus is related {Luke 9:31} to have conversed with Moses and Elias of His decease (εξοδος), which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. The word is rare in this sense, being commonly used, as in Hebrews 11:22, of the departing of the children of Israel from Egypt. But it is deeply printed in St. Peter’s mind; and he, who looks forward to drinking of his Master’s cup and dying somewhere as He died, employs the same word concerning his own end. And the word is another indication of the calm with which he can look forward to his death. As with Christ, there is no reluctance, no shrinking. The change will be but a departure, a passing from one stage to another, the putting off the worn garment of mortality to be clothed upon by the robe which is from heaven.
His letters are the only means whereby he can speak after he has been taken from them. Hence his earnestness in writing. "I will give diligence." I have urged diligence on you; I will apply the lesson to myself, and make it possible that afterwards on every occasion you may have it before you. When dead, he will yet speak to them; so that in each new trial, in each time of need, they may strengthen their faith or be warned of their danger. "At every time," he says; and thus his strengthening words of admonition are a legacy through the ages to the Church for evermore. "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables." Here the Apostle speaks in the plural number, and it may well be that he means to include St. Paul with himself and James and John. For the evidence which converted that Apostle, though not the same as that vouchsafed to St. Peter, was of the same kind. The Lord had appeared unto him in the way, had made His glory seen and felt, and fixed for ever in the Apostle’s heart the reality of His power and presence. His cry, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" came from a heart conquered and convinced. He too followed no cunningly devised fable.
By the word (σεσοφισμενοι), which is rendered "cunningly devised" we are reminded of the (σοφια) wisdom which St. Paul so earnestly disclaims in his first letter to the Corinthians. "I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom," he says; "my preaching was not in persuasive words of wisdom, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." The wisdom which he speaks is not of this world, but God’s wisdom in a mystery. {1 Corinthians 2:1-7} St. Paul also warns against giving "heed to fables, which minister questionings rather than a dispensation of God which is in faith." {1 Timothy 1:4; of. also 1 Timothy 4:7 and 2 Timothy 4:4} In another place {Titus 1:14} he calls them "Jewish fables," a name which is of the same import as the "Jewish vanities" of Ignatius, a name by which he intimates that they darken and confuse the mind. The legends of the Talmud, the subtleties of the rabbinical teaching, and the allegorizing interpretations of Philo are the delusions to which both the Apostles refer. The evidence on which they ask credence for their teaching is of another kind. "That which was from the beginning," is the testimony of another Apostle, "that which we heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life that declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us". {1 John 1:1-3} St. Peter had seen, and so had St. Paul; and they constantly appealed to, and rested their teaching on, facts and the historic reality of Christ’s life and work. "When we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the contrast to that mythic and allegorical teaching to which he has just alluded. From it men could derive neither help in the present, nor hope for the future. It generated superstition, and its followers believed a lie. Often it denied the continuity of revelation, and cast aside all the records thereof. Like theosophic dreams in every age, it was always unprofitable, nearly always pernicious. On the other hand, the teaching of Christ’s Apostles proclaimed a power which could save men from their sins, and imparted a hope that stretched out beyond the present, looking for the time when the Lord would reappear. All power Is given unto Christ. He is made Redeemer and Lord, and is to be at last the Judge of men. The assurance of His coming had been proclaimed by St. Peter in his former letter as a consolation under affliction. Faith, tried by suffering, will be found unto praise, and glory, and honor, at the revelation of Jesus Christ. {1 Peter 1:7} This is the climax of the glad tidings of the Gospel. But Christ comes to His people through all the days; and they are conscious of His coming, and inspired thereby and enabled for their work.
"But we were eye-witnesses of His majesty." He has already {1 Peter 3:22} spoken of the fact of Christ’s ascension; he is now about to describe what was seen on the holy mount. These things are facts and verities, and not fables. But yet there was more revealed in them than either eye could grasp, or tongue could tell. They were God’s truth in a mystery, which supplied new thought for a whole lifetime. So for "eye-witnesses" the Apostle uses a word akin to that which twice over he employs in the former Epistle {1 Peter 2:12} to describe ‘the effect which Christian lives, when fully scanned, shall have upon the unbeliever. They shall have power to stop the mouths of opponents and to win them to the faith which before they maligned. Such deep insight into the power, and work, and glory of Jesus was imparted to the Apostles at the Transfiguration. They were initiated into the wisdom of God, and henceforth became prophets of the Incarnation; they were convinced that the Jesus with whom they companied was very God manifest in the flesh. The voice from heaven proclaimed it; it was attested by the glorified presence of Moses and Elijah, and by the majesty which for a moment broke through the veil of Christ’s flesh. Later on they saw Him risen from the dead, beheld His ascension into glory, and heard from the angels the promise of His return. Not without much meaning does the Apostle use a special pronoun (εκεινου) as he dwells on this scene of His majesty. For he would impress on his converts the identity of that Jesus whom he had known in the flesh with the very Son of God sent down from heaven.
"For He received from God the Father honor and glory." For the bright cloud which overshadowed them on the mountain-top was the visible token of the presence of God, as of old the cloud of glory had been, where God dwelt above the cherubim; while the honor and glory of Jesus were manifested when He was proclaimed to be the very Son of God. "When there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. "To express the magnificence of the glory which he beheld, the Apostle uses a word not found elsewhere in the New Testament. The Septuagint has it to describe the splendor of Jeshurun’s God, who rideth in His "excellency" on the skies. {Deuteronomy 33:26} And it is this outward brightness of the shroud of the Godhead which tells all that human powers can receive of the majesty which it hides, just as His palace, the heavens, declares constantly the glory of God. The words spoken by the heavenly voice vary here from the records of each of the three Gospels. In one case the variation is slight, but there is no precise agreement. Had the Epistle been the work of some forger of a later age than St. Peter’s, we may rest assured that there would have been complete accord with one Evangelist or the other. There is a like diversity in the records of the words of the inscription above Christ’s cross. Substantial truth, not verbal preciseness, is what the Evangelists sought to leave to the Church; and their fidelity is proved by nothing more powerfully than by the diverse features of the Gospel narratives.
"And this voice we ourselves heard come out of heaven, when we were with Him in the holy mount." We learn here why the Apostles were taken with Jesus to witness His transfiguration. Just before that event we find {Matthew 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22} it recorded by each of the Synoptists that Jesus had begun to show unto His disciples how He must suffer and die at Jerusalem. To Peter, who, as at other times, was the mouthpiece of the rest, such a declaration was unacceptable; but at his expression of displeasure he met the rebuke, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." He, and the rest with him, felt no doubt that such a death as Jesus had spoken of would be, humanly speaking, the ruin of their hopes. What these hopes were they did not formulate, but we can learn their character from some of their questionings. Now, on the top of Tabor, these three representatives of the apostolic band behold Moses and Elias appearing in glory, and Christ glorified more than they; and the subject of which they spake was the very death of which they had so disliked to hear: the decease which He was about to accomplish (πληρουν) in Jerusalem. {Luke 9:31} The verb which the Evangelist uses tells of the fulfillment of a prescribed course, and thus St. Peter was taught, and the rest with him, to speak of that death afterwards as he does in his former letter. "Christ was verily foreordained" to this redeeming work "before the foundation of the world." They heard that He who was to die was the very Son of God. The voice came from the glory of heaven; and from henceforth their hearts were still, even Peter’s voice being less heard than before. Down from the mountain they brought much illumination, much solemn pondering. We can feel why it was that "they held their peace, and told no man in those days any of the things which they had seen"; we can feel, too, that from henceforth the scene of this vision would be the holy mount. God’s voice had been heard there attesting the Divinity of their Lord and Master; the place whereon they had thus stood was forevermore Holy Ground.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
THE rendering of the first words in this passage must be reckoned among the distinct improvements of the Revised Version. As the translation stands in the Authorized Version, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy," it conveys a sense which many must have found perplexing. The Apostle had just dwelt on the confirmation of faith, both for himself and those to whom he preached, which was ministered by the vision of the glory of Jesus and by the proclamation of His Divinity by God’s voice from heaven. Could any prophetic message vie in his estimate with the assurance of such a revelation? Now what St. Peter meant is made clear. "And we have the word of prophecy made more sure"-more sure because we have received the confirmation of all that the prophets spake dimly and in figure. The Apostle and the rest of the Jewish people had been trained in the ancient Scriptures, and gathered from them, some more and some less, light concerning God’s scheme of salvation. There were, however, but few who had attained a true insight into what was revealed. They had dwelt, as a rule, too exclusively on all that spake of the glory of the promised Redeemer and of His coming to reign and to conquer. That there should be suffering in His life, they had put out of sight, though the prophets had foretold it; and so when Christ spake of His crucifixion, soon to come to pass in Jerusalem, St. Peter exclaimed-and he had the feelings of his nation with him-"That be far from Thee." The voice on the holy mount and the words of Moses and Elias had opened their eyes to the full drift of prophetic revelation; and by the illumination of that scene of glory, where yet the lot of suffering was contemplated as near at hand, there had been given to them a grasp of the whole scope of prophecy, and their partial and distorted conception of the work of Christ was banished forever.
"Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed." The idea of a volume of New Testament Scriptures had not entered St. Peter’s mind. He knows that St. Paul’s letters {2 Peter 3:15-16} are read by some, who do not all profit by the privilege; and his own letters he intends to be an abiding admonition to the Churches. The need, too, of a record of Christ’s life and works, a gospel, must have begun to be felt. But yet he points the converts to the ancient records of Israel as a guide to direct their lives. They had heard the Gospel story from the lips of himself and others. Thus they had the key to unlock what hitherto had seemed hard to understand, and could study their prophetic volume with a new and perfect light. This he means by "ye do well." Ye go to the true source of guidance, drink of the fountain of true wisdom, and gain strength and refreshment-when it is much needed. Duly to take heed of these records is to search out their lessons and labor after that deeper sense which is enshrined beneath the word. Given as they were at various times and in various fashions, and given to point on to God’s purposes in the future, these Scriptures must needs have been dark to those who first received them, nor could the men whom God chose to deliver them have been fully conscious of all they were meant to declare as the ages rolled on and brought their fulfillment nearer. Nor are they all luminous even yet, but they grow ever more so to those who take heed.
"As unto a lamp shining in a dark place." Spite of all the light we can compass, the world will always be in one sense a dark place. It is a world of beauty, full of the tokens of God’s handiwork, the indications of His love. But evil has also made an entrance: and the trail of the serpent is evident in the sorrow, the disease, the wickedness, that abound on every side. And problems continually present themselves which even to the saints are hard to be solved. Many a psalm records the conflict which has to be passed through ere God’s ways can be reconciled to men. We must go into His house, draw near to Him, feel to the full His Fatherhood, ere our hearts can be contented. Nay, the disquiet breaks out again and again. So God, in His mercy, has provided His lamp for those who will use it; and to those who take heed it furnishes ever-new light. The history, the prophecy, the devotion, the allegory, of the holy volume are all full of illustrations of the firm purpose of redemption, of the eternal, unchanging love of Jehovah, thwarted only by the perverseness of those whom He is longing to save from their sins. And to call God’s revelation in His word a lamp is a striking and instructive figure. It is something which you can take with you, and carry into the dark places whither your lot may send you, and use its light just where and when you need it. But its light must be fed by the constant oil of diligent study, or its usefulness will not be found to the full.
And the truth is the same if we apply the lesson to nations and Churches as it is for individuals. The records were given to a nation chosen to keep the knowledge of God alive in the world. The word spoken did not profit, as it was meant to do, because it was not mixed with faith in them that heard it. And there is the same faith needed still. The light of a lamp in a dark place shines but a little way; but by the rays of the Divine lamp men are to walk, in faith that the steps beyond will become clear in their turn. And thus alone will the problems of life be really solved, the religious contentions, the social difficulties, the trials of family life, the individual doubts and fears: all are elements of darkness; all need to be illumined by the lamp which God has provided. Oh that men would burnish it by diligent heed, and keep its radiance at the full by constant seeking thereunto!
"Until the day dawn, and the day-star arise" in your hearts. They day has begun to dawn for those who will lift up their hearts to its breaking. The day-star from on high hath visited the earth in the person of Christ, but the full day will not be till He returns again. Yet His coming into the world was meant to lighten every man, and to win all men to walk in His light. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me," is His own promise. And in that decease of which He spake with Moses and Elijah. He has been lifted up. But He has left it to them that love Him to lift Him up constantly before the eyes of men, to exalt Him by their lives; and our lax performances make the progress of His drawing all men, to halt. We fail to make due use of the lamp which He has put ready to our hand, and which only needs to be grasped. The perfect day will not come to us in this life, but He gives to His faithful ones glimpses of the dawn. They learn the presence of the Sun of righteousness, though as yet they see Him only through the mists and darkness of life; and they are cheered with the certainty of the coming day. And the day-star of the Spirit is kindled in the hearts of those who ask Him to dwell there; and they are led forward into greater and greater truth, into richer and fuller light. And for the same end the Spirit is promised to the Church of Christ: that she may be enabled, having used the lamp first given with all faithfulness, to open to men the ways of God more fully, and, amid the changes of times and varying vicissitudes and needs of men and nations, to prove that the only satisfaction to the soul is the increasing knowledge of the oneness of God’s purpose and eternity of His love. To such a power she will be helped by giving heed to the lamp in every dark place and seeking in its light the elucidation of all hard questions.
"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation." The Greek words need to be taken account of before we can gather the true meaning of this clause. That which is translated "is" is much more frequently rendered "comes to pass," and bears the sense of "arises," "has its origin." "Interpretation" is the translation of a word which occurs here only in the-New Testament, and implies the "loosing" of what is complicated, the "clearing" of what is obscure. The lesson which the Apostle would give relates to the right appreciation of the Old Testament Scriptures, which contain the prophecy which he has called above "the lamp in a dark place." He intends to say something which may incline men to follow its guidance. The prophetic writings furnish us with illustrations how the problems which arose in the lives of the men of old time, both about events around them and also about the dispensations of Divine providence, found their solution. Thus they furnish rules and principles for time to come; and that men may be induced to confide in their guidance is the object of St. Peter’s words. He bids the converts know that these unravellings and clearings of the ways of God are not men’s private interpretation of what they beheld. This was not the manner in which they came to be known. They are not evolved out of human consciousness, pondering on the facts of life and the ways of God, nor are they the individual exposition of those whom God employed as His prophets. They are messages and lessons which came from one and the same impelling power, from one and the same illuminating influence, even from God Himself, and so are uniform in spirit and teaching from first to last; and He from whom and through whom they are given can say by the mouth of the last of the prophetic body, "I am Jehovah; I change not." {Malachi 3:6}
Although the Apostle uses in this Epistle the word "Scriptures" {2 Peter 3:16} for the writings of New Testament teachers, it is not likely that he in mind included them among the prophetic Scriptures of which he here speaks. We, knowing the flood of light which the Gospels and Epistles pour upon the Old Testament, can now apply his words to them, fully perceiving that they are a true continuation of the Divine enlightenment, another spring from the same heavenly fountain.
Those who would explain "interpretation" as the judgment which men now exercise in the study and application of the words of Scripture forget the force of the verb (γινεται) "comes to pass," and that the Apostle is exalting the source and origin of the words of prophecy, that he may the more enforce his lesson, "Ye do well to take heed to them."
"For no prophecy ever came by the will of man." Prophecy makes known what never could have entered into the mind or understanding of men, nor were the prophetic words that have come down to us written because men wished to publish views and imaginations of their own. Man is not the source of prophecy. That lay above and beyond the human penmen. Nay, men could not, had they so willed, have spoken of the things there written for the enlightenment of the ages. These are deep things, belonging to the foreknowledge of God alone, by whom His Son was foreknown as the Lamb without spot before the foundation of the world. Of this the book of prophecy tells from first to last: of the seed of the woman to bruise the serpent’s head; of the family from which a seed should come in whom all the earth should be blessed; of the rod to spring from the stem of Jesse; of the king who was to rule in righteousness; of the time when the kingdom of the Lord’s house should be established on the top of the mountains, and all nations should flow into it: of the day when all men should know the Lord, from the least to the greatest, when the earth should be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Such tidings came not into the thoughts of men except as they were put there from the Lord; and they tell of things yet to come that are beyond the grasp of men unless they be spiritually-minded and enlightened. For not only are the prophetic Scriptures God’s special gift: the insight into their full meaning comes also from Him. Beyond the physical sense it is true, "The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord is the Maker of them both". {Proverbs 20:12}
"But men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." The Authorized Version translates a text which had, "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." And this repetition of an adjective is after St. Peter’s manner, though the oldest manuscripts do not support it here. Compare the thrice-repeated "righteous" in the notice of Lot in the next chapter. {2 Peter 2:7-8} And the Authorized Version describes most truly the agents whom God chooses. He will have none but holy men to be the heralds of His truth. A Caiaphas may be constrained to utter His counsels, but as His prophets God takes the holy among men. These can grasp more of His teaching, and we receive more than we should through other channels. By their zeal for holiness they are brought nearer unto God, and made more receptive of the teaching of the Spirit, who Himself is holy. But "men spake from God" conveys a true idea of prophecy. Even one who was not holy could feel that the power given to him was not his own, nor could he speak after this own will. "What the Lord saith unto me, that must I speak," was the confession of Balaam, though his greed for gain prompted him to the opposite. And there are many expressions in the Old Testament which bear witness to the effective operation of God’s power, as when we read of the Spirit of the Lord coming mightily upon those whom He had chosen to do His bidding. And the same lesson is to be found in St. Peter’s words here. "Being moved" is literally "being carried." An impulse was given to them, and a power which was above their own. This is betokened, too, when the Old Testament prophets tell how the Spirit of the Lord carried them to this place or that, where a revelation was to be imparted which they should publish in His name. Thus were they moved by the Holy Ghost, and thus were they able to speak from God.
Such is St. Peter’s lesson on the nature and office of prophecy. It is an illumination to which men could not have attained by any wisdom of their own, nay, could not have framed the wish to attain unto it. For it lay hid among God’s mysteries. It is imparted from the holy God to holy men, as His mediators to the less spiritual in the world; it has received abundant confirmation through the incarnation of the Son of God, but yet it has many a lesson for mankind to ponder and seek to comprehend. It is their wisdom who follow its guidance and bear it with them as a lamp amid the dispensations of Providence, which still are not all clear, and amid the darkness which will often surround them while they live here. That men may be prompted to its use, God is a God that hideth Himself, yet through it He will lead those who follow its light along the road to immortality.
1. Simon Peter. Prayer takes the first place at the beginning of this Epistle, and then follows thanksgiving, by which he excites the Jews to gratitude, lest they should forget what great benefits they had already received from God's hand. Why he called himself the servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, we have elsewhere stated, even because no one is to be heard in the Church, except he speaks as from the mouth of Christ. But the word servant has a more general meaning, because it includes all the ministers of Christ, who sustain any public office in the Church. There was in the apostleship a higher rank of honor. He then intimates, that he was not one from the rank of ministers, but was made by the Lord an apostle, and therefore superior to them. (144)
Like precious faith. This is a commendation of the grace which God had indiscriminately shewed to all his elect people; for it was no common gift, that they had all been called to one and the same faith, since faith is the special and chief good of man. But he calls it like or equallyprecious, not that it is equal in all, but because all possess by faith the same Christ with his righteousness, and the same salvation. Though then the measure is different, that does not prevent the knowledge of God from being common to all, and the fruit which proceeds from it. Thus we have a real fellowship of faith with Peter and the Apostles.
He adds, through the righteousness of God, in order that they might know that they did not obtain faith through their own efforts or strength, but through God's favor alone. For these things stand opposed the one to the other, the righteousness of God (in the sense in which it is taken here) and the merit of man. For the efficient cause of faith is called God's righteousness for this reason, because no one is capable of conferring it on himself. So the righteousness that is to be understood, is not that which remains in God, but that which he imparts to men, as in Rom 3:22. Besides, he ascribes this righteousness in common to God and to Christ, because it flows from God, and through Christ it flows down to us. (145)
(144) Simeon, and not Simon, is the name as here given, though a few copies and the Vulg. have Simon. His name is given both ways elsewhere; see Luk 5:8, and Act 15:14. Why he called himself Peter in the first Epistle, and Simeon Peter here, does not appear. — Ed.
(145) It has been maintained by many, that the rendering of these words ought to be, “of our God and Savior Jesus Christ,” In this case the ἐν before “righteousness” would be rendered “in;” for it is more suitable to say that faith isin thanthrough the righteousness of Christ. Christ is thus called here God as well as Savior; and so he is called “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” in 2. e 3:18, the article being used in the same manner. — Ed.
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,
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.” (Mat 11:27)
3. According as his divine power. He refers to the infinite goodness of God which they had already experienced, that they might more fully understand it for the future. For he continues the course of his benevolence perpetually to the end, except when we ourselves break it off by our unbelief; for he possesses exhaustless power and an equal will to do good. Hence the Apostle justly animates the faithful to entertain good hope by the consideration of the former benefits of God. (146) For the same purpose is the amplification which he makes; for he might have spoken more simply, “As he has freely given us all things.” But by mentioning “divine power,” he rises higher, that is, that God has copiously unfolded the immense resources of his power. But the latter clause may be referred to Christ as well as to the Father, but both are suitable. It may however be more fitly applied to Christ, as though he had said, that the grace which is conveyed to us by him, is an evidence of divinity, because it could not have done by humanity.
That pertain to life and godliness, or, as to life and godliness. Some think that the present life is meant here, as godliness follows as the more excellent gift; as though by those two words Peter intended to prove how beneficent and bountiful God is towards the faithful, that he brought them to light, that he supplies them with all things necessary for the preservation of an earthly life, and that he has also renewed them to a spiritual life by adorning them with godliness. But this distinction is foreign to the mind of Peter, for as soon as he mentioned life, he immediately added godliness, which is as it were its soul; for God then truly gives us life, when he renews us unto the obedience of righteousness. So Peter does not speak here of the natural gifts of God, but only mentions those things which he confers peculiarly on his own elect above the common order of nature. (147)
That we are born men, that we are endued with reason and knowledge, that our life is supplied with necessary support, — all this is indeed from God. As however men, being perverted in their minds and ungrateful, do not regard these various things, which are called the gifts of nature, among God's benefits, the common condition of human life is not here referred to, but the peculiar endowments of the new and Spiritual life, which derive their origin from the kingdom of Christ. But since everything necessary for godliness and salvation is to be deemed among the supernatural gifts of God, let men learn to arrogate nothing to themselves, but humbly ask of God whatever they see they are wanting in, and to ascribe to him whatever good they may have. For Peter here, by attributing the whole of godliness, and all helps to salvation, to the divine power of Christ, takes them away from the common nature of men, so that he leaves to us not even the least particle of any virtue or merit.
Through the knowledge of him. He now describes the manner in which God makes us partakers of so great blessings, even by making himself known to us by the gospel. For the knowledge of God is the beginning of life and the first entrance into godliness. In short, spiritual gifts cannot be given for salvation, until, being illuminated by the doctrine of the gospel, we are led to know God. But he makes God the author of this knowledge, because we never go to him except when called. Hence the effectual cause of faith is not the perspicacity of our mind, but the calling of God. And he speaks not of the outward calling only, which is in itself ineffectual; but of the inward calling, effected by the hidden power of the Spirit when God not only sounds in our ears by the voice of man, but draws inwardly our hearts to himself by his own Spirit.
To glory and virtue, or, by his own glory and power. Some copies have ἰδία δόξὟ, “by his own glory," and it is so rendered by the old interpreter; and this reading I prefer, because the sentence seems thus to flow better For it was Peter's object expressly to ascribe the whole praise of our salvation to God, so that we may know that we owe every thing to him. And this is more clearly expressed by these words, — that he has called us by his own glory and power. However, the other reading, though more obscure, tends to the same thing; for he teaches us, that we are covered with shame, and are wholly vicious, until God clothes us with glory and adorns us with virtue. He further intimates, that the effect of calling in the elect, is to restore to them the glorious image of God, and to renew them in holiness and righteousness.
(146) The connection here is variously regarded. Our version and Calvin seem to connect this verse with the foregoing, in this sense, that the Apostle prays for the increase of grace and peace from the consideration of what God had already done, or in conformity with his previous benefits. Others, perhaps more correctly, view this verse as connected with the 5. h, and render ὡς, “Since,” and the beginning of the 5. h verse, “Do ye also for this reason, giving all diligence, add,” etc.; that is, “Since God has done so great things for you, ye also for this reason ought to be diligent in adding to your faith virtue, etc.” But ὡς and καὶ may be rendered as and so. See Act 7:51. “As his divine power... so for this reason, giving all diligence, add,” etc. — Ed.
(147) The order is according to what is common in Scripture; the chief thing is mentioned first, and then that which leads to it. — Ed.
4. Whereby are given to us. It is doubtful whether he refers only to glory and power, or to the preceding things also. The whole difficulty arises from this, — that what is here said is not suitable to the glory and virtue which God confers on us; but if we read, “by his own glory and power,” there will be no ambiguity nor perplexity. For what things have been promised to us by God, ought to be properly and justly deemed to be the effects of his power and glory. (148)
At the same time the copies vary here also; for some have δι ᾿ ὃν, “on account of whom;” so the reference may be to Christ. Whichsoever of the two readings you choose, still the meaning will be, that first the promises of God ought to be most highly valued; and, secondly, that they are gratuitous, because they are offered to us as gifts. And he then shews the excellency of the promises, that they make us partakers of the divine nature, than which nothing can be conceived better.
For we must consider from whence it is that God raises us up to such a height of honor. We know how abject is the condition of our nature; that God, then, should make himself ours, so that all his things should in a manner become our things, the greatness of his grace cannot be sufficiently conceived by our minds. Therefore this consideration alone ought to be abundantly sufficient to make us to renounce the world and to carry us aloft to heaven. Let us then mark, that the end of the gospel is, to render us eventually conformable to God, and, if we may so speak, to deify us.
But the word nature is not here essence but quality. The Manicheans formerly dreamt that we are a part of God, and that, after having run the race of life we shall at length revert to our original. There are also at this day fanatics who imagine that we thus pass over into the nature of God, so that his swallows up our nature. Thus they explain what Paul says, that God will be all in all (1. o 15:28,) and in the same sense they take this passage. But such a delirium as this never entered the minds of the holy Apostles; they only intended to say that when divested of all the vices of the flesh, we shall be partakers of divine and blessed immortality and glory, so as to be as it were one with God as far as our capacities will allow.
This doctrine was not altogether unknown to Plato, who everywhere defines the chief good of man to be an entire conformity to God; but as he was involved in the mists of errors, he afterwards glided off to his own inventions. But we, disregarding empty speculations, ought to be satisfied with this one thing, — that the image of God in holiness and righteousness is restored to us for this end, that we may at length be partakers of eternal life and glory as far as it will be necessary for our complete felicity.
Having escaped We have already explained that the design of the Apostle was, to set before us the dignity of the glory of heaven, to which God invites us, and thus to draw us away from the vanity of this world. Moreover, he sets the corruption of the world in opposition to the divine nature; but he shews that this corruption is not in the elements which surround us, but in our heart, because there vicious and depraved affections prevail, the fountain and root of which he points out by the word lust. Corruption, then, is thus placed in the world, that we may know that the world is in us.
(148) The received text no doubt contains the true rending. The word ἀρετὴ never means “power” either in the classics, or in the Sept. , or in the New Testament. Beza and also Schleusner, regard διὰ as expressing the final cause, to; it is also used in the sense of “for the sake of,” or, “on account of.” “Glory and virtue” are in a similar order as the previous words, “life and godliness,” and also in the same order with the concluding words of the next verse, “partakers of the divine nature,” and “escaping the corruptions of the world.” So that there is a correspondence as to the order of the words throughout the whole passage.
With respect to δι ᾿ ὦν, the rendering may be, “for the sake of which,” that is, for the purpose of leading us to “glory and virtue,”“ many and precious promises have been given; and then the conclusion of the verse states the object in other words, that we might by these promises become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the pollutions of the world. Escaping the corruption of the world is “godliness,” is “virtue;” and partaking of the divine nature is “life,” is “glory.” This complete correspondence confirms the meaning which Beza and our version give to the preposition διὰ at the end of the third verse. — Ed.
5. And besides this. As it is a work arduous and of immense labor, to put off the corruption which is in us, he bids us to strive and make every effort for this purpose. He intimates that no place is to be given in this case to sloth, and that we ought to obey God calling us, not slowly or carelessly, but that there is need of alacrity; as though he had said, “Put forth every effort, and make your exertions manifest to all.” — For this is what the participle he uses imports.
Add to your faith virtue, or, Supply to your faith virtue. He shews for what purpose the faithful were to strive, that is, that they might have faith adorned with good morals, wisdom, patience, and love. Then he intimates that faith ought not to be naked or empty, but that these are its inseparable companions. To supply to faith, is to add to faith. There is not here, however, properly a gradation as to the sense, though it appears as to the words; for love does not in order follow patience, nor does it proceed from it. Therefore the passage is to be thus simply explained, “Strive that virtue, prudence, temperance, and the things which follow, may be added to your faith.” (149)
I take virtue to mean a life honest and rightly formed; for it is not here ἐνέργεια, energy or courage, but ἀρετὴ, virtue, moral goodness. Knowledge is what is necessary for acting prudently; for after having put down a general term, he mentions some of the principal endowments of a Christian. Brotherly-kindness, φιλαδελφία, is mutual affection among the children of God. Love extends wider, because it embraces all mankind.
It may, however, be here asked, whether Peter, by assigning to us the work of supplying or adding virtue, thus far extolled the strength and power of free-will? They who seek to establish free-will in man, indeed concede to God the first place, that is, that he begins to act or work in us; but they imagine that we at the same time co-operate, and that it is thus owing to us that the movements of God are not rendered void and inefficacious. But the perpetual doctrine of Scripture is opposed to this delirious notion: for it plainly testifies, that right feelings are formed in us by God, and are rendered by him effectual. It testifies also that all our progress and perseverance are from God. Besides, it expressly declares that wisdom, love, patience, are the gifts of God and the Spirit. When, therefore, the Apostle requires these things, he by no means asserts that they are in our power, but only shews what we ought to have, and what ought to be done. And as to the godly, when conscious of their own infirmity, they find themselves deficient in their duty, nothing remains for them but to flee to God for aid and help. (150)
(149) Some, like Bishop Warburton, have very ingeniously attempted to shew that there is here a regular order and gradation; but it is not the order of cause and effect. Different things are mentioned, and what is added, has in some way or another a connection with the previous word. To faith add virtue or moral conduct; that virtue may be rightly formed, add knowledge; that knowledge may be gained, add temperance; that temperance may continue, add patience or perseverance; that perseverance may be retained, add godliness or piety, that is, prayer to God; that godliness may not be alone, add brotherly-kindness; and that brotherly kindness may he enlarged, add love to all mankind. The word added has a connection with the immediately previous word, as the way, means, or an addition. — Ed.
(150) The question of free-will does not properly belong to this passage; for the Apostle writes, not to those in their natural state, but to those whom he considered to be new creatures. The question of free-will ought to be confined to conversion, and not extended to the state of those who have been converted. The tenth article of the Church of England nearly meets the question, yet not wholly: it ascribes the will to turn most distinctly to God, and says that man cannot turn himself; but it does not expressly say whether man can resist the good-will given him, which is the very gist of the question. But it says further, that the grace of God by Christ “worketh with us when we have that good-will,” which seems certainly to imply, that the good-will first given is made thereby effectual. If there be, then, a cooperation, (as no doubt there is,) it is the cooperation, according to this Article, of the good-will first given, and not of anything in man by nature. — Ed.
8. For if these things be in you. Then, he says, you will at length prove that Christ is really known by you, if ye be endued with virtue, temperance, and the other endowments. For the knowledge of Christ is an efficacious thing and a living root, which brings forth fruit. For by saying that these things would make them neither barren nor unfruitful, he shews that all those glory, in vain and falsely, that they have the knowledge of Christ, who boast of it without love, patience, and the like gifts, as Paul also says in Eph 4:20,
“Ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off the old man,” etc.
For he means that those who possess Christ without newness of life, have never been rightly taught his doctrine.
But he would not have the faithful to be only taught patience, godliness, temperance, love; but he requires a continual progress to be made as to these endowments, and that justly, for we are as yet far off from the goal. We ought, therefore, always to make advances, so that God’s gifts may continually increase in us.
9. But he that lacketh these things. He now expresses more clearly that they who profess a naked faith are wholly without any true knowledge. He then says that they go astray like the blind in darkness, because they do not see the right way which is shewn to us by the light of the gospel. (151) This he also confirms by adding this reason, because such have forgotten that through the benefit of Christ they had been cleansed from sin, and yet this is the beginning of our Christianity. It then follows, that those who do not strive for a pure and holy life, do not understand even the first rudiments of faith.
But Peter takes this for granted, that they who were still rolling in the filth of the flesh had forgotten their own purgation. For the blood of Christ has not become a washing bath to us, that it may be fouled by our filth. He, therefore, calls them old sins, by which he means, that our life ought to be otherwise formed, because we have been cleansed from our sins; not that any one can be pure from every sin while he lives in this world, or that the cleansing we obtain through Christ consists of pardon only, but that we ought to differ from the unbelieving, as God has separated us for himself. Though, then, we daily sin, and God daily forgives us, and the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins, yet sin ought not to rule in us, but the sanctification of the Spirit ought to prevail in us; for so Paul teaches us in 1. o 6:11, “And such were some of you; but ye are washed,” etc.
(151) “He is blind, (manu palpans ) stroking with the hand,” is Calvin's; the Vulgate is manu tentans , “feeling with the hand:” but the original word means, “closing the eyes,” according to the Greek grammarians, Hesychius and Suidas: “He is blind, closing his eyes.” — Ed.
10. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence. He draws this conclusion, that it is one proof that we have been really elected, and not in vain called by the Lord, if a good conscience and integrity of life correspond with our profession of faith. And he infers, that there ought to be more labor and diligence, because he had said before, that faith ought not to be barren.
Some copies have, “by good works;” but these words make no change in the sense, for they are to be understood though not expressed. (152)
He mentions calling first, though the last in order. The reason is, because election is of greater weight or importance; and it is a right arrangement of a sentence to subjoin what preponderates. The meaning then is, labor that you may have it really proved that you have not been called nor elected in vain. At the same time he speaks here of calling as the effect and evidence of election. If any one prefers to regard the two words as meaning the same thing, I do not object; for the Scripture sometimes merges the difference which exists between two terms. I have, however, stated what seems to me more probable. (153)
Now a question arises, Whether the stability of our calling and election depends on good works, for if it be so, it follows that it depends on us. But the whole Scripture teaches us, first, that God's election is founded on his eternal purpose; and secondly, that calling begins and is completed through his gratuitous goodness. The Sophists, in order to transfer what is peculiar to God's grace to ourselves, usually pervert this evidence. But their evasions may be easily refuted. For if any one thinks that calling is rendered sure by men, there is nothing absurd in that; we may however, go still farther, that every one confirms his calling by leading a holy and pious life. But it is very foolish to infer from this what the Sophists contend for; for this is a proof not taken from the cause, but on the contrary from the sign or the effect. Moreover, this does not prevent election from being gratuitous, nor does it shew that it is in our own hand or power to confirm election. For the matter stands thus, — God effectually calls whom he has preordained to life in his secret counsel before the foundation of the world; and he also carries on the perpetual course of calling through grace alone. But as he has chosen us, and calls us for this end, that we may be pure and spotless in his presence; purity of life is not improperly called the evidence and proof of election, by which the faithful may not only testify to others that they are the children of God, but also confirm themselves in this confidence, in such a manner, however, that they fix their solid foundation on something else.
At the same time, this certainty, mentioned by Peter, ought, I think, to be referred to the conscience, as though the faithful acknowledged themselves before God to be chosen and called. But I take it simply of the fact itself, that calling appears as confirmed by this very holiness of life. It may, indeed, be rendered, Labor that your calling may become certain; for the verb ποιεῖσθαι is transitive or intransitive. Still, however you may render it, the meaning is nearly the same.
The import of what is said is, that the children of God are distinguished from the reprobate by this mark, that they live a godly and a holy life, because this is the design and end of election. Hence it is evident how wickedly some vile unprincipled men prattle, when they seek to make gratuitous election an excuse for all licentiousness; as though, forsooth! we may sin with impunity, because we have been predestinated to righteousness and holiness!
For if ye do these things. Peter seems again to ascribe to the merits of works, that God furthers our salvation, and also that we continually persevere in his grace. But the explanation is obvious; for his purpose was only to shew that hypocrites have in them nothing real or solid, and that, on the contrary, they who prove their calling sure by good works, are free from the danger of falling, because sure and sufficient is the grace of God by which they are supported. Thus the certainty of our salvation by no means depends on us, as doubtless the cause of it is beyond our limits. But with regard to those who feel in themselves the efficacious working of the Spirit, Peter bids them to take courage as to the future, because the Lord has laid in them the solid foundation of a true and sure calling.
(152) There is no sufficient authority for introducing them. Besides, there is no need of them, for the word ταῦτα, “these things,” has been often previously repeated, and refers to the things mentioned in 2. e 1:5. — Ed.
(153) The order is such as we often meet with, the visible effect first, and then the cause, as in Rom 10:9; confession, the ostensible act, is mentioned first, and then faith, which precedes it. So here, calling, the effect produced, is first mentioned, and then election, the cause of it; as though he had said, “Make your calling, which has proceeded from your election, sure.” — Ed.
He explains the way or means of persevering, when he says, an entrance shall be ministered to you. The import of the words is this: “God, by ever supplying you abundantly with new graces, will lead you to his own kingdom.” And this was added, that we may know, that though we have already passed from death into life, yet it is a passage of hope; and as to the fruition of life, there remains for us yet a long journey. In the meantime we are not destitute of necessary helps. Hence Peter obviates a doubt by these words, “The Lord will abundantly supply your need, until you shall enter into his eternal kingdom.” He calls it the kingdom of Christ, because we cannot ascend to heaven except under his banner and guidance.
12. Wherefore I will not be negligent. As we seem to distrust either the memory or the attention of those whom we often remind of the same thing, the Apostle makes this modest excuse, that he ceased not to press on the attention of the faithful what was well known and fixed in their minds, because its importance and greatness required this.
“Ye do, indeed,” he says, “fully understand what the truth of the gospel is, nor have I to confirm as it were the wavering, but in a matter so great, admonitions are never superfluous; and, therefore, they ought never to be deemed vexatious.” Paul also employs a similar excuse in Rom 15:14,
“I am persuaded of you, brethren,” he says, “that ye are full of knowledge, so as to be able to admonish one another: but I have more confidently written to you, as putting you in mind.”
He calls that the present truth, into the possession of which they had already entered by a sure faith. He, then, commends their faith, in order that they might remain fixed in it more firmly.
13. Yea, I think it meet, or right. He expresses more clearly how useful and how necessary is admonition, because it is needful to arouse the faithful, for otherwise torpor will creep in from the flesh. Though, then, they might not have wanted teaching, yet he says that the goads of admonitions were useful, lest security and indulgence (as it is usually the case) should weaken what they had learned, and at length extinguish it.
He adds another cause why he was so intent on writing to them, because he knew that a short time remained for him. “I must diligently employ my time,” he says; “for the Lord has made known to me that my life in this world will not be long.”
We hence learn, that admonitions ought to be so given, that the people whom we wish to benefit may not think that wrong is done to them, and also that offenses ought to be so avoided, that yet the truth may have a free course, and exhortations may not be discontinued. Now, this moderation is to be observed towards those to whom a sharp reproof would not be suitable, but who ought on the contrary to be kindly helped, since they are inclined of themselves to do their duty. We are also taught by the example of Peter, that the shorter term of life remains to us, the more diligent ought we to be in executing our office. It is not commonly given to us to foresee our end; but they who are advanced in years, or weakened by illness, being reminded by such indications of the shortness of their life, ought to be more sedulous and diligent, so that they may in due time perform what the Lord has given them to do; nay, those who are the strongest and in the flower of their age, as they do not render to God so constant a service as it behooves them to do, ought to quicken themselves to the same care and diligence by the recollection of approaching death; lest the occasion of doing good may pass away, while they attend negligently and slothfully to their work.
At the same time, I doubt not but that it was Peter’s object to gain more authority and weight to his teaching, when he said that he would endeavor to make them to remember these things after his death, which was then nigh at hand. For when any one, shortly before he quits this life, addresses us, his words have in a manner the force and power of a testament or will, and are usually received by us with greater reverence.
14I must put off this my tabernacle. Literally the words are, “Short is the putting; away of this tabernacle.” By this mode of speaking, and afterwards by the word “departing,” he designates death, which it behooves us to notice; for we are here taught how much death differs from perdition. Besides, too much dread of death terrifies us, because we do not sufficiently consider how fading and evanescent this life is, and do not reflect on the perpetuity of future life. But what does Peter say? He declares that death is departing from this world, that we may remove elsewhere, even to the Lord. It ought not, then, to be dreadful to us, as though we were to perish when we die. He declares that it is the putting away of a tabernacle, by which we are covered only for a short time. There is, then, no reason why we should regret to be removed from it.
But there is to be understood an implied contrast between a fading tabernacle and a perpetual habitation, which Paul explains in 2Co 5:1. (154)
When he says that it had been revealed to him by Christ, he refers not to the kind of death, but to the time. But if he received the oracle at Babylon respecting his death being near, how was he crucified at Rome? It certainly appears that he died very far from Italy, except he flew in a moment over seas and lands. (155) But the Papists, in order to claim for themselves the body of Peter, make themselves Babylonians, and say that Rome is called Babylon by Peter: this shall be refuted in its proper place. What he says of remembering these things after his death, was intended to shew, that posterity ought to learn from him when dead. For the apostles had not regard only for their own age, but purposed to do us good also. Though, then, they are dead, their doctrine lives and prevails: and it is our duty to profit by their writings, as though they were manifestly present with. us.
(154) Paul, at the beginning of this chapter, compares our state in this world in a fading body with our state above after the resurrection in a glorified body, and takes no account of the intervening time between death and the resurrection. By keeping this in view, the whole passage, otherwise obscure, will appear quite clear. He speaks of being unclothed and clothed, that is, of being divested of one body, and of putting on another; and consistently with this view he speaks of not being found naked, that is, without a body as a covering. — Ed.
(155) It has been disputed, whether he refers here to what is recorded in Joh 21:18, or to a new revelation. The latter was the opinion of some of the ancient fathers; and not without reason, for in John the manner of his death is what is mentioned, but here the near approach of it, — two things wholly distinct. — Ed.
16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. It gives us much courage, when we know that we labor in a matter that is certain. Lest, then, the faithful should think that in these labors they were beating the air, he now comes to set forth the certainty of the gospel; and he denies that anything had been delivered by him but what was altogether true and indubitable: and they were encouraged to persevere, when they were sure of the prosperous issue of their calling.
In the first place, Peter indeed asserts that he had been an eyewitness; for he had himself seen with his own eyes the glory of Christ, of which he speaks. This knowledge he sets in opposition to crafty fables, such as cunning men are wont to fabricate to ensnare simple minds. The old interpreter renders the word “feigned,” (fictas ;) Erasmus, “formed by art.” It seems to me that what is subtle to deceive is meant: for the Greek word here used, σοφίζεσθαι, sometimes means this. And we know how much labor men bestow on frivolous refinements, and only that they may have some amusement. Therefore no less seriously ought our minds to be applied to know the truth which is not fallacious, and the doctrine which is not nugatory, and which discovers to us the glory of the Son of God and our own salvation. (156)
The power and the coming. No doubt he meant in these words to include the substance of the gospel, as it certainly contains nothing except Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom. But he distinctly mentions two things, — that Christ had been manifested in the flesh, — and also that power was exhibited by him. (157) Thus, then, we have the whole gospel; for we know that he, the long-promised Redeemer, came from heaven, put on our flesh, lived in the world, died and rose again; and, in the second place, we perceive the end and fruit of all these things, that is, that he might be God with us, that he might exhibit in himself a sure pledge of our adoption, that he might cleanse us from the defilement’s of the flesh by the grace of his Spirit, and consecrate us temples to God, that he might deliver us from hell, and raise us up to heaven, that he might by the sacrifice of his death make an atonement for the sins of the world, that he might reconcile us to the Father, that he might become to us the author of righteousness and of life. He who knows and understands these things, is fully acquainted with the gospel.
Were eyewitnesses, or beholders (158) We hence conclude, that they by no means serve Christ, nor are like the apostles, who presumptuously mount the pulpit to prattle of speculations unknown to themselves; for he alone is the lawful minister of Christ, who knows the truth of the doctrine which he delivers: not that all obtain certainty in the same way; for what Peter says is that he himself was present, when Christ was declared by a voice from heaven to be the Son of God. Three only were then present, but they were sufficient as witnesses; for they had through many miracles seen the glory of Christ, and had a remarkable evidence of his divinity in his resurrection. But we now obtain certainty in another way; for though Christ has not risen before our eyes, yet we know by whom his resurrection has been handed down to us. And added to this is the inward testimony of conscience, the sealing of the Spirit, which far exceeds all the evidence of the senses. But let us remember that the gospel was not at the beginning made up of vague rumors, but that the apostles were the authentic preachers of what they had seen.
(156) The verb σοφίσω, once used by Paul in 2. i 3:15, means “to make wise,” and in this sense it is used in the Sept.; and it may properly have a similar meaning here, “myths (or, fables) made wise,” or made to appear wise a trade still carried on in the world. The idea of craft and subtlety is what is given to it in the classics. — Ed.
(157) We have the same order as in several previous instances; “power” first, then “coming.” It is the peculiar style of Scripture. — Ed.
(158) Spectators, ἐπόπται, lookers on, inspectors, surveyors — it betokens those who not only see or behold a thing, but who attentively look on. It is more emphatical than αὐτόπται, “eye-witnesses.” — Ed.
17. For he received from God the Father. He chose one memorable example out of many, even that of Christ, when, adorned with celestial glory, he conspicuously displayed his divine majesty to his three disciples. And though Peter does not relate all the circumstances, yet he sufficiently designates them when he says, that a voice came from the magnificent glory. For the meaning is, that nothing earthly was seen there, but that a celestial majesty shone on every side. We may hence conclude what those displays of greatness were which the evangelists relate. And it was necessarily thus done, in order that the authority of that voice which came might be more awful and solemn, as we see that it was done all at once by the Lord. For when he spoke to the fathers, he did not only cause his words to sound in the air, but by adding some symbols or tokens of his presence, he proved the oracles to be his.
This is my beloved Son. Peter then mentions this voice, as though it was sufficient alone, as a full evidence for the gospel, and justly so. For when Christ is acknowledged by us to be him whom the Father has sent, this is our highest wisdom. There are two parts to this sentence. When he says, “This is,” the expression is very emphatical, intimating, that he was the Messiah who had been so often promised. Whatever, then, is found in the Law and the Prophets respecting the Messiah, is declared here, by the Father, to belong to him whom he so highly commended. In the other part of the sentence, he announces Christ as his own Son, in whom his whole love dwells and centres. It hence follows that we are not otherwise loved than in him, nor ought the love of God to be sought anywhere else. It is sufficient for me now only to touch on these things by the way.
18. In the holy mount. He calls it the holy mount, for the same reason that the ground was called holy where God appeared to Moses. For wherever the Lord comes, as he is the fountain of all holiness, he makes holy all things by the odor of his presence. And by this mode of speaking we are taught, not only to receive God reverently wherever he shews himself, but also to prepare ourselves for holiness, as soon as he comes nigh us, as it was commanded the people when the law was proclaimed on Mount Sinai. And it is a general truth,
“Be ye holy, for I am holy, who dwell in the midst of you.”
(Lev 11:44.)
19. We have also. He now shews that the truth of the gospel is founded on the oracles of the prophets, lest they who embraced it should hesitate to devote themselves wholly to Christ: for they who waver cannot be otherwise than remiss in their minds. But when he says, “We have,” he refers to himself and other teachers, as well as to their disciples. The apostles had the prophets as the patrons of their doctrine; the faithful also sought from them a confirmation of the gospel. I am the more disposed to take this view, because he speaks of the whole Church, and makes himself one among others. At the same time, he refers more especially to the Jews, who were well acquainted with the doctrine of the prophets. And hence, as I think, he calls their word more sure or firmer
For they who take the comparative for a positive, that is, “more sure,” for “sure,” do not sufficiently consider the whole context. The sense also is a forced one, when it is said to be “more sure,” because God really completed what he had promised concerning his Son. For the truth of the gospel is here simply proved by a twofold testimony, — that Christ had been highly approved by the solemn declaration of God, and, then, that all the prophecies of the prophets confirmed the same thing. But it appears at first sight strange, that the word of the prophets should be said to be more sure or firmer than the voice which came from the holy mouth of God himself; for, first, the authority of God's word is the same from the beginning; and, secondly, it was more confirmed than previously by the coming of Christ. But the solution of this knot is not difficult: for here the Apostle had a regard to his own nation, who were acquainted with the prophets, and their doctrine was received without any dispute. As, then, it was not doubted by the Jews but that all the things which the prophets had taught, came from the Lord, it is no wonder that Peter said that their word was more sure. Antiquity also gains some reverence. There are, besides, some other circumstances which ought to be noticed; particularly, that no suspicion could be entertained as to those prophecies in which the kingdom of Christ had so long before been predicted.
The question, then, is not here, whether the prophets deserve more credit than the gospel; but Peter regarded only this, to shew how much deference the Jews paid to those who counted the prophets as God's faithful ministers, and had been brought up from childhood in their school. (159)
Whereunto ye do well. This passage is, indeed, attended with some more difficulty; for it may be asked, what is the day which Peter mentions? To some it seems to be the clear knowledge of Christ, when men fully acquiesce in the gospel; and the darkness they explain as existing, when they, as yet, hesitate in suspense, and the doctrine of the gospel is not received as indubitable; as though Peter praised those Jews who were searching for Christ in the Law and the Prophets, and were advancing, as by this preceding light towards Christ, the Sun of righteousness, as they were praised by Luke, who, having heard Paul preaching, searched the Scripture to know whether what he said was true. (Act 17:11)
But in this view there is, first, an inconsistency, because it thus seems that the use of the prophecies is confined to a short time, as though they would be superfluous when the gospel-light is seen. Were one to object and say, that this does not necessarily follow, because until does not always denote the end. To this I say, that in commands it cannot be otherwise taken: “Walk until you finish your course;” “Fight until you conquer.” In such expressions we doubtless see that a certain time is specified. (160) But were I to concede this point, that the reading of the prophets is not thus wholly cast aside; yet every one must see how frigid is this commendation, that the prophets are useful until Christ is revealed to us; for their teaching is necessary to us until the end of life. Secondly, we must bear in mind who they were whom Peter addressed; for he was not instructing the ignorant and novices, who were as yet in the first rudiments; but even those respecting whom he had before testified, that they had obtained the same precious faith, and were confirmed in the present truth. Surely the gross darkness of ignorance could not have been ascribed to such people. I know what some allege, that all had not made the same progress, and that here beginners who were as yet seeking Christ, are admonished.
But as it is evident from the context, that the words were addressed to the same persons, the passage must necessarily be applied to the faithful who had already known Christ, and had become partakers of the true light. I therefore extend this darkness, mentioned by Peter, to the whole course of life, and the day, I consider will then shine on us when we shall see face to face, what we now see through a glass darkly. Christ, the Sun of righteousness, indeed, shines forth in the gospel; but the darkness of death will always, in part, possess our minds, until we shall be brought out of the prison of the flesh, and be translated into heaven. This, then, will be the brightness of day, when no clouds or mists of ignorance shall intercept the bright shining of the Sun.
And doubtless we are so far from a perfect day, as our faith is from perfection. It is, therefore, no wonder that the state of the present life is called darkness, since we are far distant from that knowledge to which the gospel invites us. (161)
In short, Peter reminds us that as long as we sojourn in this world, we have need of the doctrine of the prophets as a guiding light; which being extinguished, we can do nothing else but wander in darkness; for he does not disjoin the prophecies from the gospel, when he teaches us that they shine to shew us the way. His object only was to teach us that the whole course of our life ought to be guided by God's word; for otherwise we must be involved on every side in the darkness of ignorance; and the Lord does not shine on us, except when we take his word as our light.
But he does not use the comparison, light, or lamp, to intimate that the light is small and sparing, but to make these two things to correspond,--that we are without light, and can no more keep on the right way than those who go astray in a dark night; and that the Lord brings a remedy for this evil, when he lights a torch to guide us in the midst of darkness.
What he immediately adds respectingthe day star does not however seem altogether suitable to this explanation; for the real knowledge, to which we are advancing through life, cannot be called the beginning of the day. To this I reply, that different parts of the day are compared together, but the whole day in all its parts is set in opposition to that darkness, which would wholly overspread all our faculties, were not the Lord to come to our help by the light of his word.
This is a remarkable passage: we learn from it how God guides us. The Papists have ever and anon in their mouth, that the Church cannot err. Though the word is neglected, they yet imagine that it is guided by the Spirit. But Peter, on the contrary, intimates that all are immersed in darkness who do not attend to the light of the word. Therefore, except thou art resolved wilfully to cast thyself into a labyrinth, especially beware of departing even in the least thing from the rule and direction of the word. Nay, the Church cannot follow God as its guide, except it observes what the word prescribes.
In this passage Peter also condemns all the wisdom of men, in order that we may learn humbly to seek, otherwise than by our own understanding, the true way of knowledge; for without the word nothing is left for men but darkness.
It further deserves to be noticed, that he pronounces on the clearness of Scripture; for what is said would be a false eulogy, were not the Scripture fit and suitable to shew to us with certainty the right way. Whosoever, then, will open his eyes through the obedience of faith, shall by experience know that the Scripture has not been in vain called a light. It is, indeed, obscure to the unbelieving; but they who are given up to destruction are wilfully blind. Execrable, therefore, is the blasphemy of the Papists, who pretend that the light of Scripture does nothing but dazzle the eyes, in order to keep the simple from reading it. But it is no wonder that proud men, inflated with the wind of false confidence, do not see that light with which the Lord favors only little children and the humble. With a similar eulogy David commends the law of God in Psa 19:1.
(159) Much has been written on this subject; and the difficulty has arisen from a wrong construction of the passage, which is literally as follows: — “And we have more firm the prophetic word,” Καὶ ἔχομεν βεβαιότερον τὸν προφητικὸν λόγον, that is, we have rendered more firm the prophetic word. This is confirmed by what follows; for the prophetic word is compared to “a light shining in a dark place,” and, therefore, not clear nor firm until it be fulfilled; but they were doing well to attend to this light until the full light of the gospel shone in their hearts. AsScott maintains, the reference here is clearly to the experience of Christians to their real knowledge of divine truths; for it was to be in their hearts, and not before their eyes
A great deal of learning has been spent to no purpose on this passage. It has been by most taken as granted, that “the power and coming of our Lord,” mentioned in verse 16. h, is his second coming, when the whole passage refers only and expressly to his first coming. And on this gratuitous and even false supposition is grounded the elaborate exposition of Sherlock, Horsley, and others. — Ed.
(160) There is no command here: the Apostle only approves of what they were doing, “whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.” — Ed.
(161) The Apostle does not speak of the perfect day, but of the dawn of it, and the daystar is that which ushers in the perfect day. The gospel is the dawn and the daystar, compared with the glimmering light of prophecy, and compared too with the perfect day of the heavenly kingdom. Prophecy is useful still; for its fulfillment, found in the gospel, greatly strengthens faith. — Ed.
20. Knowing this first. Here Peter begins to shew how our minds are to be prepared, if we really wish to make progress in scriptural knowledge. There may at the same time be two interpretations given, if you read ἐπηλύσεως as some do, which means occurrence, impulse; or, as I have rendered it, interpretation, ἐπιλύσεως. But almost all give this meaning, that we ought not to rush on headlong and rashly when we read Scripture, confiding in our own understanding. They think that a confirmation of this follows, because the Spirit, who spoke by the prophets, is the only true interpreter of himself.
This explanation contains a true, godly, and useful doctrine, that then only are the prophecies read profitably, when we renounce the mind and feelings of the flesh, and submit to the teaching of the Spirit, but that it is an impious profanation of it; when we arrogantly rely on our own acumen, deeming that sufficient to enable us to understand it, though the mysteries contain things hidden to our flesh, and sublime treasures of life far surpassing our capacities. And this is what we have said, that the light which shines in it, comes to the humble alone.
But the Papists are doubly foolish, when they conclude from this passage, that no interpretation of a private man ought to be deemed authoritative. For they pervert what Peter says, that they may claim for their own councils the chief right of interpreting Scripture; but in this they act indeed childishly; for Peter calls interpretation private, not that of every individual, in order to prohibit each one to interpret; but he shews that whatever men bring of their own is profane. Were, then, the whole world unanimous, and were the minds of all men united together, still what would proceed from them, would be private or their own; for the word is here set in opposition to divine revelation; so that the faithful, inwardly illuminated by the Holy Spirit, acknowledge nothing but what God says in his word.
However, another sense seems to me more simple, that Peter says that Scripture came not from man, or through the suggestions of man. For thou wilt never come well prepared to read it, except thou bringest reverence, obedience, and docility; but a just reverence then only exists when we are convinced that God speaks to us, and not mortal men. Then Peter especially bids us to believe the prophecies as the indubitable oracles of God, because they have not emanated from men's own private suggestions. (162)
To the same purpose is what immediately follows, —
(162) There are in the main three renderings of this passage: — l. “No Prophecy of Scripture is of a private impulse,” or invention; — 2. “No prophecy of Scripture is of self-interpretation,” that is, is its own interpreter; — 3. No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation, that is, is not to be interpreted according to the fancies of men, but according to the word of God and the guidance of his Spirit. Now which of these corresponds with the context? Clearly the first, the two others have nothing in the passage to countenance them. The next verse is evidently explanatory of this sentence, which seems at once to determine its meaning; and, as it is often the case in Scripture, the explanation is given negatively and positively. Prophecy did not come from the will of man; it did come from the Spirit of God. Besides, the importance attached to the announcement, “knowing this especially,” is not so clearly borne out as by the first exposition, because the fact that prophecy did not come from man, is everything in the question, while the other expositions contain only things of subordinate importance. Thus what goes before and comes after tends to confirm the same view.
Whether we take the conjectural reading (which only differs from the other in one small letter) or that which is found in all the MSS., it may admit of the meaning that has been given. There is either an ἐκ, “from,” understood, or the word prophecy is to be repeated: “No prophecy of Scripture is from one's own explanation;” or, “No prophecy of Scripture is a prophecy of one's own explanation,” or interpretation, that is, as to things to come.
Calvin has been followed in his view of this passage, among others, by Grotius, Doddridge, and Macknight. — Ed.
But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They did not of themselves, or according to their own will, foolishly deliver their own inventions. The meaning is, that the beginning of right knowledge is to give that credit to the holy prophets which is due to God. He calls them the holy men of God, because they faithfully executed the office committed to them, having sustained the person of God in their ministrations. He says that they were — not that they were bereaved of mind, (as the Gentiles imagined their prophets to have been,) but because they dared not to announce anything of their own, and obediently followed the Spirit as their guide, who ruled in their mouth as in his own sanctuary. Understand by prophecy of Scripture that which is contained in the holy Scriptures.
2Pe 1:1. Through the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ- Through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ-through which, sinful as we are, if we believe, we obtain acceptance with the Father-even through that atonement which our Divine Redeemer has made for the justification of all that yield to be saved by grace. The order of the original words justifies the translation which I have given above. It is observable, that the order in the next verse is different, and determines it to the translation there used.
2Pe 1:2. Through the knowledge of God- By the acknowledgment of God. Doddridge. The word Επιγνωσις, doubtless, sometimes signifies acknowledgment; but as it signifies knowledge in the next verse, and in many other texts of the New Testament, it seems most proper so to understand it here.
2Pe 1:3. According as his divine power- Some would read this verse in a parenthesis, as an incidental thought, and so connect the 2nd and 4th verses. Others would connect this with the foregoing verse;-Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, in or by the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord; according as his divine power hath bestowed upon us all things pertaining, &c. But the salutation being finished in the foregoing verse, the epistle seems to begin here, and the connection to be continued from this to 2Pe 1:5. &c. For there is no reddition till you come to the beginning of 2Pe 1:5. "His divine power having given us all things pertaining to life and godliness, do you therefore, giving all diligence to this very thing, add to your faith virtue." Life and godliness are by an usual figure put for a godly life. God had given them all things pertaining to a godly life: it was not owing to any merit in them, but partly to divine grace: it was the gift of God. Whitby supposes the words to be an hendyades, and understands them of "a glorious and powerful effusion of the Spirit."
2Pe 1:4. Whereby- By means of which; namely, of the illustrious seal of the Spirit set to the declaration of the gospel. By partaking of the divine nature, we are to understand a participation of the divine holiness; or a being holy, as the Lord our God is holy; enjoying such communion with God in his holiness, as, on account of its resemblance of him, derivation from him, tendency towards him, and complacency in him, may be called a divine nature. Thus it will connect with what follows: "That you might be holy as God is holy, having escaped the corruption that is in the world, through lust; that is having renounced, and fled away, with vigour and abhorrence, from all the corrupt principles and practices, which spread and prevail amongthe men of this world, through the power of their depraved inclinations and inordinate affections to carnal things."
2Pe 1:5. And, beside this,- And for this purpose. The apostle's meaning, says Dr. Heylin, in brief is this:-"Whereas God, by giving you the knowledge of Jesus Christ, has given you the means whereby to acquire all the virtues, you must correspond on your part by exerting your utmost endeavours," &c. Faith is the foundation of all religion, and therefore deservedly mentioned first. The word 'Αρετη here translated virtue, is variously interpreted. In some Greek authors, and more especially among the poets, it signifies fortitude, and is often used for military courage; but in prose authors, and particularly among the philosophers, the word signifies virtue, that is, a right moral conduct. As our apostle wrote in a popular stile, in prose, and as a divine moralist, several have been for interpreting the word 'Αρετη here, of virtue in general, or of a wise and Christian conduct; and some have thought that he mentions the first three general duties, of faith, virtue, and knowledge, and afterwards enumeratessuchparticularvirtuesasweremost important in themselves, or nor suited to the state of the persons to whom he was writing. But the apostle seems to have designed an enumeration of several particular virtues; and therefore, as the word 'Αρετη sometimes signifies fortitude, one would so understand it in this verse. In all times and places, persons who would do their duty, have need of fortitude to encounter a variety of difficulties and discouragements: and as it was now a time of persecution, the Christians, to whom St. Peter wrote, had great occasion to add to their faith in the Christian religion,fortitude in the profession of it, that they might not betray the truth, either in their words or actions, but bravely suffer all manner of evils for the sake of Christ, if called thereto. By the word γνωσις, rendered knowledge, the best commentators understand prudence. See 1Pe 3:7. Prudence was proper to go along with fortitude, in order to prevent its degenerating into rashness and folly. Heylin renders it discretion. See Eph 5:15-16; Eph 6:10. &c. Col 4:5 and Parkhurst on the word 'Αρετη .
2Pe 1:6. Temperance- The word εγκρατεια sometimes signifies abstinence from some particular vice, and is used more especially for continence or chastity: but it commonlysignifies abstinence or moderation as to the pleasures and possessions of this life in general; and as there is no restriction of the word in this sense, we may understand it in its most extensive signification. Temperance and prudence are very fit to go hand in hand: the intemperate are commonly, if not always, imprudent. The word 'Υπομονη, which we render patience, signifies bearing the assaults of any evil, more especially of an enemy. In the New Testament it implies a meek and composed enduring of evil, in dependance upon God, and resignation to his will. Ευσεβειαν, godliness, when it is joined with other religious virtues, commonly means a reverence of God, or a fear mixed with love. So it is used 1Ti 6:11 and so it signifies here. This reverence for God is to be manifested and supported by frequent worshipping of him, and such worship produces submission and obedience. Godliness differs from superstition, just as a rational and divine love of a Being of the most perfect moral character, and a fear of offending the most wise and amiable Governor of the world, and most gracious Saviour of mankind, differs from that groundless fear, which arises from supposing that a capricious or weak, a tyrannical or malevolent Being governs the universe; an opinion which leads men to do the most ridiculous things to obtain his favour. Godliness implies our duty more immediately towards God, as temperance and patience denote our duty towards ourselves, and love and charity our duty towards other men. As to the two virtues which are here to join hand in hand, no two things could suit better; for nothing promotes patience under the evils of life, like godliness, or a frequent spiritual worshipping of God, and a steady conviction that perfect wisdom governs the world. See the next note.
2Pe 1:7. And to godliness brotherly-kindness- Or the love of the Christian brotherhood, which is often and earnestly recommended. See 1Pe 1:22. The connection between these two virtues is inseparable, (comp. 1Jn 3:17; 1Jn 4:20-21.) and indeed what can be more properly connected with the love of God, than the love of real Christians, who are formed after the image of that God who made them? He adds, And to the love of Christians,-the love of all mankind. Our first or superlative love is due to God, as the most holy, most amiable, and most beneficent Being. In the next place, we are to love real Christians, as being the most like to God. But there is also a degree of love due to all mankind, as descending all of them from one common Father: having the same human nature, being liable to the same wants and infirmities, and born for the common good. How well may these two virtues go hand in hand, or what more proper to add to the love of the Christian brethren, than the love of all mankind! The apostle begun with faith, as the foundation of all these virtues; and he ends with love, or benevolence, which is the crown or perfection of all. Brekel has attempted to shew, that here is one continued allusion to military affairs: if that be so, we may then consider the apostle as exhorting them, to their faith, or oath of fidelity, to add courage, to courage prudence, and to prudence temperance; that, being continent, sober, and vigilant, they might be always upon their guard against the enemy. To temperance they were to add patience, so as to endure hardship, like good soldiers of Jesus Christ, cheerfully sustaining all the difficulties and fatigues even of a long campaign in this glorious spiritual warfare. Sustine and abstine, "endure and abstain," were the two words under which the ancient philosophers used to comprize all moral virtue. The faithful soldier of Jesus Christ will endure every evil, and every ignominy, rather than betray the truth, act contrary to his conscience, or give up his hope in God his Saviour.
2Pe 1:8. For if these things be in you, and abound, &c.- For your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ will not be barren and fruitless, if these virtues take place and improve in you. Heylin. The words make you-neither barren nor fruitless, are, by a meiosis, put for will make you very diligent and fruitful. One grand end of our Christian knowledge andtruth is, that we may be diligent and fruitful, in works of holiness and righteousness. Tit 3:8; Tit 3:14.
2Pe 1:9. And cannot see afar off,- The word Μυωπαζων signifies literally winking, or closing the eyes against the light. The apostle having represented the professed Christian, who is destitute of the graces and virtues of the Christian life, as blind, immediately informs us what sort of blindness that is, and intimates that it is a voluntary blindness. He does not see his way, because he voluntarily shuts his eyes against the light. The Christian religion does so often and so clearly represent the absolute necessity of a holy life unto all that would be saved, and the light of the Holy Spirit is so far given or offered to every man, that whoever can read the scriptures, and does not perceive the nature of the gospel so far, as to press after acceptance with God through Jesus Christ his Son, and holiness of heart and life in consequence thereof, is indeed blind, but wilfully so: blinded by criminal prejudice, by lust, passion, or a love of vice. They must be wilfully blind, who see not that Christianity requires a holy life as necessary to eternal salvation.
2Pe 1:10-11. Wherefore the rather, &c.- The connection seems to be this: "As he who is destitute of the graces and virtues of the Christian life, is voluntarily blind; therefore, my Christian brethren, do you give the more diligence to make your calling and election firm and steadfast, by the exercise and practice of those graces and virtues which I have already enumerated: for, if youperform these things-if you live in the exercise of these graces and virtues, you shall never stumble like the blind man mentioned 2Pe 1:9 but your way shall be made plain, and a wide, smooth, and easy entrance granted you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Those Jews and Gentiles to whom the gospel was preached, were called to come and embrace it; just as all the Roman citizens were called together when it was proposed to levy an army. Then all who were capable of bearing arms were by a public summons called to the standard, and obliged thereupon to appear. Those Jews or Gentiles who under the blessing of God came with well disposed minds, and embraced the gospel, were chosen out from among the rest; and baptism was like the sacramental ormilitaryoathoffidelity;wherebythey obliged themselves to be faithful soldiers under Jesus Christ, the great Captain of their salvation. As they were not in this sense chosen till after they were called, and had embraced that call, it is evident that this text can have no reference to any decrees of God made from all eternity, concerning those particular persons to whom St. Peter is here writing. It is moreover to be observed, that they were not so called or elected; but that if they did not exercise and perform the graces and virtues here recommended, they would stumble and even fall both from their calling and election, or from the happy consequences of both; and if they had so fallen, the fault would have been their own, and not owing to God, nor to any thing in his decrees. Faith was the condition on which they were called into the Christian church, and elected to be of the number of God's people here upon earth. And they were so called and elected, with a view to their obtaining everlasting salvation: for, as Christians, they had all things pertaining to a godly life, and the best advantages for preparing for everlasting life: but the bestowing that life, even upon such as are called and elected, is suspended, upon the condition that they, according to the measure of grace given them, and the opportunities afforded them, do internally and externally exercise these graces and virtues. Otherwise, both their callingand election will prove in vain, and they will finally miss ofa happy immortality. See on 2Pe 1:7.
2Pe 1:12. Wherefore- That is, "Because in this way alone you can have an admittance into Christ's everlasting kingdom." I will not be negligent, by a common figure signifies, "I will make use of the greatest care and diligence." The present truth was, that the practice of the Christian graces and virtues was necessary to make their calling and election firm. They might indeed have said, "We know these things already." St. Peter, therefore, anticipates such an objection, answering it solidly, and by a beautiful gradation declaring that truths, known and firmly believed, should be often called to remembrance, in order to have their proper influences; and that therefore he would put them in remembrance of these things; that he would do it, not once, but always; and that not only during his life, but likewise after his decease; that is, by leaving those two epistles behind him, as their constant monitors. The teachers of the gospel, after St. Peter's example, should often repeat important truths, though well known and firmly believed; that the people may have them continually in remembrance.
2Pe 1:13. Yea, I think it meet- St. Peter accounted it δικαιον, meet, that is, becoming his character and office, as one of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, and proper for them, as professed Christians in such a situation. With great propriety and beauty, he calls his own body a tabernacle: it was not like a house, a firm fixed building, likely to stand for some ages; but a structure comparatively light and weak, and which was shortly to be taken down: like the travelling tents of the wild Arabs, easily set up and easily removed. St. Peter was then in his tabernacle; but he was going to remove; however, as long as he continued in it, he thought it proper to stir up, or rouse his converts; (διεγειρειν .) Christians should be continually excited to look forward to Christ's second coming, and to press on in all Christian experience and holyduties,bywayofpreparation for that day; since, without being frequently put in remembrance, many are apt to be drowsy, or not duly attentive to such important truths. See ch. 2Pe 3:1.
2Pe 1:14. Knowing that shortly I must put off, &c.- Knowing that the laying aside of this my tabernacle approacheth swiftly, in the manner that the Lord Jesus Christ hath made known unto me. Our Lord not only told St. Peter that he was to die a violent death, but also the manner of it: Joh 21:18-19. It is inquired, "How did St. Peter know that he was to die shortly?" Now it is generally agreed, that our Lord, in the place above quoted, foretold him that he was to die a violent death; but because there is no express mention of the exact time, some of the ancients say that St. Peter had about this period a vision, declaring to him that the time was now approaching. Others think that our Lord limited the time so far, as that it was to happen before the destruction of Jerusalem; though St. John was to survive that desolation. St. Peter, therefore, hearing, where he now was, of the calamities coming upon the Jewish nation, and learning from those signs and forerunners, that the destruction of that nation was at hand; he from thence concluded, that the time of his own martyrdom must be very speedily. This may be said with certainty,-that the Lord Jesus had told him that he should die a martyr in his old age; and his being now grown old, might help to determine the time of his martyrdom. But I have no doubt that all these evidences were also accompanied with immediate divine intimations. St. Peter wrote by the infallible inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.
2Pe 1:15. To have these things always in remembrance.- The things which they were to have always in remembrance, were, the necessity of experiencing and practising the graces and virtues of the Christian life, mentioned 2Pe 1:5. &c. and that if they did so, they should have an abundant entrance into Christ's everlasting kingdom of happiness. More important truths they could not remember; these things St. Peter had preached during his life; and he wrote these two epistles, that the Christians might remember them when he was dead. He thought writing much preferable to oral tradition, for preserving the exact knowledge and remembrance of truths of the last consequence:-and he judged well; for what have we certain from oral tradition? whereas these two epistles of St. Peter's have already continued above 1700 years, and are as able to put us in remembrance of these things, as they were the Christians at that age when they were written, and of all ages since. The note of the Rhemish annotators upon this verse is most curious; for they fancy that St. Peter had intimated to the Christians, "That his care over them should not cease by death; but that by his intercession before God,after his departure, he would do the same thing for them that he had done before in his life by teaching and preaching." Surely it is a sign of a desperate cause, and that men are put to the most wretched shifts to maintain a party or faction, when they make use of such despicable proofs! "I was of opinion, says Dr. Heylin, that probably St. Peter fulfilled this promise, not only by leaving these epistles behind him, but by leaving also some directions with St. Jude, who, in his epistle to the same persons, repeats many things from this, with such a sameness, as I thought difficult to be accounted for any other way, till I saw a more satisfactory solution of the difficulty, in that admirable performance, 'The Use and Intent of Prophesy;' where, in the first dissertation, it is shewn, from some passages quoted from the Apostolical constitutions, that it is highly reasonable to suppose, that the apostles had a meeting upon the extraordinary case of the new false teachers; and that they gave jointly, by common consent and deliberation, precepts proper to the occasion, to be communicated to all churches by their respective apostles and bishops; that accordingly many circular letters were sent for that purpose; and that the second epistle of St. Peter, and St. Jude's epistle, seem to be of this sort, &c."
2Pe 1:16. Cunningly-devised fables,- Sophistical fables. Benson. For there was nothing fabulous, or artfully invented, in the information that we gave you, of the powerful advent of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we ourselves were eye-witnesses of his majesty. Heylin. This epistle of St. Peter was written to support and maintain the hopes and expectations which he had raised by the first; wherein much weight is laid on the expectation of Christ's coming in all his power and glory.
It is very probable, that the distressed Christians conceived at first great hopes from these assurances given them by the apostle; and expected, as it is natural for men in affliction, that every day would bring them deliverance: but when one year after another passed, and no deliverance came; when the scorners began to ridicule their hopes, and asked in mockery, Where is the promise of his coming? (ch. 2Pe 3:3-4.) the hearts of many grew sick; and their hopes, deferred, instead of being any comfort or support to them, became an additional grief, lest they had believed in vain. Many of them, worn out with distress and persecution, began to give way, and willingly listened to the corrupt teachers, who instructed them to keep fair with the world, and to keep their faith to themselves; by means of which wicked doctrine, they were led away, fell from their steadfastness, and denied the Lord who bought them.
2Pe 1:19. We have also a more sure word of prophesy;- It would swell this note into a very considerable treatise, if we were to give the numerous interpretations and different opinions on this much-controverted passage. We shall therefore content ourselves with three solutions; referring those who desire to enter more deeply into the subject, to the larger discussions of Sherlock, &c. I. By the word of prophesy, says Benson, I understand the same thing with what is called, 2Pe 1:20, a prophesy of scripture; that is, those predictions, whether in the Old Testament or New, in which was foretold the power of Christ, and especially his second and glorious appearance; and I apprehend with OEcumenius, that St. Peter first mentions Christ's transfiguration, as an emblem of his coming in power and glory, and then says, Hereby we have the word of prophesy rendered more firm; or in other words, "The prophesy of Christ's coming in power and glory, is confirmed by his transfiguration, and the voice from heaven in his favour." Accordingly, the Vulgate hath rendered the passage, And we have the prophetical word more sure. Now, according to this interpretation, here is no such thing intimated, as that prophesy is a stronger argument than miracles (according to the assertion of a writer, who has taken great pains to shew the absurdity of that argument.) Here is no preference of the one to the other, nor any comparison between them, but a very reasonable assertion; namely, that the one is confirmed by the other. II. Mr. Markland, as we learn from Bowyer's Conjectures, would at the end of the former verse place only a colon: that the beginning of this verse may connect with it, and so lead to the true and obvious sense of a passage which of late (says he,) has exercised in vain the pens of many learned writers: namely, This voice saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, (taken from Isa 42:1.) we heard in the mount: and we have by that means prophesy, or the words of the prophet; more fully confirmed. Which words, how clear soever a prediction of Christ, were more determinately declared so, when we heard them applied to him by a voice from heaven. The expression in both parts of the sentence is confirmed by the best writers; and the passage of Isaiah is referred to in the margin of some Bibles on Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5 where the same words occur. But the reference being omitted here, the sense has been overlooked. III. Some, says Dr. Doddridge, are of opinion, that the apostle intended no comparison in this place; but that the comparative is used for the positive, or superlative, as is frequent in the New Testament; so that it only signifies a very sure prophetical word. As I must confess myself, says Parkhurst, to be, after attentive consideration, most inclined to this interpretation, I shall beg leave to support it by the remarks of Wolfius: "For my part, observes that learned writer, I am best pleased with those, who think that the word of the prophets, that is, of the writers of the Old Testament, (comp. 2Pe 1:20-21.) is here called firm, or very firm, without respect to that divine voice mentioned 2Pe 1:17-18." For St. Peter in this passage is displaying the supports of the apostles in preaching of Christ as our Lord: these supports or arguments are three. The first is, that they saw the majesty of Christ; the second, that they heard the divine testimony from heaven; the third, that they read the prophetic predictions concerning him; predictions above all exception, and of the firmest or surest kind. That the apostle is heaping up arguments of the same sort, is evident from the expression, Και εχομεν, we have also or moreover: but if he had designed to call this last more firm, in respect to the voice of God which they had heard, he would, I believe, have written εχομεν δε . The apostle does not advance these things, that they to whom he was writing might understand on what proofs or supports they themselves ought to rest; but he is recounting by what arguments the apostles were convinced of the truth of their own preaching; and on this footing the divine voice heard from heaven certainly had the same credit with themselves as the predictions of the prophets: and that the apostle is here speaking of himself and the rest of the apostles, appears also from hence, that at the end of this verse he turns his discourse to those to whom he was writing; To which [word of prophesy] ye do well to attend, as unto a light, &c. Bishop Chandler supposes, that prophesy is called a light shining in a dark place, because it grows gradually brighter as it approaches nearer and nearer to its accomplishment. To the word of prophesy, and especially to the predictions concerning Christ's second coming, they were all to attend. Even common Christians were to read the scripture, and it would be as a lamp to them shiningin a dark place. The light of revelation, even the marvellous light of the gospel, is no more than a lamp or candle in the night, compared with that brightness ushered in by the dawn of the day, or the rising of the sun in all its splendor. We are therefore to attend to the scriptures only till the day dawn, and the sun arise in our own hearts; that is, till the morning of the great day dawn, and Jesus Christ, the Day-star, or the Sun of righteousness, shall arise in all his glory, and give us perfect light, and perfect knowledge. See 1Co 13:9; 1Co 13:13.
2Pe 1:20. Knowing this first,- The apostle here assigns an important reason why they were to attend to the word of prophesy as long as they lived; namely, because it was not of human device, but of divine original. Dr. Mill has in few words given the sense of this place: "In writing this, the prophet did not interpret or explain his own mind, but the mind and will of the Holy Spirit with which he was inspired." This interpretation is agreeable to the usual sense of the word επιλυσις, and is greatly confirmed by the next verse; where it is said, that holy men of God (prophets or men inspired by him,) spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Inferences.-It is honour enough for gospel-ministers to be, what the apostles counted themselves, the servants of Jesus Christ; and they, who are truly such, cannot but heartily wish, that grace and peace, inclusive of every blessing, may be multiplied to all that have obtained like precious faith with themselves, through the infinite merit of the righteousness of God their Saviour, and through the knowledge of him who has called them by the gospel to a glorious inheritance, and to a free and holy profession of their faith and hope, till, if faithful, they enter with triumph into his everlasting kingdom. How precious are the promises, by which believers are made partakers of a divine nature, in a holy conformity to God, and departure from all the wickedness of this world, which proceeds from the corruption of men's own hearts! But O, of how great concern is it, to give all diligence, by divine assistance, to add to our faith every Christian grace and lively exercise of it! This will make and prove us to be active believers, whose knowledge of our Lord and Saviour is not a lifeless notion, but will produce substantial and assuring evidences of the divine grace from whence it flows, and will, if persevered in, be the infallible means of preserving us from apostacy and falling short of heaven. But he who is destitute of these things, apostatizing from his God, is wandering in the dark, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. What need therefore have believers themselves of being often put in mind of these important things, though they already know them! And what care should Christ's ministering servants take to repeat them on all occasions, that their dear flocks may remember and practise them when they are dead, and gone to heaven; especially considering, that their souls must soon depart from their bodies, which are the frail tabernacles of their present abode! And with what confidence may they recommend and inculcate such things as are founded on the testimony of God himself by his apostles and holy prophets, relating to Christ, whom he declared, with an audible voice from the excellent glory on the mount, to be his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased; and relating to the divine majesty and power with which he will gloriously appear at his coming to judge the world! These are not cunningly-devised fables, but unquestionable truths, as contained in the infallible word of God, which was written not according to the private will and fancy of men, but by the inspiration of his Spirit; and ought to be attended to as a light, which he has given us to guide us through all our darkness in this world, till, by the rising of the Sun of righteousness upon our souls, we arrive at the unclouded light and glory of the world to come, O may the blessed Author of the holy scriptures lead us into the knowledge of his mind and will in them, and make us wise to our own salvation!
REFLECTIONS.-1st, The apostle, being about to finish his glorious course, addresses his last epistle to his Hebrew brethren, as well as to those Gentile Christians who were among them. We have,
1. The writer: Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. In the dignity to which he was advanced, he did not forget, that his office was not so much to rule, as to serve the meanest member of Christ's church.
2. The persons to whom the epistle is addressed,-to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, and feel themselves interested in the same glorious salvation, through the righteousness of God, or of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ,-his righteous obedience unto the death of the cross, which is the sole meritorious cause of every blessing that we can receive, in time or eternity. Note; Divine faith may well be called precious, seeing that the effects of it are so unspeakably glorious.
3. His apostolical benediction, Grace and peace, with all the blessings of the everlasting gospel, be multiplied unto you, in more abundant manifestations and deeper inward experience of them, through the knowledge of God, as your covenant and reconciled God, and of Jesus our Lord, in all the blessed offices and relations which he bears toward his faithful people.
4. The ground on which he built his confidence that his prayers for them would be heard and answered. According as his divine power hath given unto us freely all things that pertain unto life and godliness, bestowing every blessing and means of grace which can conduce to the furtherance of the divine life in our souls, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue; our acquaintance with Jesus, and acknowledgment of him as the only Saviour of souls, being sufficient, if duly improved, to engage us in the pursuit of glory as our end, and with fortitude unshaken to walk in all his holy ways. Whereby, even through the grace of these Divine Persons, and especially by the seal of the Holy Spirit, are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, above all our conceptions, as well as all our deserts; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, by the gospel word, and the great and precious promises therein revealed; wherein beholding as in a glass the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, you are transformed into the same image, formed anew after the divine likeness in righteousness and true holiness; having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, flying from out of the world which lieth in wickedness, as from a city infected with the plague, and renouncing all the corrupt principles and practices, which, through the carnal concupiscence that reigns in every unrenewed heart, defiled in time past your whole body, soul, and spirit. Note; (1.) All that is good in us, comes from the divine power and grace. (2.) The knowledge of God, as he is revealed to us in the gospel of his dear Son, is the grand means of engaging our hearts towards him. (3.) Exceeding great indeed and precious are those promises, that reach to the deeper state of human guilt and misery, and extend to an eternity of glory in the highest, in behalf of all the faithful. (4.) They who, by the transforming vision of God in the gospel, are truly made partakers of the divine nature, will shew it by their deadness to the world, and the subdual of every sensual appetite.
2nd, Because they had already received so much from God, they were bound to make their profiting appear. We have,
1. A golden chain of graces, which we are called to put on. And beside this, or for this cause, seeing that you are partakers of the divine nature, giving all diligence to increase with the increase of God, add to your faith virtue, courage, and boldness in the profession of the gospel; and to virtue knowledge, prudently considering the company, place, and time, when your courage in vindicating the cause of Christ may be most successfully exerted; and to knowledge temperance, keeping your passions and appetites under strict government, and using all the creatures with a holy moderation; and to temperance patience under every provocation, bearing with the injuries, reproaches, and perverseness of others, and meekly submissive under every affliction; and to patience godliness, exercising yourselves in every act of devotion and means of grace, from a principle of love to God, and desire of nearer communion with him; and to godliness brotherly kindness, feeling the tenderest sympathy and compassion towards your fellow-Christians, and ready to every good word and work that may be helpful to them; and to brotherly kindness charity, having your hearts enlarged to all mankind, with universal benevolence to every human creature, and a desire to promote their temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare, not excluding even your greatest and most inveterate enemies.
2. These graces will adorn our profession, as the want of them must necessarily prove us destitute of true Christianity. For if these things be in you and abound, in lively exercise, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; but as trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, you will be full of life, sap, and fruitfulness, which redounds to his glory. While he that lacketh these things, is blind, whatever pretences to wisdom he may make; and cannot see afar off, at best has but a glimmering and notional apprehension of divine truth, being a stranger to that realizing faith which brings near the distant objects of an eternal world; and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins, unfaithful to the grace which he once possessed, and negligent in his application to that Blood which alone can cleanse him from his iniquities.
3. He exhorts all believers to diligence in the Christian course. Wherefore the rather, brethren, considering how many have a name to live who are really dead in trespasses, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, in the lively use of every means of grace, and in the practice of all holy conversation; for, if ye do these things, and perseveringly live in the exercise of the graces above-mentioned, ye shall never fall from Christ and grace, or perish with the world: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; when at the last, triumphant over death and the grave, you shall be admitted into all the glories of the eternal world, and so shall be for ever with the Lord. Note; They shall shortly enter an eternal world of glory, who now perseveringly walk under the influences of a Saviour's grace.
3rdly, The apostle appears careful to discharge his own solemn trust towards them. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, as matters of the last importance, though ye know them in a good measure; and be established in the present truth, fully satisfied in general of the necessity of holiness, in order to an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle of clay, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, that your hearts may be suitably affected, and your practice correspondent with your Christian principles. And hereunto I give the greater diligence, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle of the body, which will be soon silent in the dust, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover, I will endeavour, both by my labours among you, and by these epistles, which when I am dead will yet speak, that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. Note; (1.) Even the truths that we know, we need be often reminded of, and urged to shew their influence on our conduct. (2.) A minister's work is never done till he closes his eyes: his death-bed must be his farewel sermon. (3.) We live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust; but, blessed be God, we need not regret the dissolution of this wretched tabernacle, when we are to exchange it for a mansion of glory.
4thly, We have a reason given for the importunity and seriousness with which he pressed the foregoing exhortations. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, like the Gentile legends or Jewish traditions, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the last great day of his appearing and glory, to judge the assembled world. But,
1. We were eye-witnesses of his majesty, on the mount of transfiguration, and attest that of which we have had the fullest demonstration; not only seeing his transfigured body shining in all the brightness of the meridian sun, but hearing the voice of God. For he there received from God the Father honour and glory, who bore the fullest testimony to the transcendent dignity of his divine character as his Son Messiah, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, the bright cloud which overshadowed him, the symbol of the divine Presence, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in his person, offices, and all his undertakings. And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard distinctly and clearly, when we were with him in the holy mount. So that they could not be mistaken themselves in the things which they testified.
2. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, wherein a more direct attestation is borne to the power and coming of Jesus to judgment, than might be inferred from what we saw and heard. Or, We have a most sure word of prophecy, wherein this second appearing of the Lord to judgment is most expressly and repeatedly affirmed; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, (and a dark world indeed would this be without the word of God,) until the day, the great and expected day of our final redemption, dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts, to shine thenceforward with unclouded lustre on his faithful saints, when the Lord shall be their ever-lasting light, and their God their glory. Knowing this first, that, till the day of Christ appears, we may surely depend upon his prophetic word as our guide; for no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, is of human invention or composition, but of celestial origin: for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God, whom he had sanctified to be instruments in his hands to deliver his messages, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, directing and dictating both the matter and expression. Note; (1.) The scriptures alone are our guide to glory. All our wisdom is comparatively ignorance, and our light darkness, without a divine revelation. (2.) The more diligently we take heed to the word of God, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it, the more surely shall we walk in holiness and happiness. (3.) The scriptures carry their own divine authority along with them, and, through the energy of that Spirit who indited them, impress a full conviction of their truth on the consciences of the sincere. (4.) Though the Bible was written by men, we must say, as of the tables which Moses hewed, that the writing was of God. They were but organs and instruments, and did not themselves often comprehend the full meaning of what they delivered. With what sacred reverence and awe then should we open that holy book, where God himself is heard still speaking!
