2 Peter 1

Ver. 1.—through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:] Through the merits of Jesus

Christ, who is our God and Saviour. Bp. Hall, Dr. Hammond. The passage may be rendered, “through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Drs. Wells and Doddridge.

The original Greek is the very same, as to the order and grammar of the words, with the last verse of this Epistle, which is thus rendered in our English version, “of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” And so it should be in this passage; there being no reason why the phrase here should not signify “our God,” as well as it signifies there “our Lord.” Jones of Nayland. The passage is so rendered in Wickliff’s, Coverdale’s,

The apostle confirmeth them in the hope CHAP. I. of the increase of God’s graces. Anno DOMINI 64. unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

2 Peter 1:2

2. — by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.] The monstrously vicious lives of the false teachers and their disciples were without doubt one of the causes which, in the early ages, occasioned the Christians in general to be spoken of as the most flagitious of mankind. Dr. Macknight.

2 Peter 1:3

3. — unto life and godliness.] To felicity hereafter and to piety here. Dr. Hammond. Or, to the life of godliness. Dr. Whitby. So as to enable us to live godly lives. Dr. Wells.

4. — whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not.] That Divine judgment, long since pronounced against the authors of such wickedness, (compare Jude ver. 4.) is now drawing on, and will soon overtake them. Pyle.

2 Peter 1:4

4. Whereby are given unto us &c.] By which Christ and by the knowledge of Him, are conveyed unto us exceedingly great and precious blessings and graces, such as He had formerly promised to us believers; that by these we might be made partakers of those divine qualities of the soul, namely, of wisdom, of goodness, of holiness, whereby we resemble that God, according to whose image we were created; having been delivered and freed from that corruption which aboundeth in worldly men, through their sinful lusts. Bp. Hall.

2 Peter 1:5

5. And beside this.] As if he had said, You have now, God be thanked, escaped the pollutions of the world, and are truly, I hope, converted to Christianity, and in baptism have been regenerated by the Holy Ghost; that is what he means by their being made “partakers of the Divine nature.” This indeed is a very great achievement, and an invaluable mercy of God vouchsafed to you: yet I beseech you, rest not here; but “besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,” &c. So that the sum of his discourse is to press them first to truth in grace, and then to growth in grace; to acquire the Divine virtues reckoned up by him, and then to abound in them. Bp. Bull.

— add to your faith] As to faith, the Apostle doth not exhort his disciples to acquire it, but rather takes it for granted that they possess it, and supposes it as the foundation already laid, upon which his exhortation is built, “Add to your faith virtue.” In some places of Scripture faith is represented as containing in itself every virtue and every good deed. It is called faith working by love, or faith accompanied with hope and charity, and this makes a true Christian; this is a complete victory over the world, over every obstacle to righteousness. If amongst those who profess themselves Christians too many are found who are covetous, ambitious, proud, dishonest, lovers of unlawful pleasures, and slaves to irregular passions, these persons are so far from possessing faith in its utmost extent, faith working by love, that they can hardly be said to have it in any sense. The persons whom St. Peter speaks of were believers; they had faith, they had persevered in it; some of them had the honour of suffering for it, and undergoing ill usage both from Jews and Gentiles. He considers them as already persuaded of the truth of Christianity, and seriously engaged in that holy calling: but he judged it expedient to exhort them to a careful observation of all Christian duties; for as a perfect faith comprehends them all, so a faith begun and carried on requires them all, and is a sufficient motive and inducement to the practice of them. The natural effect

of faith is to excite pious fear and humble hope, and to give the prospect of a sure and ample reward. And when once these considerations have had their due influence upon the mind, nothing seems wanting to induce a man to a consistent practice. Dr. Jortin.

— add to your faith virtue:] That is, courage in professing the faith, and in sincerely practising the things which this faith requires. Drs. Whitby and Wells. The word rendered “virtue,” according to a frequent use of it in the Greek writers, and of the corresponding word in Latin, appears to signify in this place ‘courage, fortitude, resolution;’ and so the exhortation answers to that of St. Paul in 1 Cor. xvi. 13, “Quit you like men.” Dr. Hammond, Parkhurst.

If we thus consider virtue as meaning more particularly courage and constancy, we shall find that sins are usually attended with a defect of this quality. Injustice is a weakness which induces us to wrong others because we cannot resist some vile passions; intemperance is a weakness by which reason submits to sensual appetite; covetousness is a weakness which prefers sordid lucra to spiritual gain; pride is a weakness which disposes us to think too well of ourselves, and too meanly even of those who are our equals in every valuable acquisition. “Add to your faith virtue,” that is, steadiness and resolution in well-doing. Dr. Jortin.

— knowledge:] An exact knowledge of your duty. Dr. Whitby. In the first age, the discourses and miracles of the Apostles often produced a strong conviction of the Divine original of the Gospel in persons, who never had heard of the Gospel before. Such, on their believing, must have had a very imperfect understanding of the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel. It was therefore necessary that such should join to their faith the knowledge of these things: especially as the influence of the Gospel on men’s temper and conduct results in a great measure from their knowledge of its doctrines, precepts, and promises. It is still necessary therefore that Christians be at pains to increase their knowledge of spiritual things, that they may have grace and peace multiplied to them, and become partakers of the Divine nature. Dr. Macknight.

A knowledge of religion is necessary, and without it neither can faith nor virtue be complete; and the more accurate that knowledge is, the more secure is the possessor of it from being misled either in matters of opinion, or in matters of conduct, in his notions or in his actions. Ignorance sometimes is stubborn, and sometimes unstable. When it is presumptuous and self-willed, it refuseth instruction; and when it is diffident and submissive, it surrenders itself too implicitly to human authority. But an understanding, duly cultivated and constantly exercised in the things pertaining to religion, enables a man to act steadily and consistently; to prove all things, and to hold fast that which is good. There have ever been false brethren and false teachers, who pretend to great skill and wisdom and illumination, and impose upon the weak and unsettled. Even in the first age of Christianity, and according to the predictions of our Saviour and of His Apostles, such deceivers arose, who boasting of

The apostle exhorteth them to make H. PETER. their calling sure: whereof Anno DOMINI &

5. — Noah the eighth person.] That is, with seven others: this expression is agreeable to the manner of using the ordinal numbers in the purest Greek authors. Parkhurst.

2 Peter 1:6

6. —temperance; —patience:] As he who is not master of himself is not likely to be a good servant to God and a friend to man, St. Peter sets before us in the first place the duties relating to ourselves, namely, temperance and patience. By intemperance men dishonour and debass themselves; by impatience they trouble and torment themselves. Temperance and patience should be inseparable; for good and evil are so blended in this present state, that we are perpetually obliged to exercise both. Prosperity and adversity are the two usual trials to which we are exposed. The ancients saw, and knew this; and one of their wise men hath said that morality consists chiefly in two things: in bearing and in forbearing; that is, in patience and in temperance. Dr. Jortin.

—godliness:] That fear of God, which will restrain you from sin; that love of Him, which will constrain you to your duty; that conformity of will, which will cause your mind to approve of, your heart to affect and choose, what is according to His will, and your whole man to be exercising itself unto godliness. Dr. Whitby.

Godliness or piety is the principle which is to animate every virtue. This is the character which distinguisheth the Christian from the Pagan moralist. We may find amongst the Pagans examples of justice, equity, sobriety, patience, liberality: but piety is peculiarly the effect of revealed religion. If there were no God or no Providence, still without virtue civil society could not well subsist; but if there be a God, it is a shame not to direct our actions to His honour and glory. Since therefore virtue or moral goodness is a quality, which the world, bad as it is, expects from us, we must choose whether we will be good for the sake of pleasing our heavenly Father, or for the sake of pleasing a world, to which perhaps we have no great obligations. Dr. Jortin.

2 Peter 1:7

7. —brotherly kindness:] Or, a great love for all Christians, as being brethren in a more especial manner: “charity,” or love for all men, enemies as well as friends, heathens as well as Christians. Dr. Wells.

There is a mutual connexion and dependence amongst the several graces and duties of a Christian: where there is one grace in sincerity, there is a constant care to secure all the rest; and where a Christian for conscience sake performs one duty, he will be anxious to perform the rest. The duties of both tables will be religiously observed by him, both as an argument of his sincerity, and as an ornament to his holy profession. Burkitt.

Every virtue is connected with every other: and all virtue with piety. For without the love of God to excite us, and the fear of God to restrain us, and the word of God to direct us, and the grace of God to strengthen us, we shall neither behave to our fellow-creatures, nor govern ourselves, in a proper manner. What therefore He hath joined together, let not us put smuiter, Matt. xix. 6; but “giving all diligence, add to our faith virtue,” or manly boldness in professing it; “and to virtue, knowledge” of whatever may adorn and defend it; “and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness” towards our fellow-christians; “and to brotherly kindness, charity” towards all men without exception. “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ:” to which may God for His sake bring us all. Amen. Abp. Secker.

2 Peter 1:9

9. But he that lacketh these things &c.] But, he, that lacketh these graces, is at the least purblind; not seeing heavenly things, which are afar off, but earthly things only, which are near at hand: having forgotten even the very first and main principles of Christianity; and namely this, that he was washed from his old sins by the laver of regeneration, persisting wilfully in those evils, as if they had never been done away. Bp. Hall.

2 Peter 1:10

10. —to make your calling and election sure:] To secure to yourselves the blessings of Christianity, to which God hath called you, and for which end He hath chosen you to be His people. Dr. Whitby.

St. Peter here speaks directly of the “calling and election” of Christians: but so far was he from then seeing this call and election to be absolute, that he advises those who have the call and election, to “give all diligence to make them sure:” plainly teaching us, that, though God has called and elected us in Christ, yet it depends on our own care to make them effectual to salvation. Bp. Sherlock.

—if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:] Or, miscarry eternally. The Apostle hereby plainly declares, that “the making of their calling and election sure” depended on the doing of those works of virtue, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, mentioned before, and so was only a conditional election, upon their perseverance in a life of holiness. And from the following words, “if ye do these things, ye shall never fall,” it plainly seems to follow that even the elect, by their neglect to do these things, may fail of an entrance into this heavenly kingdom. Dr. Whitby.

2 Peter 1:11

11. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly &c.] The Apostle here uses a very powerful motive and argument to persuade them to abound in grace and virtue. As if he had said, if you thus abound in grace, you shall abound in glory: you shall not only come to heaven, or just get within the gate of that glo-

he is careful to remember them. He wrigeth to constancy in the faith. Anno DOMINI 64. know them, and be established in the present truth.

2 Peter 1:12

12.—in the present truth.] Namely, that the practice of the forementioned duties is necessary to salvation. Dr. Wells.

2 Peter 1:13

13.—as long as I am in this tabernacle.] The expression is used to denote our mortal body, which, though the tabernacle of an immortal spirit, is constituted of frail and slight materials, and is shortly to be by death taken down and dissolved. Parkhurst.

2 Peter 1:14

14.—even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.] Meaning the revelation which Christ made to him, John xxi. 18, 19. But because he says this was soon to happen, it has been supposed by some that he speaks of some new revelation. However, as our Lord, in the beforementioned revelation, told him he was to die when he was old, he might, from his own great age, without any new revelation, know that his death was to happen soon. Dr. Macknight.

2 Peter 1:15

15. Moreover I will endeavour] Namely, by leaving behind me these two Epistles for your perusal at all times. Dr. Wells. St. Peter therefore was not of the opinion, that oral tradition was a better way than writing to preserve the memory of these things; and that without writing they might be able to do so. Accordingly St. Ignatius, advising the churches to stand fast in the traditions of the Apostles, thought it necessary ‘for the greater security to commit them to writing.’ For, saith Origen, ’that which is delivered only by mouth quickly vanisheth, as having no certainty.’ Dr. Whitby.

2 Peter 1:16

16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, &c.] And you ought to look upon the testimonies of the truth of your profession, and particularly of this great article of Christ’s future coming, given you by me and the rest of the Apostles, not like the uncertain traditions and forgeries of the Jewish doctors; but as truths confirmed by unsuspected eyewitnesses of the life, miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ: all which are demonstrations of that great article of His future appearance, to be the great Judge of all the world. Pyle.

This Epistle was a farewell Epistle to the churches: the writer “knowing,” as he tells them, “that shortly he must put off this tabernacle,” ver. 14. Now the great topick of consolation, urged by these departing saints to the widowed churches, was the second coming of their Lord and Master. And of this coming it is that St. Peter speaks, “for we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus.” He subjoins the rea-

son of his confidence in this second coming, that he and the rest of the disciples had been eyewitnesses of the majesty of the first. This appears still plainer from the recapitulation in the concluding part of the Epistle, where he reproves those “scoffers of the last days,” who would “say, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were,” chap. iii. 3, 4. For the primitive Christians had entertained an opinion, that the second coming of their Master was at hand. These scoffers therefore the Apostle confutes at large from the fifth to the thirteenth verse of the third chapter. Bp. Warburton.

2 Peter 1:17

17, 18. For he received from God the Father honour &c.] I myself was one of them, who at His glorious transfiguration on the mount saw those displays of the Divine Majesty, and heard the voice from heaven declaring Him to be the Son of God, the true Messiah and Saviour of mankind. See Matt. xvii. 1; Mark ix. 2, 3, &c.; Luke ix. 28, &c. Pyle.

17.—from the excellent glory.] Or bright cloud, which then appeared, and was the constant symbol of the Divine presence. Dr. Whitby.

2 Peter 1:19

19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy:] Namely, in evidence of the future coming of Christ in power, which was the doctrine that the Apostle was desirous of proving. To prove this he had just told them, that he had been himself an eyewitness of Christ’s majesty or glory. To this it might be objected, that although his testimony shewed that Christ Himself had been glorified, it was no proof that he would ever again return in glory and power. The Apostle may be supposed to reply, It is true that all future events can be learned only from God. All other arguments can amount to no more than probabilities and presumptions: and a great presumption it is that Christ shall come in glory, forasmuch as we have already seen Him glorified; and it is a further evidence of His power to deliver His servants, since God has openly declared Him to be His well beloved Son. But to assure us that He will indeed so come, and so use His power, “we have a more sure word of prophecy,” that is, we have the very word of God, speaking by His Prophets, to assure us of the certainty of this future event. No comparison is here intended between miracles and prophecy, as arguments for the truth of the Gospel: for St. Peter speaks only of the coming of Christ in power. And by the “more sure word of prophecy” are to be understood, not merely the prophecies of the Old Testament, but probably also those of the New. Bp. Sherlock.

—whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, &c.] As if he had said, The time will come, when the things ye hope for shall be placed in a clear light; when you shall see all your expectations fully justified in the accom-

The apostle foretelleth of false teachers, Anno DOMINI 64. until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

2 Peter 1:20

20. Knowing this first.] As the foundation of all that is to be learned from the Prophetical writings. Dr. Whitby.

— that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.] That is, of the Prophet’s own incitation or impulse, or of the suggestion of his own private spirit. Drs. Hammond and Whitby. The Prophets, as they did not frame the notions or conceptions themselves of those truths which they delivered from God, so did they not loosen their own tongues of their own instinct or upon their own motion, but as moved, impelled, and acted by God. So we may, in correspondence to the antecedent and subsequent words, interpret these words of St. Peter, that “no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation:” that is, that no prophecy which is written did so proceed from the Prophet who spake it or wrote it, that he of himself or by his own instinct did open his mouth to prophecy; but that all prophetical revelations came from God alone, and that whosoever first delivered them was antecedently inspired by Him, as it followed, “for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” That therefore which they delivered was the word, the revelation of God; which they assented unto as to a certain and infallible truth, credible upon the immediate testimony of God, and to which the rest of the believers assented upon the same testimony of God meditately delivered by the hands of the Prophets. Bp. Pearson.

2 Peter 1:21

21. — spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.] We find in multitudes of places, from the earliest book of Scripture to the latest, supernatural impulses and illuminations ascribed to the Spirit of God: Gen. vi. 3;

xii. 38; Numb. xi. 25, 26; xxiv. 2; 1 Sam. x. 10; 2 Kings ii. 9, &c.; 1 Chron. xii. 18; 2 Chron. xv. 1; Nehem. ix. 30; Ezek. ii. 2; Zech. vii. 12; Rev. i. 10; ii. 7; iv. 2, &c.: we cannot doubt, therefore, but they proceeded from Him always, though sometimes it is not expressly affirmed. So that we are to honour the third Person as the immediate inward instructor of men from the foundation of the world; as Him, who hath admonished, reproved, and striven with the wicked; who hath warned and cheered the hearts of the pions in all times with manifestations of God’s will, with declarations of His favour, with precautions against unseen dangers, with promises of deliverance from the heaviest afflictions, with His presence and guidance in the most intricate difficulties. Abp. Secker.

Chap. II. This chapter contains warnings against false and heretical teachers in the Christian church; a black account of their principles; their severe judgment and condemnation. Their characters exactly and principally agree to the zealots among the Jewish converts. Pyle.

Ver. 1. — there shall be false teachers among you.] These false teachers Jude describes, as in part actually come when he wrote his Epistle, and mentions their perverting the grace of God to lasciviousness. Both Apostles, I suppose, spake of Nicolaitans, whose deeds our Lord hated, Rev. ii. 6, 15, and of the pestilent sects which sprang from them; namely, the Gnosticks, Carpocratians, and Menandrians. Dr. Macknight.