2 Peter 1:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The connection is this: may grace and peace be multiplied to you, since by His divine power, that is, by this grace, all things necessary for life and piety have been granted to you. They are granted in the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus, for the knowledge of glory and virtue, through which the greatest promises have been given. Thus, having escaped the worldly corruption that comes through desire, you may become partakers of the divine nature. Otherwise: the expression is extended, but the thought is this. Having received countless good things by the power of Christ, we can become partakers of the divine nature and attain life and piety. Therefore we must live so as to add virtue to faith, and through virtue advance in piety, until we reach the most perfect good, which is love.

These words point to all Scripture, to the virtuous works of Christ performed in the flesh, to the labor of baptism, and to the rule of proclamation, which lead to eternal life.

As in the first epistle, the apostle desires the multiplication of grace and peace among Christians. He also indicates the means or conditions of this multiplication: the knowledge of God and of Christ.

Here what is meant is not only knowledge by the mind, γνῶσις, but also acknowledgment by the heart and abiding in faith and love (Jn 16:3; Eph 4:13-15).

Knowledge of Jesus Christ draws divine grace to us, and with it all the divine powers for life and piety. That is, it draws everything needed for a pious life, or for piety and blessedness (1 Pet 3:10).

Our calling to Christianity is accomplished by the glory, that is, for the glory, and virtue, in Russian, goodness, of the Son of God. The phrase is διὰ δόξης, though in some of the best manuscripts it is ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ.

This gives the thought that our calling is accomplished not by our powers, but by the Son of God's own glory and virtue, He who calls us.

The epistle proper begins with verse 3. It has been observed that it may be compared to a stream which, even at its source, is already broad and deep.

The very beginning of the epistle is full of fire, life, and power. It carries the reader into the very fullness of evangelical grace, just as the first epistle does.

As His divine power has given, and so forth: the connection of the discourse is this. Since His divine power has given us everything needful, you also should act in this and that way.

His divine power means the power of God and Christ in the Holy Spirit. One may think that the Holy Spirit is spoken of together with God and Christ because the Holy Spirit is usually presented as power from on high.

Next the holy Apostle sets forth the ladder of active ascent from one Christian perfection to another (2 Pet 1:3-9). His thoughts proceed in this way. Just as the Lord God extended His goodness toward us so far that, in the faith of our Savior Jesus Christ, He granted all means for a holy and pious life...

Directing his readers toward the knowledge of God that he desires for them, the apostle Peter indicates the most precious source of this knowledge, and then the means or ways leading to it in 2 Pet 1:5-9.

He says that in Christianity there is given a sufficient fullness of life from the highest divine power in the world. There is also given the fullness of knowledge through direct and evident knowledge of the incarnate God the Word.

He has given us all the divine powers and properties necessary not only to know God, but also to be nearer to Him than the first man was, who was created according to the image and likeness of God.

The apostle defines this nearness of Christians to God by saying that, through Jesus Christ, they have become partakers of the divine nature.

They will say: not everyone can be as strong in spirit as Job was. I do not dispute it, although this excuse from magnanimity is very weak for a Christian.

From the infancy of the patriarchal times, in which the life of Job appears, humanity grew for a long time and reached a high maturity in Christianity. Therefore, even more than before, it can and must possess a spirit exalted and unshakable amid calamities.

It now has Christ's teaching, Christ's example, and Christ's divine power as help for this. For according to the saying of the holy apostle Peter, His divine powers have given us all things through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue (2 Pet 1:3).