2 Peter 1:3-7 –
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[a] his own glory and excellence,[b] 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,[c] and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love..
God Wants You To Grow (v. 2)
Have you ever noticed how busy Home Depot and Menards are? Recently I made several trips to Menards and found the parking lot full of cars. Why is that? People, including myself, are constantly fixing or restoring their houses. Sometimes it is out of necessity, but sometimes it is done out of sheer delight in taking something broken and in disrepair and making it brand new. Who doesn’t cheer when an old house is remodeled, or an old classic car is transformed from a rust buckle to a thing of beauty.
This is even more true spiritually. When God saves you, you are forgiven, you have the gift of eternal life, but He also begins changing you, and renewing you, and equipping you to live a life filled with Christlike character for the praise of His glory.
Salvation is far more than just a ticket to heaven. If you think salvation is merely a ticket to heaven that frees you to live however you want here in this lifetime, you don’t fully understand the Gospel. If God chose to give you saving faith, you must understand that His saving grace also produces godliness. God’s grace restores you and renews you. And, praise God, He has given Christians all that they need to grow in Christ-likeness.
We begin today with Verse 3, but verse 3 is a continuation of the sentence started in verse 2. Verse 2: “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord…”. God wants you to grow.
God has given you all you need to grow (vv. 3-5)
Peter had good reason to express this prayer or desire for his hearers. God has given you all you need to grow. Verse 3 has a particle that is not translated in the ESV, but it’s understood from the context; “as”, or “because”. And so, this is how it should read: May grace and peace be multiplied (main verb) to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord…” (BECAUSE) “…His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, Whose Divine power is being spoken of here? This verse is pointing to Jesus. Verse 1 gives crystal clear teaching on the deity of Jesus when it refers to “our God and Savior Jesus Christ”. There is one article there, which means Peter is referring to one person when he references God and Jesus. Jesus is God. But then in verse 2 there are two articles, “in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”, which means he is referring to two persons—God the Father and God the Son.
So now, when we come to verse 3, which is a continuation of the same sentence started in verse 2, we read “His divine power”. Whose divine power? In this case, Jesus our Lord is the nearest antecedent. Also, II Peter 1:16 refers to the power of the Lord Jesus Christ being revealed. And the power of Jesus our Lord is most likely a reference to His power to reclaim lost sinners unleashed through His death and resurrection (and not His intrinsic power by virtue of His deity). Romans 1:4 says this about Jesus: “(He) was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead…”
So, this power of Jesus—the redeeming power that is His through the resurrection from the dead—gives you all things that pertain to or are needed for life and godliness. The word for life here speaks of the spiritual life that we have been given in Christ. We were spiritually dead—but Jesus gave us spiritual life. This is why good fruit grows in the life of a Christian. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. And when the branches are attached to the vine, or have life in the vine, they will produce fruit. This divine power has given to you everything you need to have a fruitful spiritual life.
This divine power also gives you everything you need for Godliness. What is godliness? It’s a life of Godward devotion; born of faith, it’s a way of everyday life and conduct that honors God as our Creator and Redeemer. Jerry Bridges says its “Godward devotion”, and it’s a “devotion in action”—a devotion to God—like Enoch who walked with God and pleased God.
Jerry Bridges also says: “NO higher compliment can be paid to a Christian than to call him a godly person. He might be a conscientious parent, a zealous church worker, a dynamic spokesman for Christ, or a talented Christian leader; but none of these things matters if, at the same time, he is not a godly person.”
And so, if you are godly, your heart beats after God and the way you live reflects that. The power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power that breathed life into your spiritually dead bones, is the power that gives you everything you need for godliness
This is important to remember so that you know you can grow and change. By grace through faith, you are counted as righteous before God. But you are also in the process of becoming in experience who you are positionally in Christ. You are growing in righteousness. That means you are not there yet in your walk with God. The Spirit exposes sin in your lives. He humbles you. He causes you to have a broken and contrite heart over your own sin. You are thankful that the shed blood of Jesus has washed away your guilt. But here you are reminded, and we need this reminder, that His divine power has also given you everything you need for godliness. That means you can grow and change.
But this verse also teaches us that we must look to Jesus for the help to change. Jesus has the answer and the help for your fear, anxiety, worry, depression, pride, self-centeredness, bitterness, impatience, lust, sexual immorality, drunkenness, and any sin or substance that might enslave you. No one, absolutely NO ONE, is more qualified and able and willing to help you with the problems of life than Jesus.
Verse 3 continues… “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called you to His own glory and excellence.”
Douglas Moo says this knowledge of Him is: “an intimate and informed relationship that is the product of conversion to the gospel”. So, you have been given all you need for life and godliness through a relationship with Jesus that is built upon His Truth revealed in the Gospel.
Sometimes what people think about God doesn’t come from the Bible. Sometimes people have put their trust in a “gospel” they have concocted in their own minds, or they have been wrongly taught.
A true relationship with God will only come through hearing and believing the Gospel as it is taught in the Bible. And the good news is that God has taken the initiative to reveal Himself and His Gospel to us through the Living Word, Jesus, and the written Word, the Bible.
In fact, verse 3 says: Jesus called you to His own glory and excellence. We have an intimate and informed relationship with Jesus because He has called us to His own glory and excellence. This means that He chose you and then drew you to Himself. And He did this so you can see and enjoy Him in all His beauty—His own glory and excellence. Jesus is the beautiful manifestation of the person of God. Jesus’ life is filled with moral excellence or virtue—it’s the uncommon character that is worthy of praise
Second Peter exposes the ugliness of False Teachers and False teaching. Chapter 2 is filled with judgment and condemnation that comes upon those who believe and practice falsehood and lies. Its sobering. But here in verse 3 we are reminded that Jesus has called us—He has enabled us—He has given to us eyes to see and hearts to believe and enjoy Him in all His glory and excellence. That’s a blessing. That’s God’s rich and lavish grace!
And Peter had prayed “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”. I want you to see and savor more and more the beauty and worth of Jesus.
And it’s this glory and excellence—it’s the beautiful and breathtaking character of Jesus our Lord that has given you His precious and very great promises. Verse 4 literally reads: “…by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises…”
Flowing out of His glory and excellence are His precious and very great promises. What are some of those precious and very great promises?
- Jesus also promises to be your Good Shepherd…He intercedes for you…Refuge and strength…your Helper and Comforter…Defender and Shield…source of all joy, peace and hope
- By grace through faith in Jesus (whose blood atoned for your sin), you are forgiven.
- You are justified…Reconciled…Sanctified…Being progressively Sanctified…and ultimately Glorified in Jesus
These precious and very great promises are given to you because
Jesus our Lord wants you to be like Him in character. Verse 4 continues “…so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature…” . Becoming partakers of the divine nature doesn’t mean you become God; you will not become omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. These character traits are incommunicable. They belong to God alone. You will never become a deity. You will always, now and in eternity, be a creature who worships your Creator and Redeemer. That will never change.
What does change is that you can expect to see growing in your life Christ-like character. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control will become more a part of how you live. You will put to death sin, and live pure and righteous lives. If you are alive in Jesus, you will become sweeter and sweeter in this life. This is the result of His power that has given you all you need for life and godliness through a knowledge of Him who has called you to His own glory and excellence—FOR THE PURPOSE OF BECOMING MORE AND MORE CHRIST-LIKE IN CHARACTER. Please understand that God’s grace in you is meant to produce godliness in you.
The end of verse 4 also tells us that Jesus our Lord has rescued you from corruption: “…having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” Without Jesus’ work in your life, your life, your very being, is caught in a way of life that will bring about corruption—or moral decay. Without Jesus as your Savior and Lord, sin enslaves you. Sin is your master. You are held captive to sin. And sin leads to moral decay in your being. And the end of that road is judgment and eternal damnation.
But Jesus rescued you from sin. In Jesus you are set free from the power of sin. In Jesus you are renewed and restored. You are made new. You are made to be what God created you to be in the first place: lovers of God and lovers of people.
God expects you to make every effort to Grow (v. 5b)
And because of all that, God expects you to make every effort to Grow. Verse 5 says “For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue…” The phrase “make every effort” is really loaded. Literally, this verse says “be earnestly committed to fulfill your obligation /to put forth your very best effort /to provide something in addition to what already exists”. You won’t grow spiritually if you don’t make every effort to grow spiritually.
Now, we must remember that sanctification is the work of God in which believers co-operate (Berkhof). Your sanctification is only possible because of God’s work in your life—and He has given you everything you need for your sanctification. And in faith, trusting His power at work in your, you make every effort to grow.
Have you ever wondered why some people in the church don’t seem to grow? It’s not because God doesn’t want them to grow. It’s not because God hasn’t given them everything they need to grow. It’s because they have not made every effort to grow spiritually. And it might not be because they aren’t very hard workers in other areas of their life. They might work extremely hard to be successful and fulfilled in their work—but they might be very lazy when it comes to growing spiritually.
Verses 5-7 say “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”
God wants to see these qualities Grow in you (vv. 5c-7)
This type of list is common in the NT. There are other lists similar to this list. There is certainly overlap, but they aren’t the same. No one list is complete. But taken together they help us see a panoramic view of God’s beauty that He wants to grow in you.
There were a couple of times on my travels to Romania that I stood at one spot and just marveled at the beauty of the land—and one single snapshot would just not suffice to capture all of the beauty. And so, I would take a panoramic picture, which would give you a view of MORE of the land’s beauty. That is how it is with these lists. One list is like a single snapshot. All the lists together are like a panoramic view of God’s character that He wants to grow in you. Other lists include things like I Corinthians 13, which teaches us the character of Christ-like love. Romans 5:3-5 describes character that is produced in our lives through suffering. Galatians 5:22-23 lists fruit we can expect to grow in our lives if we walk in step with the Spirit.
But for now, here in verses 5-7, Peter gives us his list of qualities that are strung together: supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with steadfastness, and so on. It’s not intended to be strictly sequential—because the lists in the NT as a whole are not all the same. But often, as here, these qualities do begin with faith, and end with love.
And by necessity, it must begin with…
Faith: (which is) a gift from God that leads you to trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation. This word here can also be used to speak of our faithfulness and reliability. And certainly, a fruit of trusting in the Gospel will be our faithfulness and reliability. But here it seems best, because its first on the list, and because Peter already drew our attention to the gift of saving faith in verse 1, I think that saving faith is the primary focus.
You don’t ever want to assume someone’s salvation. You can never ever make a dead sinner produce beautiful spiritual fruit in their lives for the glory of God. We must make the Gospel be of first importance—this is true for parents as we disciple our children, and its true for disciple-making in a broader scope. The qualities we will talk about today can only grow in the life of a person who has been born again. Sometimes we get discouraged because our children or the people within the church that we are disciplining never seem to grow and mature spiritually. Well, sometimes sin is just stubborn. And we need to be patience and longsuffering. But sometimes it might be because they aren’t born again—it may be because they are not living by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Sometimes its only through experiences, honestly evaluated, that a person comes to understand that though they said all the right words, they really were trusting all along in their own works and not in Christ.
Spiritual Maturity starts with faith—which is a gift from God that leads you to trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation.
But Peter is quick to say, make every effort to supplement your faith with…
Virtue: uncommon moral excellence like that found in Jesus Christ. Read through the Gospels and pay attention to what you learn about the character of Jesus. This is the virtue that you should live by. Jesus was passionate about seeing His Father glorified. Jesus was filled with compassion when He looked at the crowd and saw a people that were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus spoke the Truth in love. Jesus was gentle. Jesus was courageous. Jesus was sacrificial. He endured being mistreated so He could do His Father’s will. All—uncommon moral excellence that was praiseworthy.
Grow in virtue, and add to that…
Knowledge: the ability to know and conform to God’s revealed will for your life. Because God has revealed Himself, and how He wants you to live, in the BIBLE, you must be a person that knows the Bible. Psalm 1 is what should be growing in you: Blessed is the man…who delights in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Do you know what it is like to speak, and no one listen? It is not good. That’s why parents teach their children to be attentive to them. That’s why husbands learn to carve out time to understand what is happening in the life of their wife. How much more must we be a people who listens to God—He speaks through the Bible, and so, for the Christian, there is no shortcut, we must read the Bible. We must understand the Bible. We must be students of the Bible. We must be hungry for the Bible. But we must also then obey the Bible. We must not be just hearers of the Word only, but doers of the Word.
Grow in knowledge, and add to that…
Self-control: having power over one’s emotions, impulses, and desires; controlling the body and its desires rather than being controlled by them; its keeping in step with the Spirit. I like what Tim Pasma told his young grandsons at breakfast as they were getting prepared for church here in Merton: Boys—listen to me—remember, you don’t have to say the first thing that pops into your head. Think before you speak. Think and pray and seek counsel before you make decisions. Being impulsive can lead to a lot of hurt and regret. I remember one time, as a boy, Dad would let us take turns driving our old 1951 Ford pickup truck around the farm. It was lots of fun—but I lost my privilege to drive one evening because I impulsively (and carelessly) turned into a narrow path.
Grow in self-control, and add to that…
Steadfastness: the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty; its an ability to continue in the faith, resisting the pressures to quit; not giving up, not because of a stoic quality but because of what springs from faith and hope in God.
Grow in steadfastness, and add to that…
Godliness: a devotion to God that shows up in how you live your life. It’s a love for God, and when we love God, we obey God. Its not just an external façade. It’s a genuine desire of our heart to build our lives around what God wants and deserves because we love Him—and we love Him because He first loved us.
Grow in godliness, and add to that…
Brotherly affection: warmth and affection for those with whom you have much in common (i.e. fellow believer in Christ). One commentator noted that we are never commanded to have brotherly affection—not because its not important, but because it happens naturally with those with whom you have some affinity. If you like someone, you will more naturally have a brotherly affection for them.
Agape love, however, we are commanded to have.
Love: warmth, affection, and (also) sacrificial giving for the good of others, everyone, even our enemies, as God in Christ loved us and met our greatest need.
When we grow in love (agape), we live our lives, not just wanting to get from other people (respect, love, recognition, worth, etc.)—but we live our lives thinking of what’s best for others, we give to others for their good, we even sacrificially give to help them see and know and enjoy God’s love more and more.
Application:
- Understand what God expects.
- Evaluate your current state.
- Change what God wants you to change.