There exists a vast difference in between the ones who escape the corruption of the world and partake of the divine nature and those who escape the defilements of the world for a season.
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
2 Peter 1:2
To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
In the introduction, Peter is established the tone. That tone is to Peter is encourage other believers to hold fast. Not that they might lose out on eternal life at some future time, but to ensure their own maturity in the faith. To grow to maturity ought to be the goal of every Christian.
At the beginning of this epistle, Peter establishes a premise. Sometimes that premise is blurred by the particular translation of the Bible used which may lead to some insecurities. Because of this, I prefer a literal word-for-word translation. This helps me to grasp the nuances in word meanings being translated. It also helps to have tools available to try and understand the subtleties in the original language that do not translate clearly. Taking the extra time for a bit of a deeper dive helps to ensure right division of the Bible.
With that said, let’s dive in!
His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence, by which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that through these things you might become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.
2 Peter 1:3–4
At the outset, Peter is saying that Christians have everything they need no to live godly lives. These come by the promises of God. Promises that you have no part in save to receive them. He keeps them, even in light of what you do… Because it’s His word. His word is not made void by the freedom He has bestowed on us.
Because we have these promises, we escape the corruption of the world and become partakers of the divine nature. That statement is loaded with lots of stuff to unpack. Note the phrasing, escape the corruption. The corruption is in the world through lust. Think of the word lust as desire and intense craving.
Focus on the word corruption. It is the Greek word phthoras which does mean corruption and can also mean destruction. The destruction is ultimately death. That is the end result of sin. But the Christian escapes this.
For this reason make every effort to add virtue to your faith; and to your virtue, knowledge; and to your knowledge, self-control; and to your self-control, patient endurance; and to your patient endurance, godliness; and to your godliness, brotherly kindness; and to your brotherly kindness, love.
2 Peter 1:5–7
Peter then provides a prescription for the saved person who has eternal life. Keep in mind that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. The outline is indeed doable by every Christian.
It is self-explanatory in nature. Faith is required to get eternal life and forgiveness is sins, it is also necessary to live a Christian life. It’s not faith alone. We add virtue onto our faith.
Virtue is excellence of character… Blamelessness. Add knowledge to virtue and then self-control. Self-control is different than virtue and comes after. Patience, godliness, kindness then follow, and finally love.
Most of us get it backwards. We think we love first. Peter is telling us that we cannot truly love without all of those things that come orderly before.
For if these things reside in you and abound, they ensure that you will neither be useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:8
The discussions that sometimes revolve around 2 Peter tend toward who is really saved. The reality is Peter is encouraging us to be useful and fruitful. This is not unlike much of the Bible, which itself teaches us how to be useful to God. Yes, first we need to be saved. Being useful and fruitful comes with maturity.
Virtue Revisited
I need to say more about virtue. It is a word that conveys an idea of blamelessness. Paul helps us to understand this idea of blamelessness and from whence it comes. He calls it a gift.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if through the trespass of one man many died, then how much more has the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. The gift is not like the result that came through the one who sinned. For the judgment from one sin led to condemnation, but the free gift, which came after many trespasses, leads to justification. For if by one man’s trespass death reigned through him, then how much more will those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:15–17
Righteousness is the quality of being in accordance with God’s requirements. It’s to be blameless in the law. Paul says this gift comes freely by Jesus to any who want it. Recall what Peter said, He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. We don’t add to it, not maintain it. We simply cannot!
It is this gift of righteousness that leads to justification of life. Meaning you and I as Christians can stand blameless in the presence of God. It’s like me saying “Just as if I’d never sinned!”
Strong’s Dictionary gives us some additional insight to this word virtue (Greek aretē.) It means excellence of character, whether that excellence is intrinsic or attributed. As Paul showed, righteousness is attributed to us by God as a gift.
There is another sense conveyed by virtue… It is the idea of valor. Valor is the strength of mind needed to resist fear and brave danger. Think about that. God has given you that strength of mind.
Adding Virtue to Faith is Then Easy
If you are a Christian… You are saved. You have eternal life. Nothing can move you from that position. Fear can trick you but you don’t have to succumb to it. We resist that fear.
When the enemy comes and tells you you’re not doing enough and therefore not valuable to God, know it’s a lie. It’s designed to make you afraid. Resist it the fear, and the enemy has to flee.
God sent His Son Jesus for us. You and I have value and worth far greater than you can imagine.
The journey from faith to virtue is easy. God gives it to us. It means those that have eternal life by faith cannot be removed from it. If there’s a struggle on whether you can lose the gift of eternal life and your salvation, it stops here. And the text is going to show us that clearly.
Blind and Shortsighted in Forgetfulness
But the one who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
2 Peter 1:9
When we forget who we are, and more to the point… Whose we are… It can lead to shortsightedness. Remember, you and I are already cleansed from former sins. Yes that is true. Yet it goes beyond former sins. Remember Peter saying that we might become partakers of the divine nature?
Paul says we already are.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has resurrected together with Him, having forgiven you all sins. He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us and contrary to us, and He took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed authorities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2:13–15
We are already resurrected with Him. There is no way that can happen unless we are already partaking of the divine nature. Not only that, we are forgiven all sins. These are not just the former sins, but all of them!
Whatever claim the enemy had on us is gone. That’s the freedom of the Christian life. That’s the virtue that we courageously stand in now. We are immovable. We cannot sin enough to lose out on anything God has already given to us. Why would any of us really want to do that?
Now knowledge is added to the virtue. So what now?
Add the rest, self-control, patience, godliness, kindness, and love.
Calling and Election
Therefore, brothers, diligently make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly provided for you.
2 Peter 1:10–11
We make our calling and election sure. That is not about salvation. It’s about being useful, useful to God. He has given to every one of us unique gifts to be of service to Him. It is our responsibility to know what these things are and how to employ them for His glory. That is making sure your calling is to a particular place of service. Your election is to be useful to God… Not just saved.
Championing Us
Therefore I will not be negligent to always remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth that is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I live in this body, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that soon I will take off this body, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. And I will also be diligent to make sure that after my death you will always remember these things.
2 Peter 1:12–15
We all need encouragement. It ought be a strong part of our lives to encourage and admonish others in the same love that Peter does. We do that by reminding ourselves and others of all of these things.
Warnings
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their judgment, made long ago, does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.
2 Peter 2:1–3
This discussion takes a darker turn away from encouragement. Peter is instructing as he exposes false teachers and those led astray by them. These deny the Lord that bought them. Does that mean they have lost salvation?
No. As we have already witnessed in Colossians, sin has been nailed to the cross and taken out of the way freeing humanity from the grips of the enemy. The Lord bought the lot of Adam’s race, every single human that has, had, or will have life. To deny that is to never ever come to salvation and receive the gifts of eternal life and righteousness. I admit, it’s a simple conclusion, but it’s right there. It is the truth. That’s why the writer of Hebrews put it this way:
Therefore we should be more attentive to what we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken by angels was true, and every sin and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation, which was first declared by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him?
Hebrews 2:1–3
Considering the immeasurable generosity is such a gesture, how do people ignore it as if nothing really happened?
It would be the height of arrogance and indifference. It’s easy to understand why people go to perdition. And Peter does not have kind things to say about these types of people and the ideas they share with others.
For when they speak arrogant words of vanity, they entice by the lusts of the flesh and by depravity those who barely escaped from those who live in error.
2 Peter 2:18
Remember, the first phrase… Escape the corruption (phthoras.) Peter uses the same idea of escape again. This time it is to describe those who barely escape from those who live in error. I think he is speaking of Christians. These false teachers entice believers with religion. Religion is the idea that people can make themselves presentable to God by abstaining from sin.
Promised Freedom
Although they promise them freedom, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by that which a man is overcome, to this he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog returns to his own vomit,” and “the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mud.”
2 Peter 2:19–22
Freedom is contrasted with the enslavement to corruption. Instead of teaching reliance on the promises of God, the false teacher offers a semblance of freedom that is really slavery.
These teachers have themselves not yet escaped corruption (phthoras) but are still slaves to it. Remember what Paul said:
Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves to obey, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Romans 6:16
Stepping out to sin is presenting yourself as a slave to it. Sin leads to death… The (phthoras) destruction.
Back to the text in 2 Peter, these false teachers seem to escape the defilements of the world. Defilements in the Greek is the word miasmata. It’s different than phthoras, and is only used this once in the entire New Testament. The single usage connotes it has some significance.
Miasmata means shameful deeds, or what we would call sins. In other words, it seems these are escaping sins. But it only seems for a bit as they return to the carnality of the world.
When a person hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ presented they receive the knowledge of Him as Savior. What they do with that is of paramount importance as Peter hints at.
Let’s consider an example. It’s like when people come to church. They might enjoy the time of worship and even get something from the message given. They may even enjoy the fellowship and kindness that abounded. Then they leave and not applying what they heard. They are not changed. Yet, for a short period of time in church… They escaped the defilements of the world in the shelter of the Spirit present in the body of Christ. They did not repent, were not saved, and they did not receive eternal life. These go back to their carnality.
The part of having not known the way of righteousness the becomes condemnation. Each time the Gospel is ignored it hardens the heart. At each iteration it will become easier to not respond. That is why the latter state is worse not hearing.
Escape the Corruption
Christians escape the corruption and become partakers of the divine nature. It is escaping destruction. And such can never become corrupted again. Therefore losing eternal life and salvation are not possible.
Those that escape the defilements can sometimes be described with a term I like, “churchians.” These are folks who go to church and try to live a good life by not sinning, somehow thinking those things give them credibility. Some even shame others for not living like they do. Self-help and motivational therapy is not Christianity. Doing good deeds is not what makes a Christian. Neither is keeping the law or obeying commands. Don’t fall prey to the quaint religious language.
A Christian is one who believes in the One Whom God sent… Jesus. It’s His name we bear. It’s I solely in Him Who we trust. We know He lived, died for our sins, and spent three days in the grave. That was not the end… For He rose again as Victor over death.
Believing that is what makes one a Christian. Jesus keeps those who are His. Those things don’t come by following a set of rules.