2 Peter 1:4

Peter opens the way letters opened in his day, naming himself and then his readers, and he fills the greeting with teaching. He gives both his names. Simon is his own Hebrew name, and Peter, Petros, “rock”, is the name Jesus gave him.

He calls himself first a servant. The word is doûlos, a slave, whether by force or by choice, and Greeks and Romans heard in it a bondservant who belonged wholly to his master. Peter places himself completely under Christ’s will, in the company of the Lord himself, who “took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). He also calls himself an apostle, one sent by Christ with authority to proclaim the gospel and establish the church. The two words stand side by side, humility and authority together. Peter speaks with Christ’s authority because he belongs entirely to Christ.

He probably wrote near the end of his life, perhaps from Rome, to believers scattered through Asia Minor, much as his first letter was addressed (1 Peter 1:1). That first letter had spoken to believers under persecution about the testing of their faith (1 Peter 1:6–9). Now the danger came from inside the churches. False teachers denied the Lord, lived loosely, scoffed at Christ’s return and questioned the apostles’ authority, as Peter goes on to show in 2 Peter 2 and 2 Peter 3:3–4. Against that background, everything in these opening verses roots the readers’ faith in God’s own character and in Christ’s saving work.

Peter writes “to them that have obtained like precious faith with us”. The word behind “like precious” is isótimos, of equal value or honour. His readers’ faith is of the same worth and the same divine origin as the faith of Peter and the other apostles, even though they never walked with Jesus as Peter did. Every true believer stands on the same footing before God, whatever their background or the way they came to Christ, and this shared faith binds believers together.

The verb “obtained” is lanchánō, which speaks of receiving something by allotment. Faith came to them as the portion God gave them, a gift from him. Paul says the same: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Faith received as a gift leaves us humble and grateful, and it gives all the glory to God as the author of our salvation.

This faith came “through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”. “Through” here is the Greek en, the means by which they received it. The word for righteousness, dikaiosýnē, means equity of character or of act, and in the New Testament it is used especially of justification. Both senses meet in this verse. God’s righteousness is his own perfect justice, and it is also his saving act, by which he declares sinners righteous through faith in Christ.

Paul writes that in the gospel “is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith” (Romans 1:17), “even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:22). It reaches us because of what Christ did: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ “of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30), and he is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). Our standing with God rests on his unchanging character and on Christ’s finished work, so it holds firm when our own performance wavers.

“Grace and peace” was the usual apostolic greeting, a prayer for the readers, and Peter enlarges it. Grace, cháris, comes from a verb meaning to rejoice. It means graciousness and favour, God’s influence on the heart that then shows in the life, all that he gives freely out of his own goodness and apart from any merit of ours. Peace, eirḗnē, probably comes from a verb meaning to join, and it means wholeness and well-being, being reconciled to God and at rest in him. Paul joins the two: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand” (Romans 5:1–2). Grace and truth “came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), and “he is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14).

Peter asks that they be “multiplied”, plēthýnō, increased in abundance. He prays for a supply of grace and peace that keeps growing. For churches troubled by false teachers (2 Peter 2:1–3), grace gives the strength to resist error and live rightly, and peace gives a steady heart while deceivers stir things up. The peace of God “shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

Verse 3 tells us what we already have: “his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness”. The power is dýnamis, might or power, the word also used of miraculous works, and “divine”, theîos, means what belongs to God himself. Everything the Christian life needs comes from God’s own strength.

“Hath given” is dōréomai, to bestow freely as a gift, and Peter speaks of the gift as already made. It is “all things”, the whole supply, for “life”, zōḗ, the true life we have in Christ, and for “godliness”, eusébeia, reverence toward God that shows itself in a life that honours him. Paul says that God “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3), and that “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Christ himself is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and he is our example of devotion to God.

The gift reaches us “through the knowledge of him that hath called us”. The preposition is diá, by way of, and the knowledge is epígnōsis again, the word of verse 2. Our calling begins with God, who draws us to himself, and the one who called us is Christ, whom we come to know.

Christ has called us “to glory and virtue”. Glory, dóxa, is God’s splendour, majesty and honour. Virtue, arétē, is excellence, often moral excellence, goodness or courage. The Greeks prized arétē as an ideal of human excellence, and Peter roots it in God’s own character. To be called to glory and virtue is to be called to share in God’s splendour and to reflect who he is in a life of moral excellence.

Paul traces the same path from calling to glory: “whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). In daily life this excellence looks like the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22–23). Christ shows both perfectly. He reflected the Father’s glory, for “we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14), and he lived a life of perfect virtue.

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.” The verb is dōréomai again, freely bestowed, and verse 4 shows how the “all things” of verse 3 reach us: God’s divine power works through his promises. They are exceeding great in scope, taking in all of God’s covenant blessings, and precious because of their worth, secured by Christ’s sacrifice. They include his forgiveness, his power, his presence and eternal life, and they are declarations of who God is and what he means to do. Later in the letter scoffers ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3:3–4), and Peter’s readers stand on promises God himself has given. “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

The promises have a purpose: “that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature”. “Partakers” is koinōnós, from the word for common, a sharer or partner. “Divine” is theîos, the same word as in “divine power” in verse 3, and “nature” is phýsis. Through God’s promises we come to share in his character, his holiness, righteousness, love and truth, and we are made more and more like him.

Scripture elsewhere calls this work sanctification. God’s people are predestinated “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29), and they put off “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” and put on “the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24). The work ends in glory: “when he shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2).

Our share in this nature comes through union with Christ, in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). By his Spirit he lives in believers, so our share in the divine nature is a share in his own life, character and victory.

The verse ends with what we have left behind. “Corruption”, phthorá, means decay and ruin, moral and spiritual deterioration, the decay that sin spreads through the fallen world. Its source is “lust”, sinful desire. “Having escaped” speaks of a decisive break with its rule. Peter’s readers lived among the Gentiles under Rome, in a world full of idolatry and moral ruin, and they knew what that corruption looked like.

Peter comes back to it when he says that the false teachers, who promise others liberty, “themselves are the servants of corruption” (2 Peter 2:19). The escape is Christ’s victory. He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and his victory over sin and death sets us free from the world’s decay.

These four verses tell us what God has done before Peter asks anything of us. God has given every believer a faith of equal honour with the apostles’, a righteousness that is his own, grace and peace that grow as we know him, all things that life and godliness require, and promises great enough to make us sharers in his nature. In all of it we see who God is: generous, mighty, and true to what he has said. Our Saviour Jesus Christ is himself God, and the knowledge of him is where every one of these gifts reaches us. The call to diligence in the verses that follow rests on this ground, and the one who called us to glory and virtue has already supplied the way there.