2 Peter 1:1-11 By God’s Divine Power

October 3, 2023 2 Peter, New Testament

We finished 1 Peter 2 weeks ago, so we will continue on 2 Peter. Abraham Lincoln had given us a wonderful message last week on how to suffer well from Job chapter 1. As you might recall, suffering was a major topic in 1 Peter. In fact, the word “suffering” was used in 1 Peter more than any other book in the Bible. This was due the terrible persecution early believers were going through in the hands of the evil emperor Nero. In 1 Peter, Peter was writing about suffering for believers outside the church. But in 2 Peter, he is writing about suffering within in the church through false teachers. These false teachers taught people to compromise with the world and enjoy the sinful pleasures of the world. However, in contrast, Peter taught the believers how to depend on God’s divine power to overcome the corruption of the world and live holy lives pleasing to God. This is what we will focus on today and the title of my message is:

BY GOD’S DIVINE POWER
2 Peter 1:1-11
Key Verse: 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[c] his own glory and excellence…”

Look at verses 1-2. “Simeon[a] Peter[b] , a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Peter called himself “a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.” Now an apostle had some high spiritual status at that time since only a handful men could call themselves apostles. But Peter also called himself “servant,” which in Greek is the word doulos meaning a slave. I heard this Greek word doulos for the first a few months ago when my daughter was having her second child. Before delivery and after delivery a health worker came to help her by getting whatever she needed and even coming to her home in order to babysit. My daughter introduced me to her and said this is my doula, her official work title. Then I realized, wow, the great apostle Peter called himself a doulos, a slave or baby-sitter in our modern understanding. Actually, I understand a little bit these days because Maria and I have been babysitting our two grandchildren often. Even though it is our joy it is hard work changing diapers, feeding, taking them to the park or swimming pool, and constantly keeping an eye on them. We became like two doulas to our children. [Pic 1] (Ben and Christy have 8 grandchildren; Henry and Susan have 5 grandchildren; next year Rhoel and Elena will have one; we have a lot of doulas here) Peter knew before the Lord Jesus, he was only a forgiven sinner but was blessed by God to serve his Lord and Savior, Jesus through the local churches. As saved sinners, we ought to have the same attitude as a servant as Peter did because he wrote that we “have obtained a faith of equal standing” with him and all the other great servants of God in Christian history. We often here the struggles of people in the world who want equality, but in the church, believers who have genuine faith have equal standing as God’s righteous children.
Look at verse 1b again. “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” This gift of faith came to us not by our righteousness or good works, but “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” The interesting part of this is verse is that in Greek grammar God and Jesus are one. In other words, this verse affirms our belief in the Trinity, that Jesus is God. We find this again in verse 2b, “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Knowledge is another theme that permeates the book of 2 Peter. As mentioned in the introduction, false teachers were on the rise who were teaching that real salvation and Christian growth was possible not only by faith in Jesus, but with additional secret knowledge which they possessed. This is nothing new because in our times there are many counterfeit Christians that teach salvation in Jesus plus alpha. They have other teachings or books apart from the Bible. We will talk more about these false teachers as we continue in our 2 Peter study. But according to Peter, God has given us sufficient grace and peace, and in abundance in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. This is why during our study of 2 Peter; we must remember the two kinds of “knowledge” Peter is writing about. The secular word knowledge that we can achieve is through studying in the university or personal studies. This word in Greek is gnosis. We can even get knowledge from the internet how to send a mail bomb. Anybody no how to send a mail bomb? (maybe Abhinav or David knows or find in the internet—actually don’t do it) But the knowledge Peter wrote about in verse 2 in Greek is epignsis, which means knowledge from deep, rich, genuine, and personal experience. One does not receive God’s grace of salvation from just head knowledge of Jesus. Even the devil knows God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Taking Ben’s favorite phrase, experiential and existential knowledge of Jesus comes when we genuinely repent of our sins and personally accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. This saving knowledge causes a paradigm shift in the way we live and think while living in the world. When this true knowledge is wedged in our hearts and souls, then the divine power of God kicks in and our Christian life takes off with rocket fuel.
Look at verse 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[c] his own glory and excellence.[d]” Here the word “power” in Greek is the same word we get our English word dynamite. In God, our lives change from a static state to a dynamic state. By God’s grace when we become believers, children of God, we receive everything that we need for life and godliness. We begin to grow and expand our spiritual horizon. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are born again. Loving and caring parents provide everything that their beautiful babies need. Even some parents begin a college fund after their children are born looking to take care of their children’s needs when they become adults. I heard Yohan is happy to work at Wheaton College because in the future his children can study tuition free. Though figuratively speaking, we are spiritual babies when we were born again, but humanly most of us were adults when we accepted Jesus as our Savior. As adults, we need spiritual knowledge and guidance in order to grow as mature believers. These spiritual nutrients that we need to grow come to through God’s divine power and “through the knowledge of him who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence.[d]” When we grow in our knowledge of Jesus through Bible study, prayer, and sincerely seeking God’s will upon our lives we can begin to live the life God wants us to live. Jesus calls all believers to be his disciples. Luke 9:23: “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’” As as we grow as a disciple or student of Jesus, we can live lives in an excellent way that gives all glory to him. Not only that, we can live lives escaping the corruption of this world.
Look at verse 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.” As we learned in verse 3, God gives divine power, so in verse 4 we can partake in his divine nature. One of God’s divine characteristics is holiness. In order for us to partake in his holiness, God gives us many precious and great promises in the Scriptures to live a holy life. Psalm 119:9-11 reads, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” In addition to this, when we studied about Job’s life with P. Abraham, we were reminded of Job 31:1 (NIV), “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.” In the American Standard Version, verse 4 ends with the word “lust” instead “sinful desire.” When we struggle to keep God’s word in our hearts, he will give us divine power to live a holy life. We need to have wisdom to live in this confusing and complicated world. James 1:5 reads, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Living with wisdom is part of partaking in God’s divine nature and God is more than happy to give us his wisdom when we ask of him. The Bible is filled with many of God’s precious and very great promises. We just need to tap on these powerful words every day. When we live daily following God’s word then we can escape the corrupting and putrefying effects of our sinful world. As we daily fight against the unholy desires in the world and in us, we start getting stronger spiritually, and then God can add to our spiritual took box more and more spiritual weapons to make us strong soldiers of Christ Jesus.
Look at verses 5-7. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,[e] 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.” When we receive divine power, partake in God’s divine nature, then we grow in God’s divine characteristics. Peter writes to add to our fundamental faith virtue. What is the word “virtue”? It’s the word that means excellence of life and reaching once full potential. The best pursuit for a father is to be the best father he can be or for a mother to be the best mother she can be. The best pursuit for a Christian is to be the best example of Christ as possible. It is like the slogan of the US Army, “Be All That You Can Be.” [Pic 2] That is virtue. After virtue, add knowledge. This is the knowledge we learned earlier gnosis. As a student, a Christian should study hard and be a good example to his fellow classmates. As a Christian, studying the Bible daily or even taking some seminary courses is a good way to increase his knowledge about Christ and become a better witness for the gospel. To knowledge we should add self-control or in other words, self-discipline. To grow strong as a believer is not a walk in the park. It requires daily discipline like an athlete training for a marathon, like the Chicago marathon going on today. If you don’t train for it, it will be almost impossible to finish. This past year I did some weight-lifting workout for Daniel and David Cook. [Pic 3] Since I had disciplined myself in weight-lifting for many years I could do the same weights with them even though I’m almost 30 years older than them. Dr. Ben came to workout one time, but he couldn’t handle the weight. So, we had to send him home. In the same way, to grow as a disciple of Jesus we must have spiritual discipline daily and throughout our lifetimes.
To self-control we must add steadfastness or in other words patience and perseverance. I have seen young believers who seemed to start off well in their Christian walk, but when they faced some difficulties or challenges, they withered away. As we learned from the study of Job’s life last week, someday Satan will come and put trials and sufferings in our lives to turn us away from God. That is the time we need steadfastness, persistence, and a never-give-up spirit. After steadfastness, we need to grow in godliness, which is basic to our Christian faith. It is a life of worship and giving daily praise to God our Maker. As John Piper once said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” [Pic 4] After godliness, we can grow in brotherly affection. Of course, it means our love for Jesus grows constantly and spreads to our brothers and sisters in Christ as we obey Jesus’ command “to love one another,” which is the seventh characteristic of God mentioned here. But more than brother love, this is God’s agape love. God’s love to live a selfless and sacrificial life to meet the needs of our suffering brothers and sisters around the world.
Just to highlight the seven characteristics of God, I made a chart with the seven deadly sins. These sins caused us to degrade spiritually and make bring us emotional, physical, and spiritual harm. They are not necessarily in order but put in place to show how diametrically opposite what God offers to what the world offers:
Seven godly characteristics: Seven deadly sins:
1. Virtue Pride
2. Knowledge Envy
3. Self-control Gluttony
4. Brotherly kindness Greed
5. Godliness Lust
6. Steadfastness Sloth
7. Love Anger [Pic 5]
The point is, you cannot begin to grow as a Christian until you have received new life from God through faith in Jesus Christ. It is the life of Christ in you that gives you the motivation and power to change and grow spiritually. The instant you trust in Christ, God graciously gives you access to the unfathomable riches of Christ, which supplies you with everything you need for life and godliness. Ephesians 3:8 reads, “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” I thank God for his abundant grace and mercy given to this sinner. When I look at the seven deadly sins, I can honestly say that I committed them all. Especially, before coming to Bible study I was only an angry young man, full of lust and envy of others because of my Filipino-immigrant inferiority complex. I hated those who had more things better than I had, looked better than me, and smarter than me. But by the grace of God, he sent a Bible teacher to me when I was a freshman at UIC. Slowly and steadily through Bible study, God began to take away the seven deadly sins in my life, and replace them with his godly characteristics. May God help me and each of us continue to grow to our full capacity as Christians so that we may live productive and fruitful lives.
Look at verses 8-9. “For if these qualities[f] are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” We see in these verses that there is a goal for why we strive to continuously grow in godliness because we are given two options: we either will be productive and fruitful or ineffective and unfruitful. Another word for “ineffective” is “useless,” which means “out of work, inactive, idle.” This can be literally true in the world. For example, I know many programmers and they always say they must keep up with the growing technological world to be effective programmers, otherwise, they might be looking for a different job. Jesus also gave many parables like the parable of the talents. The owner gave one worker 10 talents, another 5, and another 1. The first two worked hard and made a profit for their owner. But the one who had 1 talent was idle and buried the talent in the ground in order not to lose it. However, the owner was not pleased with this lazy worker and gave his talent to his hard-working servants. Why would Jesus tell such parables like these? Because God is the owner of our lives and he wants us to live effective and productive lives. But we cannot be productive by our own efforts. Peter’s point is that we must strive daily to grow in godliness and in the seven characteristics of God. Then naturally, like a grapevine, we will produce fruit in God’s right time. This is why Jesus described himself as the vine and we as branches. John 15:5 reads, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” We must remain in Jesus and daily grow in our personal love relationship with him. This is why it is important to remember God’s grace upon our lives.
Look at verse 9 again. “For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” As mentioned, one of Peter’s main points in his message is to grow in the knowledge of salvation in Jesus Christ. We have this knowledge already when we had accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Our goal now is not to forget how Jesus had shed his precious blood on the cross in order to save us from our sins. That was God’s grace of justification. Now growing in godliness is our time of sanctification, which lasts for a lifetime. As we continue to grow in godly character qualities our lives will be useful and fruitful to our Master Jesus, who shed his blood to redeem us. Verses 8-9 reminded me of my key verse this year John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” My salvation is God’s grace alone because he chose me out of the world. God called me when I was a sinner in the UIC cafeteria sitting and eating with Rhoel. [Pic 6] When I was about to finish my teaching certificate, I was asked by the late Dr. Samuel Lee to be a fellowship leader. Then in 2003, God called my family to be missionaries to Ukraine. I never imagined in my wildest dream for my life to be like this. But this was God’s will upon my life and family and all fruit and glory belong to him. However, I believe that God has more plans for me and my family to bear much more fruit for his glory. My duty and each of our duty, now according to Peter, is to be diligent and grow in godliness.
Look at verses 10-11. “Therefore, brothers,[g] be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” To grow in any areas in life, whether at work or for personal training, requires diligence, self-discipline, and hard work. This is why Peter reiterates the importance to be diligent to “your calling and election.” If we don’t strive to continue to grow in godliness, we may acquire spiritual amnesia. If that happens then our spiritual life begins to spiral downward and we become ineffective gospel workers. However, when we do our best to live up to God’s calling and election, we can be sure that we are God’s elect and are saved. We can also have assurance that we will be welcomed into God’s kingdom by our Lord Jesus himself who will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” But we must also know that that our diligence and hard work is God’s grace as well. As Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” Paul did not boast in his works, even though he was very hard-working, but only on God’s grace. Since the Chicago marathon is going on today, I wanted to mention that Paul also considered his Christian life not as a sprint but a marathon. He was running steadily until he reached the finish line. Second Timothy 4:7-8 reads, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” Paul’s attitude was the same attitude Peter had when he wrote in verse 11, “For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Jesus is waiting for us when we cross the finish life with a crown of glory. [Pic 7] We learned in this first chapter in this book that Peter is motivating us to be diligent to grow in godliness by showing us the benefits. In the present, growing in godliness will give us the joy of being useful and fruitful to the Lord, so that we don’t waste our lives. It will give us assurance of salvation. It will keep us from stumbling and falling away from the Lord. Of course, many of us know the benefits of growing and being self-discipline. But it is not easy for any of us because of our fallen sinful nature. For example, we know we should do some exercise but then the fried chicken and chocolate cake in the fridge draws us away. However, we must remember from our key verse today that God by his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. We don’t have to rely on ourselves but ask God to help us grow in godliness. Then in the future, the Lord will welcome us into his eternal kingdom, where we will dwell with him in indescribable blessedness forever. In light of these great benefits, let us pray to be diligent to grow in godliness. Amen.

Bible Study Questions

1.Read verses 1-2. What kind of state was Peter in when he wrote this letter? (1:14) In verse 1, the Greek word for servant is doulos. Have you ever heard of anyone called a doulos today? What did the recipients of this letter receive from God? How do believers receive God’s grace and peace?

2. Read verses 3-4. What has God’s divine power given us and do you think they are sufficient for all believers? What has God given all believers? How can we escape the corruption and decaying influence of our times?

3. Read verses 5-7. Why is it important to keep growing in Christ as a Christian? Peter gives a list of seven characteristics a Christian should grow in: (comment on each one)
i. Goodness ii. Knowledge iii. Self-control iv. Perseverance v. Godliness vi. Brotherly kindness vii. Love

4. Read verses 8-9. Peter mentioned the word knowledge several times. What kind of knowledge do we need and how does it prevent us from being ineffective and unproductive? What kind of spiritual state are Christians in who do not hold on to this knowledge?

5. Read verses 10-11. What should Christians be eager to do? What will those who persevere to the end receive?

1Simeon[a] Peter, a servant[b] and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Confirm Your Calling and Election
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[c] his own glory and excellence,[d] 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,[e] 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. 8 For if these qualities[f] are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers,[g] be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
a. 2 Peter 1:1 Some manuscripts Simon
b. 2 Peter 1:1 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos
c. 2 Peter 1:3 Or by
d. 2 Peter 1:3 Or virtue
e. 2 Peter 1:5 Or excellence; twice in this verse
f. 2 Peter 1:8 Greek these things; also verses 9, 10, 12
g. 2 Peter 1:10 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters

John Peace

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