2 Peter 1:3

‘Seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue (vibrant excellence),'

The divine power of God (2 Peter 1:3) and the power and coming of Christ (2 Peter 1:16; 2 Peter 3:4; 2 Peter 3:12) are the central thought of the letter. It is this that has changed the history of the world, will issue in its end (2 Peter 3:7), and will establish a new heavens and a new earth in which dwells righteousness (2 Peter 3:13), in process of which He will transform His people Who respond to His promises (2 Peter 1:4) so that they may have rich entrance into His eternal kingdom (2 Peter 1:11).

The grace and provision of wellbeing by God is therefore to be seen as multiplied towards us in that by His divine power He has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through Christ, all of which results from our knowledge of Him in His glory and excellence. In other words, by His divine power and through our spiritual knowledge of Him, He has empowered us so that we might live a true spiritual life, the fruit of the ‘eternal life' that He has given us, and might reveal eusebeia, the genuine piety and godliness that results from an intimate knowledge of Christ.

‘Through the knowledge of Him.' This knowledge is all important in combating the quasi-knowledge of the false prophets. It is because His people know their God and Saviour Jesus Christ in all His glory, especially as revealed in his previous letter, that the lesser lords and saviours of these quasi-prophets falls into insignificance. And indeed Peter will emphasise some of this glory later in the chapter (2 Peter 1:16). It is important that they have a full comprehension of His glory. And this all comes about through our ‘spiritual knowledge' of the One Who has called us by His own glory and vibrant excellence. As the Glorious One he has called us to participate in His glory, and as the Righteous One He has called us to be righteous as He is righteous.

The word for ‘virtue' does not just mean pure goodness. It contains within it the thought of actively powerful goodness. It is a word which denotes a good quality or excellence of any kind, and in the ancient classics it is used to denote manliness, vigour, courage, valour, fortitude. So the word includes the idea of energy or power of some kind, in contrast with what we commonly understand by virtue, and should, therefore, be allied to the energy or efficiency which God has displayed in the work of our salvation. We may see it as paralleling the ‘active righteousness' spoken of by Isaiah in parallel with the idea of ‘salvation/deliverance'.

Peter's continuing stress on ‘knowledge' (epignosis - see 2 Peter 1:2; 2Pe 1:8; 2 Peter 2:20; gnosis - 2 Peter 2:5; 2 Peter 3:18) is probably in order to stress the superiority of the Christian's true knowledge of the divine, which is firmly related to history, in direct contrast with the ‘gnosis' of the far fetched fantasies of the then current Hellenistic religions.

These ideas of glory and moral and powerful excellence will be reflected throughout the letter. Thus:

· In Christ we become partakers of the divine nature (Christ in you the hope of glory) -- and having escaped moral corruption we are to build up moral excellence, through our knowing of Him in His glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:4 a; 2 Peter 1:4).

· He has already given a foretaste of His glory and excellence, for it was revealed to His Apostles, and it was also witnessed to in true prophecy (2 Peter 1:12) -- and this is in contrast with the false prophecy which introduces only degradation, corruption and decay (2 Peter 2:1).

· The false prophets mock at the idea that our Lord and Saviour has truly broken into history (2 Peter 3:1) -- and will therefore be caught up in the final conflagration which will burn up all that is degraded and corrupt (2 Peter 3:5), but we in contrast are to live in the light of that day, looking for a new Heaven and a new earth which will replace that degradation and corruption, and being built up in grace and in the knowledge of Him, with the result that we will share in the final glory which will be His (2 Peter 3:11).