2 Peter 1:1-2

There is a marked difference between the opening of this Second Epistle and that of the First. The one inscription, indeed, is not less remarkable than the other for wealth of thought and tenderness of feeling. The benediction, too, with which the readers of this Epistle are greeted, has the same peculiarity of expression as the former. But there is more of the personal now in the description of the writer, and more of the catholic in the description of the readers. The writer's name is given with greater familiarity. His official title is given with greater fulness, and more in the Pauline form. The local designation of the readers is omitted, and they are described simply in respect of what they are by grace. This may be due to the fact that the former letter and the oral communications of its bearer, Silvanus, had brought the author into closer relations with the recipients. In contents and in phraseology the Introduction has also a character of its own. It points to Gentile Christians as the persons immediately addressed. It starts, too, with at least two ideas which bulk largely in the body of the Epistle, namely, that of spiritual knowledge as opposed to what is taught by seductive pretenders, and the lordship of Christ as opposed to the licence which despises government and speaks evil of dignities.