2 Peter 1:6

2 Peter 1:6. And in the knowledge self-control. This is the grace which appears also as the ‘temperance' of which Paul reasoned before Felix (Acts 24:25), and as the last thing noticed in Paul's enumeration of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23). The noun occurs only in these three cases. It denotes ‘temperance' in the largest sense of self-government in all things. This virtue of self-control is so related to ‘knowledge,' that the one should not be in exercise apart from the other. Extravagance is the child of ignorance. A right estimate of oneself and mastery over oneself should be fostered by the knowledge which consists in the practical recognition of duty; and this latter should be helped by the former.

and in the self-control patient endurance. The grace which is rendered ‘patience' both in the A. V. and in the R. V. is of a stronger and more positive character than the familiar English term, and might be more fitly translated patient (or, persevering) endurance. It is a quality never ascribed to God Himself. Where He is spoken of as the ‘God of patience,' it is in the sense of the Giver of patience to others (Romans 15:5). In the New Testament it seems always to carry with it the idea of manliness, expressing not the mere bearing of trials, but the courageous, persevering endurance of them ‘the brave patience with which the Christian contends against the various hindrances, persecutions, and temptations that befall him in his conflict with the inward and outward world' (see Ellicott on 1 Thessalonians 1:3). So, while the A. V. generally renders it ‘patience,' it grasps at times the larger sense, translating it, e. g. by ‘enduring' in 2 Corinthians 1:6, by ‘patient waiting' in 2 Thessalonians 3:5, and by ‘patient continuance' in Romans 2:7. It occupies a great place in the New Testament. Christ Himself gives it as the grace in which the soul itself is to be won (Luke 21:19). James (chap. 2 Peter 1:3-4) speaks of it as the grace which, when it is allowed its perfect work, makes believers themselves perfect. It is specially frequent in the Pauline Epistles and the Apocalypse; in which latter it appears and reappears at marked turning-points (Revelation 1:9; Revelation 2:2-3; Revelation 3:10; Revelation 13:10; Revelation 14:12). In coupling it here with self-control, Peter gives the Christian version of the Stoic summary of morality. As the latter amounted to ‘bear and forbear,' the former says ‘forbear and bear.' Christian self-control is to be practised in and along with the spirit of patient endurance, which saves it from harshness and fitfulness, confirms it into constancy, and mellows it into tenderness and humility. Like the ‘meekness' and ‘temperance' which stand side by side among the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23), these two are sister graces, not to be separated, but enriching each other.

and in the patient endurance godliness. The same term is used for ‘godliness' here as in 2 Peter 1:3; see note there. It is to be furnished in our practice of endurance, in order to secure the latter from hardening into a stoical, self-centred submission, and to make it the purer constancy which draws its inspiration from reverent regard for God and things Divine.