2 Peter 3:18

2 Peter 3:18. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The R. V. prefers the rendering ‘grow in the grace and knowledge,' etc. a rendering which may mean either ‘in the grace and in the knowledge which Christ gives,' or ‘in the grace which Christ gives and in the gift of knowing Him.' The A. V. keeps clear of this ambiguity, as well as of the special awkwardness of the second construction, by taking the grace as a thing distinct from what follows it. The great duty finally urged is thus the duty of progress, and that in two particular articles, namely, the gracious life or the Christian graces generally, and that special grace of a personal knowledge of Christ which holds so fundamental a place in the Epistle. In this way, too, the writer returns at the close of his letter to the thought with which he started. His opening salutation had been a prayer that ‘grace and peace ‘might be' multiplied to them ‘in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord' (chap. 2 Peter 1:2). And now, ‘as the conclusion of the whole matter, and as the only effectual preservation from the assaults and seductions of all forms of a science falsely so called, this same blessing of spiritual enlargement, and that through the same means, is laid on their own consciences and hearts as a most solemn obligation' (Lillie).

to him he (or, is) the glory both now and for ever. The final Amen, which is retained by the R. V., is of very doubtful authority. The idea of eternity is expressed here by an altogether singular phrase, which means literally ‘unto the day of the eon,' and which may be chosen to denote the beginning of the new, the eternal age, ‘the day on which eternity, as contrasted with time, begins' (Huther). The doxology is addressed to Christ, and is significant of Peter's conception of His Person. It is, as Alford suggests, like one of those hymns which Pliny says were sang by the Christians of his time to Christ as God. It closes the Epistle, too, in its own simple majesty, unaccompanied and undiminished by any statement personal to the writer, or even by any of the usual valedictory salutations to the readers.