2 Peter 1:7

And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. — And in your godliness [supply] love of the brethren, and in your love of the brethren, charity. In other words, your godliness must not be selfish and solitary, but social and Christian; for he who loveth God must love his brother also (1 John 4:20). And though “charity begins at home” with “them who are of the household of faith,” it must not end there, but reach out to all men, whether Christians or not. (Comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:12; Galatians 6:10.) The translation “brotherly kindness” is a little to be regretted; it obscures the exact meaning of the Word, and also the fact that the very same word is used in 1 Peter 1:22. “Love of the brethren” means love of Christians as such, as members of the same great family, as God’s adopted children. “Charity” means love of men as such, as creatures made in the likeness of God, as souls for which Christ died. The word for “charity” is emphatically Christian love; not mere natural benevolence.

Each in this noble chain of virtues prepares the way for the next, and is supplemented and perfected by it. It begins with faith, and it ends (like St. Paul’s list of virtues, Colossians 3:12) with charity. But we must not insist too strongly upon the order in the series, as being either logically or chronologically necessary. It is a natural order that is here given, but not the only one. These three verses are the First Epistle condensed. Each one of the virtues mentioned here is represented quite distinctly in 1 Peter: virtue, 1 Peter 1:13; knowledge, 1 Peter 3:15; self-control, 1 Peter 1:14; 1 Peter 2:11; patience, 1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 2:21; godliness, 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Peter 3:4; love of the brethren, 1 Peter 1:22; 1 Peter 3:8; charity, 1 Peter 4:8. The list of virtues given in the Epistle of Barnabas 2 runs thus: — Faith, fear, patience, long - suffering, temperance, wisdom, prudence, science, knowledge. The very slight amount of similarity affords no ground for supposing that the writer was acquainted with 2 Peter.