Striving for Godliness in the Christian Life — 2 Peter 1
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In 2016 the Australian demographer and social commentator Bernard Salt stirred up a cyclone over smashed avocado.
He observed that many young Australians, instead of saving money for a home deposit, spend their money on expensive café luxuries like “Smashed Avo on Toast.”
This is opting for the immediate gratification of a tangible though fleeting luxury over restraint and self-denial for the sake of an intangible but substantial long-term benefit.
Peter’s letters show how aware he is of the fierce rivalry and struggle between the visible, passing pleasures of this world—many of which are immoral—and the invisible but permanent good of forgiveness, freedom, and eternal life with Jesus Christ.
This is the daily conflict that every Christian since the first generation of eyewitness disciples faces. We have not seen, and do not now see Jesus (1 Pet. 1:8). The full enjoyment of his Kingdom lies in the future. Until then we face persecution, alienation, and fierce inward threats to our faith.
But we do easily see the pleasures of this world, pleasures to indulge in right now, pleasures in which there seems no real harm. We are told to “live your best life now.”
Dodgy pastors tap into this conflict with half-truths and obscuration, not because they really want people to believe certain (false) doctrines but because they’ve worked out a way to make a comfortable life and living from the church by teaching a feel-good evisceration of the Christian message. This preaching accentuates self-affirmation and easy-going positivity and downplays self-condemnation—the “blood, toil, sweat, and tears” that true faith demands.
We can hear them now: “Yes, Jesus said that he was about to return. Yes, he said that we must give up the passing pleasures of the world and be keenly watching and waiting for his arrival. But he hasn’t come and won’t come in our lifetime. And didn’t Paul say that we are justified by faith alone? Relax! Enjoy the pleasures of this world!”
The result? Too many utterly ineffectual Christians and churches, “waterless springs and mists driven by a storm” (2 Pet. 2:17). This is the woeful state of affairs that Peter tackles: a worldly, lazy, self-indulgent, and ineffective church. He tackles it head-to-head.
Remember that you have been saved to godliness.
[You] have obtained a faith of equal standing (privilege) with ours. (2 Peter 1:1)
The Greek verb for “obtained” (λαγχανω, lanchanō) means “to obtain by lot” and emphasizes that faith is God’s gracious gift (cf. Eph 2:8).
The Greek adjective for “equal standing” (ἰσοτιμος, isotimos) refers to someone who is “equal in value, equal in privilege, status or rank in civil life.”[1] Perhaps you thought that the first generation of Christians, who saw Jesus face-to-face, was the hard-core, sacrificial, persecuted church which gave everything for Christ; but that we who haven’t seen Jesus—“who hasn’t yet returned and doesn’t look like he’s going to”—can relax and settle in to a life of compromise.
Not at all. You have the same privileged standing as the first disciples, and you share the same responsibilities.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3a)
The Greek word for “godliness” (εὐσεβεια, eusebeia) is a rich word encompassing “awesome respect accorded to God, devoutness, piety, godliness.”[2]
The power of God is just as available for the church today as it was for the first disciples, granting the same spiritual life and capacity for godliness.
Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3b)
In fact, we have an advantage over the first generation of Christians. Though Peter, James, and John saw the transfigured Jesus (Mat 17), subsequent generations have “the prophetic word more fully confirmed” in the Holy Spirit-given, permanent, stable, and unquestioned truth of the Scripture (2 Pet. 1:19-21).
…he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you might become partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4a)
Here is the great purpose of God’s long-prepared and long-promised salvation: that we come to reflect certain of the very attributes of God. Not, of course, his incommunicable attributes of self-existence, unchangeableness, omnipresence, and omnipotence; but definitely his communicable attributes of love, sacrifice, faithfulness, and service. The sixteen-century Protestant reformer John Calvin writes, “This thought alone ought to give us abundant cause to renounce the world entirely and be borne aloft to heaven.”[3]
Having escaped from the corruption (rottenness) that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:4b)
Just as the Lord freed Israel from Egyptian idolatry and slavery to obedience and pure worship, he has rescued us from the punishment and corruption of sin to joyful obedience lived in the coram Deo, the presence of God.
Therefore, pursue godliness.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith. (2 Peter 1:5a)
The prosaic “supplement” translates the poetic Greek word ἐπιχορηγεω(epichorēgeō). In the ancient world it described gifts given by rich patrons of the arts. It means to supply generously and lavishly.[4]
Peter uses the Greek word for earnestness (σπουδη, spoudē)to convey the idea of both earnest commitment, eagerness, and diligence; and haste and swiftness.[5] The whole phrase “make every effort” conveys the idea of lavishly and urgently employing “every ounce of determination we can muster.”[6]
We want to “make every effort” to strive forward in a life of faith, to build the eight Christian qualities that Peter describes in 1 Peter 1:5-7.
You would never fly to Paris and sit in the Charles de Gaulle airport. You would never, after twelve years of schoolwork, be accepted into your chosen university and then not proceed with the course of instruction.
Having been saved from corruption to new life with God, we would never be content with bare faith and belief in Jesus. We want to “make every effort” to strive forward in a life of faith, to build the eight Christian qualities that Peter is about to describe: “a chain of deep, internal, and experiential changes that will meet our hunger for God’s reality.”[7]
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. (2 Peter 1:5-7)
The way Peter repeats each quality shows that he means them to be understood as building one upon the other. They are not really steps, because you don’t leave each quality behind. Instead, just as a master craftsman accumulates habits and abilities over a lifetime that enable him to create ever more useful, complex, and beautiful things, the Christian will strive over a lifetime to accumulate the habits and abilities of godliness.
If faith is a seed, we will never be content to remain inert under the dark soil. We will strive to the light, to grow from seed to sprout, from sprout to sapling, from sapling to adult maturity, and from maturity to fruitfulness.
Let us consider these qualities one at a time.
1. Faith (πιστις, pistis)
Faith is “confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9). Faith is building our life upon Jesus the solid rock, it is placing ourselves like helpless sheep into his loving arms, it is reaching out to touch him as our Healer, it is calling upon his name for rescue.
Christian life begins with faith and is lived by faith. We are saved by faith alone, but we are not saved by a faith that is alone. We “make every effort” to build on that faith.
2. Virtue (ἀρετη, aretē)
This word refers to that which is good and excellent: “uncommon character worthy of praise.”[8] In Greek mythology it described the praiseworthy characteristics of a hero or god: their military, athletic, or artistic accomplishments.[9]
In fact, Peter uses this word to describe God’s own characteristics:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Pet. 2:9; emphasis added)
[God has called us to] “his own glory and excellence.” (2 Pet. 1:3; emphasis added)
If we are to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4), then we will strive to display the divine attributes of Jesus: love, mercy, patience, toil, and self-sacrificial service.
3. Knowledge (γνωσις, gnosis)
As children, many of us sang: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Yes, but is this knowledge sufficient to answer the hard questions posed by the world and the devil? And by our own minds? How does Jesus love me when I am hurting? When I’m tempted to sin? When my body is in the grave?
A simple knowledge may suffice for simple trials, but will it cope with “the shocks of life”? Won’t it rather be knocked flat in the face of piercing suffering, a clever university lecturer, or the godless atmosphere in which we live and breathe?
We must know exactly who this Jesus who loves me is: that he is Immanuel, Christ, Savior, the Bread and Light of Life, the Alpha and Omega; that he is truly man and truly God; that he regenerates, adopts, and redeems his own; that he gave his life as a sacrifice and propitiation; that he is resurrected, ascended, and seated at God’s right hand.
God sends us into the battle of faith and life not with pen-knife slogans but with the mighty sword of all 1,189 chapters of Scripture.
Note how virtue is the prerequisite for useful knowledge.
4. Self-control (ἐγκρατεια, engkrateia)
This refers to the “restraint of one’s impulses and desires,” to “holding oneself in.”[10] Advertisers and psychologists tell us to indulge: “Don’t repress or deny your feelings and desires.” Yet, we admire athletes who sacrifice self-comfort for sporting success. And we depend on people who have sacrificed time and leisure to diligently accumulate the skills upon which our lives may be enhanced, ennobled, and even saved, such as teachers, mechanics, governors, doctors, nurses, playwrights, and musicians.
For our sake Jesus denied himself food and water for forty days. He “made himself nothing” and “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8). An old commentator wisely suggested that Christians ought “to look on the prosperities of life with some measure of alarm.”[11] We should receive the “outward comforts” of this world, of food and drink and material things, with moderation and thanks and an entire willingness to pass them on to others, knowing that “their worth and usefulness are vastly inferior to spiritual mercies.”[12] Self-control and self-denial are essential for growing in godliness.
Note how knowledge is a prerequisite for self-control.
5. Steadfastness (ὑπομονη, hypomonē)
Picture a Roman legionary standing in the ranks, shield and gladius at the ready. Hordes of fierce Gaulish barbarians are rushing down upon him. He has one duty: to resist the powerful tendency to throw down his weapons, turn, and run. He must stand firm, side-by-side with his brothers-in-arms, knowing that they have his side and his back. In fact, Roman legionaries literally took a firm grip of the belt of the soldier in front of them, holding him upright in the onslaught.
This is our great duty as Christians, to stand under the lies, deceits, and other assaults of the devil (Eph. 6:10-18). Let us, like Paul, stand when we’re tired and wrung-out: “by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger” (2 Cor. 6:5).
Note that self-control is a prerequisite for this steadfastness.
6. Godliness (εὐσεβεια, eusebeia)
We have already seen that eusebeia is “awesome respect” for God. It is having a great love for God and exuding the qualities of God.
Calvin observes that godliness is “the soul of life,” the living fruit of the salvation life which God imparts.[13] Godliness—not talent, charisma, cleverness, and likability—is the sine qua non of Christian leadership, and true Christian faith in general.
We must respond to hate and anger with kindness and peace. We must counter self-esteem with loving self-sacrifice. We must counter lies and deceit with wisdom and truth.
Note that steadfastness is a prerequisite for godliness.
7. Brotherly affection (φιλαδελφια, philadelphia)
This refers especially to the tender affection that Christian brothers and sisters ought to display to one another, to
all our fellow-Christians, who are children of the same Father, servants of the same Master, members of the same family, travellers to the same country, and heirs of the same inheritance, and who therefore are to be loved with a pure heart fervently…as those who are peculiarly near and dear to us, in whom we take particular delight.[14]
We know that love is not a mere expression of feeling; it is a commitment to deny oneself for the good of the other. Yet we must also demonstrate our affection, to “greet one another with a holy kiss” as Paul says more than once.
Our host church in France taught us la bise—the affectionate greeting kiss on both cheeks. In fact, they insisted on it! May your Christian brothers and sisters experience your warmth and affection and love, may they feel that you are truly delighted to see them, to serve and worship the Lord alongside of them.
Note that godliness is a prerequisite for affection.
8. Love (ἀγαπη, agapē)
This is the crowning habit, quality, and attribute that every true Christian strives for. “God is love,” and so we will love one another.
If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18)
The eight qualities to which Peter refers are essential.
These eight qualities do not merely enhance our effectiveness as Christians; they are necessary for effectiveness.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so short-sighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. (2 Peter 1:8-9)
True Christians are open-eyed to their own faults and weaknesses and are frustrated and grieved for their lack of progress and growth (Matt. 5:3-6; James 4:9-10; Rev. 2:4-5). Those who are short-sighted and blind to their faults are complacent and do not pursue holiness as Peter commands.
Similarly, these qualities are a necessary sign of a true and living faith in Christ.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:10-11)
Remember Jesus’ warning:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21-23)
We are saved by faith, and saving faith is proved genuine not by the perfection of these eight qualities but by their growth.
Let us trust in Christ and pursue them with all our heart.
Related Articles:
What Is the Difference between Justification and Sanctification?
“Give Me Neither Poverty Nor Riches” — 7 Things the Book of Proverbs Teaches Us About Money
3 Reasons to Be Thankful for the Lord's Discipline in Your Life
10 Words Every Christian Should Know (and Be Able to Explain)
Notes:
[1] Cleon Rogers Jr and Cleon Rogers III, The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 581; hereafter cited as NLEKGNT.
[2] Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 412; hereafter cited as BDAG.
[3] John Calvin, The Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews and The First and Second Letters of St Peter, trans. William B. Johnston, 12 vols., Calvin's New Testament Commentaries, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963), 330.
[4] Dick Lucas and Christopher Green, The Message of 2 Peter & Jude (The Bible Speaks Today) (Leicester: IVP, 1995), 57.
[5] BDAG, 393.
[6] NLEKGNT, 581.
[7] Lucas and Green, 2 Peter & Jude, 56.
[8] BDAG, 130.
[9] NLEKGNT, 582.
[10] NLEKGNT, 582.
[11] Lucas and Green, 2 Peter & Jude, 59.
[12] Mathew Henry, Mathew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible , 6 vols. (1708-10; repr., Peabody: Hendrickson, 1991), 6:837.
[13] Calvin, Hebrews, 1&2 Peter, 329.
[14] Henry, Commentary, 6:837.
