godliness

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Review

In 2Peter 1, Peter’s main point is that pursuing a life of faith cannot be separated from pursuing godliness.  He is not simply exhorting us to be nice people.  He is calling us to consider the implications of the gospel we say we believe and whether or not our lifestyles reflect those implications.

In the 2Peter 1:12-21, Peter makes two points common to the New Testament:

1. The people of God need to be reminded of the truths of the gospel.
2. We can have confidence in those truths because they are grounded in the eye-witness testimony of the apostles of Jesus Christ and of the teaching of the Old Testament prophets.

Passage

¹²Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.  ¹³I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,  ¹⁴since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.  ¹⁵And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.  ¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  ¹⁷For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,”  ¹⁸we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.  ¹⁹And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,  ²⁰knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.  ²¹For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.- 2Peter 1:12-21 ESV

• Peter gives his purpose for writing in 1:12-15.
• Peter feels an urgency to remind them of the truth of the gospel so that they won’t listen to the false ideas and voices.
• Peter believes his earthly life is almost over and history tells us he was right.
• Peter’s authority as an eye-witness to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ is particularly important to his readers because they are dealing with false teachers.
• At the transfiguration (Matthew 17), the Law represented by Moses and the prophets represented by Elijah bear witness along with the voice from heaven Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
• In rejecting the apostles’ teaching, the false teachers are not just rejecting a good philosophy.  They are rejecting divine revelation.
• God has shed light into our darkness through the message He proclaimed through the prophets and His Son, confirming that Jesus is the Messiah.
• No prophet made up his message from his own imagination.  Rather he was told it by God.
• Once we realize the Bible is a reasonably accurate historical document, then we have to take its claims about itself seriously.
• The Bible claims to be divine revelation.  That leaves no middle ground to pick and choose which parts of it we want to believe.

Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation.

Next: 06 2Peter 2:1-3 Why 2 Peter 2 and Jude are so similar

Previous: 04 2Peter 1:7-11 Brotherly affection & love

Series: 2Peter: How to find Life

Study: 2Peter Resources

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Review

Peter is writing to churches troubled by false teachers who are distorting the gospel and encouraging others to pursue an immoral lifestyle.  Peter begin the letter by reminding them the gospel is meant to lead us into eternal life and godliness.  All of humanity has two great needs:  1) we need to be forgiven for our sinfulness; and 2) we need to be freed from the corruption of our sins.  God is solving that problem through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The false teachers loose among his readers are preaching a different gospel.  Their goal is NOT life and godliness and they are leading others astray. In this section Peter is making the connection between belief and lifestyle.

Passage

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,  ⁷and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  ⁸For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  ⁹For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.  ¹⁰Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.  ¹¹For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. – 2Peter 1:5-11 ESV

• brotherly affection – Part of loving God is loving the things God loves, including His people.  Our faith should cut across all other lines that divide us (e.g. race, gender, socioeconomic background, national identity, etc.) and bring us together.
• love – While “brotherly affection” (philadelphia) referred to the particular bond believers have, “love” (agape) refers to love of all mankind and is rooted in the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.
• In 2Peter 1:8, he begins his summary, saying this qualities should increasingly be marks of your lifestyle, not that you have obtained them perfectly now.
• These qualities result from being a person with genuine saving faith and thus keep you from being unfruitful.
• The one who is shortsighted is not seeing straight.  He is immature and has not yet grasped all the implications of the gospel and that fact that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and has promised to free us from them.
• In 2Peter 1:10-11, the call and choosing of God is revealed not by my words but by my lifestyle choices.  Ultimately  I will reveal what I truly believe by the way I act and react.  If you don’t want the items in this list, then it’s questionable whether you want the gospel at all, because this is the kind of thing the gospel promises.  But if you see these qualities increasing in yourself – even if only in baby steps — take heart, you will gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
• These are the life qualities that grow in the person who God has called and chosen and given the gift of saving faith.

Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation.

Next: 05 2Peter 1:12-21 The Prophetic Word

Previous: 03 2Peter 1:5-6 Virtue to Godliness

Series: 2Peter: How to find Life

Study: 2Peter Resources

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In 2Peter 1:5-11, Peter is explaining the connection between believing the gospel and pursuing a lifestyle of godliness.    I argued in the previous podcast that these qualities are NOT the cause of spiritual maturity, rather they RESULT from spiritual maturity.  They are the inevitable result of a heart attitude change of coming to faith.  In this podcast we’ll define each term in the list and discuss why Peter includes it and how it results from faith.

Review

Peter is writing to churches troubled by false teachers who are distorting the gospel and encouraging others to pursue an immoral lifestyle.  Peter begin the letter by reminding them the gospel is meant to lead believers into eternal life and godliness.  All of humanity has two great needs:  1) we need to be forgiven for our sinfulness; and 2) we need to be freed from the corruption of our sins.  God solves those problems through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In this section Peter is making the connection between belief and lifestyle.

Passage

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. – 2Peter 1:5-7

• virtue/moral excellence –  A genuine faith will give rise to a pursuit of moral excellence. The purpose of the gospel is to grant us a moral excellence or holiness like God’s.  Part of believing the gospel is recognizing that moral excellence is our great call and hope.  While we still struggle with sin, we now care deeply about righteousness and so we will not join the false teachers in pursing of ungodliness.
• knowledge – a genuine faith and moral excellence will give rise to a quest for knowledge.   The heart touched by God wants to know about God, so we will not join the false teachers in their rejection of the truth.
• Self control – If I have faith, then I now long for what God wants and what God values.  When His values and my values conflict, I strive to exercise self-control, saying no to my desires and changing them.
• Perseverance – Genuine saving faith is a gift of God and God has promised to finish what He started.  When trials and troubles come, believers stay true to God’s word and continue seeking to follow Him.
• Godliness –  While enlightened pagans could applaud the things in this list, Peter is not talking about philosophical ideals.  Rather he is describing a heart changed by faith that is striving to be like God.  To pursue loving God is to pursue godliness.

None of us have attained these qualities as we should.  Faith is a long journey and progress toward a goal.  We will not reach perfection in this life.  The goal of this life is the maturing of our faith.

Word Study

If you want to do your own word study, see Bible Study 101: How to do a word study

ESV	Greek	Strong’s	Basic Definition
virtue	ἀρέτη aretē	G703	virtue, moral goodness, excellence
knowledge	γνῶσις gnōsis	G1108	intelligence, understanding
self-control	ἐγκράτεια egkrateia	G1466	self-control; master desires
steadfastness	ὑπομονή hupomonē	G5281	perseverance, endurance
godliness	εὐσέβεια eusebeia	G2150	piety, reverence, respect
brotherly love	φιλαδελφία philadelphia	G5360	affection, love of brothers & sisters
love	ἀγάπη agapē	G26	love, good will

Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation.

Next: 04 2Peter 1:7-11 Brotherly affection & love

Previous: 02 2Peter 1:5-11 For this very reason

Series: 2Peter: How to find Life

Study: 2Peter Resources

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To understand the virtues in 2Peter 1:5-11, first we need to know the context.  Particularly, 1) Peter is speaking to churches infected by false teachers who are encouraging them to pursue greed and sensuality; and  2) Peter is arguing that believing the gospel includes a change in lifestyle.

Review

The apostle Peter wrote this letter near the end of his life (approximately 65-67 AD) to churches troubled by false teachers.  His purpose was to encourage his readers stand firm in the apostolic gospel.  He opened the letter by reminding them that as an apostle is his uniquely qualified to speak for Jesus, and that if we abandon the gospel Jesus taught for a false gospel, we lose eternal life

Passage

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. – 2Peter 1:5-11 ESV

Context

• Remember that authors emphasize different issues based on the situation of their original readers. Part of our goal is to figure out why Peter emphasized what he did.
• False teachers are misleading Peter’s audience into believing they can pursue an immoral lifestyle (2Pet 2:1-3; 2Pet 2:14-15; 2Pet 2:18-19; 2Pet 3:3-4; 2Pet 3:17).
• As we saw in 2Peter 1:1-4, knowledge of God comes through the apostolic message.
• The relationship between knowledge and salvation is not like an instruction manual that tells us exactly what to do.  Rather the instructions present an opportunity to reveal the faith God has given us.
• Peter will argue that what the false teachers teach about God cannot be trusted because their lifestyle reveals that they do not understand who God is or what He values.
• In contrast to the lifestyle of the false teachers, a person with genuine saving faith will be marked by the lifestyle described in this section.
• 2Peter 1:5-7 describes the sort of qualities that God is producing in a person with saving faith.
• 2Peter 1:5 “For this very reason”   refers backwards to 2Peter 1:1-4. Since the gospel is the way to life and godliness, ask yourself if your lifestyle reflects the virtues that result from saving faith.
• He concludes in 2Peter 2:8-11, if you want to make certain you are in fact chosen by God, consider whether your lifestyle reflects the virtues on this list, as opposed to the lifestyle of the false teachers.
• The list in 2Peter 1:5-7 is not a progression of importance or growth like rungs of ladder but rather an amplification: “not only this, but also that”.

The next podcast will examine the items in the list.

Please listen to the podcast for more detail and explanation.

Next: 03 2Peter 1:5-6 Virtue to Godliness

Previous: 01 2Peter 1:4-11 How to find life

Series: 2Peter: How to find Life

Study: 2Peter Resources

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