*Clarified to observe modern standards of sentence structure, punctuation and grammar.
All text in Green is linked and can be clicked on.
1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:
1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
1:3 As his divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue;
1:4 By which exceedingly great and precious promises are given to us, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.1
1:5 For this very reason, make every effort [the maximum possible],2 to add to your faith, virtue [excellence]; and to virtue knowledge;
1:6 And to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance [or patience]; and to perseverance, godliness;
1:7 And to godliness, brotherly kindness;and to brotherly kindness, love.3
1:8 For if these things are in you and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:9 But he who lacks these things is blind and short sighted, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. [cleansed from his old sins, but has failed to secure the freedom from the bondage of sin by repentance, the circumcision of the spirit, on the inward cross of self-denial.]
1:10 Therefore, brothers, be diligent to make your calling and election sure; for if you do these things you will never fall;
1:11 For an entrance will be abundantly supplied to you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
1:12 Therefore I will not neglect to always remind you of these things, though you know them and are established in the truth.
1:13 I think it is right, as long as I am in this tabernacle [body], to stir you up by reminding you,
1:14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle, as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.
1:15 Moreover I will be careful to see that after my decease, you will always be reminded of these things.
1:16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
1:17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when a voice came to him from the excellent glory, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
1:18 And we heard this voice that came from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mount.
1:19 And so [like we heard God's voice from heaven on the mount] we have the more sure prophetic word [the word in your heart]; to which you do well to pay attention, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star [Jesus] rises in your hearts;4
1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture ever comes about by the prophet's own imagination.
1:21 For prophecy in old times did not come by the will of man; but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, [and so the prophetic word that you hear also comes from the Holy Spirit],_________________________________________
For a view of this chapter in several Bibles displayed in parallel, click here. Bibles are KJV, New Intl, Amp, and New KJV.
1 exceedingly great and precious promises are given to us, that by these you might be partakers [sharers] of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. By the promises, you might be partakers of the divine nature: this is to enter union with Christ, to become one with Christ and the Father.
That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:21.
I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, John 17:23.
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20.
If a man loves me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. John 14:23.
the world will no longer see me; but you will see me; John 14:19.
I will love him and will show myself to him. John 14:21.How does this occur? First, by believing in the great promises, the true gospel. But since the false church has been preaching a lying gospel, no one attains union because the true gospel is the power of god to salvation; a mandatory prerequisite to access the changing power of God's grace.
Second, by the inward cross of self-denial, because the cross is the power of God; also a mandatory prerequisite to access the changing power of God's grace. Again, the false church thinks the cross is jewelry or an idol on the wall to be bowed down to. The false church laughs at the cross as unnecessary, since they presume they are already righteous and saved: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing; but to us who are being saved the cross is the power of God. 1 Cor 1:18. They have a form of godliness, but deny the power of it; turn away from such people. 2 Tim 3:5. You must hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Pet 1:13.
With the power of God, you can escape the corruption of the world through lusts, to become partakers (share) in the divine nature.
That he would grant to us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies [lusts, pride, pleasures, addictions] might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. Luke 1:74.2 Make every effort, to add to your faith.. Mark! Every effort means your maximum possible effort. You must seek God with your whole heart and soul! You must make every effort to add to your faith, to arrive at salvation. Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able, Mat 7:13-14,Luke 13:23-24. I hope you are beginning to see how insidious the false gospel of grace is, telling you that you need to do nothing but believe, saved by faith with no works of obedience; even warning people not to do any obedient works, or they will lose their supposed salvation. Could there be a more evil lie created? Belief is the beginning of the journey, not the end, which Paul nine times emphasizes:
- now is our salvation nearer than when we believed, Rom 13:11,
- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, Phil 2:12,
- But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thes 5:8, and
- For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Cor 1:18. While in the inward cross of self-denial, you will see the sin slowly disappear from your life until you are free of sin.- godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation, 2 Cor 7:10.
- do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption [future happening]. Eph 4:30.
(Paul is speaking to believers in the church who have not yet been redeemed.
1st you get the seal of the Holy Spirit. Then you are redeemed when Christ brings your salvation, when you are baptized into the death of Christ. )- For we are the sweet aroma of Christ unto God, to those who are being saved. 2 Cor 2:15
- we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold firm the beginning of our confidence to the end. Heb 3:14
- we desire that every one of you show the same diligence in realizing the full assurance of hope to the end.
So that you are not slothful, but followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Heb 6:11-12.And Peter tells us of the journey's end: Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet 1:13.
And we desire that every one of you show the same diligence in realizing the full assurance of hope to the end, Heb 6:11.He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Heb 11:6. (Diligence - continually attending to and striving to achieve a goal; laborious; persevering.)
The ministers of the deficit sects tell their members that they are righteous, even while they are still sinning, sin being wickedness.
He who says to the wicked, 'You are righteous;' him will the people curse, nations will abhor him. Pro 24:24
All the pastors and ministers will be cursed, who lied, saying that with belief in Jesus, you are righteous while still locked in sin.
In effect, the ministers of today tell their members: don't seek, don't obey, don't fear, don't strive -
saying there is no need, because of grace, your supposed license for immorality and excuse for remaining in sin.
Yet Paul instructed ministers thus: "Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear." 1 Tim 5:20.
Paul also pleaded for repentance: remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.3 Peter documents the progression of faith - in the true gospel. Faith in a different gospel is useless, fatal to your soul, and an abomination. Then with true hope add to faith virtue [excellence], then knowledge, then self-control, then perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love. So, Peter is saying that just believing is not enough. First you have to believe the true gospel, and then you have follow Jesus by picking up your cross daily, dying daily. From George Fox:
You must have fellowship with Christ in his sufferings; 1 Pet 4:12-13
if you will reign with him, you must suffer with him; 2 Tim 2:12
if you will live with him, you must die with him; 2 Tim 2:11
and if you die with him, you must be buried with him, Rom 6:4
and being buried with him in the true baptism, you also rise with him. Col 2:12
There must be "a coming into his death, a suffering with Christ;" and this is of necessity to salvation; and not temporarily, but continually: there must be a "dying daily."As you die daily, the leaven of the Kingdom is spreading throughout your body, evidenced by the progression of faith and virtue, ending in kindness and love.
Peter continues above: But he who lacks these things, is blind and short sighted, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Therefore, brothers, be diligent to make your calling and election sure; for if you do these things you will never fallFaith is a journey. It has a beginning and a finish; listening to, and obeying Jesus, is him being the author and finisher of your faith. When you hear him speak to you, Jesus authors your faith by laying the foundation of your faith on rock;
Whoever comes to me, and listens to my words and does [practices, obeys] them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man who built a house, and dug deep and laid the foundation securely built on a rock; and when the flood arose, the torrent beat violently upon that house, but could not shake it because it was founded on a rock. Luke 6:47-48.
And when you hear Jesus speak his words to you, and you believe it to be him, the foundation of your faith has been set in rock, a rock so solid that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it.Jesus finishes your faith when you see him bring your salvation:
4 Before you can see Christ in the Light, you must listen and obey the word of God, spoken to you by the mouth of God. As Peter so well stated: And so we have the more sure prophetic word; to which you do well to pay attention, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. I, Jesus.. am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. Rev 22:16. He who overcomes, ..I will give him the morning star. Rev 2:26-28.
You can read the Bible continuously, and you will never see the Morning Star arise in your hearts; but if you daily listen for the living word, hear, and obey - the day breaks through and the Morning Star [light] arises in your hearts. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Cor 4:6. Christ is revealed in your heart; you see, and have knowledge of, the glory of God.
Until this occurs, you must obey the voice of the Lord. Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it! Luke 11:28.
My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice. Luke 8:21.
Then there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, "This is My Son, My Chosen One, My Beloved; listen to, believe, and obey Him!” Luke 9:35.
So you must come to Jesus, silently listen, hear him speak to you, and then obey what he commands you to do. Come, listen, hear, obey.
This verse is frequently explained in error to refer to the Bible. In the 17th Century, a young George Whitehead writes of the controversy:Here arose the chief controversy, the priest giving the preference to the Scriptures, from the text in 2 Pet 1:19; “We have a more sure word of prophecy; to which we do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the day-star arises in your hearts." The priest would have this more sure word to be the Scriptures of the prophets, which I was constrained to oppose, considering where and between what the comparison more sure word consisted; as being between the voice that came from heaven to Christ on the Mount - which Peter and James and John heard - and the word, the light, or the spirit of prophecy, in the hearts of those believers, who did not hear that voice from heaven, nor there with Peter, James and John in the mountain, when they heard that voice from the excellent glory from heaven. Yet that voice was certainly true, that Christ was the Beloved Son of God, whom, by that voice they were required to hear. It is not said, you have also a more true word of prophecy, but a more sure word. It was more sure to them who had it in their hearts constantly to take heed to, and to guide them to the arising of the day-star in their hearts, even the bright and Morning Star. I say this word, this light, which they had in their hearts, must be more sure to them than that voice which they never had nor heard; it being especially and peculiarly heard by three disciples, not by all believers; but this internal word or light, is generally manifest, and continues in the believers, who wait for the appearance of Christ in spirit.
The priest would have this more sure word of prophecy, unto which Peter directed them, to be the Scriptures of the prophets, who prophesied of Christ to come, before he came. To which I answered; the voice from the excellent glory, which Peter, James and John heard, when they were with Christ on the mount, testified of Christ having come, saying; "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." Therefore this voice and testimony so expressed to them, must be more sure than the Scriptures of the prophets, written before he had come. It would be no small perversion of Peter's words, to turn them thus; although we have a voice and testimony from heaven, that Christ the Messiah is come already, yet ye have also more sure Scriptures of the prophets, which foretell and declare unto you that the Messiah is to come, and that ye do well to take heed thereunto until he comes. This denies Christ to have already come, contrary to the testimony just given him being the Father's son from heaven, to and by three of his faithful and credible witnesses, Peter, James and John. And though that voice from heaven was sure and certain, to them who heard it [the three disciples only], yet that Word, that Light of Christ, which in many appears as a light shining in a dark place, even in dark hearts, is more sure to them than that voice or vision which they have not heard or seen, [as reported as prophecy in Scripture]. This word or light, will be known to be a very sure guide and rule; it will prophesy, open, and show things to come, especially to them that do well, that is, in taking timely heed thereunto.And in his Journal, George Fox comments on this error in interpretation also:
As I went towards Nottingham on a First-day in the morning, with Friends to a meeting there, when I came on the top of a hill in sight of the town, I saw the great steeple-house: and the Lord said unto me, ‘You must go cry against that distant great idol,* and against the worshippers inside.’ I said nothing of this to the Friends, but went with them to the meeting, where the mighty power of the Lord God was among us; in which I left Friends sitting in the meeting, and went to the steeple-house.
When I came there all the people looked like fallow ground, and the priest, like a great lump of earth, stood in his pulpit above: he took for his text these words of Peter, ' We have also a more sure word of prophecy, which you do well to heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.' He told the people this was the scriptures, by which they were to try all doctrines, religions, and opinions. Now the Lord's power was so mighty upon me, and so strong in me, that I could not hold; but was made to cry out, 'Oh! no, it is not the scriptures;' and told them what it was, namely, the holy spirit, by which the holy men of God gave forth the scriptures, whereby opinions, religions, and judgments were to be tried; for it led into all truth, and so gave the knowledge of all truth. For the Jews had the scriptures, yet resisted the holy ghost, and rejected Christ, the bright morning-star, and persecuted Christ and his apostles, and took upon them to try their doctrines by the scriptures, but erred in judgment, and did not try them aright, because they tried them without the holy ghost.Previous Chapter/Next Chapter
Bible Book Index