The Bible Says
2 Peter 1:3-4 Meaning

In 1 Peter 1:3-4, the Apostle Peter continues his description of the common starting point of a “faith of the same kind as ours” held by all believers, asserting that each believer is born to a living hope of eternal life and possesses an imperishable inheritance.

Having introduced in verse 2 the concept of true knowledge, “epignósis,” meaning a deeper, more intimate knowledge of God, Peter now continues to give more details about this true knowledge in verse 3.

We can make the following breakdown of the structure of verse 3:

•    Seeing that-referring to a reason or cause.
•    His divine power-meaning God’s might, strength and capacity (I Peter 1:5).
•    has granted-implying the giving of a free gift. 
•    to us-referring to both Peter and his believing readers. 
•    everything-meaning all that is necessary.
•    pertaining to life-the context indicates spiritual, abundant life (1 Peter 3:7).
•    and godliness-Greek “eusebeia” a word implying a devotion to God that puts Him above anything else in our life to the point of dying for Him (1 Timothy 4:7).
•    through-indicating the means by which life and godliness come.
•    the true knowledge-from the Greek “epignósis” meaning a deeper, richer, fuller, more intimate knowledge (John 17:3, Philippians 3:8, 2 Peter 1:2, 8, 2:20, 3:18).
•    of Him-referring to God (2 Peter 1:2)
•    who called us-meaning God invited both Peter and his readers (2 Thessalonians 2:12, 14, 1 Peter 5:10).
•    By-the construction of the Greek grammar could be translated “to” (1 Peter 5:10).
•    His own glory-referring to the radiance of God’s presence in Heaven (1 Peter 1:11)
•    and excellence-meaning the superiority of God’s virtuous character (Philippians 4:8, 2 Peter 1:5).

Putting together all the observations above, God is telling us that He has given believers all that is necessary to live a godly Christian walk that leads to a maximum experience of life. We don’t need anything else. We don’t need a second blessing or enabling. We don’t need a special ministry to give us power. Each believer is already endowed with all the power needed to participate and live according to the actual likeness of God.

Each believer possesses the capacity to take up their cross daily and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23-24). Each believer possesses the full capacity to complete the difficult path that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14).

The key to applying God’s power to victoriously live our daily lives is to walk through a progression of learning how to access and apply that power. This is a progression Peter will equip us to follow in 1 Peter 1:5-7. Each believer has the capacity and power to gain an intimate knowledge of God. We can apply this power in faith to navigate the difficulties of life.

God’s divine power that He has granted to us is our means to gain everything pertaining to life and godliness. The Greek word translated life is “zoe” which refers to the quality and experience of life. Life is connection, and the key to our experiencing a deeper, fuller, richer experience of life is to deepen our intimacy and fellowship, our connection with God.

It is God who created us. He designed us to be connected with Him and with one another. This is the power of love, to connect us to God through Christ and to one another through living out the love of Christ in fellowship with one another.

We gain fulfillment when we live in our design. Sin is death, which is separation. Satan and the world seek to tear us apart from our creative design. We have the divine power to live in a manner that is fully connected to God, and gain everything pertaining to life and godliness.

By adding and godliness to life Peter qualifies that true life is gained through connection with God. Connecting with God comes through the full knowledge of God, what Peter calls the true knowledge (“epignósis”).

We gain that knowledge through a walk of faith. We will see in the next section that knowledge follows a choice to add “moral excellence” to our faith. This is a decision of our will to apply our faith in our daily walk. It is through the learning and application of faith that we gain the “epignósis”-the intimate knowledge of God.

God called us by His own glory and excellence. The Greek word translated excellence is “areté” which means having the highest in moral character.

“Areté” is often translated as “virtue.” Greek culture originally used this term to describe any awesome or jaw-dropping action that amazed everyone who witnessed it. For instance, this word is used in Homer’s Iliad to describe the staggering prowess of Achilles during his murderous rampage in the Trojan War. Some see a connection between Ares-the Greek god of war-and “areté”-excellence in warfare.

Over time, Greeks began to use “areté” to describe other types of excellence beyond the realm of war. But it was the Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. who gave “areté” (virtue) its moral meaning. They believed that the soul (a person’s mind, heart, and desires) was the essential part of what made a person human. And that each part of the soul had its own virtue/ “areté” or state of excellence.

Greek philosophers considered “areté” to be the highest level of moral achievement, which also led to the greatest fulfillment in life. We will see “areté” again in 2 Peter 1:5, where it is translated as “moral excellence.” We see that God called believers by His own glory and “areté” (excellence). Through Christ, and the knowledge of God, believers can also gain “areté” (moral excellence-2 Peter 1:5).

It makes logical sense that believers who gain an intimate knowledge of God would, as a result, gain “areté”-the moral excellence of God. However, 1 Peter 1:5 indicates that we gain the knowledge of God by first adding “moral excellence” (“areté”) to our faith. Thus, it follows that the knowledge of God is gained through living out faith in our daily walk. Walking by faith as a believer is a lifestyle rather than an academic exercise.

The word glory in the phrase called us by His own glory and excellence translates the Greek word “doxa” which refers to the essence of someone or something that is being observed. This can be seen in 1 Corinthians 15:41 which asserts that the moon and sun have a different “glory.” This is because they have a difference essence that can be observed.

It is out of God’s glory, His essence and moral character, that He called us. This infers that God’s calling is for believers to walk in His character and live out His essence in their daily actions. This is the intended result of the progression Peter sets forth in this letter. As we will see in 1 Peter 1:7, the culmination of our faith journey is love. Since God is love, to live in the character and essence of God is to walk in love (1 John 1:8).

Peter’s message is similar to that of the Apostle Paul in Romans. Paul asserts in his theme verse for Romans-Romans 1:16-17-that the gospel of Christ is the power of God to save/deliver believers from unrighteousness and bring us to righteousness through a walk of faith, saying “the righteous man shall live by faith.”

The Hebrew concept of righteousness is similar to the Hebrew concept of peace/“shalom”-both reflect living in a state of harmony with God’s design. When Peter wished “peace” upon his followers in 1 Peter 1:2, he wished for them to experience the moral excellence/character of God in their walk of faith through the knowledge of God through Christ.

After mentioning God’s power and true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence, Peter continues with the conjunction For (v. 4). For is a word used to introduce an explanation of the previous sentence, followed with by these. The Greek grammar indicates that the pronoun these (genitive case, feminine gender) refers to both the divine power (genitive case, feminine gender) of God and the true knowledge/“epignósis” (genitive case, feminine gender) of God which Peter just mentioned in 1 Peter 1:3.

The word by in the phrase by these has a causal meaning indicating that it is God’s power by which He, referring to God, has granted a great gift-the gift of His precious and magnificent promises. God granted this gift of power and knowledge; it is given to us, referring to both Peter and his Christian readers. And the substance of the gift is His promises.

These promises have the practical impact of allowing us to be partakers of the divine nature. This means that in Christ we have the power, the capacity, to live as Christ lived, to walk as Christ walked. We have the capacity for Christ to live in and through us. That we are given the capacity to walk and live in God’s own character makes these promises precious and magnificent. Upon reflection, this seems a vast understatement, because words fall short of the incredible reality of this promise.

God’s promises are described as precious and magnificent. They are precious because they are of great worth, highly valuable, and to be held in honor (1 Peter 1:19). They are magnificent because they are extraordinarily great and superior in importance to all else we might acquire. Through a walk of faithfulness in living according to the divine nature of Christ, we can gain fulfillment in this life. We can also gain the great reward of having an entrance into God’s eternal kingdom that is “abundantly supplied” (2 Peter 1:11).

We will see later in this letter that scoffers are apparently raising doubt that there will ever be a judgment or a next life (2 Peter 3:3-4). If there is no judgment, then there is no consequence for our life choices. But Peter vigorously refutes this idea, calling these false teachers “mockers” who are “following after their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3). It is inferred that their goal is to justify living according to their flesh, fulfilling their lusts, while justifying their behavior by asserting that God is really not returning to judge the world.

Peter will make clear that living in sin brings a consequence of judgment. He will use Noah’s flood as an example of God’s judgment in this letter, as he did in his first letter (1 Peter 3:20, 2 Peter 3:5-6). God waited long, that the world might repent, but eventually judged it with the flood (Genesis 6:3, 7:21). So it will be in the last days; God will judge the world after a long delay that allows many to repent (2 Peter 3:9).

Further, the current heaven and earth will be destroyed by the judgment of fire and replaced by a new earth that is filled with righteousness (2 Peter 3:7, 13). Given this, it makes sense for believers to live and pursue righteousness through a deepened, full knowledge of Christ (“epignósis”). That not only brings an enhanced experience of life now, but also prepares us for life in the new earth.

So then it is the prophetic truth of the rewards promised alongside Christ’s coming and the world to come that should motivate believers to live victoriously. Peter explains, so that by them, referring to the magnificent prophetic promises just mentioned, you, referring to his believing readers, may become partakers of the divine nature.

The Greek word “koinonos” is translated as partakers. “Koinonos” refers to one who takes part in or fellowships in something. In 1 Peter 5:1, Peter used “koinonos” to refer to partaking in seeing Christ glorified when He was transfigured. This gave Him a preview of the “glory that is to be revealed” when Christ returns (1 Peter 5:1). This is the same glory we can gain-the great reward if we live as faithful witnesses (2 Peter 2:11).

Peter’s admonition is for these believers to be partakers of Christ’s divine nature through a walk of faith just as he was allowed to partake in seeing Jesus transfigured and His glory revealed. Peter will show each believer how to take that walk and participate in that glory in the faith-walk progression of 2 Peter 1:5-8.

What believers take part in, Peter calls the divine nature. The divine nature of Christ is contrasted with its opposite: the corruption that is in the world by lust. We escape the result of lust, which leads to death, by participating in the divine nature of Christ through faith. The divine nature of Christ is filled with “areté” or “moral excellence” which leads to the “epignósis” of God, which ultimately leads to love (2 Peter 1:5-8). This is the same idea Paul applies to setting aside our old nature (the “flesh”) and walking in the Spirit (Romans 8:4).

Not only should the prophetic promises of sharing Christ’s glory and avoiding adverse judgment (that comes from following the world’s lust) motivate believers to live godly lives, but these promises also help believers overcome worldly temptations. Notice that believers are presented as having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. The word translated escaped is used only by Peter (2 Peter 1:4, 2:18, 20). It means “to avoid.”

What believers avoid by living the divine nature in Christ is described as the corruption of the world. The Greek word translated corruption implies destruction and ruin. This destruction and ruin is what is in the world. The word world in this context refers to the earth as ruled by Satan (1 John 2:16-17). Jesus called Satan “the ruler of this world” in John 12:31. Jesus “cast out” Satan as ruler, and all authority was given unto Him (Matthew 28:18). As a result, Jesus restored the right of humans to reign in the earth, according to God’s original design (Hebrews 2:9). The full restoration is yet to come (2 Peter 3:13).

The ruinous corruption that is in the world comes by lust. The preposition by refers to how destruction and ruin happen in the believer’s life. The word lust simply means a strong desire. Context here indicates that the strong desire being referred to is a desire to gain the things of the world, things which lead to death.

The Apostle Paul sets forth a progression of God’s wrath that descends on the lust of the world. God’s wrath in this context is the natural consequence of sin. If we persist in pursuing our lusts, then God’s wrath begins by God turning us over to our desires, our worldly lusts (Romans 1:24). Then His wrath proceeds to allowing us to be controlled by our desires; what we commonly call addiction (Romans 1:26). Then it culminates into a loss of mental stability (Romans 1:28). We are separated from ourselves, becoming slaves of our appetites and fears, which is death.

James says the same thing a different way. He says that temptation does not come from circumstance, but from our own passions or worldly lusts (James 1:14). Then when lust conceives, it births sin, which matures and grows into death (James 1:15). The way to avoid this death, this separation from our own godly design, is through setting aside our inner wickedness, the lust of our flesh, and replace it with God’s word (James 1:21).

Peter agrees with Paul and James, asserting that it is through walking by faith in the divine promises of God that we avoid the corruption that is in the world by lust. In order to become partakers of the divine nature, we need to take the journey Paul sets forth in 2 Peter 1:5-7: to choose moral excellence, which leads to knowledge, then self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and ultimately love.

Because of the prophetic promises God gives us, believers have the power in Christ to avoid the destructive results of yielding to the strong evil desires that arise from the world system in which we live. These prophetic promises should serve as a powerful motivation to move on to maturity as 2 Peter 1:5-7 reveals.