BOOK 61 OF 66 · GENERAL EPISTLES · KING JAMES BIBLE

2 Peter 1

2 Peter book home•Chapter 1 of 3•21 verses

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2 Peter 1 Overview

Peter writes to those who have obtained like precious faith through the righteousness of God and Saviour Jesus Christ. God’s divine power has given believers all things needed for life and godliness. Peter urges them to add virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, making their calling and election sure in lived assurance, and he grounds apostolic testimony in eyewitness experience and the sure word of prophecy.

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Before you read 2 Peter 1

Coming from

1 Peter 5 closes with humble shepherding, resisting the devil, suffering, and the God of all grace.

In this chapter

Leads into

Peter warns that false teachers will secretly bring destructive heresies, exploit people through covetousness, and live in sensual rebellion while promising liberty. He compares their judgment with fallen angels, the flood generation, and Sodom, while pointing to Noah and Lot as examples that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly and reserve the unjust for judgment.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Adding virtues is growth after receiving precious faith, not a recipe for earning eternal life.

‘Make your calling and election sure’ concerns confirmation and fruitful assurance in Christian life; Peter has already said they obtained precious faith and received divine provision.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God supplies what believers need for godliness

Growth begins from divine provision, not self-salvation.

Christian character should develop intentionally

Faith should become fruitful in virtue and love.

Apostolic testimony is historically grounded

Peter witnessed Christ’s majesty.

Scripture’s prophecy comes from the Holy Ghost

It is not merely private human invention.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Matthew 17:1–8

Peter witnessed Christ’s transfiguration and the Father’s voice.

John 15:5

Fruitfulness depends on abiding in Christ rather than self-sufficiency.

2 Timothy 3:16

Scripture is God-breathed, complementing Peter’s Holy-Ghost description.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not make the virtue list conditions for obtaining eternal life

Peter begins with believers who already possess precious faith.

Do not turn ‘make sure’ into uncertainty about God’s knowledge or election

The exhortation concerns the believer’s confirmation and fruitfulness.

Do not use ‘private interpretation’ to forbid personal Bible reading

The context concerns prophecy’s origin, not banning individual study.

Read 2 Peter 1 watching for…

What believers have already received before commands begin.

The virtue sequence.

Fruitful versus barren knowledge.

Peter’s eyewitness testimony.

The origin of prophecy.

Chapter outline5 sections

1-4Peter greets believers and reminds them that God has given what pertains to life and godliness through precious promises 5-11Believers are urged to add virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, kindness, and charity to faith and make their calling sure 12-15Peter intends to keep reminding believers of these truths while he remains alive 16-18The apostles did not follow cunning fables but were eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty 19-21The prophetic word is sure, and Scripture did not come by human will but as holy men spoke by the Holy Ghost

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

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2 Peter 1:20

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