Charles Spurgeon Commentary 2 Peter 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 Saviour Jesus Christ:

Peter here uses both his names—Simon or Simeon, which was his first name, and signifies "hearing with acceptance", and happy are those who have the hearing ear and the receptive heart; and then there is what I may call his Christian name, the name which Christ gave him, Petros, or Cephas, a rock or stone. Those who learn to hear well, since faith comes by hearing, may hope to obtain even greater stability of character than Peter had.

Observe that Peter calls himself "a servant of Christ." There is no higher honour than to be a servant of God. "To serve God is to reign." An ancient philosopher was the author of that maxim, and Christianity fully endorses it. He is a true king who is a servant of God. In this respect, all believers are on a level with Peter, but here is his distinguishing title, "an apostle of Jesus Christ," a sent one, one who had seen the Lord, and who could bear personal testimony to the fact of his existence, his death, and his resurrection. Hence the apostleship has ceased, since there are no longer any who lived in our Lord's days upon the earth.

Mark the reason why this Epistle, like the first, is called "the general Epistle of Peter," since it is addressed not to any one church, as Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, but to all saints, not to the Hebrews alone, but to the Gentiles as well. It is a general Epistle, addressed to all those who have "obtained like precious faith."

These words were written by the apostle Peter many centuries ago. Yet they come to us as fresh as if he had written them only yesterday. May God grant us grace to profit from them as they are read by us today!

After the apostle's titles comes the salutation of his Epistle.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue: by which are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this,-

"Since it is God who, by His divine energy, has made you partakers of the divine nature, see that you use your grace-given energy; do not rest idly upon your oars because the tide of grace carries your ship onward."

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, Peter was pleased to be able to write those words.

There was a time when he had three times denied his Master, but now he is glad to call himself a servant of Jesus Christ. Once he had said, I know not the man, but now he claims that he has been sent out by that glorious Lord to be his apostle—a sent one—a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Probably he had ringing in his ears, at that moment, those blessed words, Feed my sheep; feed my lambs; and he was going to do that work again in this his second general Epistle.

To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

These Epistles are not written to everybody. Some readers do not seem to remember this fact. This one is written, says the apostle, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us. The faith of the weakest believer in Jesus is the same kind of faith as that which was found in Simon Peter, who stands among the very first of the worthies in the College of Apostles. Like precious faith with us.

Only think of it, you whose faith is of a very trembling sort, which might be well described as "little faith." Yet yours is like precious faith with that of Peter and the rest of the apostles.

The tiniest diamond is as truly a diamond as the Kohinoor, and the smallest faith, if it is really the work of the Spirit of God, is like precious faith with that of the apostles.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you-

You have some measure of these choice blessings; may you have a great many times as much! When we go to the multiplication table, we not only multiply by two and by three, but we can multiply by a hundred, we can multiply by ten thousand. Oh, that God would thus multiply to us the grace and the peace that he has already given to us! Grace and peace be multiplied unto you-

Through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

The more we know of God, the more grounds and reasons we will have for enjoying grace and peace; and the more we know of God and of Jesus our Lord, the more our enjoyment of grace and peace will be multiplied.

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

It is through knowing God that we realize that his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, for all these things are in him; and as we know him, trust him, love him, and become like him, we also come to possess all these precious things in him.