John Calvin Commentary 2 Peter 1

Simon Peter. Prayer takes the first place at the beginning of this Epistle, and then follows thanksgiving, by which he excites the Jews to gratitude, so that they would not forget the great benefits they had already received from God's hand. Why he called himself the servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, we have stated elsewhere, because no one is to be heard in the Church unless he speaks as from the mouth of Christ. But the word servant has a more general meaning, because it includes all the ministers of Christ who hold any public office in the Church. The apostleship involved a higher rank of honor. He then indicates that he was not one from the rank of ministers, but was made an apostle by the Lord, and therefore superior to them.

Like precious faith. This is a commendation of the grace which God had indiscriminately shown to all His elect people; for it was no common gift that they had all been called to one and the same faith, since faith is the special and chief good of man. But he calls it like or equally precious, not that it is equal in all, but because all possess by faith the same Christ with His righteousness, and the same salvation. Therefore, though the measure is different, this does not prevent the knowledge of God from being common to all, nor the fruit that proceeds from it. Thus we have a real fellowship of faith with Peter and the Apostles.

He adds, through the righteousness of God, so that they might know that they did not obtain faith through their own efforts or strength, but through God's favor alone. For these things are opposed to each other: the righteousness of God (in the sense in which it is taken here) and the merit of man. The efficient cause of faith is called God's righteousness for this reason: because no one is capable of conferring it on himself. So the righteousness to be understood is not that which remains in God, but that which He imparts to men, as in Romans 3:22. Besides, he ascribes this righteousness in common to God and to Christ, because it flows from God, and through Christ it flows down to us.

Grace and peace. By grace, God’s paternal favor towards us is designated. We have indeed been reconciled to God once for all by the death of Christ, and by faith we come to possess this great benefit; but as we perceive God’s grace according to the measure of our faith, it is said to increase according to our perception when it becomes more fully known to us.

Peace is added; for as our happiness begins when God receives us into His favor, so the more He confirms His love in our hearts, the richer the blessing He confers on us, so that we become happy and prosperous in all things.

Through the knowledge, literally, in the knowledge; but the preposition ἐν often means “through” or “with”; yet both senses may suit the context. I am, however, more disposed to adopt the former.

For the more anyone advances in the knowledge of God, every kind of blessing increases also equally with the sense of divine love. Whoever then aspires to the full fruition of the blessed life that Peter mentions must remember to observe the right way. He connects together at the same time the knowledge of God and of Christ, because God cannot be rightly known except in Christ, according to that saying:

No one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him (Matthew 11:27).

According as his divine power. He refers to the infinite goodness of God which they had already experienced, so that they might more fully understand it for the future. For He continues the course of His benevolence perpetually to the end, except when we ourselves break it off by our unbelief; for He possesses exhaustless power and an equal will to do good.

Hence the Apostle justly encourages the faithful to entertain good hope by considering the former benefits of God. The amplification he makes serves the same purpose; for he might have spoken more simply, “As He has freely given us all things.” But by mentioning “divine power,” he rises higher, meaning that God has copiously unfolded the immense resources of His power.

But the latter clause may be referred to Christ as well as to the Father, and both are suitable. It may, however, be more fitly applied to Christ, as though he had said that the grace conveyed to us by Him is an evidence of divinity, because it could not have been done by humanity.

That pertain to life and godliness, or, as to life and godliness. Some think that the present life is meant here, as godliness follows as the more excellent gift. They understand it as though by these two words Peter intended to show how beneficent and bountiful God is towards the faithful: that He brought them to light, that He supplies them with all things necessary for the preservation of an earthly life, and that He has also renewed them to a spiritual life by adorning them with godliness.

But this distinction is foreign to Peter’s meaning. For as soon as he mentioned life, he immediately added godliness, which is, as it were, its soul. God then truly gives us life when He renews us to the obedience of righteousness. So Peter does not speak here of the natural gifts of God, but only mentions those things which He confers particularly on His own elect, above the common order of nature.

That we are born human, that we are endowed with reason and knowledge, that our life is supplied with necessary support—all this is indeed from God. However, since humans, being perverted in their minds and ungrateful, do not consider these various things (which are called the gifts of nature) as God’s benefits, the common condition of human life is not what is referred to here. Rather, Peter refers to the special endowments of the new and spiritual life, which derive their origin from the kingdom of Christ.

But since everything necessary for godliness and salvation is to be counted among the supernatural gifts of God, humans should learn to arrogate nothing to themselves. Instead, they should humbly ask of God whatever they find they are lacking, and ascribe to Him whatever good they may have.

For Peter here, by attributing the whole of godliness and all aids to salvation to the divine power of Christ, takes them away from the common nature of humans, so that he leaves to us not even the least particle of any virtue or merit.

Through the knowledge of him. The Apostle now describes the manner in which God makes us partakers of such great blessings: by making Himself known to us through the gospel. For the knowledge of God is the beginning of life and the first entrance into godliness.

In short, spiritual gifts cannot be given for salvation until, being illuminated by the doctrine of the gospel, we are led to know God. But Peter attributes this knowledge to God as its author, because we never go to Him unless we are called.

Hence, the effectual cause of faith is not the perspicacity of our own minds, but the calling of God. And he speaks not only of the outward calling, which is in itself ineffectual, but of the inward calling, effected by the hidden power of the Spirit, whereby God not only speaks in our ears by a human voice but also inwardly draws our hearts to Himself by His own Spirit.

To glory and virtue, or, by his own glory and power. Some copies have ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ, “by his own glory,” and it is so rendered by the ancient interpreter. I prefer this reading because the sentence seems to flow better this way.

For it was Peter’s express object to ascribe the whole praise of our salvation to God, so that we may know that we owe everything to Him. This is more clearly expressed by these words: that He has called us by his own glory and power.

However, the other reading (to glory and virtue), though more obscure, tends to the same conclusion. For it teaches us that we are covered with shame and are wholly vicious until God clothes us with glory and adorns us with virtue. Peter further intimates that the effect of the calling in the elect is to restore to them the glorious image of God and to renew them in holiness and righteousness.

Whereby are given to us. It is doubtful whether he refers only to glory and power, or to the preceding things also. The whole difficulty arises from this—that what is said here is not suitable to the glory and virtue which God confers on us; but if we read, “by his own glory and power,” there will be no ambiguity or perplexity. For the things that have been promised to us by God ought to be properly and justly deemed the effects of his power and glory.

At the same time, the copies vary here also, for some have δι’ ὃν, “on account of whom;” so the reference may be to Christ. Whichever of the two readings you choose, the meaning will still be, first, that the promises of God ought to be most highly valued, and secondly, that they are gratuitous, because they are offered to us as gifts. And he then shows the excellence of the promises: that they make us partakers of the divine nature, than which nothing better can be conceived.

For we must consider from where God raises us up to such a height of honor. We know how abject the condition of our nature is; that God, then, should make himself ours, so that all his things should, in a manner, become our things—the greatness of his grace cannot be sufficiently conceived by our minds.

Therefore, this consideration alone ought to be abundantly sufficient to make us renounce the world and carry us aloft to heaven. Let us then note that the end of the gospel is to render us eventually conformable to God and, if we may so speak, to deify us.

But the word nature here is not essence but quality. The Manicheans formerly dreamed that we are a part of God and that, after having run the race of life, we will at last revert to our origin. Even today, there are fanatics who imagine that we thus pass over into the nature of God, so that his nature swallows up our nature.

Thus they explain what Paul says, that God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28), and in the same sense they interpret this passage. But such a delirium as this never entered the minds of the holy Apostles; they only intended to say that when divested of all the vices of the flesh, we will be partakers of divine and blessed immortality and glory, so as to be, as it were, one with God as far as our capacities will allow.

This doctrine was not altogether unknown to Plato, who everywhere defines the chief good of man to be an entire conformity to God; but as he was involved in the mists of errors, he afterwards glided off to his own inventions.

But we, disregarding empty speculations, ought to be satisfied with this one thing—that the image of God in holiness and righteousness is restored to us. The purpose of this restoration is that we may at last be partakers of eternal life and glory, to the extent necessary for our complete felicity.

Having escaped. We have already explained that the Apostle’s design was to set before us the dignity of the glory of heaven, to which God invites us, and thus to draw us away from the vanity of this world. Moreover, he sets the corruption of the world in opposition to the divine nature; but he shows that this corruption is not in the elements which surround us, but in our heart, because vicious and depraved affections prevail there, the fountain and root of which he points out by the word lust. Corruption, then, is thus described as being in the world so that we may know that the world is in us.

And besides this. As it is an arduous work and one of immense labor to put off the corruption that is in us, he instructs us to strive and make every effort for this purpose. He intimates that no place is to be given to sloth in this case, and that we ought to obey God who is calling us, not slowly or carelessly, but with alacrity; as though he had said, “Put forth every effort, and make your exertions manifest to all.” — For this is what the participle he uses signifies.

Add to your faith virtue, or, Supply to your faith virtue. He shows for what purpose the faithful were to strive: that is, that they might have faith adorned with good morals, wisdom, patience, and love. Then he intimates that faith should not be naked or empty, but that these are its inseparable companions. To supply to faith is to add to faith. There is not here, however, properly a gradation in terms of meaning, though it appears so in terms of wording; for love does not follow patience in sequence, nor does it proceed from it. Therefore, the passage is to be explained simply in this way: “Strive that virtue, prudence, temperance, and the things that follow, may be added to your faith.”

I take virtue to mean an honest and rightly formed life; for it is not here ἐνέργεια (energy or courage), but ἀρετὴ (virtue, moral goodness). Knowledge is what is necessary for acting prudently, for after having stated a general term, he mentions some of the principal endowments of a Christian. Brotherly-kindness, φιλαδελφία, is mutual affection among the children of God. Love extends wider, because it embraces all mankind.

However, it may be asked here whether Peter, by assigning to us the work of supplying or adding virtue, thereby extolled the strength and power of free will? Those who seek to establish free will in humanity indeed concede to God the first place—that is, that He begins to act or work in us—but they imagine that we cooperate at the same time, and that it is thus due to us that the movements of God are not made void and ineffective.

But the perpetual doctrine of Scripture is opposed to this delirious notion, for it plainly testifies that right feelings are formed in us by God and are made effective by Him. It also testifies that all our progress and perseverance are from God. Besides, it expressly declares that wisdom, love, patience, are the gifts of God and the Spirit.

When, therefore, the Apostle requires these things, he by no means asserts that they are in our power, but only shows what we should have and what should be done. And as for the godly, when conscious of their own weakness, they find themselves lacking in their duty, nothing remains for them but to flee to God for aid and help.