Matthew Henry Commentary 2 Peter 1

Faith unites the weak believer to Christ as really as it does the strong one, and purifies the heart of one as truly as of another; and every sincere believer is by his faith justified in the sight of God. Faith works godliness and produces effects that no other grace in the soul can do. In Christ all fullness dwells, and pardon, peace, grace, knowledge, and new principles are thus given through the Holy Spirit.

The promises to those who are partakers of a divine nature will cause us to inquire whether we are really renewed in the spirit of our minds; let us turn all these promises into prayers for the transforming and purifying grace of the Holy Spirit. The believer must add knowledge to his virtue, increasing acquaintance with the whole truth and will of God. We must add temperance to knowledge—moderation about worldly things—and to temperance, add patience, or cheerful submission to the will of God.

Tribulation works patience, by which we bear all calamities and crosses with silence and submission. To patience we must add godliness: this includes the holy affections and dispositions found in the true worshipper of God, and tender affection to all fellow Christians, who are children of the same Father, servants of the same Master, members of the same family, travellers to the same country, and heirs of the same inheritance. Therefore, let Christians labour to attain assurance of their calling and of their election by believing and well-doing; and to endeavour carefully in this way is a firm argument of the grace and mercy of God, upholding them so that they will not utterly fall.

Those who are diligent in the work of religion will have a triumphant entrance into that everlasting kingdom where Christ reigns, and they will reign with him forever and ever; and it is in the practice of every good work that we are to expect entrance to heaven.

We must be established in the belief of the truth, so that we are not shaken by every wind of doctrine; and especially in the truth necessary for us to know in our day, what pertains to our peace and what is opposed in our time.

The body is merely a tabernacle, or tent, of the soul. It is a humble and movable dwelling. The nearness of death makes the apostle diligent in the work of life.

Nothing can give such composure in the prospect of death, or in the hour of death, as knowing that we have faithfully and simply followed the Lord Jesus and sought His glory. Those who fear the Lord talk of His loving-kindness. This is the way to spread the knowledge of the Lord; and through the written word, they are enabled to do this.

The gospel is no weak thing, but comes in power (Romans 1:16). The law sets before us our wretched state by sin, but there it leaves us. It discovers our disease, but does not make known the cure. It is the sight of Jesus crucified, in the gospel, that heals the soul. Try to dissuade the covetous worldly person from his greediness; one ounce of gold weighs down all reasons.

Offer to restrain a furious man from anger by arguments; he does not have patience to hear them. Try to restrain the licentious person; one smile has more influence on him than all reason. But come with the gospel, and urge them with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, shed to save their souls from hell and to satisfy for their sins, and this is that powerful pleading which makes good men confess that their hearts burn within them, and bad men, even an Agrippa, to say they are almost persuaded to be Christians (Acts 26:28).

God is well pleased with Christ, and with us in Him. This is the Messiah who was promised, through whom all who believe in Him shall be accepted and saved.

The truth and reality of the gospel also are foretold by the prophets and writers of the Old Testament, who spoke and wrote under the influence and according to the direction of the Spirit of God. How firm and sure our faith should be, since we have such a firm and sure word to rest upon! When the light of the Scripture is darted into the blind mind and dark understanding by the Holy Spirit of God, it is like the daybreak that advances and diffuses itself throughout the whole soul, until it makes perfect day.

As the Scripture is the revelation of the mind and will of God, everyone ought to search it to understand its sense and meaning. The Christian knows that book to be the word of God, in which he tastes a sweetness, and feels a power, and sees a glory, truly divine. And the prophecies already fulfilled in the person and salvation of Christ, and in the great concerns of the church and the world, form an unanswerable proof of the truth of Christianity.

The Holy Spirit inspired holy men to speak and write. He so assisted and directed them in delivering what they had received from Him, that they clearly expressed what they made known. So that the Scriptures are to be considered the words of the Holy Spirit, and all the plainness and simplicity, all the power, and all the propriety of the words and expressions, come from God. Mix faith with what you find in the Scriptures, and esteem and reverence the Bible as a book written by holy men, taught by the Holy Spirit.