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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - 2 Peter 1:1 - 1:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2Pe 1:1-21. Address: Exhortation to all graces, as God has given us, in the knowledge of Christ, all things pertaining to life: Confirmed by the testimony of apostles, and also prophets, to the power and coming of Christ.
Simon - the Greek form: in oldest manuscripts, “Symeon” (Hebrew, that is, “hearing), as in Act 15:14. His mention of his original name accords with the design of this Second Epistle, which is to warn against the coming false teachers, by setting forth the true “knowledge" of Christ on the testimony of the original apostolic eye-witnesses like himself. This was not required in the First Epistle.
servant - “slave”: so Paul, Rom 1:1.
to them, etc. - He addresses a wider range of readers (all believers) than in the First Epistle, 2Pe 1:1, but means to include especially those addressed in the First Epistle, as 2Pe 3:1 proves.
obtained - by grace. Applied by Peter to the receiving of the apostleship, literally, “by allotment”: as the Greek is, Luk 1:9; Joh 19:24. They did not acquire it for themselves; the divine election is as independent of man’s control, as the lot which is east forth.
like precious - “equally precious” to all: to those who believe, though not having seen Christ, as well as to Peter and those who have seen Him. For it lays hold of the same “exceeding great and precious promises,” and the same “righteousness of God our Savior.” “The common salvation ... the faith once delivered unto the saints” (Jud 1:3).
with us - apostles and eye-witnesses (2Pe 1:18). Though putting forward his apostleship to enforce his exhortation, he with true humility puts himself, as to “the faith,” on a level with all other believers. The degree of faith varies in different believers; but in respect to its objects, present justification, sanctification, and future glorification, it is common alike to all. Christ is to all believers “made of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”
through - Greek, “in.” Translate, as the one article to both nouns requires, “the righteousness of Him who is (at once) our God and (our) Savior.” Peter, confirming Paul’s testimony to the same churches, adopts Paul’s inspired phraseology. The Gospel plan sets forth God’s righteousness, which is Christ’s righteousness, in the brightest light. Faith has its sphere IN it as its peculiar element: God is in redemption “righteous,” and at the same time a “Savior”; compare Isa 45:21, “a just God and a Savior.