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2Pe_1:12. διό ] not: “therefore, because the whole duty consists precisely in the not forgetting” (Dietlein), for no expression was given to any such thought here, but: because to him alone,[43] who in the supplying of virtues reaches an ever more complete knowledge of Christ, is an entrance into the everlasting kingdom of Christ ministered.
μελλήσω ] The same form elsewhere only in Mat_24:6; de Wette interprets it here: “I will ever have a care;” Schott translates: “I will always be in the position;” but there is nothing which renders necessary here a translation different from that in the other passage. Hofmann justly says that it is a circumlocution for the future of ὑπομιμνήσκειν , as in Matt. for ἀκούειν , and that ἀεί must be joined with μελλήσω .
Luther, following the Rec. οὐκ ἀμελήσω ): “therefore I will not cease.”
περὶ τούτων ] i.e. of all that which has been already mentioned. It is not to be limited to any one thing; and therefore not, with de Wette, to “the kingdom of God and its future;” nor, with Wiesinger, to “the manifestation of faith in its fruits;” and still less can τούτων be understood, with Hofmann, of the virtues mentioned in 2Pe_1:5-7. In this verse the author promises his readers that he will ἀεί , i.e. at every time, as the opportunity presented itself (Hofmann in all probability incorrectly: “when I address you”), remind them of this. By what means is not said; but that he does not refer to this epistle is shown by the so strongly expressed future.
καίπερ εἰδότας ] Calvin: Vos quidem, inquit, probe tenetis, quaenam sit evangelii veritas, neque vos quasi fluctuantes confirmo, sed in re tanta monitiones nunquam sint supervacuae: quare nunquam molestae esse debent. Simili excusatione utitur Paulus ad Rom_15:14. Cf. also 1Jn_2:21; Jud_1:5.
καὶ ἐστηριγμένους ἐν τῇ παρούσῃ ἀληθείᾳ ] “and made firm, i.e. are firm in,” etc.; not: “although ye are supported, i.e. have won a firm position by standing on the present truth” (Dietlein). ἐν τῇ παρ . ἀληθ . is the complement of ἐστηρ ., and states not the means by which, but the object in which, the readers have become firm.
παρούσῃ stands here in the same sense as τοῦ παρόντος (that is, εὐαγγελίου ) εἰς ὑμᾶς , Col_1:6.[44] De Wette, with not quite strict accuracy, interprets ΠΑΡΟΎΣῌ as equal to ΠΑΡΑΔΟΘΕΊΣῌ , Jud_1:3. Vorstius, Bengel, etc., incorrectly take it as referring to the fulfilment in the gospel of the Old Testament promises; and Schott, instead of to truth in an objective sense, “to the relation of fellowship with God, in which they stood as Christians.”
[43] Hofmann takes exception to this “only;” wrongly; for although the apostle merely says: “that he who would live up to his exhortations would undoubtedly find an entrance open to the everlasting kingdom of Christ;” still, that is as much as to say that he who does not do so will not find that entrance; consequently the “only “is understood of itself.
[44] Steinfass says: “The antithesis to παρούσῃ is Peter’s absence;” it is hardly probable that the writer thought of this antithesis.