But for this very reason also, using therewith all diligence, in your faith have also virtue, in virtue knowledge,
Peter has just said that God has given us everything we need, and that we share in the divine nature through His promises. Verse 5 turns to what we must now do with that gift. The first word is not "relax" but "diligence".
The opening phrase points back to the gift. One writer says the older English wording weakens it:
It is not "And besides this." It is an energetic call for what is due to the grace of God. That grace gave the remarkable blessing of sharing a divine nature through faith in His very great and precious promises. Even a mind ruled by the flesh draws a conclusion from the power and certainty of divine grace. It sees that there is room for earnest and practical purpose of heart in the believer. But Scripture enlarges the argument, warns against sloth and easy-going, and summons us to constant diligence on all sides.
A new nature is a living thing, and living things need care.
The divine nature the believer has received loves the will of God. It is a holy nature, so it hates the corruption that is in the world through lust. But that divine nature grows and develops in the life of the child of God, and that growth needs all care and diligence. Suppose Christians say they have a new nature, are born again, and saved by grace. Then they go on living according to the old nature, enjoying the world and its sinful pleasures, without showing godliness and virtue. They are not only in a very unscriptural position, but on dangerous ground.
Older Bibles read "add to your faith virtue." One writer says that picture of adding misleads: virtue is to be found inside faith, and knowledge inside virtue.
This is not addition in the ordinary sense of the word. Verse 5 should read, "For this very reason, using also all diligence, in your faith have also virtue, in virtue knowledge," and so on. You are perfect when you do not lack any of these qualities. Someone may give you an apple to taste, because you are a good judge of apples; you taste it and say, It is very nice, but it lacks sweetness. So you may say of a Christian, "He is a nice Christian, but he lacks self-control." The Christian is to show the divine nature in all its qualities.
The word "virtue" here means courage, not politeness. It is the backbone that lets a believer refuse.
Virtue is that energy and courage of soul that knows how to refuse as well as to choose. Moses did that. He "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." You have the faith that connects you with God, and you believe in what you cannot yet see. But now you must add virtue. That is the courage which knows how to say "No" to the thousand things that come up day by day, and to press on without wavering in the pathway set before us.
Why does virtue come first? Without it the rest have nothing to stand on.
This self-government — this virtue, this moral energy — is deliverance from evil, and it makes communion with God possible. It is the one thing that gives reality to all the rest. Without virtue we are not really with God. Can divine power develop itself in the looseness of the flesh? And if we are not really with God — if the new nature is not acting — knowledge is only the puffing up of the flesh. Patience is only a natural quality, or else hypocrisy. It is the same with the rest.
Courage on its own can do damage. It needs a guide.
In virtue we are to have knowledge. Virtue gives great strength to a person's character. But strength must follow knowledge — and that means the highest and best knowledge of all, the knowledge of God and His will. Otherwise it may become a dangerous thing.
What happens if the adding stops?
If this blessed adding is missing, there is sure to be a going back. There is no such thing as standing still. If we are not progressing, we are going backwards. "To the one who has, more will be given… but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." If there is no desire to press on, to go on with the Lord, what is left? Only a return to the things the Lord called us out of in days gone by.
- Because — "for this very reason" looks back to what God has already given. Grace is the reason for diligence, never an excuse for sloth.
- Growth — the new nature is alive, and living things grow only with care. A new nature claimed with an old lifestyle is dangerous ground.
- Supply — the call is not to bolt on extras but to lack nothing: every quality of the new life showing in the believer.
- Virtue — courage that says "No" comes first. Without it, knowledge only puffs up; with it, the knowledge of God and His will aims that strength.
- Backwards — with no adding there is no standing still. We only drift back to what the Lord called us out of.
in knowledge temperance, in temperance endurance, in endurance godliness,
This verse sits in the middle of a chain of qualities that begins with faith. Older translations call two of them "temperance" and "patience"; the ESV reads "self-control" and "steadfastness", and both words carry more than they first seem.
Many read the chain as if each quality sat on top of the last like bricks. The wording points elsewhere:
The familiar passage in 2 Peter, "Add to your faith, virtue," and so on, is not really addition. To put it in numbers, it is multiplication. It is, "Have in your faith, virtue." That is, let courage mark your faith; let knowledge mark your courage; let self-control mark your knowledge, and so on.
That turns the whole list into a test of completeness, not a ladder to climb:
The thought is having all the qualities that belong to the perfect thing. You are perfect when you do not lack any of these qualities. Someone may give you an apple to taste, because you are a good judge of apples. You taste it and say, It is very nice, but it lacks sweetness. So you may say of a Christian, "He is a nice Christian, but he lacks temperance."
The next quality, self-control, is often narrowed to food and drink. One writer widens it:
The word "temperance" in 2 Peter 1:6 means much more than people usually take it to mean. They apply it to a habit of moderation in eating and drinking. No doubt it fully involves this, but it involves much more. In fact, the Greek word the inspired apostle uses can be translated "self-control." It gives the idea of someone who keeps himself well reined in at all times.
Where does that restraint come from? One writer traces it to truth taking hold of the heart:
The very first thing, as we learn the truth, is to recognise the claim the truth has on us. That is its discipline: it separates us from other things and so gives us self-restraint, the power to command ourselves. We may be sure that we can command nothing else if we do not begin here. "In knowledge," therefore, we are to find "temperance," self-restraint. The truth is to govern us, and so to give us the power of self-government. The heart must be in the knowledge, not the head only.
Peter places self-control immediately after knowledge, and commentators see the reason in what unrestrained knowledge does to people around us:
If knowledge alone rules us, we can easily become creatures of extremes. A believer who sees things very clearly can act in a way that endangers the welfare of less discerning brothers and sisters, as Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 show us. So we need temperance.
Self-control and endurance work in opposite directions:
Temperance will keep me from saying or doing something that will wound you. Patience will keep me from being upset by anything you may do that is likely to wound me. Temperance is active, patience is passive!
The suffering in view here is suffering we did not deserve:
There is suffering for righteousness, if not for Christ's name, and it is never far from a Christian's path for long. So he needs the self-control that supplies "endurance." He is not to flinch if he is called to suffer, however unjustly. It is natural to complain about this, but how unworthy it is! Would it be any satisfaction, or real relief, if one deserved it?
The verse ends with godliness. One writer explains it as likeness that grows from the company we keep:
"And to patience godliness" — God-likeness. You walk through this world possessing the divine nature. See that you display it, show it! Show me a man's company, and I will show you what kind of man he is. If you are keeping company with God you will be a godly person, for we all resemble the thing we are occupied with. It comes out in a thousand details of our everyday life.
We lose this link most easily under pressure — and that is when we need it most:
Nothing matters more for the soul than keeping our links with God and our Lord Jesus fresh and in constant use — links of reverence and affection, of dependence and obedience. Yet work presses hard on us, and so do the course of the age, the deceitfulness of riches, the disappointment at loss, and desires for other things. That makes the danger from any earthly preoccupation great.
- In, not on. Read it as "in knowledge, self-control": each quality colours the next. The test is whether anything is missing, not how high you have climbed.
- Knowledge governs. Truth first lays its claim on the heart. Whoever cannot command himself will command nothing else.
- Self-control restrains. The word reaches far past eating and drinking: it means self kept well reined in. It also keeps our clear knowledge from harming believers who see less.
- Endurance bears. Self-control stops me wounding you. Endurance keeps me steady when others wound me — suffering I did nothing to deserve.
- Godliness walks. The chain ends in company kept with God. It shows in a thousand ordinary details, and we hold it fast when work, loss and desire pull hardest.