OVERVIEW: It is by knowing our Lord and Savior by faith that we come to understand the mysteries of his divinity (HILARY OF ARLES, BEDE). God gives us everything we need in order to live godly lives (THEOPHYLACT). To have fellowship with the Holy Spirit is to participate in the divine nature (ORIGEN). In becoming Christ-bearers (CYRIL OF JERUSALEM) and in sharing by faith in God’s nature, we measure divine truths in accordance with the magnificence of God’s own testimony of himself (HILARY OF POITIERS). He granted us a relationship with himself, and we have a rational nature that makes us able to seek what is divine, which is not far from each one of us, in whom we live and move (AMBROSE). So realize your dignity (LEO). Step out of your former nature (HILARY OF ARLES). When God blesses us, he changes our very being, so that whatever we were by nature is transformed by the gift of his Holy Spirit (BEDE, ANDREAS). God’s power has rescued us from a life of sin and self-destruction and made it possible for us to share in his divine nature. This means that we must go on from our initial profession of faith and by grace ascend the ladder of spiritual perfection, which will bring us to a deep, personal experience of the love of God at work in our lives.
Insofar as we have the spiritual gifts, we shall be effective workers for Christ, but if we lack them we are in much the same impotent state as we were before our conversion. The purpose of the Christian life is to confirm the calling that we have received from God and to prepare our entrance into his eternal kingdom. Those who bring faith into fulfillment with virtue (BEDE) must make sure that in running away from the appetitive desires they do not give birth to vices that are much worse (GREGORY THE GREAT, BEDE, THEOPHYLACT). Godliness takes on concrete meaning through brotherly love (BEDE). The more we are like God, the more we are compelled by that likeness to love (THEOPHYLACT). The Christian life begins with simple faith (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). The discernible qualities of the Christian life—virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love and charity—are found in abundance among the lives of the faithful (CHRYSOSTOM, OECUMENIUS). Where these virtues are present, we can see God; where they are absent, we are blind (HILARY OF ARLES, BEDE). Therefore it is necessary that once one has been cleansed and has partaken of holiness, he or she hold on to it through thick and thin (CHRYSOSTOM, OECUMENIUS). Those who consistently practice virtue to avoid falling (OECUMENIUS) make their calling and election certain (HILARY OF ARLES, BEDE, ANDREAS). The same person who was once led into the narrow way of the judge’s courtroom is now welcomed into the eternal kingdom (HILARY OF ARLES, OECUMENIUS).
GRANTED ALL THINGS. HILARY OF ARLES: Here Peter is talking about the Scriptures, the miracles which Christ did in the flesh, the work of baptism and the doctrine which was preached, all of which bring us into the enjoyment of eternal life. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.1
THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM WHO CALLED US. BEDE: This verse follows on what has gone before, because it is by the knowledge of our Lord and Savior that we come to understand all the mysteries of his divinity, by which we have been saved. For he did not send an angel or an archangel to save us, nor did he find anything in us which might allow us to contribute to our own salvation, but when he saw that we were weak and had nothing to boast of, he came in his own glory and power and redeemed us. ON 2 PETER.2
PERTAINING TO LIFE AND GODLINESS. THEOPHYLACT: Grace and peace are the means by which God gives us everything we need in order to live godly lives. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.3
FELLOWSHIP WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. ORIGEN: What is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit?4 Peter describes this by calling it “sharing in the divine nature.” SERMONS ON LEVITICUS 4.4.2.5
ESCAPE FROM CORRUPTION. NOVATIAN: The word of Christ bestows immortality.6 But immortality is the companion of divinity, because divinity is immortal, and so immortality is the result of partaking in the divine nature. ON THE TRINITY 15.7.7
WE BECOME CHRIST-BEARERS. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: When Christ’s body and blood become the tissue of our members, we become Christ-bearers and “partakers of the divine nature,” as the blessed Peter said. MYSTAGOGICAL LECTURES 4.3.8
THE MEASURE OF GOD’S NATURE. HILARY OF POITIERS: Since the Christian is conscious of having been made a partaker of the divine nature, as blessed Peter says in his second epistle, he must measure the nature of God not by the laws of our own nature, but evaluate the divine truths in accordance with the magnificence of God’s testimony concerning himself. ON THE TRINITY 1.18.9
A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIMSELF. AMBROSE OF MILAN: The fact is that God made humankind a partaker of the divine nature, as we read in the second epistle of Peter. He granted us a relationship with himself, and we have a rational nature which makes us able to seek what is divine, which is not far from each one of us, in whom we live and are and move. LETTERS TO PRIESTS 49.10
REALIZE YOUR DIGNITY! LEO THE GREAT: Realize your dignity, O Christian! Once you have been made a partaker of the divine nature, do not return to your former baseness by a life unworthy of that dignity. Remember whose head it is and whose body of which you constitute a member! SERMONS 21.3.11
STEP OUT OF YOUR FORMER NATURE. HILARY OF ARLES: Just as God stepped out of his nature to become a partaker of our humanity, so we are called to step out of our nature to become partakers of his divinity. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.12
BECOME PARTAKERS. BEDE: The greater your knowledge of God becomes, the more you will realize the magnitude of his promises. When God blesses us, he changes our very being so that whatever we were by nature is transformed by the gift of his Holy Spirit, so that we may truly become partakers of his nature. ON 2 PETER.13
GRACE ENABLES PARTICIPATION. ANDREAS: God has blessed us abundantly—that is the meaning of this passage. We have received thousands of good things as a result of Christ’s coming, and through them we can become partakers of the divine nature and be turned toward life and godliness. Therefore we must behave in such a way as to add virtue to faith, and in virtue walk along the way which leads to godliness until we come to the perfection of all good things, which is love. CATENA.14
SUPPLEMENT FAITH WITH VIRTUE. BEDE: When Peter talks about virtue here, he does not mean the power to perform miracles but the strength to lead a good life, which means putting our faith into practice. If we fail to do this, our faith is dead and we become aiders and abettors of those who want to destroy any good works we may have done. ON 2 PETER.15
STEPS TO COMPLETE RESPONSIVENESS TO GRACE. THEOPHYLACT: Peter lays out here the order which we are to follow to come into full maturity. First of all comes faith, which is the foundation and source of all good works. Next comes virtue, by which he means good works, for without them faith is dead, as Saint James said.16 Next comes knowledge. What is that? It is an understanding of the secret things hidden in God which are not revealed to everyone, but only to those who continue faithfully in the works already mentioned. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.17
SUPPLEMENT KNOWLEDGE WITH SELF-CONTROL. GREGORY THE GREAT: Those who fast must be very careful to make sure that in running away from the desires of the stomach they do not give birth to vices which are much worse, almost as if their virtue were producing them. For it is easy to mortify the flesh but at the same time to become very impatient in spirit, and this impatience upsets the minds of many who abstain from the desires of the world. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.18
SELF-CONTROL WITH STEADFASTNESS. BEDE: As people learn to do good, so they will soon stop doing evil. If anyone does not do so his knowledge of heavenly things disappears as if in a vacuum. Self-control requires steadfastness, because whoever has learned to stay away from the pleasures of this world needs the willpower to go on doing so. The person who reaches that point of self-discipline may truly be called godly. ON 2 PETER.19
TEMPERANCE AND PATIENCE. THEOPHYLACT: Next in the list comes abstinence, or temperance. This is necessary in order to ensure that those who get this far are not carried away by the magnitude of the gift they have received and become haughty as a result. Patience follows next, because it takes time to acquire temperance, and without patience a person is liable to give up and fall into something even worse than what he has been delivered from. Patience increases our trust in God, which is why godliness comes next. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.20
SUPPLEMENT GODLINESS WITH BROTHERLY AFFECTION. BEDE: The only context in which godliness has any meaning is that of brotherly love. You cannot win people to Christ merely by arguing them into the kingdom. It is necessary to practice godliness by prayer and good works. Charity here means the love of God, because we cannot love God without loving our neighbor, nor can we love our neighbor without loving God. The love of God is greater than the love of our neighbor, which is why we have to practice it with all our heart, mind and strength. ON 2 PETER.21
SUPPLEMENT BROTHERLY AFFECTION WITH LOVE. THEOPHYLACT: The more we are like God, the more we are compelled by that likeness to love others, which is why brotherly love is next in the list. Finally, there is charity, the perfection of all virtues, as Paul also confirms.22 COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.23
THE OVERFLOWING LIFE OF THE VIRTUES. CHRYSOSTOM: These things, as well as those already mentioned, namely, virtue, knowledge, continence, patience, godliness, brotherly love and charity, must not only be present in us, they must be present to overflowing. For if their presence is a good thing, how much more their abundance! What advantage do these things have, and what will it mean to have assurance on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ? Peter is speaking here of his second coming, when Christ will come to judge the living and the dead. Before the great and terrible judgment seat of God, what a good and wonderful thing it will be to have assurance of being acquitted! CATENA.24
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE BEGINS WITH SIMPLE FAITH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Those who have chosen to live the glorious and beloved way of life devised by Christ must first be adorned with simple and unblemished faith, and then add virtue to their faith. When this has been done, they must strive to enrich their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and ascend to the most complete understanding of him. LETTERS 1.3.25
QUALITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. OECUMENIUS: What are the qualities which we possess? They are faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly love and charity, all of which must not only be present in us but present in abundance. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.26
ONE WHO HAS FORGOTTEN. CHRYSOSTOM: When we hear these things, we must fortify ourselves and obey what is said, and cleanse ourselves from earthly things. If we do that, we shall share in his blessings, and we shall not need anything else. But if we do not obey, we shall be destroyed. What difference does it make whether we are destroyed through wealth or through laziness? Or if not through laziness, through cowardice? For when a farmer destroys his crop, it hardly matters how he does it. On the other hand, he will raise us up to do all the good works which he has predicted we shall do. Therefore it is necessary that once someone has been cleansed and has partaken of holiness, that he hold on to it through thick and thin, for without it he will not see the Lord. CATENA.27
BEHOLDING GOD THROUGH THE VIRTUES. HILARY OF ARLES: If these virtues are present, we can see God, but if they are absent, we are blind. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.28
THE EYE AND THE HAND. BEDE: The eye stands for knowledge and the hand for action. A blind man who tries to act is someone who does not know what he should be doing. Lacking the light of truth, he puts his hand to something which he cannot understand and goes down a road which he cannot see, with the result that he ends up in a complete wreck. The person who lacks the things which Peter mentions here is just like that. ON 2 PETER.29
PURSUE HOLINESS. OECUMENIUS: This person ought to realize that he has been cleansed by holy baptism and that now he is expected to pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.30 COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.31
GROW IN FAITH. HILARY OF ARLES: Peter is telling us that we should not be content with our baptism but should go on and grow in our faith. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.32
STAND FAST. ANDREAS: Lest you be judged unmindful of God’s gift, you must stand fast, having a sure calling. CATENA.33
MAKE YOUR CALLING CERTAIN. BEDE: Jesus said: “Many are called but few are chosen.”34 The calling of all those who come to faith is certain, but those who consistently add good works to the sacraments of faith which they have received are the ones who make their calling and election certain in the eyes of those who observe them. The opposite is also true, for those who go back to their crimes after they have been called and who die in their sins make it clear to everyone that they are damned. ON 2 PETER.35
PRACTICE VIRTUE TO AVOID FALLING. OECUMENIUS: What are we supposed to do in order to avoid falling? The answer is clear from what is written above—we are to practice virtue, knowledge, temperance and so on. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.36
THE NARROW WAY. HILARY OF ARLES: Here Peter reminds us that the entrance into heaven is the narrow way of following God’s commandments. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.37
THE STEPS OF VIRTUE. BEDE: This verse reminds us of Ezekiel [40:31], which says: “Its stairway had eight steps.” The reason for this connection is that here Peter lists the eight steps of virtue by which those of us who are fleeing the corruption of worldly lust must ascend if we are to enter the heavenly kingdom. ON 2 PETER.38
FROM CONDEMNATION TO WELCOME. OECUMENIUS: Notice that the person who was once led by his terrible deeds straight into the judge’s courtroom is now welcomed because of his good deeds into the eternal kingdom of the Lord. COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER.39