Fifteen Eighty Four

The epistle of 2 Peter is not merely a polemic against false teachers; it is founded upon a compelling theological vision of life with God. In my commentary on 2 Peter, I argue that the letter’s ethical foundation lies in the concept articulated in 1:3-4: that believers “become sharers of the divine nature.” This principle, referred to at times as theosis, acts as the organizing theological theme of the letter.

This participation is achieved through God’s initiative, who has given “all things necessary for life and devotion to God” through his divine power and the transformative knowledge of him. This knowledge is not merely intellectual, but inherently relational; it facilitates a deep, personal union with Christ that enables escape from the world’s corruption.

Crucially, this present and active participation in the divine life (an inaugurated reality of salvation) is the prerequisite for Christian ethics. The famous virtue sequence that follows in 2 Peter 1:5-7 is not a checklist of human character qualities, but the necessary outflow of this theological reality of living life in union with God in Christ. The list (faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, devotion to God, sibling affection, and love) is structured rhetorically as an ascending chain of virtues, beginning with faith and culminating in love (1:7). This form, familiar to the Asiatic rhetoric used in the letter, urges diligence on the part of the recipients for these virtues to become engrained within their own nature. For 2 Peter, theology does not merely relate to ethics but rather requires it.

This ethical framework stands in stark opposition to the false teachers described in 2 Peter chapters 2-3. They deny the Master (Christ) who bought them (2:1) and have become enslaved to their own depravity. Their lives are characterized by greed (2:14) and moral licentiousness (2:10). By indulging in these vices, they are abandoning the life of holiness expected of those who share in God’s nature. The false teachers are metaphorically compared to “irrational animals, born by nature for capturing and killing” (2:12), which means they are behaving in a subhuman manner. The false teachers thus act as contrast against one whose life is hidden in the life of God. To live in participatory union with God is to take on the virtues associated with God’s morally perfect nature. To abandon such union results in a failure to achieve the outcome for which human nature was designed.

The commentary thus argues that the repeated use of the concept of “devotion to God” and embrace of virtue through life with God throughout the letter reinforces the essential nature of holiness to Christian life and mission. Ultimately, the pursuit of these virtues, rooted in union with God in Christ, determines the outcome of one’s destiny, culminating in “entrance into the eternal kingdom” (2 Pet. 1:11) for those who, through divine gift, have become partakers of the divine nature.