2Pe 1:5-10 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 5. And beside this ] Notwithstanding what God hath done for you, in order that ye may not receive the grace of God in vain; Giving all diligence ] Furnishing all earnestness and activity : the original is very emphatic. Add to your faith ] επιχορηγησατε. Lead up hand in hand ; alluding, as most think, to the chorus in the Grecian dance, who danced with joined hands. . Your faith -That faith in Jesus by which ye have been led to embrace the whole Gospel, and by which ye have the evidence of things unseen. Virtue ] αρετην. Courage or fortitude , to enable you to profess the faith before men, in these times of persecution. Knowledge ] True wisdom, by which your faith will be increased, and your courage directed, and preserved from degenerating into rashness .

‏ 2 Peter 1:5-10

Verse 5. And beside this] Notwithstanding what God hath done for you, in order that ye may not receive the grace of God in vain;

Giving all diligence] Furnishing all earnestness and activity: the original is very emphatic.

Add to your faith] επιχορηγησατε. Lead up hand in hand; alluding, as most think, to the chorus in the Grecian dance, who danced with joined hands. See Clarke on 2Co 9:10.

Your faith-That faith in Jesus by which ye have been led to embrace the whole Gospel, and by which ye have the evidence of things unseen.

Virtue] αρετην. Courage or fortitude, to enable you to profess the faith before men, in these times of persecution.

Knowledge] True wisdom, by which your faith will be increased, and your courage directed, and preserved from degenerating into rashness.

Verse 6. Temperance] A proper and limited use of all earthly enjoyments, keeping every sense under proper restraints, and never permitting the animal part to subjugate the rational.

Patience] Bearing all trials and difficulties with an even mind, enduring in all, and persevering through all.

Godliness] Piety towards God; a deep, reverential, religious fear; not only worshipping God with every becoming outward act, but adoring, loving, and magnifying him in the heart: a disposition indispensably necessary to salvation, but exceedingly rare among professors.

Verse 7. Brotherly kindness] φιλαδελφιαν. Love of the brotherhood-the strongest attachment to Christ's flock; feeling each as a member of your own body.

Charity] αγαπην. Love to the whole human race, even to your persecutors: love to God and the brethren they had; love to all mankind they must also have. True religion is neither selfish nor insulated; where the love of God is, bigotry cannot exist. Narrow, selfish people, and people of a party, who scarcely have any hope of the salvation of those who do not believe as they believe, and who do not follow with them, have scarcely any religion, though in their own apprehension none is so truly orthodox or religious as themselves.

After αγαπην, love, one MS. adds these words, ενδετηαγαπη τηνπαρακλησιν, and to this love consolation; but this is an idle and useless addition.

Verse 8. For if these things be in you and abound] If ye possess all there graces, and they increase and abound in your souls, they will make-show, you to be neither αργους, idle, nor ακαρπους, unfruitful, in the acknowledgment of our Lord Jesus Christ. The common translation is here very unhappy: barren and unfruitful certainly convey the same ideas; but idle or inactive, which is the proper sense of αργους, takes away this tautology, and restores the sense. The graces already mentioned by the apostle are in themselves active principles; he who was possessed of them, and had them abounding in him, could not be inactive; and he who is not inactive in the way of life must be fruitful. I may add, that he who is thus active, and consequently fruitful, will ever be ready at all hazard to acknowledge his Lord and Saviour, by whom he has been brought into this state of salvation.

Verse 9. But he that lacketh these things] He, whether Jew or Gentile, who professes to have FAITH in God, and has not added to that FAITH fortitude, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and universal love; is blind-his understanding is darkened, and cannot see afar off, μυωπαζων, shutting his eyes against the light, winking, not able to look truth in the face, nor to behold that God whom he once knew was reconciled to him: and thus it appears he is wilfully blind, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins-has at last, through his nonimprovement of the grace which he received from God, his faith ceasing to work by love, lost the evidence of things not seen; for, having grieved the Holy Spirit by not showing forth the virtues of him who called him into his marvellous light, he has lost the testimony of his sonship; and then, darkness and hardness having taken place of light and filial confidence, he first calls all his former experience into doubt, and questions whether he has not put enthusiasm in the place of religion. By these means his darkness and hardness increase, his memory becomes indistinct and confused, till at length he forgets the work of God on his soul, next denies it, and at last asserts that the knowledge of salvation, by the remission of sins, is impossible, and that no man can be saved from sin in this life. Indeed, some go so far as to deny the Lord that bought them; to renounce Jesus Christ as having made atonement for them; and finish their career of apostasy by utterly denying his Godhead. Many cases of this kind have I known; and they are all the consequence of believers not continuing to be workers together with God, after they had experienced his pardoning love.

Reader, see that the light that is in thee become not darkness; for if it do, how great a darkness!

Verse 10. Wherefore] Seeing the danger of apostasy, and the fearful end of them who obey not the Gospel, and thus receive the grace of God in vain; give all diligence, σπουδασατε, hasten, be deeply careful, labour with the most intense purpose of soul.

To make your calling] From deep Gentile darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel.

And election] Your being chosen, in consequence of obeying the heavenly calling, to be the people and Church of God. Instead of κλησιν, calling, the Codex Alexandrinus has παρακλησιν, consolation.

Sure] βεβαιαν. Firm, solid. For your calling to believe the Gospel, and your election to be members of the Church of Christ, will be ultimately unprofitable to you, unless you hold fast what you have received by adding to your faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, &c.

For if ye do these things] If ye be careful and diligent to work out your own salvation, through the grace which ye have already received from God; ye shall never fall, ουμηπταισητε ποτε, ye shall at no time stumble or fall; as the Jews have done, and lost their election, Ro 11:11, where the same word is used, and as apostates do, and lose their peace and salvation. We find, therefore, that they who do not these things shall fall; and thus we see that there is nothing absolute and unconditional in their election. There is an addition here in some MSS. and versions which should not pass unnoticed: the Codex Alexandrinus, nine others, with the Syriac, Erpen's Arabic, Coptic, AEthiopic, Armenian, later Syriac with an asterisk, the Vulgate, and Bede, have ιναδιατωνκαλων (υμων) εργων, THAT BY (your) GOOD WORKS ye may make your calling and election firm. This clause is found in the edition of Colinaeus, Paris, 1534, and has been probably omitted by more recent editors on the supposition that the edition does not make a very orthodox sense. But on this ground there need be no alarm, for it does not state that the good works thus required merit either the calling and election, or the eternal glory, of God. He who does not by good works confirm his calling and election, will soon have neither; and although no good works ever did purchase or ever can purchase the kingdom of God, yet no soul can ever scripturally expect to see God who has them not. I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: go, ye cursed. I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; &c., &c.; come, ye blessed.