2 Peter - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

“Aion” is used in a doxological sense to describe the unceasing glory which shall ascend
to God for all eternity. (R. Morey) The Christian life is a developing life, for it consists in
getting to know at ever greater depth an inexhaustible Lord and Savior ... This emphasis
on knowledge provides a goal for Christian development, and at the same time a warning
against the false knowledge “so called” which the heretics professed. (M. Green)
Contemporary popular Christianity, both the semi-modernists and the new-evangelicals,
has seriously ignored Peter’s exhortation. They have fallen off their foundation and are
carried away with various wicked errors. Anti-intellectualism is the root of their other
disobediences. Serious study is decried as cold, dead orthodoxy. Spirituality is identified
with fuzzy thinking and the empty platitudes that pass for piety. Will this perverse
generation heed the apostle and studiously grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord? (G.
Clark) The only possession we can carry on our trip to heaven is spiritual – Bible
doctrine already stored in our souls. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.)
“Resolved: To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may
find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.” This was
Jonathan Edwards’s personal application of 2 Peter 3:18. He gave himself assidulously to
study the very words of God, and would not allow them to lie by him neglected. This was
the wellspring of his profoundly Biblical rethinking of great theological questions. (J.
Piper) To grow in grace is not subjective, based merely on experience and emotional
happenings. It is objectively related to Peter’s key word knowledge. This is not just any
knowledge; it is knowledge about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The verb “grow” is a
present imperative, which could be rendered “be continually growing.” Without the
initial knowledge there is no opportunity for growth. But if there is only that initial
knowledge, the struggling new believer forgets “that he has been cleansed from his past
sins.” (K. Gangel) Continuing growth is the unfailing panacea for all spiritual ills. (D.
Hiebert)
Experiential sanctification is related to Christian growth. Christians are immature in
wisdom, knowledge, experience, and grace. In all these things they are appointed to
grow, and their growth should be manifest. (J. Walvoord) True knowledge is not some
esoteric information concerning a form or formula, a rite or a ritual; nor is it some secret
order or password, as the Gnostics claimed. It is to know Jesus Christ as He is revealed to
man in the Word of God. This is the secret of life and of Christian living. (J. McGee)
Only in the power of the Holy Spirit can the believer grow, serve, and glorify God ... The
preeminent responsibility of the Christian is to God: Study His Word, learn promises,
techniques, and doctrines, grow spiritually, worship, witness, pray ... The Christian is
kept alive on earth to fulfill his destiny, which is to become a mature believer, a spiritual
winner, a “mature person to the measure of the maturity which belongs to the fullness of
Christ.” The believer lives the Christian way of life by following God’s mandates, not by
striving to fulfill his own legalistic idea of what ought to please God. (R.B. Thieme, Jr.)
2 Peter 3:18 But (contrast; rather, instead) keep on growing
(auvxa,nw, PAImp.2P, Iterative, Command; increasing, forward
momentum) by means of the grace (Instr. Means; logistical