2 Peter - Verse-by-Verse Biblical Exegesis

TRANSLATION HIGHLIGHTS
Peter continues with a progression in the spiritual life. In the prior verse, gnosis
represented the intake of Bible doctrine as raw material for the spiritual life. Gnosis
doctrine is the building block of the soul. In order to continue to learn doctrine, you must
be teachable. And on top of that teachability, in order to metabolize that raw doctrinal
material, you need to be self-controlled. Self-control in the spiritual life is making sure
your intellect controls your emotions. It means you must remain a “student without
portfolio,” one who hears doctrine accurately taught and says “yes” to the content of the
message.
Self-control means you don’t argue and fight with a pastor or teacher if you disagree with
something he said. You don’t fume and vibrate in your seat, giving him angry looks. Stay
cool, calm, and collected; move on to the next message. Self-control also refers to a state
of genuine humility. And on top of self-control, add patient endurance. Patient endurance
is the exercise of the faith rest drill. And along with the exercise of the faith rest drill, you
must be filled with the Spirit. “Holiness” or “piety” is a spiritual state of being filled with
the Spirit. When you are not filled with the Spirit, you are in a state of sin and are not
“holy” or “pious.”
The preposition “en” can mean a number of things in the Greek. It could be instrumental
of means or locative of sphere in this context, but I prefer dative of association. Each
item that Peter is listing is related to the other items in the spiritual life. They are interdependent,
and in some cases one leads to the other in progression; but that isn’t always
the case. For example, in the prior verse, “patient endurance” doesn’t lead to the filling of
the Spirit (holiness). Rather, they are closely related (association) in the sphere of the
Christian way of life, influencing each other - and in some cases, combining - to produce
spiritual fruit.
RELEVANT OPINIONS
The Christian life is a very serious business. However, we have made it sort of an
extracurricular activity. The present-day thinking is that it is not something to be taken
into the business world or the schoolroom or into social life. Rather, it is something sort
of like your Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes which you wear only at certain times.
However, Peter said that it is something to which we are to give “all diligence …” Out in
the woods two things are happening, things which are actually transfigurations. The
vegetation that is living is growing, and the vegetation that is dead is decaying. Those are
the two processes which are taking place out there. And one of those processes is taking
place in your Christian life and mine. (J. McGee)
The cure for false knowledge is not less knowledge, but more … Christian self-control is
submission to the control of the indwelling Christ; and by this means mature virtue does
become a possibility for men. Once again Peter uses a word which must have cut the
false teachers like a whiplash. They claimed that knowledge released them from the need