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Second Peter, part 3, Growing into Spiritual Maturity

2 Peter 1:5 says,

⁵ Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,

In 2 Peter 1:5–9, Peter builds upon the promises and divine power mentioned in verses 1–4. Because believers have received life from God and have become “partakers of the divine nature,” they are not to remain spiritually passive. The Christian life requires diligence and growth.

The phrase “for this very reason” ties the exhortation directly to God’s prior grace. Divine sovereignty does not eliminate human responsibility. Since God has acted, believers must respond. God has always retained sovereignty over all that owns (by right of creation), yet He chose to give man authority. Hence, He said in Genesis 1:26, “Let them rule,” and Peter adds, “applying all diligence” in order to be a good steward of all that God owns.

The word translated “applying all diligence” (σπουδή, spoudē) implies earnestness, zeal, and haste. Spiritual maturity is not accidental, and it does not come from passivity or fatalism. Hebrews 12:8 makes it clear that spiritual maturity requires divine discipline, even as we see with our own natural children. God is responsible to make it happen, because He is sovereign and because it is based on His own promise to bring us into the full maturity of sonship, but He works to change our own will until it conforms to His. Hence, our will is the main focus of His attention, and our growth is the measure of His success.

Moral Excellence and Knowledge

Peter presents a ladder or chain of virtues, listing first “moral excellence.” This covers a very broad spectrum of behavior showing evidence of the level to which the Spirit has written His laws upon our hearts. The law gives us the moral standard that is to be achieved when we reach full maturity as sons of God. By studying the law, we are able to know ourselves and to measure how far we have come through the disciplines of God.

The progression is important. Peter is not describing isolated virtues but an integrated spiritual development. Each quality supports and enriches the next.

For this reason, we are to add “knowledge” to our moral excellence. This repeats what Peter said earlier in 2 Peter 1:3, “the true knowledge of Him who called us.” Studying the Scriptures and receiving the knowledge of God’s nature through His law is good and necessary, but as we have seen by the example of the Israelites under Moses, such knowledge could only alter one’s behavior (at best) until the people received the Holy Spirit’s power to change their nature.

Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites failed to fulfill their vow of obedience. Their good intentions were unsustainable, as they constantly grumbled and rebelled against God and Moses, first in the wilderness and later in the land of Canaan. Ultimately, both Israel and Judah were cast out of God’s house. Hence, a better covenant was required, one which provided “true knowledge” coming from experiential revelation imparted through divine discipline.

Self-Control, Perseverance, and Godliness

2 Peter 1:6 says,

⁶ and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness.

Self-control is the mastery of earthly desires and passions. Revelation knowledge changes the heart so that one is able to subdue the human will and subject it to the will of God as expressed in His law. Hence, self-control is the evidence of the “true knowledge” of God. In 1 John 4:20 the apostle focuses on love as the prime evidence of knowing God: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and so the measure of spiritual maturity and conformity to the divine nature is how much love is ingrained in us.

Perseverance is steadfast endurance under pressure. The Christian walk is not a brief sprint but a lifelong endurance test. To be justified by faith is a momentary experience, pictured in the day of Passover, when the Israelites left Egypt. But their wilderness journey was designed to teach them endurance and perseverance.

Abraham is set forth as the example in Hebrews 6:15,

¹⁵ And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

Yet most of the Israelites died in the wilderness without receiving the promise, even though they were “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38 KJV). Just because one has kept the Passover and has come out of Egypt with the intention of entering the Promised Land does not mean that he has endurance or perseverance. Most of them refused the disciplines of God and were therefore declared to be “illegitimate children” (Hebrews 12:8).

Many believers today think that, because their faith in Christ has justified them, they are qualified to receive the promise of God—that is, to inherit the Kingdom. They think that because they were “born again” as children of God that they are suddenly spiritually mature and are equipped to rule God’s estate. They fail to understand the principle of endurance, and they fail to add perseverance to their knowledge.

Only a few Christians (like Caleb and Joshua) will actually endure to the end and receive the dominion mandate to “let them rule” in the earth. The rest will remain as mere citizens to give them more time to learn “true knowledge” in the age to come.

Godliness is reverence toward God expressed in life. It is practical piety, not merely religious ritual. Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:7, 8, “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things.” Both he and Peter recognized that the purpose of discipline is to produce godliness. Godliness itself is an outward expression of the nature of God and of Christ.

Brotherly Love and Divine Love

2 Peter 1:7 gives us the apex in this chain of virtues:

⁷ and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Peter tells us that the progression toward spiritual maturity leads to “brotherly love” (philadelphia) and finally to divine love (agape).

Philadelphia is family affection within the community of believers. It speaks of warmth, loyalty, companionship, and mutual care among those who belong to the household of faith. Philadelphia is affectionate and relational. It is especially directed toward fellow Christians. It is the kind of love seen in hospitality, concern for fellow believers, practical help, shared burdens, and in covenant loyalty. The NT frequently uses this term for the internal life of the church:

Romans 12:10 says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” Hebrews 13:1 adds, “Let brotherly love continue.”

The second word, agapē, is broader and deeper. This is the highest form of love in the New Testament: self-giving, sacrificial, unconditional, rooted in the character of God Himself. It is the love described in John 3:16, “God so loved the world.” Agapē does not depend upon the worthiness or attractiveness of its object. It acts for the good of others even at personal cost.

Jesus used this love toward enemies: “Love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44). Before we were believers in Christ, we were legally classed as God’s enemies, because the will of the flesh ran contrary to the will of God. Yet God loved us, as Paul tells us in Romans 5:8, 10,

⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us… ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Thus, agapē goes beyond familial affection. It loves sinners and enemies as well. Paul sets forth the love of God in the verses above to show God’s motive in justifying all mankind in the rest of the chapter. Therefore, those who love their relatives and spiritual brothers alone have done well, but they have not yet reached the height of spiritual maturity that God intends for them.

Being Fruitful

2 Peter 1:8, 9 says,

⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted [near-sighted], having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

Christian growth is expected to be increasing, not static. Fruitfulness is the evidence of genuine knowledge of Christ. Peter uses “knowledge” (epignōsis) not as mystical speculation but as relational and transformative knowledge.

Verse 9 gives the negative contrast. The imagery is striking. A believer lacking spiritual growth suffers from spiritual blindness. The term muōpazōn literally suggests being “short-sighted,” seeing only what is near. Such a person loses the long-term vision of the Kingdom.

Peter does not necessarily say the person was never cleansed; rather, he has “forgotten” the significance of his cleansing. Spiritual amnesia leads to spiritual stagnation. The believer who forgets the grace of God’s promise ceases to grow in holiness.

Be Diligent

In 2 Peter 1:10, 11 concludes,

¹⁰ Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you [literally, “make firm your calling and election”]; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; ¹¹ for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

The “therefore” connects this exhortation directly to the previous warning about spiritual blindness and forgetfulness. Peter is not changing subjects; he is explaining the remedy. Christian assurance of being justified by faith is not meant to produce laziness or presumption.

In telling them “you will never stumble,” Peter does not mean believers will never commit individual sins or errors. Even Peter himself had stumbled seriously in the past. The Greek term here carries the idea of falling disastrously or collapsing spiritually. The meaning is they will not fall away into ruin, they will not be overcome by blindness, and they will remain steadfast.

In my experience, the difference is whether a man has been persuaded by teachers or has received revelation by the Spirit of God. Persuasion is a matter of head knowledge; revelation is written on the heart, changing one’s nature forever. Head knowledge, even if religious in nature, must be upgraded at some point in order to endure to the end. Revelation is a supernatural knowledge that endures forever.