Add to Your Believing
The Knowledge of God

2 Peter 1:2
    Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

Grace is God's unmerited divine favor.  Peace is quietness in a sea of trouble.  Through a knowledge of God and a knowledge of His son Jesus Christ we receive from God favor and peace.  Grace is not earned it is given by God.  Grace is the opposite of law & works.  If receiving a knowledge of God is directing you toward working to earn God's favor it CAN NOT be an accurate knowledge of God and His Word!  If receiving a knowledge of God is directing you toward a troubled state of mind (rather than a peaceful one) it CAN NOT be an accurate knowledge of God and His Word!  Through an accurate knowledge of God and His Word, and an accurate knowledge of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us grace and peace are multiplied unto us.  Not just added - MULTIPLIED.

2 Peter 1:3-4
    According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

    Whereby [by the knowledge of God] are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Through an accurate knowledge of God we also receive from God "all things that pertain unto life and godliness."  The word life means exactly what it says.  Everything needed to live life abundantly, to have a full active life, is given to us through the knowledge of God.  The word godliness refers to "a true vital spiritual relationship with God" as opposed to religion.  Through an accurate knowledge of God we are given a relationship with our heavenly Father.  If what you receive by having a knowledge of the Word is religion - a set of man made rules and regulations - a routine or rote set of actions with no true spiritual relationship with God - then you CAN NOT be getting an accurate knowledge of God.  The knowledge of God provides us with a real, true, vital, spiritual relationship with God and a more than abundant life.

God called us to glory and God called us to virtue.  Glory is a brightness of appearance that attracts the attention of others.  Virtue is excellence.  The word virtue literally translated means manliness or strength.  In its use in the Bible virtue is a superior excellence.  It is a quality life.  God has not called us to be downtrodden or defeated in life.  He has called us to excellence and to a shining brilliance that gets noticed by others.

Whereby - by the knowledge of God - we receive from God exceeding great and precious promises (like ETERNAL LIFE from Romans 10:9-10) that allow us to share fully in God's divine nature (spirit - John 4:24).  We have been given holy spirit through a knowledge of God's Word.  And because we have now got His spiritual nature abiding within us we have escaped the corruption (means getting worse & worse) that is in the world through lust.  Lust is over desire.  The world is getting worse and worse because of the excess of desire for worldly things that is in the world.  Money, power, the desire to have things...  But we have escaped this cycle having received from God eternal life and a spiritual nature by the knowledge of His Word.

James 1:18
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,...

1 Peter 1:23
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

The knowledge of God multiplies to us grace and peace.  The knowledge of God gives to us an abundant life and a spiritual relationship with God.  And the knowledge of God gives to us an escape from the over desires of the world which cause it to get worse and worse. We have been given eternal life and the spiritual nature of God.  Now that we have all this we must do something.  We respond to God's grace with believing!

Add in the Things

2 Peter 2:5-7
    And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

    And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

    And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

This is our part. These are the things we add in to live abundantly.  God multiplies and we add.  He graciously gives us of His divine nature.  He graciously gives us an abundant life and a spiritual relationship.  He multiplies to us grace and peace.  Now we add in our part.

These three verses contain two significant figures of speech.  Figures of speech are used in God's Word to emphasize that which is important.  If we understand the figures used in this verse we will understand what God wants us to do to live abundantly.

The first figure is Polysyndeton or Many Ands.  This figure is the repetition of the conjunction "and."  God uses this figure in a list to emphasize each individual item in the list.  We are to add into our believing virtue AND knowledge AND temperance AND patience AND godliness AND brotherly kindness AND charity.  Each item is equally important and is to be emphasized.

The second figure used in these verses is the figure Climax.  Each item in the list is repeated in connection with the next item.  As such each item is built upon the foundation of the previous item until a climax is reached with the last item.  Virtue is built upon believing, knowledge is built upon virtue, temperance upon knowledge, patience upon temperance, godliness upon brotherly kindness, and finally charity (the love of God) is built upon brotherly kindness.  Each item is important and each is built upon the item that comes before it.

faith - is the Greek word pistis. - It means believing.  Believing is having confidence and trust in the knowledge of God we have received to the end that we act upon it.

virtue - is the Greek word arete. - It means excellence. Arete derives its meaning from manliness or strength.  It is a superior excellence.  It is a reflection of quality: superior excellence.

knowledge - is the Greek word gnosis. - It means to know by experience.

temperance - is the Greek word egkrateia - It means self-control.

patience - is the Greek word hupomone - It means to hold up under; to endure.

godliness - is the Greek word eusebeia - It means a true, vital, spiritual relationship with God as opposed to religion.

brotherly kindness - is the Greek word philadelphia - It means to love as a brother.  To be kind to each other is to have brotherly love.  I do for you and you do for me.  It is human love.

charity - is the Greek word agape - It means the love of God.  God's love is unconditional.  God's love is pure giving without respect to the response of the recipient.  God's love loves the unlovable.

2 Peter 2:5
    And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith [believing]...

We are to give all diligence to our part of this abundant life.  Diligence means effort, haste, and zeal.  It is to put forth effort while being conscious of the brevity of time.  God has multiplied to us grace, peace, life in abundance, a spiritual relationship with Him, and holy spirit (eternal life) through a knowledge of Him.  We are to do our part by believing and adding to our believing these things.  God multiplies and we add.

We are to add to our believing the quality of excellence.  We are not worms to be trodden upon by the world.  We are the sons of God.  We need to act like it.  He has called us to glory.  He has called us to shine before men.  He has called us to excellence [virtue].  Now we add that quality of excellence to our believing.

We are to add to that quality of excellence an experiential knowledge of God and His Word.  God gave all to us through a knowledge of His Word.  We are to continue to grow in an experiential knowledge of His Word by learning it and applying it in our lives.

We are to add to our knowledge of His Word self-control [temperance].  We have free will.  We are in control of our lives, our believing, and our knowledge of the Word.  God wants us to exercise self-control in living an abundant life.

We are to add to self-control endurance [patience].  We are to hold up under the pressures of the world.  We are to endure pressure by exercising self-control in the knowledge of God.

We are to add to endurance a spiritual relationship with God.  We are not to establish religious rituals and routines.  We are to walk with our heavenly Father.  If we are going to endure the pressures of this world we are going to have to rely upon God.  Our relationship with Him must be a true, vital, spiritual relationship and not religion.

We are to add to our spiritual relationship with God brotherly kindness.  When our vertical relationship with God is spiritual our horizontal relationship with men will be kind.  We are to treat one another with kindness. We are to love as brethren.

Finally (the climax), we are to add to our brotherly love the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation.  We are love as God loves.  We love even when others do not love us.  We give expecting nothing in return.  We love the unlovable. We love with the love of God.

Each item in the list is important.  Each item is added to our believing to manifest an abundant life.  And each item builds on the one before it until we reach the top of the list which is the love of God.  This is our part in this abundant life.

Remember These Things

2 Peter 1:8
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The word barren means useless or unemployed.  When we add into our believing the things listed above we are not useless or unemployed.  We produce fruit and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is profitable.

2 Peter 1:9
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

If we do not add these things to our believing we end up living in the condemnation of our former way of life rather than in the abundant life God planned for us.  We are blind to the benefits of God's wonderful matchless Word.  We lose sight of what is coming to us in the future - we cannot see afar off.

2 Peter 1:10
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to  make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

If we DO these things - if we add them to our believing action - WE SHALL NEVER FALL!  What a promise from God!

2 Peter 1:11-12
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

When we add these things into our believing we minister unto ourselves an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We don't just squeeze through the door, we enter abundantly.

2 Peter 1:13-15
Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.  Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

Peter wrote this section of the Word of God to the believers just before his death to remind them of the things needed to manifest a life that is more than abundant.  We are to have these things always in remembrance.

Cortright Fellowship
URL http://www.cortright.org/2peter.htm
© Copyright September 1997 Michael Cortright