The beginning of the body of the letter (1:3– 11) sets
the tone for the goal of human flourishing in terms of participation and
likeness. Peter describes this reality: “His divine power has given us
everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who
called us by his own glory and virtue” (1:3). The argument here is grounded in participation:
God gives gifts of himself by means of his “divine power” and “his glory and
virtue,” and believers share in this through “knowledge of him.” The following
verse both confirms this participation and explains what likeness to God
entails: “Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very
great promises, so that through them you may become participants of the divine
nature (θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως), escaping from the corruption in the world
because of lust (ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ φθορᾶς)” (1:4).
Participation is reiterated explicitly through the
language of sharing in the divine nature. This use of “nature” language raises
the questions of ontology, likely echoing Hellenistic philosophies but with
clear distinctions (Starr 2007, 85– 88). For example, ancient philosophers
discuss issues related to divine nature, desires, and virtues: Plutarch, Life
of Aristides 6.2– 3 and Philo, Abr. 144; Spec. 1.116 (Middle
Platonic) and Epictetus, Disc. 1.9 (Stoic). In contrast to philosophical
comparisons, some situate this in an eschatological Jewish setting (Hafemann
2013, 90– 97). The lack of expansion on the “nature” language in the text makes
determining a specific context difficult. While the language tends toward
substance- oriented readings, with the emphasis on knowledge and the subsequent
focus on growth in virtue, the focus is on humans participating in divine
virtue rather than mixing of natures. Christians escape corruption,
characterized by death and disintegration, by means of knowing the life and
virtue of Christ (Corbin Reuschling 2014, 279– 82). This divine likeness by
means of these qualities is reiterated and serves as a challenge to grow into
greater stages: faith, virtue, knowledge, selfcontrol, endurance, godliness,
brotherly love, and love (1:5– 8). Not only does Peter hold out this
soteriological transformation for the present, but he also correlates it with the
hope of participation in the coming “eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ” (1:11). Peter presents a vision of personal engagement with God
by means of Christ so that believers share in the virtue and life of God both
now and into the future. In that way, believers become like him experiencing
present moral incorruption and future somatic incorruption.
This experience of incorruption is through divine
participation, mediated by the Messiah and the Spirit. The foundation of
present participation is knowledge, and Peter establishes this “knowledge” from
the beginning as that “of God and our Lord Jesus” (1:2). Likewise, common
knowledge of both Jesus and God grounds the reality of divine participation in
1:3– 4. We see a correlation between the glory and power of Christ and that of
the Father (1:16– 17). Matching the initial challenge to know God and Jesus
(1:2), Peter reiterates this goal to close the letter: “grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (3:18). Participation in this
divine power and the divine nature is mediated not only by Christ but also by
the Spirit. The Spirit is less often addressed in the letter, but the divine
agency of the Spirit cannot be missed. A significant focus of the letter is
responding to false teachers and prophets. A part of his response is that true prophets
do not speak for themselves, nor from their own will, but they speak from God because
they are carried by the Holy Spirit (1:21). The movement of the Spirit, then,
is a work of God, and human actions through the Spirit are thus identified as
God’s actions.
The central thrust of 2 Peter is an encouragement to
encounter God through knowledge, a knowledge that engenders true participation
in God and likeness to God. Humans who encounter Jesus and the Spirit are to
encounter the reality of God because they come to know him and are led by him.
In that way, they share in his moral incorruption presently and look forward to
somatic incorruption in the future eternal kingdom. (Ben C. Blackwell, “The
Pauline and Petrine Letters,” in The Oxford Handbook of Deification, ed.
Paul L. Gravrilyuk, Andrew Hofer, and Matthew Levering; Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2024], 64-65)
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