Im his first Epistle, Peter contemplates a great deal of outward trial and sorrow to the Church, but in this his second Epistle, the evils he adverts to are of a different character, and they are two in number: the first (Chapter 2:1), that of false prophets or teachers, bringing in heretical doctrines, and the second chapter that of scornful men, rebuking the promise of the Lord’s return. It is therefore the purpose of this Epistle to preserve the minds of the saints, whether it be from practically denying the sovereignty of the Saviour (Chapter 3:2), or from scorning the promise of his coming. Neither of these things would bring on the saints reproach or persecution, but they would test the state of their souls in the presence of God. The first Epistle depicts outward trial of every form and fashion, and provides strength against it; this rather points out the danger to the soul of a relaxed and impure condition of spiritual life.
We see men here (Chapter 3) reducing everything here to mere cause and effect. “Does not the sun shine to-day as it did yesterday? ““Where is the promise of his coming? for since the Fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” We live in a time when the soul needs security from dangers of these kinds; when there is great relaxation and indulgence given to nature, and little practical cultivation of the profession we make. Thus in the last two verses of this Epistle, we are exhorted to beware, “lest being led away with the error of the wicked we fall from our own steadfastness,” and likewise that we “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus;” —that is, grow in all the personal and lovely graces of the Spirit, and make the word of God the counselor of all our thoughts. Such I take to be the moral of the whole Epistle -for beloved, we should be so in communion with (vs. 4) “the exceeding great and precious promises,” conveying to us the mind of God, that we should get into our hearts these same dispositions and tempers of the divine mind, so, in this sense, to be “partakers of the divine nature; “for this passage does not at all relate to conversion, but to the imbibing and drawing in through the feeding on these “promises,” the mind and disposition of Christ, in the knowledge of whom we are exhorted to grow (Chapter 3:18).
And what a fine order and condition of soul is here contemplated, having the very same tastes, the very tact (so to speak) of the Lord Jesus! And this is just what we want. If we cultivate this fine order of spiritual affection, we shall surely be kept quite apart from the wretched traffic around us. The more we are made “partakers of the divine tempers of mind,” the more securely shall we be carried through the dark and perplexing scene our eyes behold. It is not by abstraction-by shutting ourselves up from it-. that we shall gain strength, but by being transformed into this habit of soul, through contemplating the pattern mind —God’s mind: “changed into His image” etc. —and then coming forth to practice these things in the midst of the ruin and desolation around us.
And the apostle says “Be diligent.” Surely, beloved; for does not this call for diligence? Do not, however, think you must needs be busy and active, in order to bring forth fruit to God. Most blessed this in its place! and one would desire to bring forth more and more, but it is in especially cultivating the charities and affections of the Spirit in the soul, the passive habits and virtues of Christ, that fruit to God is brought forth. What a beautiful husbandry this! And how full of blessing, one to another, were we continually so occupied, would our goings out and comings in be, day by day, and hour by hour! We should be more occupied in cultivating our affections for Christ, and if this be not going on every day in the soul, the whole moral system is at a loss. There is no recollection of the cross, no proper anticipation of the glory, where “these things” are not cultivated and prized.
And beloved, ought we not to welcome such truths as these? Our whole lives should be a witness that we are sailing into the kingdom with a full course; with a favorable tide and wind. Were we all diligent after this manner how greatly would it be to the comfort of our own spirit, and that of our brethren. And we should not walk diffidently of one another; but give each other the blessed assurance that we are the elect of God; our whole life being the expression that It is so, and that we are getting “an abundant entrance “into the kingdom.
Chapter 1:15. —And does not the Spirit give great value to these admonitions and warnings “That after my decease ye might be able to have these things always in remembrance.” And surely we will not say the times are fallen out to us, so that these things are less necessary to be remembered now than then. If ever there was a time, beloved, when there was a relaxed state of morals in the professing Church, surely it is now.
May we then feed continually on these “exceeding great and precious promises” to be “partakers of the divine nature” to cultivate and increase it. And how happily at the close of this Epistle, does the apostle expand to us the very core, and center, and heart of these “promises” by what had been disclosed to him in the Holy Mount. “My own eyes,” says he, “were the witnesses of it, when I was with Him in the day of His glory.”
This letter, beloved, is not written simply to them, to whom it is peculiarly addressed; but it is to you and to me, in order that by communion with these “exceeding great and precious promises,” we also may get more into the divine mind, and commend ourselves one to the other, as those who are “making our calling and election sure,” and “bowing in grace,” and “in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” And as the days are indeed evil, may we be driven more and more into our “hiding-place,” there to learn, and there to cultivate all these blessed tempers and dispositions of the mind of Christ. It is surely rowing against the tide, and we must be diligent-but “let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”