1:1 Simon 1 Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to them that have obtained like precious faith with us
through the a righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ:
(1) A greeting, in which he gives them to understand that he
deals with them as Christ's ambassadors, and otherwise
agrees with them in the same faith which is grounded on the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour.
(a) In that God, in standing by his promises, showed himself
faithful, and therefore just to us.
1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you 2 through the
knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
(2) Faith is the acknowledging of God and Christ, from which
all our blessedness issues and flows.
1:33 According as his b divine power hath given unto us all
things that [pertain] unto c life and godliness, through
the d knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue:
(3) Christ sets forth himself to us plainly in the Gospel, and
that by his only power, and gives us all things which are
required both for eternal life, in which he has appointed
to glorify us, and also to godliness, in that he furnishes
us with true virtue.
(b) He speaks of Christ, whom he makes God and the only
Saviour.
(c) To salvation.
(d) This is the sum of true religion, to be led by Christ to
the Father, as it were by the hand.
1:44 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the e
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust.
(4) An explanation of the former sentence, declaring the
causes of so great benefits, that is, God and his free
promise, from which all these benefits proceed, I say,
these most excellent benefits, by which we are delivered
from the corruption of this world, (that is, from the
wicked lusts which we carry about in us) and are made like God
himself.
(e) By the divine nature he means not the substance of the
Godhead, but the partaking of those qualities, by which
the image of God is restored in us.
1:55 And beside this, giving all diligence, h add to your
faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
(5) Having laid the foundation (that is, having declared the
causes of our salvation and especially of our
sanctification) now he begins to exhort us to give our
minds wholly to the true use of this grace. He begins with
faith, without which nothing can please God, and he warns
us to have it fully equipped with virtue (that is to say,
with good and godly manners) being joined with the
knowledge of God's will, without which, there is neither
faith, neither any true virtue.
(h) Supply also, and support or aid.
1:66 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience;
and to patience godliness;
(6) He brings up certain and other principal virtues, of which
some pertain to the first table of the law, others to the
last.
1:87 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.
(7) As those fruits do spring from the true knowledge of
Christ, so in like sort the knowledge itself is fostered
and grows by bringing forth such fruits, in so much that he
that is unfruitful, did either never know the true light,
or has forgotten the gift of sanctification which he has
received.
1:9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and (i) cannot
see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his
old sins.
(i) He that has not an effectual knowledge of God in him, is
blind concerning the kingdom of God, for he cannot see
things that are afar off, that is to say, heavenly
things.
1:108 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things,
ye shall never fall:
(8) The conclusion: Therefore seeing our calling and election
is approved by those fruits, and is confirmed in us, and
moreover seeing this is the only way to the everlasting
kingdom of Christ, it remains that we set our minds wholly
on that way.
1:129 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.
(9) An amplifying of the conclusion joined with a modest
excuse, in which he declares his love towards them, and
tells them of his death which is at hand.
1:13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this k
tabernacle, to stir you up by putting [you] in remembrance;
(k) In this body.
1:1610 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables,
when we made known unto you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
(10) Another amplification taken from both the great certainty
and also the excellency of his doctrine, of which our Lord
Jesus Christ the Son of God is author, whose glory the
apostle both saw and heard.
1:1911 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; 12
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day l dawn, and
the m day star arise in your hearts:
(11) The truth of the gospel is by this revealed, in that it
agrees wholly with the foretellings of the prophets.
(12) The doctrine of the apostles does not contradict the
doctrine of the prophets, for they confirm each other by
each others testimonies, but the prophets were like
candles which gave light to the blind, until the
brightness of the gospel began to shine.
(l) A more full and open knowledge, than was under the
shadows of the law.
(m) That clearer doctrine of the gospel.
1:2013 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the n
scripture is of any o private interpretation.
(13) The prophets are to be read, but so that we ask of God the
gift of interpretation, for he who is the author of the
writings of the prophets, is also the interpreter of them.
(n) He joins the Scripture and prophecy together, to
distinguish true prophecies from false.
(o) For all interpretation comes from God.
1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man:
but p holy men of God spake [as they were] q moved by
the Holy Ghost.
(p) The godly interpreters and messengers.
(q) Inspired by God: their actions were in very good order,
and not as the actions of the profane soothsayers, and
foretellers of things to come.
