2 Peter 1:8, commentary and pictures

These things are faith with virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity added to it, and when they live in a person and keep increasing they keep that person from being idle and fruitless in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Barren means idle, empty and unproductive, and the knowledge promised is not mere profession or feeling but practical, lived godliness shown in obedience, character and conduct. This fruitfulness comes by a definite plan of adding grace to grace like brick upon brick, made possible because divine power gives all things for life and godliness through exceeding great and precious promises by which believers share the divine nature and escape worldly corruption. There is no standstill in this life, for believers must climb step by step heavenward in self-denial and dependence on Christ, working with all diligence on the plan of addition while God works on the plan of multiplication to supply grace, peace and power. It is a conditional promise that those who so add, practice the truth and cooperate with God shall not fall but shall make their calling and election sure, grow to completeness in Christ, and receive an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom through daily watchfulness, prayer, searching the Scriptures and bringing religion into everyday life.

Words and Immediate Sense

These things are faith, and virtue added to faith, and knowledge added to virtue, and temperance added to knowledge, and patience added to temperance, and godliness added to patience, and brotherly kindness added to godliness, and charity added to brotherly kindness. When these graces are in a person and abound, when they are present and keep increasing and growing, they make that person neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. This abounding is progressive sanctification by diligence on the plan of addition, and it makes calling and election sure, gives assurance against falling, and belongs to the essential education that leads to steadfastness and an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom.

Barren means idle, empty and unproductive, and unfruitful means without fruit, so the promise is of an active, productive life in knowing Christ rather than spiritual idleness. When faith is joined with virtue, knowledge, temperance or self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity or love, and these qualities grow, the person will not be barren or unfruitful in knowing God and Jesus Christ. These qualities are gifts made possible by grace and power, to be developed by teachers and students alike, bearing fruit in service and loyalty to Christ, in overcoming evil dispositions and resisting temptation through lust, and in displaying gentleness, kindness, love and courtesy.

The knowledge of Christ here is practical godliness and experimental acquaintance, not mere profession, feeling, or surface claim of belief. It is spiritual understanding and genuine experience of the Holy Spirit's work in mind and heart, shown in well-doing, in faith demonstrated in action, and in obedience to the principles of the Word. Hearing without reform and cooperation leaves a person unchanged, and profession without corresponding works is nothing, leaving the professed Christian blind, forgetful of cleansing from old sins, still living the old life, grieving Christ, retaining objectionable traits, indulging corrupt tendencies, failing to be a doer of the Word, and failing to feed on Christ and practice His words and works. To have this knowledge is to represent it in life, with the sacred truth in heart and soul, converted every day by converting power, because law and gospel go together as a perfect whole to produce unfeigned love and faith, repentance toward God and faith toward Christ, harmony with the moral standard of righteousness, and cleansing from sin through His blood.

Chapter Context and Sequence

The verse belongs to a definite plan of addition in which believers are to give all diligence to add to faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity and love, building character steadily like brick upon brick rather than treating self as a law. Christian life in this plan is continual progression beginning with faith and going on with these graces present and growing, and when they are in a person and abound they keep that person from being barren or unfruitful in knowing Jesus Christ, making knowledge of Christ fruitful in life and service. These qualities are the perfection to be reached through cooperation with divinity, for God provides what pertains to life and godliness and grace and peace are multiplied through knowing God and Jesus Christ, and those who live upon this plan of addition receive God's working upon the plan of multiplication. The adding is man's cooperation with God in salvation, working upon the plan of addition while God works in and through human agents, and it is not one grace after another in sequence but all graces manifest together in Christian character, climbed step by step as Peter's ladder of eight rounds from the lowest round to the very top. Fruitfulness comes by climbing round after round looking to Christ and clinging to Christ and mounting step by step to the heights of Christ, for the ladder is Christ connecting earth with heaven, and He is made unto believers wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption as they become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust.

This fruitful knowledge comes through divine power that has given all things pertaining to life and godliness and through exceeding great and precious promises by which believers partake of the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world through lust, with grace and peace multiplied through this knowledge. Escaping the world's corrupting influences requires a living connection with Christ, knowledge of His life and character, desire to become like Him, earnest effort to overcome temptation, and faith that His promises will be fulfilled. The knowledge of God and of Jesus thus gained is worth more than silver or gold or precious stones, and divine help is given to those who try to fulfill the Word and do the will of God, working out salvation with fear and trembling in harmony with the knowledge received. This calls every person, especially youth forming characters that will determine future destiny for life or for death, to consecrate self to Christ with determined purpose, take hold of Christ by living faith, and obey the call to glory and virtue, so that if lost they are left without excuse. The chapter connects this fruitful life directly with overcoming the world's corruption and becoming a partaker of the divine nature after receiving like precious faith through the righteousness of God and Jesus Christ, with temperance shown in eating and drinking and virtue understood as virtuous character and charity as love.

Lacking these graces leaves a person blind and unable to see afar off and forgetful of cleansing and purging from old sins, still living the old life and retaining objectionable traits. Those who profess to be Christians yet lack these graces are blinded, think themselves very wise, and do not understand their own weakness, being blind to the outcome and in danger of losing eternal life. This blindness to eternal interests is shown in harsh words and unchristlike acts and in covetousness such as robbing God of tithe after forgetting cleansing, in contrast to adding grace to grace and doing God's express will. Without faith developed with virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love present and growing, a person remains spiritually blind and forgetful of being cleansed from past sins and cannot be fruitful in knowing Jesus Christ.

Doing these things makes calling and election sure, keeps believers from falling, and gives an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with a crown of life. Sanctification is progressive, for believers diligently add these graces and their growth makes steadfastness certain, and this knowledge lived out is the essential education leading to that abundant entrance. Adding grace to grace in this way is the work of making calling and election sure from this time forth, and doing God's express will alone gives lasting honor, in contrast to seeking earthly glory and lifting up self, preventing loss of the soul. The promise is conditional on doing one's part by adding those virtues to character and cooperating with God rather than merely talking truth, and those who meet the condition have a right to claim fruitfulness and trust God to fulfill it, with blindness and church difficulties removed that come from neglecting God's instruction.

Progressive Growth in Grace

Sanctification is progressive, with no standstill in the Christian life and no graduation in the school of Christ, for conversion only begins the life which must then go on unto perfection by continual advancement and adding grace to grace. The faith required works by love and purifies the soul, and it is not a matter of heightened feeling but of living in obedience to God's word and diligently adding the graces so that growth keeps the believer from being barren or unfruitful in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. This diligent growth on the plan of addition makes calling and election sure and gives assurance against falling.

The graces form Peter's ladder of eight rounds to be climbed step by step heavenward from earth to heaven, adding grace to grace and climbing the whole ladder without neglecting the opportunity. The adding is not one grace after another in sequence but all the Christian graces in the life and abounding together, manifest together in Christian character from the lowest round to the very top, producing a vigorous, zealous life of practical Christianity and righteousness like the branch abiding in the vine that bears much fruit to the glory of God. This requires self-denial, cutting out selfishness, dependence on the merits and strength of the crucified and risen Saviour, and coming to Christ with little trials and large perplexities as helper, strength and sympathizing Friend who is touched with the feeling of infirmities. The ladder is Christ connecting earth with heaven, and fruitfulness comes by climbing round after round looking to Christ, clinging to Christ, and mounting step by step to the heights of Christ, so that He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

Growth is by cooperation: believers work on the plan of addition by diligence and obedience, giving all diligence to add to faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and charity and love, working it out day by day in practical godliness. As they do so, God and Christ work on the plan of multiplication, multiplying grace, peace and spiritual gifts, supplying power to fulfill its requirements, working in and through human agents, and working out the sum for the doer to make him a victor at last. Those who live upon this plan of addition receive God's working upon the plan of multiplication, securing the eternal life insurance policy that cannot fail.

Christ's own life is the pattern for this adding work, and Christian character is built by diligently adding these qualities with Christ as the example whose steps believers are to follow. He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown and came as a little child taking the liabilities of human nature to teach how this adding work is done, seen as child and youth at His father's carpenter bench unwilling to be defective even in handling tools, perfect as a workman and perfect in character, carrying cheerfulness and tact into labor, often expressing gladness of heart by singing psalms and heavenly songs, never so full of worldly care as to have no time or thought for heaven, faithful in all He did, learning lessons and understanding and doing His duty. This fruitfulness comes by becoming a partaker of the divine nature through the exceeding great and precious promises, and it is the way every person may overcome temptation as Christ overcame when He was tempted in all points as human beings are tempted yet never once yielded. The knowledge spoken of is practical like Christ's use of Scripture when sorely tempted, meeting Satan with the written Word, showing that growth in scriptural knowledge is the means of resisting temptation, conscientiously cooperating with the Source of strength, escaping the corruption in the world through lust, and perfecting Christian character.

Promise Assurance and Reward

The promise is conditional on doing one's part by adding the virtues to character and cooperating with God rather than merely talking truth, and those who meet the condition have a right to claim fruitfulness and trust God to fulfill it. When faith with virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity are in a person and abound by adding grace to grace day by day, they keep that person productive and fruitful in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Doing that work of practical godliness under pledge to heed the chapter and make earnest effort gives the grace of Christ to work out the sum, and Christ then works for the doer on the plan of multiplication of grace and peace to fulfill its requirements and make him a victor at last. This is the true eternal life insurance policy, given in place of a Free Mason life insurance policy, the best life insurance with God's guardianship in this world and immortal life in the world to come, which Christ gave His life to make possible for every soul through His grace. Meeting the condition keeps believers from falling, makes calling and election sure, removes blindness and church difficulties caused by neglecting God's instruction, marks them among the few faithful in Sardis who have not defiled their white robes of character and will walk in white, and secures an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of Christ with securing of eternal benefits depending on course of action.

Abounding in the graces brings perfection of character, completeness in Christ, Christlikeness, partaking of the divine nature with the divine image reflected and restored, and vigorous, lively, zealous practical Christianity that practices righteousness and brings forth much fruit to the glory of God just as the branch abiding in the vine bears the fruit of the vine. God provides what pertains to life and godliness through divine power and exceeding great and precious promises by which believers escape corruption through lust, and grace and peace are multiplied through knowing God and Jesus as believers work on the plan of addition by giving all diligence and God works on the plan of multiplication. This fruitfulness comes as believers accept the promises in faith and put the principles into daily practice, climbing the whole ladder with all graces present together, and their lives then reflect Christ's character in genuine faith and sanctification with constant advancement in knowing Christ. The verse contains the science of Christianity and shows how to obtain eternal life that measures with the life of God and security for that life, which calls for cultivating the precious graces of the Spirit, crucifying self and selfishness, speaking only words that bless and strengthen, and living a strong love for Christ and for one another.

The chapter gives comfort, encouragement and strength to all who have obtained like precious faith, broad enough to remove murmuring and complaint, and its truths when filling heart and mind give power to overcome temptation, resist the powers of darkness, and keep from failure before God. Every person may overcome as Christ overcame when tempted in all points as human beings are tempted yet never once yielded, through power imparted from above by conscientiously cooperating with the Source of strength and partaking of the divine nature. The knowledge spoken of is practical like Christ's use of Scripture when sorely tempted, meeting Satan with the written Word, showing that growth in scriptural knowledge is the means of resisting temptation and perfecting Christian character. Living by this plan of growth brings help, strength and blessing with peace, praise, song and courage, thanking God for His love and goodness, striving for eternal glory, allowing nothing to separate from Him, requiring perfect obedience to God's commandments, and its uplifting testimony is to be read in the churches as real help to God's people.

Obedience to its requirements of true saving faith, keeping God's law and commandments, following Christ's example and teaching rather than treating self as a law, and full consecration without mingling common with sacred is essential to salvation and to forming a character fit for heaven and for eternal life. This assurance is present life insurance because the Saviour is at hand and not afar off, and now is the time to secure it by working as the Holy Spirit works, from inward to outward, with no divided service. The common must not be mingled with the sacred, for cherishing and exalting common fire obscures spiritual eyesight so sacred and common cannot be discerned and turns the Lord away with displeasure. Character-building by following God's Word and Christ's teaching prepares for citizenship in God's kingdom, while disobedience to the principles of righteousness leaves a person unfit for the kingdom.

Daily Life and Character

Fruitfulness comes by putting oneself in the channel where the Lord can be learned, searching the Scriptures and carrying them out in daily life, with prayer, watchfulness and service to God, which confirms religious experience, keeps in present truth and gives assurance with right to enter through the gates into the city. Feeding on God's Word and following the plan of addition produces this growing life in which the qualities are present and increasing and keep from barrenness in knowing Christ. Baptism and church membership do not complete the work, and without continued progress and bringing religion into daily and household life the evidence of being God's child cannot be retained and may be lost back to ungodliness. Growth includes temperance and overcoming intemperate habits as grace is added upon grace. Overcoming as Christ overcame comes through power imparted from above by conscientious cooperation with the Source of strength, so that every young man and young woman who follows in His footsteps may partake of the divine nature and escape corruption through lust. Growth in scriptural knowledge is the means of resisting temptation and perfecting character, as shown when Christ when sorely tempted met Satan with the written Word. Working daily on the plan of addition means gaining increasing capacity in study of the Word, making the Bible the textbook and both learning and practicing the lessons of Christ, with success or failure resting on personal choice, and knowledge so gained is stored as treasure to impart to others while God works in return on the plan of multiplication.

The fruitful life works on the plan of addition by giving all diligence to add the graces while Christ works on the plan of multiplication with grace and peace multiplied through knowing God, bringing genuine religion with power, conformity to God's will, Christlikeness, partaking of the divine nature and constant advancement in knowing Christ. This calls for cultivating the precious graces of the Spirit, crucifying self, speaking only words that bless and strengthen, and keeping alive a strong love for Christ and for one another. Daily bringing the sanctification imparted by the Spirit into words and actions in humbleness of mind, taking hold of the faith of Christ under the Holy Spirit, lifts to higher ground above a low standard and cultivates kindness and tenderness of heart with strong determination and faith. Then the Spirit's presence is encouraged in heart and mind until seen in speech, angels connect with such workers and Christ works with them, so heaven's light shines through them to make lasting good impressions even on unbelievers who come under their influence. Fully taking in fruitfulness fills heart and lips with daily praise of God, and expressing that praise astonishes others and leads them to express it also, so many souls are brought to knowledge of the truth, while lack of fruit shows lack of simplicity of true godliness in heart and speech even while holding a hope big with immortality and full of grace. Knowledge of Christ is shown in conduct by kindness, bearing the cross and discerning His love and purity, while harshness and unkindness show failure to know Him. Practical kindness refuses to irritate others by words or actions and helps one another, and this promise is to be accepted and held.

Growth is made through steady advancement while keeping the eyes on Jesus and seeking God's glory rather than trying to measure every step at once. There are to be no backward steps but humbly following on to know the Lord, advancing step by step with rejoicing and without a questioning frame of mind. This teaching alone makes clear the difference between the principles of God's kingdom and the principles of the world, leaving without excuse those who fail to place themselves where they can understand that difference, calling God's people to unify under Christ's control. Neglect appears when professing Christians lack practical godliness and in business dealings stand on the side of the world rather than on Christ's side. It is an urgent ongoing work of overcoming in which believers hold fast to what they have received from God, cooperate with Him and never give up the battle, with continuing light and eternal life for those who follow on to know the Lord. Fixing the eyes on Jesus and beholding His character, with diligence and faith shown through action and cooperation with Christ, leads to continued growth rather than spiritual decline. Keeping the eye fixed on Christ and continuing to climb causes God to multiply growth and leads to an abundant entrance into His kingdom without falling.

Acting at once upon received light and evidence with the service of the whole mind and heart and every capability brings conviction, earnest prayer for God to reveal Himself, and decided advance into obedience such as taking a stand to keep the Sabbath. Failure to live on the plan of addition leaves even long-professing believers spiritually dead, blinded and unable to see afar off, forgetful that they were purged from old sins, and revealing jealousy and evil surmising, so that labor for them does no good until they become humble and contrite before God and yoke up with Christ to become laborers together with God. Christian graces develop through careful cultivation, and love and spiritual energy increase as they are exercised, while neglecting revealed light and failing to obey it leaves religion weak and stunted. Claim to godliness is no excuse for inactivity or worldliness. True religion cultivates the gifts that make a person precious to God, growing in usefulness and holiness as a fruit-bearing tree in the Lord's garden by constantly strengthening every grace and increasing in efficiency through daily diligence in the day-by-day spiritual battle of meeting and resisting temptation. Those who once believed but do not work on this plan are overcome by Satan working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, become blind to the course laid down in the great plan of redemption and to their eternal interests, and forget the time when they were fruitful in the knowledge of God. One who humbly seeks the Lord and receives help in Christ's school will not be barren or unblessed, while envy, dissatisfaction and neglecting to seek help from fellow believers leave vulnerable to temptation and unhappiness.

Mission Service and Witness

Abounding in the added graces of faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity keeps believers from being barren, idle and empty in knowing Jesus Christ and makes that knowledge productive and fruitful instead. This fruitfulness is proved daily as character is perfected grace by grace, and faithful living out of it brings converting power like that seen on the day of Pentecost, even to hundreds and thousands. When the heart and lips are filled daily with praise to God, that expression astonishes others and leads them to praise also, so many souls are brought to the knowledge of the truth, while lack of such fruit shows lack of the simplicity of true godliness in heart and speech even while holding a hope big with immortality and full of grace. Living by this growth establishes believers in the faith and goes with diligence to make calling and election sure, bearing fruit in earnest efforts to win souls and carry the truth to others. So fitted, men and women become efficient workers for God in giving the last message of mercy to the world, laboring together with God, using entrusted gifts faithfully, sharing truth by books where possible and by kind scriptural conversation where books are refused, and speaking timely helpful words under the Spirit with angels cooperating.

The same fruitful knowledge is the essential education and the keynote of true higher education and the highest education. Students and teachers are to make the Bible the textbook, add to their store of knowledge daily, and study the truth and practice its precepts rather than giving the mind almost wholly to study apart from Christ. In awareness of their own weakness they are to go to God for strength and make Christ their all in all, for without Him they lose all that enriches life, while those who love God and keep His commandments have divine help in every effort to advance. Intellect is to be cultivated for God's will, talents believed, consecrated to God and His service, exercised and multiplied through useful work and service, with more efficiency imparted as grace is worked with, as with Daniel and his fellows, until believers grow in wisdom, usefulness and power to reshape character, become complete in Christ, bear the similitude of the divine nature, escape the corruption in the world through lust, and are prepared for eternal life and an abundant entrance into Christ's everlasting kingdom.

At home the Word is to guide education, with parents taking the chapter as food and wisdom, training children in the Lord, seeking their conversion and preparing them for eternal life. This calls for cultivating Christlike character and dealing with children in the Spirit of Christ rather than relying on scolding, putting away cheap frivolous and trifling talk, and patiently bearing with children's imperfections as God patiently bears with and watches over imperfection to bring it to fruitfulness. When faith is developed through virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love present and increasing, the household becomes fruitful in knowing God and Jesus Christ.

Acting at once upon received light and evidence with the service of the whole mind and heart and every capability called for brings conviction, earnest prayer for God to reveal Himself, and decided advance movement and victory. This fruitfulness appears in taking a stand to keep the Sabbath, in temperance and overcoming intemperate habits, in paying tithe instead of forgetting cleansing through covetousness and robbing God while expecting His blessing and wondering why there is not more vitality and power and grace, and in putting needless attention to clothing and display second to developing the graces and faithfully doing the work entrusted by the Master with every talent and ability pressed toward the highest rung of the ladder into God's kingdom.

The whole first chapter of Second Peter from its opening to its close is to be read in churches, studied carefully verse by verse and practiced with watchfulness and prayer to bring life into order, so that each one walks carefully before God to honor and fear Him and glorify His holy name and does not lift the soul up to vanity. It shows the right relation to God's work in sanitariums and toward those connected with that work, requiring seeking the Lord, walking in all humility of mind before Him, and heeding its caution. Its counsel supports wisdom that leads to action in harmony with God's will and plans for advancing the work of saving souls, with the mind kept fixed on God and His wisdom and guidance sought for growth toward perfection of character. Such growth in the Christian attributes builds a sound solid experience in the pillars of faith, a well-grounded foundation in the Scriptures that storm and tempest cannot move, making understanding certain and sure past danger, giving a healthful sound mind able to discern the true voice of the Shepherd from that of a stranger, which is needed to lead a church composed of strange elements and which means much more than human minds comprehend and requires more Bible study and more perfect understanding.