2 Peter 1:16-21 - Homilies By U.r. Thomas

Threefold testimony to the truth of Christianity.

In laying out the grounds of his own faith, and the grounds, too, on which he would have his readers build their faith, St. Peter indicates the lines of a threefold evidence.

I. THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES .

1 . They were "eye-witnesses"— a rare word, describing spectators who were admitted into the highest grade of initiation into mysteries. How true of Peter and James and John, with regard to the life of our Lord!

2 . They were eye-witnesses of a wondrous revelation. "His majesty;" no one event only, though chiefly the Transfiguration.

3 . They had heard a Divine voice. "The voice we ourselves heard." No hallucination: we all heard, we all saw.

4 . The recollection of such vision and voice was forever sacred. "The holy mount." We know not its name, but it was to them for ever a consecrated height. Any spot becomes "holy" to the soul that has had there a deep sense of God's presence; has been awed by his greatness, touched by his love.

II. The testimony of THE EARLIER PROPHETIC WORD . "The word of prophecy." Does this mean "prediction" only? We think not.

1 . That can scarcely be said to be more sure than the testimony of "eye-witnesses."

2 . The usual scriptural use of the words "prophet" and "prophecy" is wider than that. "Take my brethren, the prophets." Are not Paul, John, Peter himself, New Testament prophets?

3 . The significance of the words point to a wider meaning: "speak forth," or "speak for another." It tells of insight as much as of foresight.

4 . The last verse covers the whole Scripture, not merely prediction, If the whole of Holy Scripture be thus meant, why is it called "more sure" than the oral testimony of witnesses?

"Thy Word is tried." Concerning this "sure word of prophecy," this passage teaches:

III. THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIOUSNESS . This is the strongest of all.

1 . In the best region: "In your hearts."

2 . The outcome and end of all the rest: "Day-star arise." Better even than lamp is the Day-star. So much better is the knowledge of Christ as a power and presence on the soul than any other testimony.

Notice the signs of this dawn.

"My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning."—U.R.T.

Verses 1, 2

Address and salutation.

I. ADDRESS . "Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ." Peter seems to class himself with Jewish Christians in the personal designation "Simon," or, more probably, "Simeon Peter." His official designation is first (generally) a servant of Jesus Christ, and then (particularly) an apostle of Jesus Christ. The readers are designated, not with reference to locality (as in the First Epistle), but simply with reference to their Christian position. Peter writes on this occasion "to them that have obtained "—by lot, the idea is, i.e., not in their own power or of their own right (thus corresponding to "the elect" of the First Epistle). What they have obtained is faith, by which we should understand, not "the things believed," but the "subjective disposition of faith;" for it is faith in this sense that is the gracious possession proceeded upon in verse 5. It is a precious faith, both in the mysteries which are the object of it (centering in the Incarnation), and in the blessings which are appropriated by it (beginning with forgiveness of sins). It is "a like precious faith with us" that they have obtained. If Peter classes himself with Jewish Christians (as he seems to do in taking the designation Simeon), then it is the Gentile Christians who have a like precious faith with the Jewish, and it is they who are directly addressed in the Epistle, though Jewish Christians are included among the readers. This equal dealing is ascribed to "the righteousness of our God." This is in keeping with 1 Peter 1:17 , and also with the sentiment uttered by Peter in connection with the admission of the Gentiles, as given in Acts 10:34 and Acts 15:9 . The equal dealing is also ascribed to the righteousness of "our Saviour Jesus Christ" (who could not in this and in other places be so closely associated with God without being himself God). Jesus Christ is here regarded as the manifestation and demonstration of the impartiality of God: inasmuch as Saviour, he is Saviour for Gentiles and Jews, without any difference.

II. SALUTATION . "Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." By grace we are not to understand the attribute of graciousness, but rather the outgoing of graciousness as experienced by us. Peace is the result of the consciousness that we are not dealt with according to our own merit, but according to the merit of Another. Grace and peace are already enjoyed: what Peter wishes is their multiplication, for which there is room in the best. He looks for this multiplication in a particular way, viz. that of knowledge. It is the word which means appreciative, mature knowledge. It is a characteristic word of the Epistle. In view of the place that was afterward to be claimed for a false gnosis (insight into transcendental mysteries), it was well that Paul and Peter taught beforehand the place that was to be given to epignosis (with regard to which there is no mystification). Peter teaches here that grace and peace are only to be multiplied as an advance in Divine knowledge—the knowledge of God and of Jesus (thus again closely associated) as the manifestation of God. When we get to know bow gracious God is in Jesus, our peace is doubled, trebled, quadrupled. Peter thinks specially of a peace resulting from the fact that God has made Jesus our Lord, thus able to control all circumstances and influences that affect us. The thought of this Lordship is carried forward into the next verse, from which this is not properly dissociated - R.F.

Acts 15:3-11

The Christian virtues in their completeness.

I. FOUNDATION OF EXHORTATION .

1 . Grant. "Seeing that his Divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." The grant has reference to life and godliness. The first of these words is to be understood of healthful condition; the other is to be understood of that supreme regard to God, on which healthful condition depends. The grant is not of life and godliness, but of all things that pertain unto life and godliness, by which we are to understand the gracious influences that have been liberated by Christ—the Holy Spirit in his manifold gifts, the benefit of Christian institutions. Who is to be thought of as the Granter here? The nearer reference is to Jesus our Lord, and it is not superfluous to say of him, as it would be to say of God, that it was his Divine power that made the grant. It was the Divine power of him who afterward became man that was exercised when man was created and was then granted all that was necessary for securing life by godly conduct. The requirements were greater when man fell. Jesus bore what man as involved in sin deserved, so as to be constituted our Lord with Divine power to grant unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. When he has such power to grant, nothing can be wanting of what is needed for our spiritual prosperity and the production of a godly type of character.

2 . Communication of the grant.

(a) Positively. "That through these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature."

The teaching here is not with regard to our God-like constitution ("For we are also his offspring"), but with regard to what with our God-like constitution we may become. The language employed is strong and peculiarly attractive to some minds. We are not to think of deification, or absorption into God. But let us form no mean conception of what, encouraged by the promises, we may become. By the nature of God we understand those qualities which exist in him in an infinite degree. We are to become, in the last result, partakers of the Divine nature; i.e., we are to have the same qualities up to our measure. Even now we can think the same thoughts, be thrilled with the same joy. "God becomes a real Being to us in proportion as his own nature is unfolded within us. True religion desires and seeks supremely the assimilation of the mind to God, or the perpetual unfolding and enlarging of those powers and virtues by which it is constituted his glorious image. The mind, in proportion as it is enlightened and penetrated by true religion, thirsts and labours for a God-like elevation. Let it not be inferred that we place religion in unnatural effort, in straining after excitements which do not belong to the present state, or in anything separate from the clear and simple duties of life" (Channing).

(b) Negatively. "Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust." In the world we do not find that healthful action, those attractive forms, which God intended for society; we have instead diseased action, forms from which we are repelled. This corruption is in the world by lust, i.e., the prevalence of the lower over the higher principles of our nature. Where there is the inversion of the Divine order, society must go to corruption. From this corruption we have not entirely escaped, inasmuch as lust is not entirely subdued in us; but with our becoming in the last result partakers of the Divine nature, it will be our privilege to have escaped for ever from the blighting, putrefying influences that prevail in the world.

II. EXHORTATION TO CULTIVATION OF THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES .

1 . Condition of development. "Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence." There is a great improvement in the translation here. One idea which is brought out is that what we are to do is to be in answer to the Divine doing. Christ does his part in granting all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and through the knowledge of God, who promises all that is needful for our being partakers of the Divine nature; we are to bring in by the side of, i.e., contribute our part. It is also distinctly brought out that the Divine doing is no reason for our doing nothing, but the very opposite—a reason for our doing. What we have to contribute on our side is diligence, i.e., in connection with opportunities for the exercise of the Christian virtues which are to be named. This is only in accordance with analogy. God supplies the qualities of the soil and the heavenly influences; and the farmer supplies diligence. Because God sends the sunshine and the rain, man is to be up and doing, not allowing his opportunity to slip by; so because Christ is so liberal in granting, because the promises are precious in the superlative degree, for that very reason we are to bestir ourselves.

2 . Order of development from faith.

3 . Importance of development with reference to knowledge.

III. RESUMPTION OF EXHORTATION .

1 . Condition restated. "Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure." This is the only use of the address "brethren" in the Epistles of Peter. It indicates greater closeness and urgency in his exhortation. He proceeds in "wherefore the more" on the advantage of having the seven virtues in abundance, and the disadvantage of lacking them. What he exhorts them to is increased diligence. The tense used points to their making this diligence a lifelong thing. They were to give diligence with regard to their calling and election, i.e., by God into his kingdom, the latter word referring to the actual separation of the called from the world. This calling and election, looked at from the lower side, was a matter of uncertainty; they are exhorted to make it a matter of certainty to allow no doubt to rest on their interest in Christ and title to the kingdom. It is not said how they are to make their calling and election sure; but the very want of specification points to what was formerly specified, viz. the practice of the seven virtues; and this is confirmed by what follows.

2 . Importance.

Verses 12-21

Putting in mind.

I. THE TIME OF PUTTING IN MIND .

1 . Putting in mind as long as he was in this tabernacle. "Wherefore I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and are established in the truth which is with you. And I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ signified unto me." Because of the importance of the things dealt with in the previous verses, Peter declares that he would be ready always, i.e., would take every opportunity, to put them in mind of them. "In matters of such importance reminders can never be superfluous; wherefore they should never be troublesome" (Calvin). In one way there was not need for putting them in mind; for he bears testimony courteously to their knowing these things, and being established, i.e., having a firm standing, in the truth that was with them (not the present-day truth, as is suggested by the old translation). Feeling their importance himself, he thought it right to tell them the same things again and again, thereby to stir them up, i.e., to a due sense of their meaning. It is important to enlarge the circle of human knowledge—to get new thoughts, new facts, new combinations of facts; but it is a thousand times more important to have the complete realization of one or two things that we know. Even with those who knew and were established Peter laboured, by reiteration, to stir them up—to give them a deeper impression of a few simple gospel truths. He was resolved to stir them up by putting them in mind, as long as he was in this tabernacle. This is a familiar designation of the body in relation to the soul (in 2 Corinthians 5:1 it is "tabernacle-house"). The body is a covering to the soul; it keeps it from being exposed to the glare of the world. "Tabernacle" also suggests that which can be quickly taken down (in Isaiah 38:12 there is the association of death with the removal of a shepherd's tent); the connection of the body with the soul is not so close but that it can be quickly removed as a shepherd's tent. Peter was incited to action by the knowledge of what our Lord Jesus Christ had signified unto him. There is unmistakable reference to John 21:18 , John 21:19 . Our Lord, according to what is recorded there, signified to Peter that he was to die a martyr's death. Let Peter's language here be observed. There was to be not the striking of his tent, but still, not out of keeping with the idea of a tent as a temporary soul-covering, the putting of it off. And swift or sudden was the manner in which it was to be put off. We are not to think of the swiftness of death's approach (unless in the use of the present tense), but of death's swift work when it did come. He was to end his life by a violent death. Our Lord had signified to him that he was not to die soon; it was only when he became old that he was to stretch forth his hands, and another was to gird him, and carry him whither he would not. He was now old, without the assurance he had once had of living long; and as our Lord had signified to him that not much time was to be occupied in the putting off of his tabernacle, so long as he was in it he would let slip no opportunity of putting them in mind. "Teachers who are long sick can still feed others. The cross was not to permit that to Peter. So he sees to doing beforehand what required to be done" (Bengel).

2 . Putting in mind as affected by his decease. "Yea, I will give diligence that at every time ye may be able after my decease to call these things to remembrance." "Decease" is literally "departure," which, from the context, we may take to be departure out of the tabernacle of the body. In view of what follows, it is to be remarked that both "tabernacle" and "decease" are words associated with the Transfiguration-scene. How were they to be provided for after his decease? He was to use diligence, that they would then be able, as occasion arose, to call these things to mind. We can think of Peter here reflecting the Divine thoughtfulness. The apostles were not to live alway; so God saw to the important things being put down in a permanent form in the New Testament. Peter, now an old man, was to die swiftly; so, as the servant of God, he was to see to the important things being put down in writing, that, as occasion arose, they might be able to call them clearly to mind.

II. PUTTING IN MIND WITH REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECT OF THE SECOND COMING .

1 . The certainty of the coming. "For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." There are two important points to be noticed here. In the first place, Peter, writing in the name of the other apostles, declares that they were careful in what they admitted into the historical basis of their religion. They saw the putting forward of cunningly devised fables— stories without foundation in reality, cleverly concocted, so as to impose on the ignorant, and to keep up the influence of the priesthood or the false teachers. They did not follow this lead; but were careful to exclude all mythical elements, and to admit only well-established fact. In the second place, Peter and the other apostles made known unto the persons addressed the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first exhibition of power was when Christ rose from the dead; its full exhibition was to be at the coming. It is true that in this Epistle there is no direct reference to the weakness and death of Christ; this is to be explained by the circumstances in which Peter wrote. There are times when we need to pass on from the humiliation, and to allow our minds to be occupied with the exaltation.

2 . The attesting power of the Transfiguration to the coming.

(a) What was heard. "For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In the original the verse begins, "for having received," and is interrupted before its close. The honour and glory from God the Father are to be associated with the voice, but with the voice as expressive of the majesty that was seen by the eye. The voice is represented as borne to him, not from, but by, the excellent glory, which is putting for God the excellent glory in which he dwells, so as to raise an impression of the magnificence of the scene. The voice was such as this, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." There is only a slight variation from the words given in Matthew, the effect of which is to present the good pleasure of the Father as on his beloved Son, so as to abide and not to leave him. This was fitted to encourage Christ in prospect of the decease which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem. As testimony to the coming, it is to be taken along with the change presented to sight. In that anticipation of glory was to be read how the good pleasure of God was to find manifestation.

(b) The hearing. "And this voice we ourselves heard come out of heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount." This helps to emphasize the reality of the voice. There was no possibility of deception; the voice was heard borne in upon them, borne in from heaven. There was present the condition of three witnesses, by which it is established as a fact. This also helps to connect the thought distinctly with the Transfiguration. The voice was heard when they, the three, were with him in the holy mount—the mount rendered holy by the association.

3 . The attesting power of the prophetic Word to the coming.