In his second letter, Peter’s thoughts have gone in a different direction compared to his first letter.
Letter one focused a lot on suffering for believing in Christ. His second letter is focused on our relationship with God. We are told that holding to the knowledge of God will lead us to salvation. So true!
Once we gain knowledge of God and spend time with God in prayer and in reading His Word, the closer we get to Him.
Peter then goes on to share what we need to do in order to keep on experiencing the joy of our salvation. Or has he puts it, “to receive God’s promises in order to escape the corruption of worldly desires and share in the divine nature.”
We must first and foremost have faith. And to our faith we must add virtue; to virtue we add knowledge; to knowledge we add discipline; to discipline we add endurance; to endurance we add godliness; to godliness we add mutual affection; and to mutual affection, we add love.
Peter then shares that having these qualities will ensure us that we will always be productive and effective in our relationship with Christ.
But, not possessing these qualities will weaken our judgment, and we will question our salvation and forget that our past sins have been forgiven, as well as, our future sins.
Having the knowledge that our sins have been paid for is the first step in living out the joy of our salvation.
And that, my friends, is called freedom!