Abundant Joy

“Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ:

To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”

Second Peter is an epistle. Epistole is the Greek word for letter. Twenty one of the twenty seven books of the New Testament are epistles. These are letters that were written to churches or individuals, then sent by messengers to be delivered. If you followed my blog on First Peter, you will remember that Peter wrote the letter (or possibly dictated it to Sylvanus) and then had Sylvanus deliver it to the churches in Asia Minor. These letters usually begin with an identification of who was writing the letter, followed by who was receiving the letter, and then an introductory greeting. We will look at each of those.

Peter starts his letter by introducing himself. He uses both his Hebrew and his Greek names. Depending on the version you are using, you might see the common Greek spelling of Simon, or as in my CSB version, the direct transliteration Simeon. Kenneth Gangel writes this in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures: “The best textual evidence supports the more unusual Hebrew spelling, used elsewhere only in Acts 15:14. This detail provides support for the Petrine authorship, for an impostor probably would have used the more widely accepted spelling.” I explained the idea that Peter wasn’t the author of the letter in the introduction. You can read it here. 2 Peter Introduction – Abundant Joy  Simeon was his given Hebrew name. Jesus gave him the Greek name Peter. Peter means rock. In John 1:42, we read, “When Jesus saw him, he said, ‘You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which is translated “Peter”).” Cephas is the Aramaic translation of Peter.

Next, he introduces himself as a servant and an apostle to Jesus Christ. He chooses first to describe himself as a servant. The Greek word that is used here for servant is doulos. The website GotQuestions.org says in its article about bondservants that during the first century as many as one third of the Roman population were slaves and another third had been slaves at one time. A Roman citizen would never identify as a bondservant because they valued their freedom too much. Yet here is Peter, first identifying as a servant of Christ. Paul and James also identify themselves as servants of Jesus in the introduction to their letters. All of them are following the example of Jesus. “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).

He then identifies himself as an apostle. Peter was one of the original twelve apostles of Jesus. When Judas betrayed Jesus and later hung himself, a new disciple was chosen by the casting of lots. The qualifications of an apostle were that the man had to be present for the entirety of Jesus ministry and he had to be there to see the resurrection and ascension of Christ (see Acts 1:21-22). Paul was also later described as an apostle. These apostles laid the foundation for the church. Ephesians 2: 19-20 says, “So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.” There is a movement today to restore the office of apostle to the church. When I did my blog on Ephesians, I devoted a whole article on why I do not think that this is a good thing.  You can read it here. Apostles – Abundant Joy

Peter then moves on to the addressees of the letter. He writes, “To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” There are two things I want to address here. Let’s start with the first one. Notice Peter says, “equal to ours.” My first thought when I read this is that he was reassuring the Gentile believers that they were, indeed, equal with the Jewish believers. Paul also reassured the believers of this in his letters. “In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:11). But other commentators I read said that Peter was writing to say that while he might have special authority as an apostle, by faith, all are equal in Christ. I think both views are valid and don’t change the meaning of the scripture.

The second thing to notice here is this phrase “through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” This is a passage that clearly teaches that Jesus is co-equal with God. Douglas Moo, in the NIV Application Commentary on 2 Peter, Jude writes, “What is unusual about this phrase, however, is that this is the only place in the New Testament where we read of “the righteousness of… Jesus Christ.” Everywhere else the righteousness is attributed to God. But this reference to Christ is in keeping with the whole tenor of the letter, which consistently puts Christ at the same level as God.” Other places we see this in the New Testament are John 1:1 and Titus 2:13.

Lastly, Peter gives his introductory greeting. “May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Peter gave a similar greeting in his first letter. But now he adds to it “through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Peter is about to warn them about false teachers. He wants them to be on their guard. And the way they will do this is through knowing God.

It is no different today. False teachers, both in and out of the church, are everywhere. How do we guard against it? Through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Jesus said, “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent —Jesus Christ” (John 17:3).

The best way we learn is by reading the Bible. When we know what the Bible says, we can guard against false teachers. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan (who used Scripture to tempt Him), Jesus used the Scriptures correctly to counter him. In Ephesians, we read “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God.” Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”  And in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

There are two lessons that I am taking from these verses. The first is that I need to have the attitude of a servant. Peter, although he was an apostle, chose to identify as a servant of Christ. What is my attitude? How do I view others? These are good questions to ask myself as I am serving. The second lesson is that I need to be in the Word. This is how we guard against false teaching. I am so glad you are along with me as we dig in to Second Peter!

Grace be with you!