2 PETER 1:1–4
EVERYTHING WE NEED FOR LIFE AND GODLINESS
Peter begins:
“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ…”
—2 Peter 1:1
Notice the order.
Servant first. Apostle second.
Peter has authority, but he begins by identifying himself as belonging to Jesus Christ.
And he writes to people who have:
“obtained like precious faith with us…”
That is an important beginning.
Peter was an apostle. He had walked with Jesus. He had seen the Transfiguration. He had witnessed the risen Christ.
But the faith his readers had received was “like precious” with his.
They didn't have a second-class Christianity because they had never walked beside Jesus in Galilee.
HOW DID THEY RECEIVE THIS FAITH?
Peter says it came:
“…through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
—2 Peter 1:1
Their standing with God did not begin with their accomplishments.
It began with what God had provided.
That becomes important when Peter begins telling them in verse 5 what they must add to their faith.
Grace comes before growth.
Peter is going to demand effort—but he doesn't begin with human effort.
He begins with what God has given.
GRACE AND PEACE — THROUGH KNOWING CHRIST
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.”
—2 Peter 1:2
“Knowledge” will become an important word in this letter.
Peter isn't encouraging some secret knowledge available only to a spiritual elite.
The knowledge that matters centers on God and Jesus Christ.
Later, false teachers will claim to offer freedom.
Peter's answer isn't some newly discovered secret.
It is to know Christ more fully and remain faithful to what the apostles had already taught.
HAS GOD GIVEN US ENOUGH?
Now comes one of the great statements in the letter:
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness…”
—2 Peter 1:3
Notice Peter's words:
“all things.”
Not a few things.
Not merely a beginning that would have to be completed centuries later by some newly recovered revelation.
God had already given Christians what they needed for life and godliness.
And again Peter tells us how:
“…through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”
Christian growth begins with what God has supplied.
“EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES”
Peter continues:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises…”
—2 Peter 1:4
Christianity is built upon what God has promised and done.
Peter's readers will soon face false teachers.
They will hear impressive claims.
They will eventually hear scoffers asking whether God's promise of Christ's return has failed.
So Peter begins by reminding them:
God keeps His promises.
“PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE”
Then comes the phrase that deserves careful attention:
“…that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…”
—2 Peter 1:4
What does that mean?
Does Peter mean Christians somehow become gods?
Does human nature turn into God's nature?
Before reaching that conclusion, keep reading the sentence.
Peter immediately adds:
“…having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
The contrast is between:
the corruption of the world
and
sharing in what comes from God.
Peter is describing people being transformed so that their lives increasingly reflect God's character.
And the next verses make that even clearer.
Peter tells them to add:
virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.
The direction of Peter's argument is toward godly character, not toward human beings becoming additional deities.
But that phrase has been understood in several different ways during Christian history, so we shouldn't settle the whole question in one paragraph.
We'll examine it separately in:
GOING DEEPER
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE”?
NOTICE THE ORDER
This may be the most important thing to see in these four verses.
Before Peter tells Christians what they must do, he tells them what God has done.
God has given.
God has called.
God has promised.
God has provided what is necessary for life and godliness.
Then Peter says, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith…”
—2 Peter 1:5
We shouldn't reverse Peter's order.
Christian growth requires effort.
Peter is about to make that very clear.
But our effort is a response to God's provision, not a substitute for it.
THE BIG PICTURE
Peter knows these Christians will face false teaching.
So where does he begin?
Not with the false teachers.
Not with the end times.
Not with complicated arguments.
He begins with what they already possess in Christ.
A precious faith.
Grace and peace.
Knowledge of Christ.
Everything needed for life and godliness.
Great and precious promises.
Escape from the world's corruption.
A life increasingly shaped by God's character.
Before Peter warns them about what is false, he reminds them of what is already true.
THINK ABOUT IT
If God has already given His people “all things that pertain unto life and godliness,” what should we think when someone tells us that Christians were missing some essential spiritual truth for centuries—and that we now need a later revelation to recover it?
Don't answer too quickly.
Go back and read 2 Peter 1:1–4 again.
Let Peter answer first.
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.
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GOING DEEPER
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE”?
2 Peter 1:4
Peter makes an extraordinary statement:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
—2 Peter 1:4
What does that mean?
Does Peter mean Christians actually become divine beings?
Do we somehow become what God is?
Or is Peter describing something else?
This is one of those places where a few words can carry an enormous theological system—if we allow them to.
So before building a doctrine from the phrase, let's read it in context.
WHAT DOES “PARTAKERS” MEAN?
The Greek word translated “partakers” is koinōnoi.
It carries the idea of sharing in, participating in, or having fellowship with something.
The word itself does not mean “become identical with.”
For example, Peter uses the same basic word in 1 Peter 5:1 when he calls himself:
“…a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.”
Peter participates in that glory.
He does not become the glory.
Paul similarly speaks of people being “partakers” or sharers in various things.
So Peter's language describes participation, not necessarily a change from one kind of being into another.
That distinction matters.
WHAT DOES “DIVINE NATURE” MEAN?
The Greek expression is theias physeōs—literally, “divine nature.”
It is strong language.
We shouldn't weaken it merely because it makes us uncomfortable.
Christians really do participate in something Peter calls the divine nature.
The question is:
In what sense?
Fortunately, Peter doesn't leave the phrase floating by itself.
He immediately tells us something about what this participation produces:
“…having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
There are two directions in the verse:
Away from corruption.
Toward participation in the divine nature.
And then Peter continues immediately:
“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue…”
Then:
knowledge
temperance
patience
godliness
brotherly kindness
charity.
—2 Peter 1:5–7
Peter's subject is transformed character.
The surrounding verses point us toward becoming increasingly like God in character—not becoming additional Gods.
THE BIBLE REALLY DOES SAY WE BECOME LIKE GOD
We shouldn't be afraid to say that.
Scripture repeatedly describes God's people becoming like Him.
Paul writes:
“But we all…beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory…”
—2 Corinthians 3:18
Romans says believers are:
“…predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son…”
—Romans 8:29
John says:
“…when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
—1 John 3:2
Jesus Himself said:
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
—Matthew 5:48
So Christianity certainly teaches transformation into God's likeness.
The question is whether becoming like God means becoming God.
Those are not necessarily the same statement.
CREATOR AND CREATURE
The Bible maintains a distinction from beginning to end.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
—Genesis 1:1
God is Creator.
Everything else is creation.
Paul makes that distinction especially clear:
“…and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator…”
—Romans 1:25
There are two categories in that sentence:
Creator.
Creature.
Human beings belong to the second.
Even redeemed human beings remain God's creatures.
Salvation restores us to what God intended human beings to be. It does not make us additional Creators.
BUT WHAT ABOUT “THEOSIS”?
Here we need to be careful and fair.
For many centuries, especially among Eastern Christians, theologians have used the terms theosis or deification to describe salvation.
That can sound startling to Western ears.
One famous early Christian expression was:
God became man so that man might become god.
If we stopped there, we might assume these Christians taught that redeemed humans literally become Gods equal to the Creator.
But that generally is not what historic Eastern Christian theology means.
The distinction usually made is between God's essence and participation in God's life or energies.
Human beings do not become God by nature or essence.
They participate by grace in God's life and increasingly share His holiness, immortality, glory, and communion.
We don't have to adopt all of that theological vocabulary.
But we should represent it accurately.
Historic Christian theosis is not simply the claim that human beings become independent Gods.
And 2 Peter 1:4 has naturally been an important biblical text in that discussion.
DOES THIS TEACH THAT HUMANS CAN BECOME GODS?
Now we can ask the question directly.
Peter does not say:
“You will become gods.”
He says believers become:
“partakers of the divine nature.”
And he explains that participation in terms of escaping corruption and developing godly character.
If Peter intended to announce that human beings would eventually become Gods in the same sense that God is God, this would be an extraordinary place to do it.
We would expect the apostles to explain such a revolutionary doctrine elsewhere.
Instead, the New Testament consistently speaks of redeemed people as:
children of God,
heirs of God,
conformed to Christ,
sharing His glory,
receiving immortality,
and becoming like Him.
Those are magnificent promises.
We don't need to make them smaller.
But neither should we make them say something the apostles didn't say.
WHAT ABOUT LDS TEACHING?
This verse sometimes enters discussions about Latter-day Saint teaching concerning exaltation.
We should be precise here.
Latter-day Saint theology teaches much more than simply becoming morally like God. Official LDS teaching speaks of exaltation and becoming like Heavenly Father, including becoming “gods” in an eternal family framework.
That is a much larger theological system.
So the proper question isn't:
Can someone attach 2 Peter 1:4 to that doctrine?
Obviously someone can.
The question is:
Would anyone reading 2 Peter 1:1–11 by itself arrive at that doctrine?
That's a very different question.
Peter doesn't discuss heavenly parents.
He doesn't discuss humans progressing into Gods.
He doesn't discuss creating worlds.
He doesn't describe an eternal chain of Gods.
His explanation is immediately ethical:
“…escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Then:
faith → virtue → knowledge → temperance → patience → godliness → brotherly kindness → love.
Peter tells us what participation in the divine nature looks like.
DON'T MAKE PETER SAY LESS
There is a danger on the other side too.
We shouldn't reduce Peter's statement to:
“Try to be a nicer person.”
Peter says something much greater.
Through God's promises, believers really participate in God's life.
God changes us.
His Spirit dwells within us.
We are being transformed into Christ's image.
We will share Christ's glory.
We will receive immortality.
We will see Him.
We will be like Him.
Christian salvation is not merely having our record changed.
God is changing us.
AND DON'T MAKE PETER SAY MORE
But participation is not identity.
Sharing God's holiness does not make us the source of holiness.
Receiving immortality does not make us the source of life.
Sharing God's glory does not make us the God who gives the glory.
Becoming like Christ does not make us another Christ.
And becoming a “partaker of the divine nature” does not by itself mean becoming another God.
There is a difference between:
BECOMING LIKE GOD
and
BECOMING GOD.
We shouldn't erase that distinction unless Peter does.
He doesn't.
LET PETER DEFINE HIS OWN WORDS
This may be the simplest way to settle the question.
Don't begin with Mormonism.
Don't begin with Eastern Orthodoxy.
Don't begin with Calvin, Luther, Augustine, or anybody else.
Start with Peter.
Read:
2 Peter 1:3–4.
Then keep reading:
2 Peter 1:5–11.
Ask:
What does Peter himself say happens to people who participate in the divine nature?
They escape corruption.
They grow in virtue.
Knowledge.
Self-control.
Perseverance.
Godliness.
Brotherly affection.
Love.
Peter's own explanation should have the first—and the loudest—voice.
THE WONDER IS BIG ENOUGH
We don't need to turn human beings into Gods to make Peter's promise spectacular.
Sinful, corruptible people can be brought into fellowship with the living God.
They can increasingly reflect His character.
They can be transformed into the image of His Son.
And one day:
“we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
—1 John 3:2
That's already an astonishing promise.
Don't make Peter say less than he said.
But don't make him say more either.
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.