Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Peter · About this commentary
Partakers of the Divine Nature
2 Peter 1:3-4
3 seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, · WEB
Everything needed has already been given, and the promises are the means by which people come to share God's own character.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. The tense matters: it is a completed grant, not a running supply, and the two nouns cover both existence and the manner of it. Nothing further is awaited before obedience becomes possible.
The channel is named again — through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue — so the epignōsis of verse 2 is not information about God but acquaintance with a person who did the calling.
Verse 4 is the letter's boldest sentence. Through the promises, you may become partakers — koinōnos G2844, sharers — of the divine nature, physis G5449. The claim is not that a creature becomes God; the same verse fixes its meaning by naming the escape involved: having fled the corruption that is in the world by lust. What is shared is moral character rather than deity, which is the sense Scripture gives elsewhere when it speaks of bearing the image Romans 8:29 and being changed from glory to glory 2 Corinthians 3:18. And the instrument is a promise, which means the sharing begins by believing something.
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