2 Peter 1v5

2 Peter 1 v3-8 ESV
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.  5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

To quote Matthew Henry “In these words the apostle comes to the chief thing intended in this epistle--to excite and engage them to advance in grace and holiness, they having already obtained precious faith, and been made partakers of the divine nature. This is a very good beginning, but it is not to be rested in, as if we were already perfect. The apostle had prayed that grace and peace might be multiplied to them, and now he exhorts them to press forward for the obtaining of more grace.”

The word ‘virtue’ could also be translated as ‘valour’ or ‘excellence’ something that is praiseworthy, in other words beyond just having a strong conviction of the truth that conviction should be supplemented or ‘fully supplied’ by outward behaviour that displays our character, a character based on the fact that we are partakers of the divine nature. In addition knowledge should be mixed in, the knowledge here is not so much knowledge of Christ but rather knowledge of his will which we find in the commands He gives us. 

This and the next verses are not sequential in nature, I mean we don’t first receive faith then get virtue and only then knowledge and so on, but these things all need to feed into us and as we grow all of these characteristics should be more and more evident in us. John Gill points out that the word ‘and’ here implies something like a chorus or symphony, individual voices and instruments mixing together at the same time to create a perfect harmony.

Calvin puts it this way “Add to your faith virtue, or, Supply to your faith virtue. He shews for what purpose the faithful were to strive, that is, that they might have faith adorned with good morals, wisdom, patience, and love. Then he intimates that faith ought not to be naked or empty, but that these are its inseparable companions. To supply to faith, is to add to faith. There is not here, however, properly a gradation as to the sense, though it appears as to the words; for love does not in order follow patience, nor does it proceed from it. Therefore the passage is to be thus simply explained, “Strive that virtue, prudence, temperance, and the things which follow, may be added to your faith.”

We are not to misunderstand that by Peter encouraging us to add these things that we think they come from our own effort, as taught elsewhere in scripture these things are all gifts from God and of the Spirit, they don’t come from our human nature but by his nature in us.

When we find ourselves failing and lacking in these things we must recognise that we cannot draw these things out of our own nature, strength or activity, to use a well-known phrase we can’t “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps”, we need to go to the source and ask for these things to be poured into us or perhaps rather poured out of the new heart which he has given us, and into which if we are truly saved we are growing into. We need to fill ourselves with the water of life which he pours into us, we need to overflow with these things in ways that cause our brethren to be encouraged to praise God and strain towards the goal of being more like Christ. We need to put ourselves in the presence of others who live this way so that we also are enthused into life, but I want to stress yet again we are never to think any of this is our own works, we are not seek praise for ourselves, but we are to strive for our upliftment into the body of Christ as we become joined with Him in holiest matrimony as his bride.

Let us live for Christ out of the Life he has already put in us.
Amen