Different Angles on St. Peter’s List
Different Angles on St. Peter’s List.
The List. “Because you have been given all these blessings, it’s time now for you to apply yourself with diligence to those gifts of grace; make every effort with all zeal to take your basic faith and develop moral excellence; and to that virtue add an intimate knowledge of God; and to your personal knowledge and understanding add an inner strength; and then in exercising that self-control develop patient endurance; to that steadfastness supply a fervent reverence; and to that piety add mutual affection; and then when exercising your brotherly/sisterly kindness add the most important quality in your spiritual transformation… unconditional love.” (2 Peter 1:5).
Different Ways of Looking at St. Peter’s List. As often happens in Bible study, scholars of the New Testament, or those who love the Word but are not scholars like yours truly, have different ways to understand Peter’s teaching here. Some of these angles might not be completely wrong or exclusively right, and perhaps there is a mystery here in which we could say with confidence… “All the Above.”
(1.) A Stepladder. Some readers believe that Peter is laying out a progression of Christian growth in which a believer steps from one quality to the next in order, from one rung on the ladder to the next one. In this view our transformation is a process in which each character trait leads to the next in that specific order, and progresses from one quality to the next in line till one arrives at the very top of the ladder with agape love. As one matures in the Christian faith, then, this angle holds the view that each virtue builds on the one before and prepares for the next as one moves onward and upward.
(2.) A Catalogue. Some readers here think of this list instead as a glimpse of the spiritual qualities that are all worked on together at the same time. This angle sees these virtues as qualities that all reinforce each other as one matures in the faith, and considers faith development as growing in these character traits that are equally urgent, that fit into each other, and help build the integrity of Christ Himself. These spiritual realities are seen as features of a growing wholeness in a person’s faith. Certainly this list isn’t a formula in which we are required to go from one virtue to the next in order to finally demonstrate unconditional love for each other. Love, after all, is the Christ-like quality that is supposed to energize and guide our daily life, and thus is infused in all these qualities listed.
(3.) A Garden. Peter’s summary verse here in 1:8 suggests the idea that these qualities listed are sown within us by the Lord, like seeds underground in the garden of our heart. So perhaps this passage could be seen as a seed list in which it is assumed that the reader has embraced a basic faith to work with, and that by God’s grace He has already planted those spiritual realities in their rudimentary form and need to keep growing and developing. And now comes the hard part as we continue to depend on God’s grace, the sweaty spiritual work of nourishing those seeds underground “in us” and enabling them to keep growing and eventually break the ground and bear fruit.
(4.) A Suitcase. One reader has suggested that this list of qualities pictures faith development process as if one were gradually unpacking the contents of a stuffed suitcase of faith, one quality leading to another as a life of faith unfolds in the life of a believer. One translator puts it this way… “Out of your faith will emerge moral excellence; and out of that moral excellence will emerge an intimate knowledge of God; and out of that knowledge will emerge inner strength; and out of that inner strength will emerge patient endurance; and out of that patient endurance will emerge godly reverence; and out of that godly reverence will emerge mutual kindness; and out of that mutual kindness will emerge unconditional love.”
(5.) A Math Equation. Another version of St. Peter’s List has portrayed it as a process similar to solving a mathematical problem by just adding up the qualities in the order in which they are presented… Basic faith plus virtuous behavior equals personal knowledge of the Lord; so it follows that virtue plus knowledge equals inner strength; and knowledge plus inner strength equals patient endurance; then inner strength plus patient endurance equals godly reverence; and patient endurance plus godly reverence equals mutual kindness; and finally godly reverence plus mutual kindness equals unconditional love.
(6.) A Partnership. Many look at this list and can’t help but see that it is based on the previous verse’s idea of developing a partnership with God and thus sharing in His divine nature. Peter’s list of spiritual qualities outlines those character traits, those aspects of God’s nature, that each believer is expected to tap into and gradually grow in. This list reveals what we are to keep working on as we participate in God’s character. Peter is showing us here what our character will look like as we grow in our spiritual transformation. He is providing us with a sneak peek into the ongoing process of “koinonia” with God, our communion into Him, and our being renewed and restored into the very image of Christ.