Peter concluded this section on the nature of the Christian by assuring his readers that simply practicing what he had just advocated would prepare them adequately for the future. He did this to help them realize that they had no need for the added burdens the false teachers sought to impose on them.
1:10 In view of what Peter had just said (vv. 3-9), it was imperative that his readers make the proper moral response. They would give evidence that they were genuine Christians by doing so. The evidence of divine nature in a person demonstrates his or her salvation. Conversely if a person gives no evidence of having the divine nature his or her salvation is in doubt as others observe that one. By adding the seven virtues other people could see the divine nature more clearly in the Christian who added them. This would make God's calling and election of him or her clearer to everyone.
"The Christian who progressively develops these virtues in his life will grow steadily. This growth will be obvious proof that he has been elected by God."49
"The Christian life is not a list of propositions or a tight theological system; it is a vital relationship to a resurrected Lord. The commandments He gave us and the theological systems we devise as an understanding of those propositional truths exist only to help us live in a vital relationship with Christ day by day as we follow Him as Lord."50
Another reason for adding them is that by doing so we can walk worthy of the Lord without stumbling along the way (cf. Jude 24). Loss of salvation is obviously not in view here. Peter said we might stumble, not fall unable to rise again.
"We do not stumble when we are giving attention to where we are stepping. We stumble when we become preoccupied with other things and do not pay attention to where we are going."51
Neither is this verse saying that our assurance of salvation rests on our good works. Our assurance of salvation rests on the promise of God that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as Savior has eternal life (John 3:16; 5:24; Rom. 5:1; 8:38-39; 1 John 5:11-13).
"This passage does not mean that moral progress provides the Christian with a subjective assurance of his election (the sense it was given by Luther and Calvin, and especially in seventeenth-century Calvinism) . . ."52
"Nowhere in the Bible is a Christian asked to examine either his faith or his life to find out if he is a Christian. He is told only to look outside of himself to Christ alone for his assurance that he is a Christian. The Christian is, however, often told to examine his faith and life to see if he is walking in fellowship and in conformity to God's commands."53
What "make certain about His calling and choosing you"does mean is that by pursuing Christian growth we give evidence that He really did call and choose us. The uncalled and unchosen have no desire to become useful and fruitful by growing in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (v. 8).
1:11 One of the greatest motivations for purposing to grow in grace is that when we go to be with the Lord forever He will welcome us warmly. The alternative is to get in by the skin of our teeth, saved so as by fire (1 Cor. 3:15). Every Christian will go to heaven and receive much eternal inheritance (1 Pet. 1:3-5). However, our Lord's welcome of those who have sought to express their gratitude for His grace through a life dedicated to cultivating godliness will be especially warm. It will be even warmer than what He extends to other less committed believers (cf. Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 12:21, 31; Acts 7:56).
"This passage agrees with several in the Gospels and Epistles in suggesting that while heaven is entirely a gift of grace, it admits of degrees of felicity, and that these are dependent upon how faithfully we have built a structure of character and service upon the foundation of Christ. Bengel likens the unholy Christian in the judgment to a sailor who just manages to make shore after shipwreck, or to a man who barely escapes with his life from a burning house, while all his possessions are lost. In contrast, the Christian who has allowed his Lord to influence his conduct will have abundant entrance into the heavenly city, and be welcomed like a triumphant athlete victorious in the Games. This whole paragraph of exhortation is thus set between two poles: what we already are in Christ and what we are to become. The truly Christian reader, unlike the scoffers, will look back to the privileges conferred on him, of partaking in the divine nature, and will seek to live worthily of it. He will also look forward to the day of assessment, and strive to live in the light of it."54
". . . there will be degrees of glory hereafter proportioned to our faithfulness in the use of God's gifts here."55
