Knowing this first,— The apostle here assigns an important reason why they were to attend to the word of prophesy as long as they lived; namely, because it was not of human device, but of divine original. Dr. Mill has in few words given the sense of this place: "In writing this, the prophet did not interpret or explain his own mind, but the mind and will of the Holy Spirit with which he was inspired." This interpretation is agreeable to the usual sense of the word επιλυσις, and is greatly confirmed by the next verse; where it is said, that holy men of God (prophets or men inspired by him,) spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Inferences.—It is honour enough for gospel-ministers to be, what the apostles counted themselves, the servants of Jesus Christ; and they, who are truly such, cannot but heartily wish, that grace and peace, inclusive of every blessing, may be multiplied to all that have obtained like precious faith with themselves, through the infinite merit of the righteousness of God their Saviour, and through the knowledge of him who has called them by the gospel to a glorious inheritance, and to a free and holy profession of their faith and hope, till, if faithful, they enter with triumph into his everlasting kingdom. How precious are the promises, by which believers are made partakers of a divine nature, in a holy conformity to God, and departure from all the wickedness of this world, which proceeds from the corruption of men's own hearts! But O, of how great concern is it, to give all diligence, by divine assistance, to add to our faith every Christian grace and lively exercise of it! This will make and prove us to be active believers, whose knowledge of our Lord and Saviour is not a lifeless notion, but will produce substantial and assuring evidences of the divine grace from whence it flows, and will, if persevered in, be the infallible means of preserving us from apostacy and falling short of heaven. But he who is destitute of these things, apostatizing from his God, is wandering in the dark, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. What need therefore have believers themselves of being often put in mind of these important things, though they already know them! And what care should Christ's ministering servants take to repeat them on all occasions, that their dear flocks may remember and practise them when they are dead, and gone to heaven; especially considering, that their souls must soon depart from their bodies, which are the frail tabernacles of their present abode! And with what confidence may they recommend and inculcate such things as are founded on the testimony of God himself by his apostles and holy prophets, relating to Christ, whom he declared, with an audible voice from the excellent glory on the mount, to be his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased; and relating to the divine majesty and power with which he will gloriously appear at his coming to judge the world! These are not cunningly-devised fables, but unquestionable truths, as contained in the infallible word of God, which was written not according to the private will and fancy of men, but by the inspiration of his Spirit; and ought to be attended to as a light, which he has given us to guide us through all our darkness in this world, till, by the rising of the Sun of righteousness upon our souls, we arrive at the unclouded light and glory of the world to come, O may the blessed Author of the holy scriptures lead us into the knowledge of his mind and will in them, and make us wise to our own salvation!
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The apostle, being about to finish his glorious course, addresses his last epistle to his Hebrew brethren, as well as to those Gentile Christians who were among them. We have,
1. The writer: Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. In the dignity to which he was advanced, he did not forget, that his office was not so much to rule, as to serve the meanest member of Christ's church.
2. The persons to whom the epistle is addressed,—to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, and feel themselves interested in the same glorious salvation, through the righteousness of God, or of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ,—his righteous obedience unto the death of the cross, which is the sole meritorious cause of every blessing that we can receive, in time or eternity. Note; Divine faith may well be called precious, seeing that the effects of it are so unspeakably glorious.
3. His apostolical benediction, Grace and peace, with all the blessings of the everlasting gospel, be multiplied unto you, in more abundant manifestations and deeper inward experience of them, through the knowledge of God, as your covenant and reconciled God, and of Jesus our Lord, in all the blessed offices and relations which he bears toward his faithful people.
4. The ground on which he built his confidence that his prayers for them would be heard and answered. According as his divine power hath given unto us freely all things that pertain unto life and godliness, bestowing every blessing and means of grace which can conduce to the furtherance of the divine life in our souls, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue; our acquaintance with Jesus, and acknowledgment of him as the only Saviour of souls, being sufficient, if duly improved, to engage us in the pursuit of glory as our end, and with fortitude unshaken to walk in all his holy ways. Whereby, even through the grace of these Divine Persons, and especially by the seal of the Holy Spirit, are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, above all our conceptions, as well as all our deserts; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, by the gospel word, and the great and precious promises therein revealed; wherein beholding as in a glass the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, you are transformed into the same image, formed anew after the divine likeness in righteousness and true holiness; having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, flying from out of the world which lieth in wickedness, as from a city infected with the plague, and renouncing all the corrupt principles and practices, which, through the carnal concupiscence that reigns in every unrenewed heart, defiled in time past your whole body, soul, and spirit. Note; (1.) All that is good in us, comes from the divine power and grace. (2.) The knowledge of God, as he is revealed to us in the gospel of his dear Son, is the grand means of engaging our hearts towards him. (3.) Exceeding great indeed and precious are those promises, that reach to the deeper state of human guilt and misery, and extend to an eternity of glory in the highest, in behalf of all the faithful. (4.) They who, by the transforming vision of God in the gospel, are truly made partakers of the divine nature, will shew it by their deadness to the world, and the subdual of every sensual appetite.
2nd, Because they had already received so much from God, they were bound to make their profiting appear. We have,
1. A golden chain of graces, which we are called to put on. And beside this, or for this cause, seeing that you are partakers of the divine nature, giving all diligence to increase with the increase of God, add to your faith virtue, courage, and boldness in the profession of the gospel; and to virtue knowledge, prudently considering the company, place, and time, when your courage in vindicating the cause of Christ may be most successfully exerted; and to knowledge temperance, keeping your passions and appetites under strict government, and using all the creatures with a holy moderation; and to temperance patience under every provocation, bearing with the injuries, reproaches, and perverseness of others, and meekly submissive under every affliction; and to patience godliness, exercising yourselves in every act of devotion and means of grace, from a principle of love to God, and desire of nearer communion with him; and to godliness brotherly kindness, feeling the tenderest sympathy and compassion towards your fellow-Christians, and ready to every good word and work that may be helpful to them; and to brotherly kindness charity, having your hearts enlarged to all mankind, with universal benevolence to every human creature, and a desire to promote their temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare, not excluding even your greatest and most inveterate enemies.
2. These graces will adorn our profession, as the want of them must necessarily prove us destitute of true Christianity. For if these things be in you and abound, in lively exercise, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; but as trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, you will be full of life, sap, and fruitfulness, which redounds to his glory. While he that lacketh these things, is blind, whatever pretences to wisdom he may make; and cannot see afar off, at best has but a glimmering and notional apprehension of divine truth, being a stranger to that realizing faith which brings near the distant objects of an eternal world; and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins, unfaithful to the grace which he once possessed, and negligent in his application to that Blood which alone can cleanse him from his iniquities.
3. He exhorts all believers to diligence in the Christian course. Wherefore the rather, brethren, considering how many have a name to live who are really dead in trespasses, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, in the lively use of every means of grace, and in the practice of all holy conversation; for, if ye do these things, and perseveringly live in the exercise of the graces above-mentioned, ye shall never fall from Christ and grace, or perish with the world: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; when at the last, triumphant over death and the grave, you shall be admitted into all the glories of the eternal world, and so shall be for ever with the Lord. Note; They shall shortly enter an eternal world of glory, who now perseveringly walk under the influences of a Saviour's grace.
3rdly, The apostle appears careful to discharge his own solemn trust towards them. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, as matters of the last importance, though ye know them in a good measure; and be established in the present truth, fully satisfied in general of the necessity of holiness, in order to an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle of clay, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, that your hearts may be suitably affected, and your practice correspondent with your Christian principles. And hereunto I give the greater diligence, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle of the body, which will be soon silent in the dust, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover, I will endeavour, both by my labours among you, and by these epistles, which when I am dead will yet speak, that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. Note; (1.) Even the truths that we know, we need be often reminded of, and urged to shew their influence on our conduct. (2.) A minister's work is never done till he closes his eyes: his death-bed must be his farewel sermon. (3.) We live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust; but, blessed be God, we need not regret the dissolution of this wretched tabernacle, when we are to exchange it for a mansion of glory.
4thly, We have a reason given for the importunity and seriousness with which he pressed the foregoing exhortations. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, like the Gentile legends or Jewish traditions, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, at the last great day of his appearing and glory, to judge the assembled world. But,
1. We were eye-witnesses of his majesty, on the mount of transfiguration, and attest that of which we have had the fullest demonstration; not only seeing his transfigured body shining in all the brightness of the meridian sun, but hearing the voice of God. For he there received from God the Father honour and glory, who bore the fullest testimony to the transcendent dignity of his divine character as his Son Messiah, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, the bright cloud which overshadowed him, the symbol of the divine Presence, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in his person, offices, and all his undertakings. And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard distinctly and clearly, when we were with him in the holy mount. So that they could not be mistaken themselves in the things which they testified.
2. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, wherein a more direct attestation is borne to the power and coming of Jesus to judgment, than might be inferred from what we saw and heard. Or, We have a most sure word of prophecy, wherein this second appearing of the Lord to judgment is most expressly and repeatedly affirmed; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, (and a dark world indeed would this be without the word of God,) until the day, the great and expected day of our final redemption, dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts, to shine thenceforward with unclouded lustre on his faithful saints, when the Lord shall be their ever-lasting light, and their God their glory. Knowing this first, that, till the day of Christ appears, we may surely depend upon his prophetic word as our guide; for no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation, is of human invention or composition, but of celestial origin: for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God, whom he had sanctified to be instruments in his hands to deliver his messages, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, directing and dictating both the matter and expression. Note; (1.) The scriptures alone are our guide to glory. All our wisdom is comparatively ignorance, and our light darkness, without a divine revelation. (2.) The more diligently we take heed to the word of God, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it, the more surely shall we walk in holiness and happiness. (3.) The scriptures carry their own divine authority along with them, and, through the energy of that Spirit who indited them, impress a full conviction of their truth on the consciences of the sincere. (4.) Though the Bible was written by men, we must say, as of the tables which Moses hewed, that the writing was of God. They were but organs and instruments, and did not themselves often comprehend the full meaning of what they delivered. With what sacred reverence and awe then should we open that holy book, where God himself is heard still speaking!