2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

◄ 2 Peter 1:8 ►

Parallel Verses

Cross References

John 17:3
And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Philippians 3:8
Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Colossians 1:10
That you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

2 Peter 1:3
According as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue:

2 Peter 2:20
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

2 Peter 3:18
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

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Abound Abounding Acknowledging Advancing Barren Christ Continually Either Exist Existing Fertile Fruit Full Good Idle Increase Increasing Ineffective Jesus Measure Possess Prevent Qualities Regard Render Towards True. Unfruitful Useless

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

1:1-11 Faith unites the weak believer to Christ, as really as it does the strong one, and purifies the heart of one as truly as of another; and every sincere believer is by his faith justified in the sight of God. Faith worketh godliness, and produces effects which no other grace in the soul can do. In Christ all fulness dwells, and pardon, peace, grace, and knowledge, and new principles, are thus given through the Holy Spirit. The promises to those who are partakers of a Divine nature, will cause us to inquire whether we are really renewed in the spirit of our minds; let us turn all these promises into prayers for the transforming and purifying grace of the Holy Spirit. The believer must add knowledge to his virtue, increasing acquaintance with the whole truth and will of God. We must add temperance to knowledge; moderation about worldly things; and add to temperance, patience, or cheerful submission to the will of God. Tribulation worketh patience, whereby we bear all calamities and crosses with silence and submission. To patience we must add godliness: this includes the holy affections and dispositions found in the true worshipper of God; with tender affection to all fellow Christians, who are children of the same Father, servants of the same Master, members of the same family, travellers to the same country, heirs of the same inheritance. Wherefore let Christians labour to attain assurance of their calling, and of their election, by believing and well-doing; and thus carefully to endeavour, is a firm argument of the grace and mercy of God, upholding them so that they shall not utterly fall. Those who are diligent in the work of religion, shall have a triumphant entrance into that everlasting kingdom where Christ reigns, and they shall reign with him for ever and ever; and it is in the practice of every good work that we are to expect entrance to heaven.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

8. be—Greek, "subsist" that is, supposing these things to have an actual subsistence in you; "be" would express the mere matter-of-fact being (Ac 16:20).

abound—more than in others; so the Greek.

make—"render," "constitute you," habitually, by the very fact of possessing these graces.

barren—"inactive," and, as a field lying fallow and unworked (Greek), so barren and useless.

unfruitful in—rather, … in respect to, "The full knowledge (Greek) of Christ" is the goal towards which all these graces tend. As their subsisting in us constitutes us not barren or idle, so their abounding in us constitutes us not unfruitful in respect to it. It is through doing His will, and so becoming like Him, that we grow in knowing Him (Joh 7:17).