Section 1:3–15

Peter taught about how people who believe in Christ should behave

Here is the basic message of this section: Christ has given Christians everything they need to live in a way that is good and that pleases him, so every Christian should try hard to become a strong and mature Christian. If they become that kind of Christian, it will be right and proper for God to allow them to enter heaven, Christ’s eternal kingdom.

Paragraph 1:3–4

In the Greek of these 2 verses, it is not clear to whom the 3rd person pronouns, “His,” “Him,” and “He,” refer. It is probable, however, that it is the same person throughout both verses. Both God and Christ are mentioned together in the previous verse, so that does not help us choose. Because of this, many translations (New International Version (2011 Revision), Revised Standard Version) leave the pronouns like the Greek, so that the person reading the letter must decide for himself. You may decide to do the same thing. However it may not be possible in your language to do this and therefore you must make a decision. Studying the 2 verses together, it does seem that some of what Peter says about this person, for example, that “he called us,” is normally used only of God himself (see 1 Corinthians 1:9). Therefore, if in your language, you need to make clear to whom these pronouns refer, it would be better to choose God, rather than Christ (see Good News Translation for one way of doing this). The Berean Standard Bible does this by capitalizing the first letter of these pronouns here. This is the interpretation these Notes will follow.

1:3a-b

Peter told the people to whom he wrote this letter that everything they needed to live as genuine Christians was available to them because they now knew God.

His divine power: This refers to the power which God has because he is God.

life and godliness: There are two ways to interpret this:

(1) These are two separate ideas, so the meaning is “spiritual (or eternal) life and godly behavior”. (Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), The Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Revised Standard Version)

(2) These are two related words, and one describes the other, so the meaning is “a truly godly life”. (Good News Translation, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation.

godliness: This means the good behavior of a person who has willingly chosen to live for God, and who wants to please him by doing everything in the way God wants him to.

1:3c

by His own glory and excellence: The Greek words here could mean one of two things:

(1) “by means of his own glory and goodness”. This means that God called us to be his people because of his own perfect and glorious character. This is the normal way of understanding the Greek. (Berean Standard Bible, New International Version (2011 Revision), New English Bible, The Jerusalem Bible)

(2) “to his own glory and goodness”. This means that God called us to share in his own glory and goodness. (Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version)

It is recommended that you follow the first interpretation.

glory: The word glory means many different things in the New Testament. Here it refers to God’s greatness, his glorious character.

excellence: This also refers to God’s character, to his moral goodness.

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.