How much we can thank God that we have His precious Word, and His Spirit who is with us eternally, so that we can be built up on our most holy faith, the Spirit of God using the Word to teach us and make us know and understand the things that have been freely given to us of God. The benefit we have of God’s Word and the enlightening of His Spirit is unspeakable. It is through this knowledge, “the knowledge of Him that has called us by glory and virtue,” that “His divine power has given to us all things which relate to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). And not only that, but God has also “given to us the greatest and precious promises, that through these [we] may become partakers of the divine nature” (v. 4)!

What should be our answer to these amazing and glorious things that are ours even now? As the apostle adds, let us with all diligence add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, endurance, godliness, brotherly love, and love. For even if knowledge is indispensable, it is not everything. It is only by adding these things to our faith in a very practical way, and making diligent efforts in this regard, that we are actually gaining true knowledge concerning the blessed person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because He was perfectly all these things. As we “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27), as we add these things to our faith, as we gain this practical knowledge of our Lord Jesus, we are more and more being conformed to His image.

Very soon we will see the Lord as He is, and “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2). In the meanwhile, God has given us all we need by “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Pet. 1:2). And we find in our Lord Jesus Christ all the resources of grace we need. Let us look up and go on faithfully, for “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom. 13:11)!