​The second epistle of Peter has sometimes been called the “knowledge” epistle of the New Testament.  The apostle’s short letter speaks of “knowing” and “knowledge” eleven times – five times in the first chapter alone – and focusses on the importance of what we know more than any other section of the Christian Scriptures.
​

Notice how Peter begins his epistle directly after addressing his readers: 

“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:2-3, emphases added).

In contrast with the false teachers of that era who taught that true knowledge was hidden and only attainable by a few, Peter stresses that ultimately, true knowledge is knowledge of God and his Son, and that we all have access to everything we need through the knowledge that God openly gives us.

After his introduction, Peter describes what we might call a “spectrum” of spiritual qualities:

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Peter 1:5-7, emphases added).

This “spiritual spectrum” ranges from faith through love with the “hope”-related quality of “perseverance” or “endurance” at the center (1 Thessalonians 1:3).  As such, we can see that Peter’s list is an expansion of the three qualities of faith, hope and love we know so well from Paul’s writings (1 Corinthians 13:13). 
 
But notice something else about this “spectrum.” If we look carefully, we see that Peter sets the individual qualities in groups of two:  faith/goodness, knowledge/self-control, perseverance/ godliness, mutual affection/love.   When we consider these pairs closely, we see that the first quality of each pair represents a mental attitude and the second quality involves a practical application.  So faith, knowledge, perseverance (or hope), and mutual affection are all things within our own minds, whereas goodness, self-control, godliness, and love are all things relating to what we do – that we apply in life. 

So the “spiritual spectrum” that Peter gives helps teach us that we must have action as well as knowledge. Peter summarizes this fact when he tells his readers later in his letter that we must “… grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).  We must have positive change in our lives along with the growth of knowledge or we will fail to grow spiritually as we should.
 
The pairs of qualities that Peter gives us deserve some thought.  How do the qualities relate? What is the connection between each of them?  Perhaps above all, Peter’s list shows us that a feeling of affection is not love – that we may have good feelings toward others without really loving them. Mutual affection, Peter’s list shows, is an attitude; love is an action – something we actively do for others.

It is only as we grasp and apply this fact that we will be using the knowledge God gives us as he intended. Peter himself tells us, directly after listing the qualities of his “spiritual spectrum”: “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). 

Some people are defined in their own eyes, and in the eyes of others, by their accomplishments, others by their relationships, others again by their education or experiences. There are clearly many things that serve as defining aspects in our lives. 

Yet, sadly, a great many people in this world would answer the question “What three things most define  individuals?”  in a remarkably similar way: “appearance, possessions, success.”  Although many are not so shallow, of course, hundreds of millions of people would agree that these are perhaps the three physical things that “define” an individual in the eyes of others more than anything else.  

But the Christian realizes that these three things are ultimately meaningless, and that in the long run – at the end of our physical lives – our looks, money, influence, and all such things will certainly not define who we are in the eyes of God. So what qualities do affect how God sees us?

The answer is a surprisingly simple one and is found repeatedly throughout the Bible. The three things that define us in God’s eyes are our attitudes, our actions, and our words.  We see this many times in scriptures such as this example in the Book of Proverbs in which God, in the personification of Wisdom, states: “… I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech” (Proverbs 8:13B) – in other words:  attitudes, actions, and words.

What is especially interesting about this particular verse is that it does not say that Wisdom hates “evil thoughts,” in addition to evil behavior and evil speech, but elaborates on the area of attitude by singling out the example of pride and arrogance.   The verse makes it clear that the God who looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) particularly dislikes a proud attitude – something which is underscored by many other verses in Proverbs and elsewhere (Proverbs 16:5, etc.).  In fact, if we study the many biblical verses that deal with our thoughts and mental state, we find one of the most commonly mentioned problematic attitudes is that of rebellious pride that puts itself before God. 

This is worth thinking about.  It is considerably easier to be aware of the problem when we have fallen down in deed or in word than it is when we have slipped in the area of attitude.  Secondly, there are many possible failings of attitude – selfishness, self-pity, lack of concern, etc. – but perhaps none is so hard to see in ourselves as pride.  And this is an important thing to remember. Pride has been called the worst of all sins by Christian thinkers from Augustine to C.S. Lewis and beyond. The fact that pride is so bad and yet is the hardest attitude to detect in ourselves may well be the reason it is singled out so often in Proverbs and elsewhere in the Bible.

But why is pride so bad? From a biblical perspective, pride is often an “invisible” form of hate itself, the very opposite of love. In fact, we find in the apostle Paul’s great “Love” chapter, 1 Corinthians 13: “Love is kind… it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Corinthians 13:4).  These are in fact, examples of the very opposites of the qualities hated by Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs: Love is kind – actions, love does not boast – words, love is not proud – attitude.  It is clear that if we are to follow the way of Wisdom, the Way preached by Paul and found throughout the Scriptures, we must remember that the three things that truly define us are – our actions, our words, and our  attitudes. 

Scripture: Romans 12:3 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”

Something to think about:  Is our self-perception or self-worth based on what we have, our appearance, our position in society or any other physical measure? What should our self-perception be based on?  Once we can answer that question correctly, we know what the real value of our life is and why we are of inestimable value and potential in the eyes of God. At the same time, God’s word clearly shows we should not elevate ourselves above others in our own thinking!

You may have known people who got offended at the concept Christians teach – that an individual’s mind must be “opened” to see the truth. To many it sounds almost insulting that they would not be “intelligent enough” to fully understand Christian belief. Nevertheless, the Bible does teach that no matter how intelligent we may be, we cannot understand spiritual things unless God “opens our mind.” 

The ancient biblical writers did not talk about opening the “mind,” of course, as that is a modern concept. Instead, writers in both the Old Testament and New Testament used the expression to “open the eyes,” meaning the same thing. In fact, antiquated as it might seem, the concept works well because our eyes are already open and yet need to be “opened” – just as people’s minds can be functional, yet may need to be opened spiritually, too. That is why Jesus said: “I praise you, Father… because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:25; see also Matthew 13:13-14). 

That is why the work of the coming messiah was foretold in just these terms by the prophet Isaiah: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5); “… to open eyes that are blind … to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42:7).  When Christ commissioned Saul – the apostle Paul – it was to do the same work: “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:17-19).

So the opening of the human mind to fully perceive and understand spiritual things requires God’s help. We may know this, but the understanding calls for the use of wisdom in several areas of the Christian life. First, in sharing our faith we cannot expect people to understand the truth of God’s word unless God is opening their minds to see it. That is something to be kept in mind at all times. Trying to “help” or force people to understand spiritual realities cannot work unless God is already calling. 

Second, we should remember that people’s eyes are not usually “opened” all the way at one moment in time. God is gracious in revealing to us what we can handle before helping us to move to the next level of understanding and responsibility. We should always remember to have the same patience with those we aspire to help in the knowledge of the truth.

Finally, we must constantly remind ourselves that the fact spiritual eyes are opened slowly and not all at once is something we must apply to ourselves daily. It is always easy to presume – at every stage along the way – that we know or understand “most things.”  But the truth is, the further we progress along the road of Christian growth, the more we become aware that we still have so much more to learn, so much more to understand.  That is why David prayed – as we should, too – “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law” (Psalm 119:18). It’s a prayer we never outgrow.