2 Peter 1:4
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
King James Version (KJV)
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This verse completes Peter's foundational statement (verses 3-4) about what God supplies, immediately before he urges believers to add virtue upon virtue. It frames the entire Christian life as participation in God's own nature.
What Does 2 Peter 1:4 Mean?
In short, 2 Peter 1:4 says God's great promises enable believers to share in His own nature and escape the corruption of the world. Building on verse 3, Peter explains how the gifts of "life and godliness" reach us: through "exceeding great and precious promises." God's promises are not vague encouragements but the very means by which He transforms His people. By trusting and receiving them, believers are drawn into something extraordinary.
Peter's phrase "partakers of the divine nature" is one of the most remarkable in all of Scripture. The text says that those who receive God's promises "might be partakers" -- sharers, participants -- in the very nature of God. The verse lets this stand in its own words: God invites His people into a real participation in His character and life. Alongside this lifting up comes a clear deliverance: "having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." The same promises that draw us upward into God's nature also pull us free from the decay that disordered desire produces. Transformation, then, has two motions -- being made like God and being rescued from corruption. Both happen by grace, through the promises God has given.
In the Original Language
The Greek "koinonos" (partaker) means a sharer, companion, or participant who holds something in common. "Theias physeos" (divine nature) joins "theios" (divine) with "physis" (nature, essence).
Cross References
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
- Romans 8:29
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
- 1 John 3:2
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
- 2 Corinthians 3:18
Application
Lean on God's promises as the very means of your transformation; as you trust them, you are both lifted toward His likeness and freed from the corruption that desire breeds.
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