Fruit Bearing and the Believer

 

2Pe 1:1	Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:
2Pe 1:2	Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
2Pe 1:3	According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
2Pe 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.
2Pe 1:5	And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6	And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7	And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8	For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:9	But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
2Pe 1:10	Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
2Pe 1:11	For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Fruit bearing is the subject of the opening paragraph (2 Pet. 1:3-11). In this paragraph is treated the provision for fruit (vv. 3-4), the production of fruit (vv. 5-7), and the purpose of fruit (vv. 8-11). Several key words bring the central ideas of this division to the reader's attention.