Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Peter 1:11
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
11. for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly ] Better, the entrance shall be richly bestowed or supplied. The verb is the same as that which is translated “add” in 2Pe 1:5, where see note. The Greek has the article with the noun as defining the entrance to be that which was the well-known object of the faith and hope of all Christians. In St Peter’s use of the word we may, perhaps, trace an echo of 1Th 1:9 ; 1Th 2:1, though it is used there in a lower sense.
everlasting ] The rule of keeping, as far as possible, to uniformity of rendering would make eternal preferable. It is, perhaps, worth noting that this is the only passage in the New Testament in which the adjective is joined to “kingdom.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For so an entrance – In this manner you shall be admitted into the kingdom of God.
Shall be ministered unto you – The same Greek word is here used which occurs in 2Pe 1:5, and which is there rendered add. See the notes at that verse. There was not improbably in the mind of the apostle a recollection of that word; and the sense may be, that if they would lead on the virtues and graces referred to in their beautiful order, those graces would attend them in a radiant train to the mansions of immortal glory and blessedness. See Doddridge in loc.
Abundantly – Greek, richly. That is, the most ample entrance would be furnished; there would be no doubt about their admission there. The gates of glory would be thrown wide open, and they, adorned with all the bright train of graces, would be admitted there.
Into the everlasting kingdom … – Heaven. It is here called everlasting, not because the Lord Jesus shall preside over it as the Mediator (compare the notes at 1Co 15:24), but because, in the form which shall be established when he shall have given it up to the Father, it will endure forever, The empire of God which the Redeemer shall set up over the souls of his people shall endure to all eternity. The object of the plan of redemption was to secure their allegiance to God, and that will never terminate.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. For so an entrance shall be ministered] If ye give diligence; and do not fall, an abundant, free, honourable, and triumphant entrance shall be ministered to you into the everlasting kingdom. There seems to be here an allusion to the triumphs granted by the Romans to their generals who had distinguished themselves by putting an end to a war, or doing some signal military service to the state. (See the whole account of this military pageant in Clarke’s note on “2Co 2:14“.) “Ye shall have a triumph, in consequence of having conquered your foes, and led captivity captive.”
Instead of everlasting kingdom, , two MSS. have , heavenly kingdom; and several MSS. omit the word , and Saviour.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Abundantly; or richly: while ye minister, or add one grace to another, one good work to another, 2Pe 1:5, &c., God likewise will minister, (the same word is here used as 2Pe 1:5), or add largely or richly, the supplies of the Spirit, in grace, and strength, and consolation, and whatsoever is needful for you in the way, whereby your faith may be increased, your joy promoted, and your perseverance secured, till ye come into the possession of the everlasting kingdom.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. an entrancerather asGreek, “the entrance” which ye look for.
ministeredthe sameverb as in 2Pe 1:5. Ministerin your faith virtue and the other graces, so shall there beministered to you the entrance into that heaven where thesegraces shine most brightly. The reward of grace hereafter shallcorrespond to the work of grace here.
abundantlyGreek,“richly.” It answers to “abound,” 2Pe1:8. If these graces abound in you, you shall have yourentrance into heaven not merely “scarcely” (as he had said,1Pe 4:18), nor “so as byfire,” like one escaping with life after having lost all hisgoods, but in triumph without “stumbling and falling.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly,…. An abundant supply of grace and strength shall be freely afforded, to carry you through all the duties and trials of life; and when that shall be ended, an admission will be granted
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; meaning, not the Gospel dispensation, or the spiritual kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, but lies among his people, who are called out of it, in whom he reigns by his Spirit and, grace, according to laws of his own enacting; nor his personal kingdom on earth with his saints, which will last only a thousand years, and not be for ever; but the kingdom of heaven, or the ultimate glory, which will be everlasting; and is called a kingdom, to denote the glory and excellency of that state; and an everlasting one, because it will never end; and the kingdom of Christ, because it is in his possession, for his people; it is prepared by him, and he will introduce them into it, when they shall be for ever with him, and reign with him for ever and ever. Some copies read, “the heavenly kingdom”. There is an entrance of separate souls into this kingdom at death; and which may be said to be ministered “abundantly” to them, or “richly” as the word signifies, when they depart out of this world with joy and comfort; triumphing over death, and the grave, in a full view by faith of their interest in the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the glories of another world; and there is an entrance into it at judgment, and which will be abundantly, when all the saints together, in their souls and bodies, shall be introduced by Christ into the full joy of their Lord. As the saints enter the kingdom through many tribulations, the gate is strait, and the way is narrow, and they are scarcely saved, and many of them so as only by fire; but when the abundant grace given unto them by the way to heaven, the great consolation many enjoy in their last moments, and especially the free and full admission of them, both at death and at judgment, to eternal happiness, are considered, the entrance ministered may be said to be abundantly; or, as the Arabic version renders it, “with a breadth”; the entrance is large and broad.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Thus (). As shown in verse 10.
Shall be supplied (). Future passive of , for which see verse 5. You supply the virtues above and God will supply the entrance ( , old word already in 1Th 1:9, etc.).
Richly (). See Col 3:16 for this adverb.
Into the eternal kingdom ( ). The believer’s inheritance of 1Pe 1:4 is here termed kingdom, but “eternal” ( feminine same as masculine). Curiously again in the Stratonicea inscription we find (of the eternal rule) applied to “the lords of Rome.” But this is the spiritual reign of God in men’s hearts here on earth (1Pe 2:9) and in heaven.
Of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ( ). For which idiom see on 1:1.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Shall be ministered abundantly [ ] . On the verb see ver. 5. Rev., shall be richly supplied. We are to furnish in our faith : the reward shall be furnished unto us. Richly, indicating the fulness of future blessedness. Professor Salmond observes that it is the reverse of “saved, yet so as by fire” (1Co 3:15).
Everlasting kingdom [ ] . In the first epistle, Peter designated the believer ‘s future as an inheritance; here he calls it a kingdom. Eternal, as Rev., is better than everlasting, since the word includes more than duration of time.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly Entrance into heaven is based on being “born again” but an abundant entrance (Greek plousios epichoregethesetai eisodos) is promised only to the faithful fruit-bearer with rewards.
2) “Into the everlasting kingdom’ This refers to positions of honor and rewards to be given to those fruitbearing ones at the coming of Jesus Christ, beginning of the millennium, Luk 19:10-19.
3) “Of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Positions of kingship, priesthood, and heirship with Jesus Christ in His kingdom on earth are to be based on faithful service rendered here. 2Jn 1:8: Rev 5:10; Luk 16:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
He explains the way or means of persevering, when he says, an entrance shall be ministered to you. The import of the words is this: “God, by ever supplying you abundantly with new graces, will lead you to his own kingdom.” And this was added, that we may know, that though we have already passed from death into life, yet it is a passage of hope; and as to the fruition of life, there remains for us yet a long journey. In the meantime we are not destitute of necessary helps. Hence Peter obviates a doubt by these words, “The Lord will abundantly supply your need, until you shall enter into his eternal kingdom.” He calls it the kingdom of Christ, because we cannot ascend to heaven except under his banner and guidance.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) An entrance shall be ministered unto you.Ministered is the passive of the same verb that is translated add in 2Pe. 1:5, and is probably chosen to answer to 2Pe. 1:5. Supply these graces, and an entrance into the kingdom shall be abundantly supplied to youabundantly, i.e., with a warm welcome, as to a son coming home in triumph; not a bare grudging admission, as to a stranger.
Thus ends the first main section of the Epistle, which contains the substance of the whole. Its gentle earnestness and obvious harmony with the First Epistle have made some critics ready to admit its genuineness, who throw doubt on much of the rest. But if it stands it carries with it all the rest. Change of style is amply accounted for by change to a new and exciting subject; and the links between the parts are too strong to be severed by any such considerations. (See opening observations in the Introduction.)
The first sections of the two Epistles should be carefully compared. In both we find these thoughts pervading the opening exhortation: Be earnest, be active; for (1) so much has been done for you, and (2) there is such a rich reward in store for you. (Comp. especially the conclusions of the two sections, 1Pe. 1:13 with 2Pe. 1:10-11.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. For so You, for your part, doing these things.
Shall be ministered The same Greek as add, 2Pe 1:5. God, on his part, will richly furnish you with your hoped-for entrance into the heavenly kingdom. Thus God’s work and man’s work unite in securing our eternal salvation.
Kingdom Christ The assertion of the kingship of Christ fitly closes the discussion.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Pe 1:11 . ] Resumption of the ; Dietlein’s interpretation is erroneous: “precisely when ye in all humility renounce every arrogant striving after distinction;” for there is no reference here to any such striving.
. . .] The conjunction of and is surprising. It is incorrect to attribute to a meaning different from that which it always has (thus Grotius: promptissimo Dei affectu; Augusti: “in more than one way”). It is, however, also erroneous to make . . apply not to itself, but to the condition which is entered upon after the , “the higher degree of blessedness” (de Wette). [42] . represents the entrance into the eternal kingdom of Christ as a gift; as a gift abundantly; in so far as that entrance is not in any way rendered difficult, or even hindered; the opposite is the , 1Pe 4:18 . Schott is not quite accurate in applying to the “secure certainty of the entrance.” Wiesinger adopts both the interpretation of Gerhard: divites eritis in praemiis coelestibus, and that of Bengel: ut quasi cum triumpho intrare possitis. Dietlein here inaptly brings in with . “the conception of a chorus in solemn procession.” It is to be noted that as , 2Pe 1:5 , points back to in 2Pe 1:4 , so does this here to . The Christian’s gift in return must correspond with the gift of God, and the return-gift of God again with that of the Christian.
[42] Steinfass: “This passage treats of the way, of the admission to it, and not of the blessedness which awaits the believer at the end of it.” He is right, only that it is not even the way that is treated of, but merely the admission (or more correctly, the entrance) to it.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Ver. 11. Ministered unto you abundantly ] Ye shall go gallantly into heaven, not get thither as many do, with hard shift and much ado. A ship may make a shift to get into the harbour, but with anchors lost, cables rent, sails torn, mast broken; another comes in with sails and flags up, with trumpets sounding, and comes bravely into the haven: so do fruitful and active Christians into Christ’s kingdom.
Into the everlasting kingdom ] Not so into this world, which is like a candlestick, where ye may see orchards and gardens curiously drawn, but ye cannot enter into them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11 .] for thus (i. e. ) shall be richly (the adverb is not, as Huther, surprising, but most natural and obvious with the verb , which is one of furnishing and ministering; therefore of quantity. The adverb belongs to the figure latent in the verb: and must therefore be interpreted in and with the interpretation of the verb: in which case it will indicate high degrees and fulness of glory) furnished to you (the verb seems expressly chosen in order to answer to , 2Pe 1:5 ; “furnish forth your own lives with these Christian graces, so shall be furnished to you” &c.) the [or, your ] entrance (which all Christians look for: not the fact of this entrance taking place, but the fact of its , is that asserted) into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Pe 1:11 . Note the accumulation in this verse of words suggesting splendour and fulness. . Cf. note on 2Pe 1:5 . Mayor says that here the word “suggests the ordering of a triumphal procession,” and compares Plut. Vit. 994, . . Cf. Heb 10:19 . In a theatre, . is the place of entrance for the chorus (Ar. Nub. 326; Av. 296), and in P. Par. ii. 41, we find = of the door of a house. The great description of the entrance of the pilgrims into the celestial city in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress , Pt. 1., may be quoted in illustration. . does not occur elsewhere in N.T. or Apostolic Fathers ( cf. Aristotle’s Apol. xvi., and Clem. Hom. x. 25), but occurs in the Stratonicean inscriptions already quoted (Deissmann, op. cit. p. 361).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
2 Peter
GOING OUT AND GOING IN
2Pe 1:11-15
I do not like, and do not often indulge in, the practice of taking fragments of Scripture for a text, but I venture to isolate these two words, because they correspond to one another, and when thus isolated and connected, bring out very prominently two aspects of one thing. In the original the correspondence is even closer, for the words, literally rendered, are ‘a going in’ and ‘a going out.’ The same event is looked at from two sides. On the one it is a departure; on the other it is an arrival. That event, I need not say, is Death.
I note, further, that the expression rendered, ‘my decease,’ employs the word which is always used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to express the departure of the Children of Israel from bondage, and which gives its name, in our language, to the Second Book of the Pentateuch. ‘My exodus’–associations suggested by the word can scarcely fail to have been in the writer’s mind.
Further, I note that this expression for Death is only employed once again in the New Testament–viz., in St. Luke’s account of the Transfiguration, where Moses and Elias spake with Jesus ‘concerning His decease–the exodus–which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.’ If you look on to the verses which follow the second of my texts, you will see that the Apostle immediately passes on to speak about that Transfiguration, and about the voice which He heard then in the holy mount. So that I think we must suppose that in the words of our second text he was already beginning to think about the Transfiguration, and was feeling that, somehow or other, his ‘exodus’ was to be conformed to his Master’s.
Now bearing all these points in mind, let us just turn to these words and try to gather the lessons which they suggest.
I. The first of them is this, the double Christian aspect of death.
It is well worth noting that the New Testament very seldom condescends to use that name for the mere physical fact of dissolution. It reserves it for the most part for something a great deal more dreadful than the separation of body and soul, and uses all manner of periphrases, or what rhetoricians call euphemising, that is, gentle expressions which put the best face upon a thing instead of the ugly word itself. It speaks, for instance, as you may remember, in the context here about the ‘putting off’ of a tent or ‘a tabernacle,’ blending the notions of stripping off a garment and pulling down a transitory abode. It speaks about death as a sleep, and in that and other ways sets it forth in gracious and gentle aspects, and veils the deformity, and loves and hopes away the dreadfulness of it.
Now other languages and other religions besides Christianity have done the same things, and Roman and Greek poets and monuments have in like manner avoided the grim, plain word–death, but they have done it for exactly the opposite reason from that for which the Christian does it. They did it because the thing was so dark and dismal, and because they knew so little and feared so much about it. And Christianity does it for exactly the opposite reason, because it fears it not at all, and knows it quite enough. So it toys with leviathan, and ‘lays its hand on the cockatrice den,’ and my text is an instance of this.
‘My decease … an entrance.’ So the terribleness and mystery dwindled down into this–a change of position; or if locality is scarcely the right class of ideas to apply to spirits detached from the body–a change of condition. That is all.
We do not need to insist upon the notion of change of place. For, as I say, we get into a fog when we try to associate place with pure spiritual existence. But the root of the conviction which is expressed in both these phrases, and most vividly by their juxtaposition, is this, that what happens at death is not the extinction, but the withdrawal, of a person, and that the man is, as fully, as truly as he was, though all the relations in which he stands may be altered.
Now no materialistic teaching has any right to come in and bar that clear faith and firm conclusion. For by its very saying that it knows nothing about life except in connection with organisation, it acknowledges that there is a difference between them. And until science can tell me how it is that the throb of a brain or the quiver of a nerve, becomes transformed into morality, into emotion, I maintain that it knows far too little of personality and of life to be a valid authority when it asserts that the destruction of the organisation is the end of the man. I feel myself perfectly free–in the darkness in which, after all investigation, that mysterious transformation of the physical into the moral and the spiritual lies–I feel perfectly free to listen to another voice, the voice which tells me that life can subsist, and that personal being can be as full–ay, fuller–apart altogether from the material frame which here, and by our present experience, is its necessary instrument. And though accepting all that physical investigation can teach us, we can still maintain that its light does not illumine the central obscurity; and that, after all, it still remains true that round about the being of each man, as round about the being of God, clouds and darkness roll,
‘Life and thought have gone away,
Side by side,
Leaving door and window wide.’
That, and nothing more, is death–’My decease … an entrance.’
Then, again, the combination of these two words suggests to us that the one act, in the same moment, is both departure and arrival. There is not a pin-point of space, not the millionth part of a second of time, intervening between the two. There is no long journey to be taken. A man in straits, and all but desperation, is recorded in the old Book to have said: ‘There is but a step between me and death.’ Ah, there is but a step between death and the Kingdom; and he that passes out at the same moment passes in.
I need not say a word about theories which seem to me to have no basis at all in our only source of information, which is Revelation; theories which would interpose a long period of unconsciousness–though to the man unconscious it be no period at all–between the act of departure and that of entrance. Not so do I read the teaching of Scripture: ‘This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.’ We pass out, and as those in the vestibule of a presence-chamber have but to lift the curtain and find themselves face to face with the king, so we, at one and the same moment, depart and arrive.
Friends stand round the bed, and before they can tell by the undimmed mirror that the last breath has been drawn, the saint is ‘with Christ, which is far better.’ To depart is to be with Him. There is a moment in the life of every believing soul in which there strangely mingle the lights of earth and the lights of heaven. As you see in dissolving views, the one fades and the other consolidates. Like the mighty angel in the Apocalypse, the dying man stands for a moment with one foot on the earth and the other already laved and cleansed by the waters of that ‘sea of glass mingled with fire which is before the Throne,’ ‘Absent from the body; present with the Lord.’
Further, these two words suggest that the same act is emancipation from bondage and entrance into royalty.
‘My exodus.’ Israel came out of Egyptian servitude and dropped chains from wrists and left taskmasters cracking their useless whips behind them, and the brick kilns and the weary work were all done when they went forth. Ah, brethren, whatever beauty and good and power and blessedness there may be in this mortal life, there are deep and sad senses in which, for all of us, it is a prison-house and a state of captivity. There is a bondage of flesh; there is a dominion of the animal nature; there are limitations, like high walls, cribbing, cabining, confining us–the limitations of circumstance. There is the slavery of dependence upon this poor, external, and material world. There are the tyranny of sin and the subjugation of the nobler nature to base and low and transient needs. All these fetters, and the scars of them, drop away. Joseph comes out of prison to a throne. The kingdom is not merely one in which the redeemed man is a subject, but one in which he himself is a prince. ‘Have thou authority over ten cities.’ These are the Christian aspects of death.
II. Now note, secondly, the great fact on which this view of death builds itself.
I have already remarked that in one of my texts the Apostle seems to be thinking about Jesus Christ and His decease. The context also refers to another incident in his own life, when our Lord foretold to him that the putting off his tabernacle was to be ‘sudden,’ and added: ‘Follow thou Me.’
Taking these allusions into account, they suggest that it is the death of Jesus Christ–and that which is inseparable from it, His Resurrection–that changes for a soul believing on Him the whole aspect of that last experience that awaits us all. It is His exodus that makes ‘my exodus’ a deliverance from captivity and an entrance upon royalty.
I need not remind you, how, after all is said and done, we are sure of life eternal, because Jesus Christ died and rose again. I do not need to depreciate other imperfect arguments which seem to point in that direction, such as the instincts of men’s natures, the craving for some retribution beyond, the impossibility of believing that life is extinguished by the fact of physical death. But whilst I admit that a good deal may be said, and strong probabilities may be alleged, it seems to me that however much you may argue, no words, no considerations, moral or intellectual, can suffice to establish more than that it would be a very good thing if there were a future life and that it is probable that there is. But Jesus Christ comes to us and says, ‘Touch Me, handle Me; a spirit hath not flesh and bones as I have. Here I am. I was dead; I am alive for evermore.’ So then one life, that we know about, has persisted undiminished, apart from the physical frame, and that one Man has gone down into the dark abyss, and has come up the same as when He descended. So it is His exodus–and, as I believe, His death and Resurrection alone–on which the faith in immortality impregnably rests.
But that is not the main point which the text suggests. Let me remind you how utterly the whole aspect of any difficulty, trial, or sorrow, and especially of that culmination of all men’s fears–death itself–is altered when we think that in the darkest bend of the dark road we may trace footsteps, not without marks of blood in them, of Him that has trodden it all before us. ‘Follow thou Me,’ He said to Peter; and it should be no hard thing for us, if we love Him, to tread where He trod. It should be no lonely road for us to walk, however the closest clinging hands may be untwined from our grasp, and the most utter solitude of which a human soul is capable may be realised, when we remember that Jesus Christ has walked it before us.
The entrance, too, is made possible because He has preceded us. ‘I go to prepare a place for you.’ So we may be sure that when we go through those dark gates and across the wild, the other side of which no man knows, it is not to step out of ‘the warm precincts of the cheerful day’ into some dim, cold, sad land, but it is to enter into His presence.
Israel’s exodus was headed by a mummy case, in which the dead bones of their whilom leader were contained. Our exodus is headed by the Prince of Life, who was dead and is alive for evermore.
So, brethren, I beseech you, treasure these thoughts more than you do. Turn to Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead more than you do. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that the Christianity of this day is largely losing the habitual contemplation of immortality which gave so much of its strength to the religion of past generations. We are all so busy in setting forth and enforcing the blessings of Christianity in its effects in the present life that, I fear me, we are largely forgetting what it does for us at the end, and beyond the end. And I would that we all thought more of our exodus and of our entrance in the light of Christ’s death and resurrection. Such contemplation will not unfit us for any duty or any enjoyment. It will lift us above the absorbed occupation with present trivialities, which is the bane of all that is good and noble. It will teach us ‘a solemn scorn of ills.’ It will set on the furthest horizon a great light instead of a doleful darkness, and it will deliver us from the dread of that ‘shadow feared of man,’ but not by those who, listening to Jesus Christ, have been taught that to depart is to be with Him.
III. Now I meant to have said a word, in the close of my sermon, about a third point–viz., the way of securing that this aspect of death shall be our experience, but your time will not allow of my dwelling upon that as I should have wished. I would only point out that, as I have already suggested, this context teaches us that it is His death that must make our deaths what they may become; and would ask you to notice, further, that the context carries us back to the preceding verses. ‘An entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly.’ We have just before read, ‘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’; and just before is the exhortation, ‘giving all diligence, minister to your faith virtue.’
So the Apostle, by reiterating the two words which he had previously been using, teaches us that if death is to be to us that departure from bondage and entrance into the Kingdom, we must here and now bring forth the fruits of faith. There is no entrance hereafter, unless there has been a habitual entering into the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus Christ even whilst we are on earth. There is no entrance by reason of the fact of death, unless all through life there has been an entrance into rest by reason of the fact of faith.
And so, dear brethren, I beseech you to remember that it depends on yourself whether departing shall be arrival, and exodus shall be entrance. One thing or other that last moment must be to us all–either a dragging us reluctant away from what we would fain cleave to, or a glad departure from a foreign land and entrance to our home. It may be as when Peter was let out of prison, the angel touched him, and the chains fell from his hands, and the iron gate opened of its own accord, and he found himself in the city. It is for you to settle which of the two it shall be. And if you will take Him for your King, Companion, Saviour, Enlightener, Life here, ‘the Lord shall bless your going out and coming in from this time forth and even for evermore.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
entrance. Same word in Heb 10:19.
ministered. Same as “add”, 2Pe 1:5.
abundantly. Greek. plousios. See Col 3:16.
into. App-104.
everlasting. App-151.
kingdom. App-112.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11.] for thus (i. e. ) shall be richly (the adverb is not, as Huther, surprising, but most natural and obvious with the verb , which is one of furnishing and ministering; therefore of quantity. The adverb belongs to the figure latent in the verb: and must therefore be interpreted in and with the interpretation of the verb: in which case it will indicate high degrees and fulness of glory) furnished to you (the verb seems expressly chosen in order to answer to , 2Pe 1:5; furnish forth your own lives with these Christian graces, so shall be furnished to you &c.) the [or, your] entrance (which all Christians look for: not the fact of this entrance taking place, but the fact of its , is that asserted) into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Pe 1:11. ) abundantly; so that at any time, without stumbling, you may be able to enter, not as having escaped from a shipwreck, or from fire, but as it were in triumph; and that things past, things present, and things to come may profit you. Here Peter does not now say, scarcely, as in his first Epistle, 1Pe 4:8. This expression answers to abound, in 2Pe 1:8.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
an entrance: Mat 25:34, 2Co 5:1, 2Ti 4:8, Rev 3:21
abundantly: Psa 36:8, Son 5:1, Isa 35:2, Joh 10:10, Eph 3:20, Heb 6:17
everlasting: Isa 9:7, Dan 7:14, Dan 7:27, Rev 5:10
our: 2Pe 1:1
Reciprocal: Jos 18:3 – How long are Jdg 18:9 – be not Psa 15:5 – He that doeth Pro 10:30 – never Isa 32:17 – quietness Mat 6:33 – the kingdom Mat 18:3 – enter Mar 10:23 – enter Luk 12:32 – the kingdom Luk 12:37 – Blessed Luk 13:28 – the kingdom Act 5:31 – a Saviour Act 13:23 – raised Act 14:22 – enter 2Co 5:9 – we labour Col 1:13 – and 2Ti 1:10 – our 2Ti 4:1 – his kingdom Tit 1:4 – our Heb 1:8 – for Heb 4:11 – Let Jam 2:5 – heirs 2Pe 3:17 – from 1Jo 5:13 – ye may know
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Pe 1:11. An abundant entrance is a phrase of emphasis, meaning that the disciple who is faithful till death will receive all of the glory accompanying the entrance into the delightful place. Everlasting kingdom does not mean the church on earth, for one has to be in that institution first before he can begin to plan for this kingdom. It means the kingdom after Christ has delivered it up to God. (1Co 15:24).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Pe 1:11. For so shall be richly furnished for you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Another reason, and one rising far superior to the former, for the careful cultivation of these graces. A good life can never be a failure. It may be a life of many storms; but it is not possible that it should end in shipwreck (Lillie). That was the import of the former statement. Nay more, it is now added, such a life shall have a glorious ending. The future of which the believer is heir is here designated a kingdom. In First Peter it is an inheritance. Nowhere else in the N. T. is the kingdom described by this adjective, which the A. V. translates everlasting. As the word means much more than simply the never-ending (although it includes that), the R. V. more judiciously renders it eternal. The A. V. further gives an entrance, where Peter speaks of the entrance,the well-understood entrance which formed the object of every Christians hope. Observe also the balance which is maintained (the verb being the same) between what we are to furnish in our faith (2Pe 1:5), and what is to be furnished to us. It is not the mere fact that the entrance is in reserve for us that is asserted here, but the kind of entrance which is secured by a life of growing graciousness. Neither is it exactly the doctrine of degrees of future blessedness that is touched on here. It is supposed by many that the truth struck here is that which appears in such passages as Mat 10:15, Luk 6:38; Luk 12:47, Joh 14:2, 2Co 9:6, Gal 6:8, viz. that according to our different degrees of improvement of Gods grace here, will be our different degrees of participation in His everlasting glory hereafter (Wordsworth; see also Bishop Bulls Sermon, 7 vol. i. p. 168, as there referred to). But what is immediately dealt with here is not the eternal blessedness itself, but the entrance or admission into it. Of this it is said that it shall be given richly,a term which is to be taken in its ordinary sense, and not to be paraphrased into certainly (Schott), or in more than one way, or promptly, etc. The entrance is to be of a kind the reverse of the saved, yet so as by fire (1Co 3:15). It will be liberally granted, joyously accomplished, richly attendedso that at any time, as Bengel well expounds it, not as if escaping from shipwreck, or from fire, but in a sort of triumph, you may enter in with an unstumbling step, and take delight in things past, present, and to come. Miltons 14th Sonnet has been compared with this. See specially the lines in which he speaks thus of the works and alms and all thy good endeavour of the deceased friend:
Love led them on; and Faith, who knew them best,
Thy handmaids, clad them oer with purple beams
And azure wing that up they flew so drest.
And spake the truth of thee on glorious themes.
Before the Judge; who thenceforth bid thee rest.
And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
There are four sorts of persons spoken of in scripture:
1. Some are said to be far from the kingdom of God, afar off from God, as Heathens and Infidels, who know not God.
2. Others are said not to be far from the kingdom of God, Mar 12:34, who yet will never come there.
3. Others are scarcely saved, saved with great difficulty, so as by fire, with much dross of error in judgment, and corruption in life.
4. Others are said to have an abundant entrance administered to them into the everlasting kingdom, and these are the fruitful Christians, who are daily adding to their graces, and going from strength to strength: These shoot the gulph of death in the holy triumph of their grace; they enter the harbour of heaven with a plerophory, a full sail, with full assurance of faith and hope. Thus will the fruitful Christian have both a more comfortable passage to, and also a more ample reward in heaven.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
One of the greatest motivations for pursuing growth in grace is that when we go to be with the Lord forever He will welcome us warmly. The alternative is to get in by the skin of our teeth, saved so as by fire (1Co 3:15). Every Christian will go to heaven and receive much eternal inheritance (1Pe 1:3-5). However, our Lord’s welcome of those who have sought to express their gratitude for His grace through a life dedicated to cultivating godliness will be especially warm. It will be even warmer than what He extends to other less committed believers (cf. Mat 25:14-30; Luk 12:21; Luk 12:31; Act 7:56).
"This passage agrees with several in the Gospels and Epistles in suggesting that while heaven is entirely a gift of grace, it admits of degrees of felicity, and that these are dependent upon how faithfully we have built a structure of character and service upon the foundation of Christ. Bengel likens the unholy Christian in the judgment to a sailor who just manages to make shore after shipwreck, or to a man who barely escapes with his life from a burning house, while all his possessions are lost. In contrast, the Christian who has allowed his Lord to influence his conduct will have abundant entrance into the heavenly city, and be welcomed like a triumphant athlete victorious in the Games. This whole paragraph of exhortation is thus set between two poles: what we already are in Christ and what we are to become. The truly Christian reader, unlike the scoffers, will look back to the privileges conferred on him, of partaking in the divine nature, and will seek to live worthily of it. He will also look forward to the day of assessment, and strive to live in the light of it." [Note: Green, pp. 76-77.]
This writer also suggested that the underlying picture is of a victor in the Olympic Games returning to his hometown in triumph. [Note: Ibid., p. 75. See also Wiersbe, 2:440.]
". . . there will be degrees of glory hereafter proportioned to our faithfulness in the use of God’s gifts here." [Note: B. C. Caffin, "The Second Epistle General of Peter," in The Pulpit Commentary, p. 6. Cf. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10.]
It is remarkable that so many commentators take 2Pe 1:11 as indicating that entrance into heaven depends on our diligently seeking to grow in grace. Understandably Pelagians and Arminians hold this view, but even Calvinistic interpreters who profess to believe that salvation depends on grace alone sometimes come to this conclusion.