Thursday, October 02, 2008
We are partakers now!
The participles in [2 Peter] 1:4 do not of themselves indicate whether the participation in divine nature is past, present, or future, but the consensus view that 2 Peter writes solely of the future, of an eschatological entry into a state of divine incorruption, fails to take seriously the juxtaposition of the divine attribute of virtue mentioned in 1:3 and the exhortation for the readers to enter into virtue now (1:5-7). The readers have already now been given everything that is necessary for piety and therefore are no longer subject to the tyranny of passionate desire. The interpretation that 2 Peter envisions sharing in divine nature as something belonging solely to the future cannot be suported from the immediate context and suggests mistakenly that a departure from the physical world is requisite for participation in divine nature. this is clearly not 2 Peter's intention...—James Starr in Partakers of the Divine Nature, page 83
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1 comment:
Thanks for this. I have always understood this verse in this way, as describing our present condition, having escaped (aorist participle) from the corruption in the world. I suppose that we become partakers of the divine nature by being in the divine Christ and indwelt by the divine Holy Spirit, compare John 15:4a.
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