Knowledge is an important subject to Peter. He talks about God’s omniscience in his first epistle and opens his second letter praying that grace and peace would be multiplied to his readers in the knowledge of God and Jesus. He ends that letter with the same thought. Now in 2 Peter 1:3, he continues with the idea of knowledge. He writes, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”
He has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness. One might agree that Christ is sufficient with regard to securing my eternal life, but it sounds like Peter is talking about our life in the here and now. I like the way Colin Smith puts it in his sermon, “You will find in Jesus Christ not just everything you need for faith, but everything that you will face in life! Think about what that means for getting through life in middle school or high school–your first experience of discovering that the world is unfair. Peter says Jesus Christ is everything you need to deal with this. Your first experience of rejection of finding yourself outside the group, Christ, is everything you need for that. You will experience struggles with your own moods. Jesus is everything you need. God’s divine power has given you everything you need for life in middle school and high school through your knowledge of Jesus Christ. Everything you need for life in old age. Everything you need for married life. Everything you need for single life. Everything you need for your mid-life crisis. Where you discover that what you have done is less than you thought. You look at how long you have to go and it’s less than you thought too. We are talking about life in all of its fullness here, and Peter is saying to us that Jesus Christ is sufficient, not only for faith, but for all of life. If you can see that He is sufficient, not just for a corner of your life, but for the whole of it, this will change how you follow Jesus Christ.”[1]
The things of life and godliness come to us through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks of this knowledge frequently in the New Testament. It seems to be particularly pointed at satisfying the warning of the Prophet Hosea, who speaks to his own people, Israel, and says, in 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge.” It’s not only Peter who harps on the need for the knowledge of Jesus. Paul does also. In Philippians 3:7-8, he talks about the value of the knowledge of Jesus in comparison to the things of the world. He says, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.” Then in His letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:17-23), he prays that all of his readers will experience the “knowledge” of Jesus. He writes, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Knowing Jesus, and having faith in Him, secures our eternal destiny and gives us something worthwhile to live for now. As the songwriter says, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.”
[1] https://openthebible.org/sermon/everything-you-need-life/