2 Peter 1:7
in 2 Peter 1and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and in your godliness brotherly kindness; and in your brotherly kindness love.
KJV
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
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This verse in 2 Peter 1
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
And to godliness brotherly kindness - Love to Christians as such. See the Joh 13:34 note; Heb 13:1 note. And to brotherly kindness charity - Love to all mankind. There is to be a special affection for Christians as of the same family; there is to be a true and warm love, however, for all the race. See the notes at 1 Cor. 13.
This site's exposition
add to your faith virtue
on 2 Peter 1:5-7
And beside this turns gift into diligence: add is epichoregeo, the word for the wealthy citizen who furnished a chorus, lavish supply rather than bare addition. The ladder runs eight rungs, faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity, each grace supplied in the one before it, faith the root and charity the crown as in Paul. The order is not accidental: knowledge follows virtue in a letter fighting men whose knowledge served their lusts.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue, to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. The step leads to promotion: first indeed faith, which is …
The Medieval Church4 voices
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Septem Donis, Collation 3 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
To this piety blessed Peter invites us, who was the other Apostle, in his second Canonical epistle saying: "Supply in faith virtue, in virtue knowledge, in knowledge abstinence, in abstinence patience, in patience piety, in piety brotherly love, and in brotherly love charity." What does …
To godliness will be joined brotherly love, and to all of this, love, which the Apostle Paul calls "the bond of perfection" (Col. 3:14). For love showed its power both over the Son of God and over His Father: it disposed the Father to give …
In piety, however, the love of brotherhood. So that no one renders the works of piety to their enemies with any other view than that of brotherly love. This, of course, obtaining in all temptation, aims at converting those whom one cannot teach or rebuke, …
In the love of brotherhood, charity. Here he specifically calls charity that by which we love the Creator, which, as the degrees of virtues advance, is rightly joined to the love of brotherhood, because neither God can be perfectly loved without a neighbor, nor a …
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Of Christian godliness it may always be said, "Mild, sweet, serene, and tender is her mood, Nor grave with sternness, nor with lightness free: Against example resolutely good, Fervent in zeal, and warm in charity." And to brotherly kindness love - The pure and perfect love of God and of all mankind.
Without which, godliness, or external worship, or a profession of religion, is a vain show; for this is both the evidence of regeneration, and of the truth and power of real godliness; and also the beauty, comfort, and security of Christian society and worship, and without which they cannot be maintained with peace, profit, and honour: and to brotherly kindness, charity: or "love"; that is, to all men, enemies, as well as to the household of faith; and to God and Christ, to his house, worship, ordinances, people and truths.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Your natural affection and brotherly kindness are to be sanctified by godliness. "And in your brotherly kindness love," namely, to all men, even to enemies, in thought, word, and deed. From brotherly kindness we are to go forward to love.
Brotherly kindness - Φιλαδελφιαν· Love of the brotherhood - the strongest attachment to Christ’s flock; feeling each as a member of your own body. Charity - Αγαπην· Love to the whole human race, even to your persecutors: love to God and the brethren they had; love to all mankind they must also have. True religion is neither selfish nor insulated; where the love of God is, bigotry cannot exist. Narrow, selfish people, and people of a party, who scarcely have any hope of the salvation of those who do not believe as they believe, and who do not follow with them, have scarcely any religion, though in their own apprehension none is so truly orthodox or religious as themselves. After αγαπην, love, one MS. adds these words, εν δε τη αγαπῃ την παρακλησιν, and to this love consolation; but this is an idle and useless addition.
The words behind it
12 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἐν | en | in | G1722 → | 2738 times |
| δὲ | de | then | G1161 → | 2765 times |
| τῇ | tea | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| εὐσεβείᾳ | eusebeia | godliness | G2150 → | 15 times |
| τὴν | ten | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| φιλαδελφίαν, | philadelphian | brotherly affection, | G5360 → | |
| ἐν | en | in | G1722 → | 2738 times |
| δὲ | de | then | G1161 → | 2765 times |
| τῇ | tea | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| φιλαδελφίᾳ | philadelphia | brotherly affection | G5360 → | |
| τὴν | ten | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἀγάπην. | agapen | love. | G26 → |
ἐνin
enG1722 →2738 times
δὲthen
deG1161 →2765 times
τῇ<the>
teaG3588 →19766 times
εὐσεβείᾳgodliness
eusebeiaG2150 →15 times
τὴν<the>
tenG3588 →19766 times
φιλαδελφίαν,brotherly affection,
philadelphianG5360 →
ἐνin
enG1722 →2738 times
δὲthen
deG1161 →2765 times
τῇ<the>
teaG3588 →19766 times
φιλαδελφίᾳbrotherly affection
philadelphiaG5360 →
τὴν<the>
tenG3588 →19766 times
ἀγάπην.love.
agapenG26 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Romans 12:10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.
it leads to
- Philippians 2:3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.
- John 13:34–35
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.
- Hebrews 13:1
Continue in brotherly love.
- 1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- 1 Peter 3:8–9
Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble.
- Philippians 2:3
Through
Colossians 3:14And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity.
it leads to
- 1 Peter 4:8
Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
- Ephesians 5:2
and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
- 1 Peter 4:8
Through
Hebrews 13:1Continue in brotherly love.
it leads to
- 1 John 4:20
If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
- 1 John 4:20
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
About 2 Peter
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament; Bede, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles; Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on 2 Peter and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 2 Peter.