August 17, 2025
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Recently, we have been working our way backwards through the Book of 2nd Peter. Two weeks ago, we studied 2nd Peter 3 and the prophecy of mockers in these last days and the coming fire that will destroy the present heavens and earth. The Apostle then goes on to teach us how we should conduct ourselves as we look for and hasten the coming day of our Lord. 2nd Peter 3:17 also warns us to avoid the error of unprincipled men.
Then last week, we looked at 2nd Peter 2 and the prophecy of false teachers among us, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, which are opinions, doctrines, or practices which run contrary to the truth of God’s word. Peter drew a reference to the Old Testament story of the prophet Balaam, who came under the error of unprincipled men from Moab, who wanted Balaam to curse the people of Israel, so they could be driven out of the plains of Moab. Balaam and King Balak of Moab learned that you cannot curse those whom God has not cursed, and you cannot denounce whom the Lord has not denounced. We said last time that this is a lesson for current day nations who are denouncing Israel for its military actions in response to Islamic terrorist attacks.
Today, we are going to study the idea of a spiritual supply chain, which is covered in 2nd Peter 1, and is put forth by the Apostle as a solution for avoiding the false teachers, the unprincipled men, and the mockers of 2nd Peter 2 and 3.
What Is a Supply Chain?
In business, a supply chain is a network of activities necessary in getting a product or service to the final customer. In the case of a product, it would include all the raw materials, the manufacturing plant, the sales distribution channels, and the final product transportation. Any disruption of the supply chain could make the product scarce or unavailable to a demanding public. Scarcity of product or raw material supply increases the product’s price dramatically, possibly making it cost prohibitive to the consumer. Therefore, businesses pay close attention to their supply chain and try to provide alternative sources in the event of supply chain disruption.
In 2nd Peter 1, the Apostle explains our spiritual supply chain and urges us to be diligent in tending to it.
2nd Peter 1:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of [the] divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Before we get into the spiritual supply chain in the verses that follow, let us stop and reflect on the introductory verses 2-4. Early in my Christian walk, when I read 2nd Peter 1, I thought it was a particularly challenging passage of scripture, requiring us to be morally excellent, self-controlled, godly, etc. And that was the Apostle’s approach even when Jesus walked the earth. He showed a fervent desire to be all that God wanted him to be, even zealous in that regard. But a closer reading of verses 2-4 shows that all those godly characteristics in us come only from Jesus, and we should rely on Him for all of it.
In verse 2, Peter is praying that grace and peace would be multiplied to us. Grace is Jesus doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that is available to us when we seek His presence with thanksgiving. In verse 3, “…His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” Therefore, it is His divine power that grants us all we need for life and godliness.
Now, let us read verse 4 carefully. “…by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises…” Now, “by these” refers to His own glory and excellence in verse 3. So, it is the glory and excellence of Jesus that grants us the precious and magnificent promises. And He grants us those promises so that “by them you might become partakers of [the] divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
So, to sum up verses 2-4, His divine power grants us all we need for life and godliness, and His glory and excellence grant us the promises that attract us to become partakers of His divine nature, allowing us to escape the corruption that is in the world by lust. When we talked about the false teachers, unprincipled men, and mockers in the prior two weeks, that is the corruption that Peter is referring to here. But for the grace of God, we would be in that corruption, we would be partakers of lust instead of partakers of His divine nature.
Your Spiritual Supply Chain
2nd Peter 1:
5 ¶ Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in [your] moral excellence, knowledge;
6 and in [your] knowledge, self-control, and in [your] self-control, perseverance, and in [your] perseverance, godliness;
7 and in [your] godliness, brotherly kindness, and in [your] brotherly kindness, love.
Verse 5 starts with “for this very reason.” What reason? The reason is in verse 4, which says we have become partakers in His divine nature and have escaped the corruption and lust of the world. Therefore, because we are partakers in His divine nature, we should apply diligence in our faith and thereby supply moral excellence. Let me repeat that. Applying diligence to our faith will supply moral excellence.
So how do we apply diligence to our faith? The Greek word for “diligence” is “spoude,” (pronounced spoo-day’) which means speed, eagerness, earnestness, carefulness, forwardness, and haste. In other words, be earnest in your faith, and be eager to apply your faith quickly to all situations. If we do that, our faith will supply moral excellence.
Therefore, faith is the first link in our supply chain, and faith applied diligently supplies moral excellence. Think about that. All of us need moral excellence. It comes from our faith.
Now the next part of verse 5 is especially important to understand. It says: “and in [your] moral excellence, knowledge;” This means that moral excellence supplies knowledge, and knowledge we know is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
And so therefore, faith applied diligently supplies moral excellence, which supplies the gift of knowledge. This is knowledge that cannot be read in a book or otherwise learned by man. The spiritual gift of knowledge is knowing something that we could not ascertain otherwise. It is an important part of our supply chain because God knows things about our future that we do not know unless He reveals them to us. And again, to repeat, the gift of knowledge is supplied by moral excellence, which comes from faith diligently applied.
Next, in verse 6, knowledge supplies self-control, which supplies perseverance, which in turn supplies godliness. And verse 7 says godliness supplies brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness supplies love. The Greek word for “perseverance” in verse 6 means cheerful or hopeful endurance, or patience.
The key point to emphasize here in our spiritual supply chain is that all things pertaining to life and godliness emanate from Jesus, not from our own worthiness. It is so appropriate that this lesson comes from Peter, who was humbled by the weakness of his own faith until he received grace from Jesus to feed the sheep. In fact, our entire spiritual supply chain can be found in the gifts of the Spirit (1st Corinthians 12) and in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5).
1st Corinthians 12:
8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Here is a summary illustration of our spiritual supply chain:
The Spiritual Supply Chain
Jesus
Holy Spirit Sent by Jesus
Grace, Peace, & Divine Power Granted
You and Me (Partakers of Divine Nature)
Faith (Gift of Holy Spirit) Diligently Applied
Moral Excellence
Knowledge (Gift of the Holy Spirit)
Self-Control (Fruit of the Holy Spirit)
Perseverance or Patience (Fruit of the Holy Spirit)
Godliness or Goodness (Fruit of Holy Spirit)
Brotherly Kindness (Fruit of the Holy Spirit)
Love (Fruit of the Holy Spirit)
I think it’s cool that the bottom of the supply chain is love. The bottom of the supply chain represents the final product to the consumer. God is love and Jesus is the ultimate manifestation of Father’s love. And so, our spiritual supply chain begins and ends with Jesus.
Revelation 22:
13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Benefits of a Healthy Spiritual Supply Chain
Beginning in verse 8, Peter gives us the benefits of a healthy spiritual supply chain.
2nd Peter 1:
8 For if these [qualities] are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these [qualities] is blind [or] short-sighted, having forgotten [his] purification from his former sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.
12 ¶ Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you [already] know [them], and have been established in the truth which is present with [you.]
Verse 9 notes the consequence of a disruption in our spiritual supply chain: we become blind and shortsighted, and we forget our purification from sin. Therefore, Peter calls us to more diligence in verse 10 and promises we will never stumble if we practice these things. Verse 11 tells us the entrance to the eternal kingdom of Jesus will be abundantly supplied to us.
Peter goes on to close this 1st Chapter by emphasizing the importance of following the coming words of prophecy in Chapters 2 and 3, as well as the rest of the End Times prophecy in the Book of Revelation and elsewhere.
2nd Peter 1:
19 ¶ And [so] we have the prophetic word [made] more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of one’s own interpretation,
21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Closing
And so, in closing, we began this discussion by saying that any disruption of the supply chain could cause a scarcity of supply of the final product, which may cause the price of the product or service to increase dramatically. Fortunately for us, Jesus has paid the cost for us on the cross. In fact, He tells us in John 6 that we do the work of God when we simply believe in the One God sent.
John 6:
28 ¶ They said therefore to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
Let us pray.
Father God, thank You for our spiritual supply chain which begins and ends with Jesus, the Alpha and Omega. Thank You for divine power which grants us everything pertaining to life and godliness. We pray for diligence in the application of our faith, which supplies moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, and perseverance. We pray for godliness, kindness, and love. Further, we pray against any disruptions of supply, that we would not lack these qualities and therefore become blind or shortsighted. We believe in the One You have sent. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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