Journey Through 1 & 2 Peter and JudeSample

2 Peter: Behind the Text

Peter’s list of virtues is not only typical for the Bible, but it would also be respectable for a Roman audience.

Chain of Virtues

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 2 Peter 1:5-7 (NASB)

We’ve seen lists of virtues like this elsewhere in the New Testament, but this list in 2 Peter is somewhat distinctive in its inclusion of a number of popular Greco-Roman virtues alongside particularly Christian ones. Love, faith and hope, though not unique to Christianity, became emphasized in Christianity in a unique way. While the same might be said to some degree for other popular virtues in Christianity, some were as highly regarded outside the church as inside it.

See if you can list two of the more prominent Greco-Roman virtues from this passage in 2 Peter 1:5-7.