God wants His beloved children to enjoy the assurance of their salvation. In fact, Peter writes this marvelous section in order that believers may experience the assurance that God desires for them. Given the fact that the enemy, the devil, is the accuser of the brethren, and always wants to hit us with blows of doubt to make us doubt our salvation, God, on the other hand, wants to affirm our spiritual condition and our assurance.
Because we have everything in Christ – because by His divine power – verse 3 – “He’s granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 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.”
For this reason – in other words, because of all that is yours in Christ – “do this.” And here again is the mystery of spiritual life. We are given everything in Christ, and yet it takes everything we have to follow up on that. Because we have all in Christ, all the gracious resources for spiritual sufficiency, we are called upon to give maximum effort.
