NOTES for Pe2 1:1-11
Addressing the brethren (who look upon Peter with respect as an apostle and witness of Christ’s earthly days), Peter calls himself first a servant, and only then an apostle. In fact, when Christ took leave of His disciples, He called them not servants but friends. Yet first, the word servant means not only a dependent person but also a worker, and service to the Gospel is labor. Second, Peter does not want his apostleship to become an occasion for exalting himself above those who entered the Church somewhat later than he did.
Reflecting on the qualities a Christian should possess, Peter constructs a chain of interacting qualities linked to one another. This is not an abstract game with concepts used as a rhetorical device, but a disclosure of real connections, though they are not always immediately apparent, among the various phenomena that exist in the world and especially in the realm of spiritual life. None of the qualities named can be separated from the others. Therefore, knowing Christ is inseparable from taking a sober view of ourselves and, consequently, from weeding out sinful weeds. The Gospel was given to us for life, not for memorizing theses by rote.