NOTES for Pe2 1:1-10
"...supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love..." What a remarkable chain of worthy things the Apostle Peter builds. But let us think: what is it? A ladder upward? A circle? A spiral? Or simply words placed without any pattern? That the apostle did not arrange the words entirely at random can be seen from the fact that faith is the beginning and love is the end. This makes us think of a circle or a spiral, because there is this closeness and mutual dependence between faith and love. We are used to the idea that one is impossible without the other, and that this is a prototype of the two main commandments given to us by the Lord: love for God (faith) and love for human beings (love). But let us remember this: "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13). Love is greater. And therefore it is higher. But what is the essence of the Kingdom of Heaven? Love, of course. For there is no need for faith there; there is direct experience of dwelling together. This makes us think that the apostle is drawing something like a ladder, whose other end, love, rests against Heaven, especially since this image is not new. Indeed, what is every first step? To believe, to come to faith, to experience conversion; then follows the cultivation of virtues in oneself, mastery over the passions, and higher and higher in ascent. Up to the final point, love, which, according to the word of the Apostle Paul, is the bond of perfection ("Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which is the bond of perfection." Col 3:14). On the other hand, it is quite difficult to establish an exact hierarchy inside the chain, for example to say that mutual affection is higher than godliness, and godliness higher than endurance. In science this is a fairly common situation: a pattern appears to be present, but at the same time there is no clear rule (deterministic processes with stochasticity). Therefore none of the models we have proposed can be applied blindly. But this is the genius of the Apostle Peter.