2 Peter 1:8

Contextual Overview

⁵ For this very reason, try your hardest to furnish your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, ⁵ But for this very reason also, using therewith all diligence, in your faith have also virtue, in virtue knowledge, ⁵ Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; ⁵ For this very reason, you must make every effort to supplement your faith with moral character, your moral character with knowledge,1 Peter 3:7; 2 Peter 3:18;">[xr] ⁵ 5 So, with this, bringing in all diligence [fn] add to your faith virtue; but to virtue knowledge, ⁵ And, while ye apply all diligence in the matter, add to your faith moral excellence; and to moral excellence, knowledge; ⁵ Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; ⁵ So, for this very cause, take every care; joining virtue to faith, and knowledge to virtue, ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁵ Therefore giue euen all diligence thereunto: ioyne moreouer vertue with your faith: and with vertue, knowledge:

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

in you John 5:42; 2 Corinthians 9:14; 13:5; Philippians 2:5; Colossians 3:16; Philemon 1:6

and abound

1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Corinthians 8:2,7; Philippians 1:9; Colossians 2:7; 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 4:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:3

they

John 15:7,8; 2 Corinthians 5:13-17

barren

or, idle.

Proverbs 19:15; Matthew 20:3,6; 25:26; Romans 12:11; 1 Timothy 5:13; Hebrews 6:12

unfruitful

Matthew 13:22; John 15:2,6; Titus 3:14

in

2

Reciprocal: Matthew 13:21 - root;  Matthew 25:18 - and hid;  Mark 4:19 - unfruitful;  Mark 4:20 - which;  Colossians 1:10 - fruitful;  2 Peter 3:18 - knowledge

Cross-References

Genesis 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis 1:5
God named the light "day," and he named the darkness "night." There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the first day.

Genesis 1:5
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.

Genesis 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Genesis 1:5
Naming the light, Day, and the dark, Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Genesis 1:5
And God called the light day, and the darknes night: and the euenyng & the mornyng were the first day.

Genesis 1:5
And God called the light, Day, and the darkenes, he called Night. So the euening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Genesis 1:5
and he named the light "Day" and the darkness "Night." Evening passed and morning came—that was the first day.

Genesis 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For if these things be in you,.... Are wrought in you by the Spirit of God, and exercised and performed by his assistance, who works in his people both to will and do:

and abound; increase in their acts and exercises by the frequent performance of them: they make you; both by way of influence and evidence,

that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a knowledge of Christ which is barren and fruitless; and those that have it are so in their conversations, and it will be of no avail to them another day: and this is a mere notional and speculative knowledge, such as is not attended with any inward experience and application of Christ to themselves, or any fruits of righteousness in their lives, and is a bare theory of things relating to his person, offices, and works; but there is a knowledge of him that is spiritual and experimental, by which a soul not only approves of Christ, but places its trust and confidence in him, and appropriates him to himself, and practically observes his commands and ordinances in the faith of him; and in love to him he performs the above duties, and exercises the above graces; from whence it appears, that he is neither barren nor unfruitful himself in the profession of his knowledge of Christ; "or in the acknowledgment of him", as it may be rendered; nor is that a vain, empty, and useless thing: he is not like the barren fig tree, or the earth that bears briers and thorns, and is nigh to cursing and burning, but like a tree planted by a river of water, and is green, flourishing, and fruitful. This is used as an argument to enforce the foregoing exhortation, to add to, that is, to exercise and perform the above graces and duties, in conjunction with each other.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For if these things be in you, and abound - If they are in you in rich abundance; if you are eminent for these things.

They make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful - They will show that you are not barren or unfruitful. The word rendered “barren,” is, in the margin, “idle.” The word “idle” more accurately expresses the sense of the original. The meaning is, that if they evinced these things, it would show.

(1)that they were diligent in cultivating the Christian graces, and,

(2)that it was not a vain thing to attempt to grow in knowledge and virtue.

Their efforts would be followed by such happy results as to be an encouragement to exertion. In nothing is there, in fact, more encouragement than in the attempt to become eminent in piety. On no other efforts does God smile more propitiously than on the attempt to secure the salvation of the soul and to do good. A small part of the exertions which men put forth to become rich, or learned, or celebrated for oratory or heroism, would secure the salvation of the soul. In the former, also, men often fail; in the latter, never.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

For if these things be in you and abound - If ye possess all there graces, and they increase and abound in your souls, they will make - show, you to be neither αργους, idle, nor ακαρπους, unfruitful, in the acknowledgment of our Lord Jesus Christ. The common translation is here very unhappy: barren and unfruitful certainly convey the same ideas; but idle or inactive, which is the proper sense of αργους, takes away this tautology, and restores the sense. The graces already mentioned by the apostle are in themselves active principles; he who was possessed of them, and had them abounding in him, could not be inactive; and he who is not inactive in the way of life must be fruitful. I may add, that he who is thus active, and consequently fruitful, will ever be ready at all hazard to acknowledge his Lord and Savior, by whom he has been brought into this state of salvation.