In Peter’s second Epistle we also see love in holiness. Love is the ultimate development of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:7). Holiness is the manner of the life partaking of the divine nature (2 Pet. 3:11). Love issues in holiness. When you partake of the divine nature to the uttermost, you will be filled with God as love. This issues in a manner of life, and this manner of life is a separated and distinct life, making you no more common but holy. Holiness is the manner of this life that enjoys the divine nature to the uttermost. When we enjoy God as love we even become love and this issues in holiness. Holiness is the manner. When we become love we become different and distinct from the common people. The divine love sanctifies us, separates us, and makes us different. We are a people who are so holy, so golden. We are no longer pieces of clay, but pieces of gold and when we come together all the pieces put together become a golden lampstand, bearing a testimony of the “golden” Jesus. This is the central lane, the central thought, of Peter’s writing.
The consummation of our enjoying the divine nature is agape, the divine love. Love is the ultimate development in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:7) and the consummation of the development of the divine nature. In his second Epistle Peter tells us that we have the allotted faith within us as the divine portion and that God has given us exceedingly great and precious promises that we might become partakers of the divine nature. As we cooperate with this divine nature, it will have the opportunity to develop itself to its consummation which is love.
In 2 Peter 3, Peter tells us that one day “the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements burning with intense heat will be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up. All these things being thus dissolved, what kind of persons ought you to be in holy manner of life and godliness” (vv. 10-11). Peter’s second Epistle begins in chapter one with the development of the divine nature which consummates in love, and it ends in chapter three with a holy manner of life and godliness. In the development of the divine nature, love is developed in brotherly love and brotherly love is developed in godliness. This means that at the beginning of 2 Peter godliness consummates in love, and at the end of 2 Peter we see that the holy manner of life goes with godliness. The consummation of the enjoyment of the divine nature is love, and the consummation of 2 Peter is holiness. Love is the essence of this holy life and holiness is the manner of such a life of love. Holiness is the manner, the expression, of the life partaking of the divine nature.
If you have been born of God, you have received His divine life with His divine nature. Now for you to enjoy God is to enjoy the divine nature, which is constituted mainly with love as the essence and light as the expression. When you enjoy God in His divine nature, you enjoy Him as love and as light. Love is the consummation of your enjoyment of God’s divine nature. As you enjoy and partake of the divine nature you live a life of love, and this life has a manner. This is a life fully separated from the common life, a life that is distinct and different. In our community, our neighborhood, and among our relatives, colleagues, and classmates, we must give people an impression of distinction. They should realize that we are not common. This distinction comes from your being a person of love. Because you are a person of love, you do not quarrel, argue, or fight with anyone. You do not hate anyone and would never be mad with anyone. (First Corinthians 13 is a wonderful chapter showing us the virtues of love and the definition of love.)
Because you are a person enjoying the divine nature, you are a person of love. The people around you would notice that you are different and distinct. This is not a matter of behavior but it is a matter of our being. Because you are a person remaining in the fellowship and cooperating with the inner operation of the divine nature, this makes you “a bit of love, a bit of God.” The others around you are “muddy,” but you are golden; you are a piece of gold. Among all the muddy people, you are different. You are holy.
In conclusion, the central thought of Peter’s writing is this: we believers have received the divine life and with this divine life we have the divine nature which is God Himself for us to enjoy. When we enjoy this divine nature to the uttermost, love will be the consummation. Then we become a loving being, a being of love. This love makes us different, just as Jesus was different and distinct when He was on this earth. He was altogether distinct, different, and separated from the others. He was a piece of gold among the “muddy” people. Even the twelve disciples in the Gospels were “twelve pieces of mud.” Only Jesus Christ was golden. He was a Person of love. The divine love, the noble love, agape, made Jesus Christ distinct among all the people, which means He was holy. Peter saw this in the Gospels and after Pentecost he experienced this. In his two Epistles we see that love is the consummation of the enjoyment of the divine nature and that this love has an expression—holiness. Therefore, love is the essence of the divine life and holiness is the manner of this life.