2 Peter 1 and 2

2 Peter 1
I think this chapter is one of the great chapters of the New Testament. Joseph Smith often quoted this chapter. In verses 13-14, Peter writes that he knows he will die soon and knows he is going to be crucified like the Savior was. Eventually, he will say he is unworthy to be crucified like the Savior and will ask to be crucified upside down. The three chapters in this epistle are most likely the last words he ever wrote to the saints. Knowing this, he obviously these words to be important for us.

Peter says that all things needed for this life and the way we should live it have been given to us by God's divine power. We have been given great and precious promises, he says, that will enable us to be partakers of God's divine nature and to escape all of the corruption of the world that comes from lust. If we diligently seek to add to virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity to our faith. I personally think these are put in a step by step order because it is logical that we first must obtain faith, and then the demonstration of our faith is a virtuous life. Then we are in a place where we can receive divine knowledge, and so on. If we obtain these traits in our life, he promises we will not be unprofitable or lacking in our knowledge of the Savior. If we fail to follow this path, he says we're like a blind person with no vision for our life or its future. But if we pursue that path, our calling and election will be made sure (this is the Savior's guarantee of exaltation which is given through the second endowment), and we will never fail. Those are great promises.

Peter bears testimony of his own divine knowledge and how he obtained it. He bears testimony that he heard the voice of the Father say "This is my beloved Son" on the Mount of Transfiguration, that he hasn't been following fables but was an eye witness to the Savior's resurrection. He bears witness that he has a sure knowledge of the prophecies and that if we heed these things, it will be like a light shining in a dark place and eventually the day star will arise in our hearts. The words "day star" are full of symbolism. They can mean the Savior. They can represent the light of knowledge of his divinity that can arise in our hearts.

Peter then tells us that underlying his knowledge is the principle that no prophecy, no scripture, is of private interpretation, but must come from those who are holy men of God who speak as they are moved by the Holy Ghost. The word "private" is interpreted from the Greek word "idios" which means "his own." In other words, no scripture or prophecy of the scripture can be put into one's own interpretation. Only those who have been called and ordained in the same manner that Peter was can do this. It is, as Peter says, the apostles and prophets, holy men, who have the "more sure word of prophecy."

2 Peter 2
Peter then warns of false prophets and teachers among the people. He delivers a scathing condemnation of those who teach falsely, especially those who teach and promote that freedom really comes by not being bound by commandments of righteousness and by uninhibited self expression through sexual sins. These people, he says, feast on others, have eyes full of adultery, and cannot cease from their own sins. He says they are wells without water; they entice with their swelling words and lusts for sex, but the liberty they promise is false because they are prisoners of their own sin and corruption. These are members of the church who aving once been faithful, now their fate is worse than had they not known of the Lord and the gospel. They are like the dog who turns and eats his own vomit, and the pig, who having been washed, returns to wallow in the mud. The dog and the pig are symbolic of those who are cleansed of all that is spiritually sick in them, but having been cleansed, they return to the very thing they once desired to be cleansed of.