Paul tells us in the verses above to “work out your own salvation.” We can do this, he says, because God is now working within us; and to show us what this salvation looks like, he gives us the example of Christ humbling Himself and being exalted by God (2:5-11; see “Peter, Paul, & Working Out Our Own Salvation” • 1).

But what Paul does not tell us in these verses is how we are to work out this salvation. For that, we need to turn to a parallel passage in the writings of the apostle Peter. That passage begins,

…[God’s] divine power has given to us all things that relate to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by, and to, His own glory and virtue.
— 2 Peter 1:3-4

Here we see, first of all, that God, by His divine power, has given us everything we need for His life to work in us inwardly so that we may have a godly living outwardly. Surely all of our working must be based on His working!

Next Peter says,

On the basis of [His own glory and virtue] He has granted to us precious, even the greatest, promises, that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
— 2 Peter 1:4

So, while Paul tells us it is “God who works in you,” Peter makes this much more practical by explaining how He works in us: by making us partakers of His own divine nature. That is, as we partake of God’s nature, as Peter says, we enter into what Paul calls “the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” Praise the Lord for that!

Then Peter goes on to tell us that, because we are partakers of the divine nature, we need to “apply all diligence” to develop the characteristics of that nature in our being, step-by-step: first, faith; then virtue; then knowledge; then self-control; then endurance; then godliness; then brotherly love; and finally, divine love (1:5-7). If we do this, he says, we will be “neither idle nor unfruitful unto the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 10).

And by growing in this way in the virtues of Christ, through the working of the divine nature in our being, we will ultimately be conformed to His very image in glory (Rom. 8:29-30). Then we will be prepared to see the Lord, and will surely receive, when we do, the salvation that comes from going through this process. Indeed, that is exactly how Peter concludes this section:

For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shall be richly, bountifully supplied to you.
— 2 Peter 1:11

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—  6 December 2025 —