At a glance
Treating them as pleasant religious phrases rather than as the “exceeding great and precious” realities Peter calls them.
Recognizing that these promises carry believers into nothing less than participation in the divine nature itself.
Relevant Scripture
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
2 Peter 1:4 KJV
🎧 Listen to this chapter
Chapter 11 of the LibriVox recording of According to Promise, streamed directly from the Internet Archive (public domain, CC0).
UECF.NET summary
Spurgeon urges readers to reconsider how they actually price God's promises in daily practice. Peter's language is deliberately extravagant — “exceeding great and precious” — yet believers often handle these same promises with the casual familiarity reserved for common things, valuing instead whatever is scarce, fashionable, or immediately tangible in the world around them. The chapter treats this as a serious failure of spiritual judgment rather than a small oversight.
Part of Spurgeon's argument is that the worth of a promise is measured by what it secures, not merely by how it feels in the moment. According to Peter, these promises are the very means by which believers become “partakers of the divine nature” and escape the corruption of the world's lust — an effect no earthly possession could produce, however costly. A right valuation, then, would place these promises above any comfort or security the world can offer.
The chapter closes with a practical test: what would a person surrender rather than lose their hold on the promises? Spurgeon suggests that most people, if honest, would part with a promise of God's presence or provision far more readily than with money, comfort, or reputation — and calls this an accurate, sobering measure of how little the promises are truly valued, however highly they are spoken of.
Main theological themes
- The gap between the extravagant language Peter uses for God's promises and the casual way believers often treat them
- The true measure of a promise's worth: what it secures (participation in the divine nature) rather than how it feels
- A practical test of valuation: what a person would sacrifice rather than lose confidence in God's promise
Key ideas
- Peter's own language — “exceeding great and precious” — sets a standard most believers' practical valuation falls short of.
- A promise's ultimate worth lies in what it secures, and these promises secure participation in God's own nature.
- What a person would readily trade away reveals, more honestly than their words, what they actually treasure.
- Undervaluing a promise is not a neutral oversight but a real, if unintentional, dishonor to its Giver.
Important concepts
- Partakers of the divine nature — Peter's striking phrase for the transforming effect of God's promises, making believers share, in a creaturely way, in God's own holy character.
- Practical valuation — The true test of what a person values, shown not by their words about a promise but by what they would sacrifice rather than lose it.
Related Bible references
Practical Christian application
- This week, notice what you instinctively protect and prioritize, and compare it honestly with how you treat God's promises.
- Choose one promise of God and deliberately meditate on what it secures for you, not merely how it sounds.
- Ask God to raise your practical valuation of His word to match Peter's own language for it.
Questions for study
Reflection questions
- If your actions were the only evidence, how highly would they say you value God's promises?
- What would you find hardest to give up rather than lose confidence in a promise of God?
- How does Peter's phrase “partakers of the divine nature” change your sense of what a promise is actually worth?
Small-group discussion
- Why do you think believers so easily undervalue what Scripture describes in such extravagant terms?
- How can a church cultivate a higher practical valuation of God's word among its members?
- What earthly treasures most compete, in your own culture, with a right valuation of God's promises?
These notes are an original UECF.NET study companion and are not a reproduction of Spurgeon's text. According to Promise (1900) is in the public domain — read the complete free text at the Internet Archive, or listen to the full LibriVox recording above and at archive.org. Scripture quotations above are the King James Version.