2 Peter 1:8
New International Version
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

New Living Translation
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

English Standard Version
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Berean Standard Bible
For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Berean Literal Bible
For these things being in you and abounding, make you neither idle nor unfruitful as to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

New American Standard Bible
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they do not make you useless nor unproductive in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

NASB 1995
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

NASB 1977
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Legacy Standard Bible
For if these things are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amplified Bible
For as these qualities are yours and are increasing [in you as you grow toward spiritual maturity], they will keep you from being useless and unproductive in regard to the true knowledge and greater understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christian Standard Bible
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

American Standard Version
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
For when these things are found in you and abound, they prove you are not lazy nor fruitless in the teaching of our Lord Yeshua The Messiah.

Contemporary English Version
If you keep growing in this way, it will show that what you know about our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For if these things be with you and abound, they will make you to be neither empty nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

English Revised Version
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
If you have these qualities and they are increasing, it demonstrates that your knowledge about our Lord Jesus Christ is living and productive.

Good News Translation
These are the qualities you need, and if you have them in abundance, they will make you active and effective in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

International Standard Version
For if you possess these qualities, and if they continue to increase among you, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

Literal Standard Version
for these things being in you and abounding, make [you] neither inert nor unfruitful in regard to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Majority Standard Bible
For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

New American Bible
If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

NET Bible
For if these things are really yours and are continually increasing, they will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your pursuit of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately.

New Revised Standard Version
For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

New Heart English Bible
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

Weymouth New Testament
If these things exist in you, and continually increase, they prevent your being either idle or unfruitful in advancing towards a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

World English Bible
For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to not be idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Young's Literal Translation
for these things being to you and abounding, do make you neither inert nor unfruitful in regard to the acknowledging of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Partakers of the Divine Nature
7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.…

Cross References
John 17:3
Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

Philippians 3:8
More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ

Colossians 1:10
so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

2 Peter 2:20
If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.

2 Peter 3:18
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.


Treasury of Scripture

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

in you.

John 5:42
But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.

2 Corinthians 9:14
And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.

2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

and abound.

1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

2 Corinthians 8:2,7
How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality…

Philippians 1:9
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

they.

John 15:7,8
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you…

2 Corinthians 5:13-17
For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause…

barren.

Proverbs 19:15
Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.

Matthew 20:3,6
And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, …

Matthew 25:26
His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

unfruitful.

Matthew 13:22
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

John 15:2,6
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit…

Titus 3:14
And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.

in.

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Abound Abounding Acknowledging Advancing Barren Christ Continually Either Exist Existing Fertile Fruit Full Good Idle Increase Increasing Ineffective Jesus Measure Possess Prevent Qualities Regard Render Towards True. Unfruitful Useless
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Abound Abounding Acknowledging Advancing Barren Christ Continually Either Exist Existing Fertile Fruit Full Good Idle Increase Increasing Ineffective Jesus Measure Possess Prevent Qualities Regard Render Towards True. Unfruitful Useless
2 Peter 1
1. Peter confirms the hope of the increase of God's grace,
5. exhorts them, by faith, and good works, to make their calling sure;
12. whereof he is careful to remind them, knowing that his death is at hand;
16. and assures them of the authenticity of the Gospel, by the eyewitness of the apostles and the prophets.














(8) For if these things be in you.--First reason for the preceding exhortation--the benefit of having these graces. The original of "be in you" is a strong expression, implying permanent and not mere momentary existence.

And abound.--Strictly, and multiply or increase. (Comp. Romans 5:20, and Note there; Romans 6:1; 2Thessalonians 1:3, where the same inadequate translation occurs in the Authorised version.)

Neither be barren nor unfruitful.--Better, not idle nor yet unfruitful. Cranmer, Tyndale, and Geneva all have "ydle." The Greek word literally means "without work"--i.e., doing nothing, as" unfruitful" means producing nothing. "That ye shall be" is not in the Greek, and is not needed. The two adjectives "idle" and "unfruitful" exactly correspond to the two verbs "be in you" and "increase." If these things be in you, you will be morally active; if they increase, you will be morally productive.

In the knowledge.--Rather, unto the knowledge; the fuller, more advanced knowledge of 2Peter 1:2-3, and 2Peter 2:20. This is the goal towards which all these virtues tend, the fruit which they tend to produce--the perfect knowledge of Christ. Those who are the most like Christ in their lives have the fullest knowledge of Him in this world, a knowledge to be perfected in the next world, when, purified from sin, "we shall see Him as He is." This clause, without the negatives, accurately describes the condition of the false teachers whom the Apostle has in view. They were both "idle and unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." They neither did nor produced anything that in any degree advanced such knowledge either in themselves or others. The list of virtues just commended (2Peter 1:5-7) constitutes a solemn indictment against them. Practical infidelity leading to vicious conduct; a hollow and pretentious philosophy leading to libertinism; an impatience of control leading to utter godlessness; a selfish indifference to the claims of those nearest to them ending in absolute heartlessness towards all men--such is the charge brought against them, by implication here, directly in 2 Peter 2. . . .

Verse 8. - For if these things be in you, and abound; literally, for these things belonging to you and abounding make, etc. The word used here (ὑπάρχοντα) implies actual possession; these graces must be made our own; they must be wrought into our characters: then they will increase and multiply, for the grace of God cannot lie still, it must ever he advancing from glory to glory. They make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; literally, they make you not idle nor yet unfruitful towards the full knowledge. The Greek word for "knowledge" is ἐπίγνωσις (on which see verse 2, and note there). Here we know only in part, we see through a glass darkly; but that imperfect knowledge should be ever growing, increasing in fullness and distinctness (see chapter 2 Peter 3:18). The various graces of the Christian character, realized in the heart, will lead us on towards that fuller knowledge of Christ; if they are really ours, they will not allow us to be idle, they must bring forth the fruit of good works; and the life of righteousness by faith draws the Christian onwards in the knowledge of Christ: we learn to knew him by following him (comp. Philippians 3:9, 10; Colossians 1:10).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
For
γὰρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

[if] you
ὑμῖν (hymin)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

possess
ὑπάρχοντα (hyparchonta)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Neuter Plural
Strong's 5225: To begin, am, exist, be in possession. From hupo and archomai; to begin under, i.e. Come into existence; expletively, to exist (verb).

these [ qualities ]
ταῦτα (tauta)
Demonstrative Pronoun - Nominative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3778: This; he, she, it.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

continue to grow [in them],
πλεονάζοντα (pleonazonta)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Neuter Plural
Strong's 4121: From pleion; to do, make or be more, i.e. Increase; by extension, to superabound.

they will keep you from being
καθίστησιν (kathistēsin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2525: From kata and histemi; to place down, i.e. to designate, constitute, convoy.

ineffective
ἀργοὺς (argous)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 692: Idle, lazy, thoughtless, unprofitable, injurious. (by implication) lazy, useless.

and
οὐδὲ (oude)
Conjunction
Strong's 3761: Neither, nor, not even, and not. From ou and de; not however, i.e. Neither, nor, not even.

unproductive
ἀκάρπους (akarpous)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 175: Unfruitful, barren, profitless. Barren.

in
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

[your]
τὴν (tēn)
Article - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

knowledge
ἐπίγνωσιν (epignōsin)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1922: From epiginosko; recognition, i.e. full discernment, acknowledgement.

of our
ἡμῶν (hēmōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 1st Person Plural
Strong's 1473: I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

Lord
Κυρίου (Kyriou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2962: Lord, master, sir; the Lord. From kuros; supreme in authority, i.e. controller; by implication, Master.

Jesus
Ἰησοῦ (Iēsou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2424: Of Hebrew origin; Jesus, the name of our Lord and two other Israelites.

Christ.
Χριστοῦ (Christou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 5547: Anointed One; the Messiah, the Christ. From chrio; Anointed One, i.e. The Messiah, an epithet of Jesus.


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NT Letters: 2 Peter 1:8 For if these things are yours (2 Pet. 2P iiP ii Pet)
2 Peter 1:7
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