• Both the promises and the things promised, which follow in their due season, that, sustained and encouraged by the promises, we may obtain all that he has promised.
  
  That, having escaped the manifold corruption which is in the world-From that fruitful fountain, evil desire.
  
  Ye may become partakers of the divine nature-Being renewed in the image of God, and having communion with them, so as to dwell in God and God in you.  - John Wesley Notes
• Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the (e) divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
  
  (4) An explanation of the former sentence, declaring the causes of so great benefits, that is, God and his free promise, from which all these benefits proceed, I say, these most excellent benefits, by which we are delivered from the corruption of this world, (that is, from the wicked lusts which we carry about in us) and are made like God himself. (e) By the divine nature he means not the substance of the Godhead, but the partaking of those qualities, by which the image of God is restored in us.  - 1599 Geneva Bible Notes
•  The object of all God's promises and dispensations was to bring fallen man back to the image of God, which he had lost. This, indeed, is the sum and substance of the religion of Christ. We have partaken of an earthly, sensual, and devilish nature; the design of God by Christ is to remove this, and to make us partakers of the Divine nature; and save us from all the corruption in principle and fact which is in the world;  - Adam Clarke Commentary

•  In all the representations of heaven in the Bible, the idea of individuality is one that is prominent. Individuals are represented everywhere as worshippers there, and there is no intimation that the separate existence of the redeemed is to be absorbed and lost in the essence of the Deity. Whatever is to be the condition of man hereafter, he is to have a separate and individual existence, and the number of intelligent beings is never to be diminished either by annihilation, or by their being united to ally other spirit so that they shall become one. The reference then, in this place, must be to the moral nature of God; and the meaning is, that they who are renewed become participants of the same moral nature; that is, of the same views, feelings, thoughts, purposes, principles of action. Their nature as they are born, is sinful, and prone to evil, (Eph 2:3;) their nature as they are born again, becomes like that of God. They are made like God; and this resemblance will increase more and more for ever, until in a much higher sense than can be true in this world, they may be said to have become "partakers of the divine nature.  - Albert Barnes Commentar

• That ye may become (hina genêsthe). Purpose clause with hina and second aorist middle subjunctive of ginomai. Through these (dia toutôn). The promises. Partakers (koinônoi). Partners, sharers in, for which word see 1Pe 5:1. Of the divine nature (theias phuseôs). This phrase, like to theion in Ac 17:29, "belongs rather to Hellenism than to the Bible" (Bigg). It is a Stoic phrase, but not with the Stoic meaning. Peter is referring to the new birth as 1Pe 1:23 (anagegennêmenoi). - Robertson's New Testament Word Pictures

• Precious faith lays hold on precious promises, and so raises the soul beyond mere nature into the highest conceivable condition, making it like to God in holiness and virtue. The phrase, "partakers of the divine nature," is a very remarkable one; we cannot become divine, but we can be "partakers of his holiness."  - Spurgeon Devotional Commentary

• Note here, That the promises of the gospel are the Christian's great and precious treasure; greatness and goodness are then most shining, when they meet in the same subject, but such a glorious conjunction is rarely found, either in persons or things; rarely are great men good, or good men great; pebbles are great, but not precious; pearls are precious, but not great, But the promises are both for quantity exceeding great, for quality exceeding precious, and that in respect of the author of them, God; the foundation of them, the blood of Christ: the manner of their dispensation, they are freely given; the means whereby they are apprehended and applied, precious faith, and exceeding precious the promises are in regard of the end of them, which is to make us partakers of the divine nature, not of the essence, but qualities of the divine nature, which enable us, in some measure, to resemble God; as the seal doth communicate its signature, but not its substance; so in the work of regeneration God doth not impart his essence, but infuse holy principles and gracious habits into the soul, whereby the Christian resembles him.  - William Burkitt Notes

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