The Apostle Peter's Relational Framework-The Structure of the Spiritual Life

This is the first blog in the series “The Apostle Peter’s Relational Framework: The Structure of the Spiritual Life”.

Peter Describes States, Not Categories

In his second letter to a wayward group of Christians, wavering in their estimate of the value of their relationship to Jesus, Peter does not use terminology that divides humanity into fixed theological categories such as “saved vs unsaved” or “regenerate vs unregenerate.” Instead, he frames their salvation experience and subsequent spiritual life in terms of relational states, i.e. a relational framework—dynamic conditions that reflect a person’s lived connection to Jesus Christ.

Before Knowing Jesus Genuinely Knows Jesus Turning Away From Jesus

Throughout his letter, Peter’s concern is not to describe abstract theological classifications of people's lives but the concrete, experiential reality of a person’s relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He describes a spiritual framework consisting of three relational states: a state before knowing Jesus, a state after coming to genuinely know Him, and a state after turning away from Him—after once genuinely knowing Him. This relational framework is not incidental; it is the interpretive key to his entire letter.

In this series of blogs, we will investigate these three relational states and their outcomes.

Here we begin with an introductory description of Peter's three-state framework.

Peter’s emphasis on relational knowledge appears immediately in his opening blessing: grace and peace are “multiplied… in the knowledge (ἐπίγνωσις) of God and of Jesus our Lord” (1:2). This knowledge that Peter speaks of is not merely abstract information, general in nature, but it is intimate, personal, and most importantly, transformative in nature. It is the kind of knowing that binds a person to Christ in covenant relationship. Here Peter establishes the fact of their intimate relationship established in their knowledge—(ἐπίγνωσις) of Jesus. But intimacy, for Peter is a guarantee of nothing. Because we see later in his letter, he warns his readers not to be “carried away… and lose your own stability” (3:17), a warning that presupposes the fact that relational stability, relational security can indeed be forfeited. Why the warning if it cannot. For Peter, spiritual life is not a static label but a condition that can be entered, nurtured, strengthened—or tragically, neglected and abandoned.

This relational framework becomes even clearer in 1:5–7, where Peter urges believers to “make every effort” to supplement their faith with virtue, knowledge, self‑control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. These qualities are not abstract virtues, but relational expressions of a life joined to Christ. They describe a post-salvation trajectory of growth, not a theological category of identity. Peter is concerned not with whether someone fits a doctrinal classification but with whether they are actively participating in the relational life that organically flows from knowing Jesus. When he says that the one who lacks these qualities “has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (1:9), he is describing a relational rupture, not a categorical shift. To suggest that someone can forget they have been "cleansed" is to preclude that indeed they had been cleansed from their sins in the first place.

The same dynamic appears in 1:12–15, where Peter repeatedly emphasizes the need to “remind” his readers of what they already know. Reminders are only necessary in a relational framework where knowledge can fade, commitment can weaken, and stability can be lost. Peter’s pastoral concern is not that his readers might fall out of a category but that they might drift out of a relationship.

Even his eschatological warnings in chapter 3 reinforce this relational framework understanding. When he speaks of scoffers who follow their own desires (3:3) and when he contrasts them with those who “wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God” (3:12), he is distinguishing not between categories of people but between postures of relationship—those who orient themselves toward Christ’s return and those who orient themselves away from it.

Peter’s closing exhortation in 3:14–18 ties the entire letter together. He urges his readers to “be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish,” to “take care” lest they be carried away, and to “grow in the grace and knowledge (ἐπίγνωσις) of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” These are all relational imperatives. They assume that spiritual life is something one can grow in, drift from, or abandon if they so choose. They assume that the believer’s relationship with Jesus is dynamic, not static. And they assume that the danger is not misclassification but relational collapse. 

So, with this introduction now in place, let us move forward and begin looking at Peter’s relational framework of the spiritual experience consisting of three states. In the next blog we will discuss Peter's First Spiritual State: Life Before Knowing Jesus.