Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Peter 1:5

5 And besides this , giving all diligence, and to your faith , vertue ; and to vertue, knowledge ;

Here the Apostle begins his Exhortation, that since God had done so much for them, v. 3, 4. they would likewise do their Duty; and that their care and diligence in improving the Grace they had received, might be added to his Bounty in giving it them.

Or, minister unto; or it may be a Metaphor taken from the ancient way of Dancing, in which they joyned Hands one with another, thereby helping, and holding up one another. Faith is here set forth as the first Grace, and which (as it were) leads up, the rest following it, and attending upon it, yet all in conjunction one with another.

Faith is set in the first place as the prime Grace of a Christian, the Foundation and Root of all other, as being that without which nothing else can be pleasing to God, Heb. 11.6.

By Virtue he seems to understand Universal Righteousness, or a Complication of all those Graces by which Faith is wont to work; and this being more general, he proceeds from it to o[illegible: 2 letters]ers that are more special.

By this may be meant spiritual Prudence, which governs and directs other Vertues in their actings; and it is called Knowledge, because it consists in the practical Knowledge of the Will of God. See 2 Cor. 6.6. and 1 Pet. 3.7.