Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
2 Peter 1:12-15
Peter feels it incumbent on himself to emphasise these things because they are of eternal import, the more so because he realised that he himself was approaching the eternal world (14). This should give his words a particularly solemn authority and weight. A man standing on the borders of eternity is apt to be very clear in his mind as to what is of final importance in life. It is as if Peter, about to pass into the realms of eternal day, and already, as it were, beginning to see 'face to face', and no longer 'through a glass darkly' were throwing back a cry of solemn exhortation to us who are following on, 'Concentrate on character, concentrate on character, it is the only thing that will stand when you get as far as this'. 15 refers surely to his epistle, which permanently records this urgent counsel of his, and by it, 'he being dead yet speaketh'. This verse introduces a passage containing important statements about the inspiration of Holy Scripture in general, and it is significant that Peter attaches such significance to the reading of his own epistle in this connection. It is certainly true that only when our hearts are preoccupied and saturated with the Word of life will the qualities of practical godliness gain the ascendance in our lives. And that is Peter's concern.