Even though we are “partakers of the divine nature” with every other believer, we fall too quickly into relationship-destroying sins such as gossip, bitterness, anger, partiality, and envy – actions that bear marks of the “corruption that is in the world through lust.” It should not surprise us that Peter commands us to cultivate brotherly affection, for it is a virtue that does not come as naturally as we would like to suppose.
