The effect of the Apostle here is to exhort them which have once professed the true faith of Christ, to stand to the same even to the last breath: also that God by his effectual grace towards men moveth them to holiness of life, in punishing the hypocrites which abuse his Name, & in increasing his gifts in the godly: wherefore by godly life he being now almost at death’s door, exhorteth them to approve their vocation, not setting their affections on worldly things (as he had oft writ unto them) but lifting their eyes toward heaven, as they be taught by the Gospel, whereof he is a clear witness, chiefly in that he heard with his own ears that Christ was proclaimed from heaven to be the Son of God, as likewise the Prophets testified. And lest they should promise to themselves quietness by professing the Gospel, he warneth them both of troubles which they should sustain by the false teachers, and also by the mockers & contemners of religion, whose manner and trade he lively setteth forth as in a table: advertising the faithful not only to wait diligently for Christ, but also to behold presently the day of his coming, and to preserve themselves unspotted against the same.