Peter gives us an order to building upon the foundation of faith. It is no mistake that Virtue comes next, before Knowledge. As Paul says in I Cor. 8:1 "knowledge puffeth up" -- without the constraining force of Virtue, Knowledge loses it's right focus. It becomes heady, worldly wisdom, instead of that wisdom which is from above. Virtue is the rudder, by which all the rest of these characteristics are steered, it is the foundation upon which they stand solid and unmovable, it defines the rest, and gives them meaning, higher than the mundane definition and practice or him who seeks to live a "moralistic" life, apart from Jesus.

1 Corinthians 8:1 and 2 Peter 1:5