1 Peter 1
1
Greeting
1From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
To God’s chosen people who are temporary residents ⌞in the world⌟ and are scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2God the Father knew you long ago and chose you to live holy lives with the Spirit’s help so that you are obedient to Jesus Christ and are sprinkled with his blood.
May good will #1:2 Or “grace.” and peace fill your lives!
Faith in Christ Brings You Joy
3Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! God has given us a new birth because of his great mercy. We have been born into a new life that has a confidence which is alive because Jesus Christ has come back to life. 4We have been born into a new life which has an inheritance that can’t be destroyed or corrupted and can’t fade away. That inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5since you are guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.
6You are extremely happy about these things, even though you have to suffer different kinds of trouble for a little while now. 7The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith as fire tests how genuine gold is. Your faith is more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it gives praise, glory, and honor to God. This will happen when Jesus Christ appears again.
8Although you have never seen Christ, you love him. You don’t see him now, but you believe in him. You are extremely happy with joy and praise that can hardly be expressed in words 9as you obtain the salvation that is the goal of your faith.
10The prophets carefully researched and investigated this salvation. Long ago they spoke about God’s kindness #1:10 Or “grace.” that would come to you. 11So they tried to find out what time or situation the Spirit of Christ kept referring to whenever he predicted Christ’s sufferings and the glory that would follow. 12God revealed to the prophets that the things they had spoken were not for their own benefit but for yours. What the prophets had spoken, the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven, has now made known to you by those who spread the Good News among you. These are things that even the angels want to look into.
Live Holy Lives
13Therefore, your minds must be clear and ready for action. Place your confidence completely in what God’s kindness will bring you when Jesus Christ appears again. 14Because you are children who obey God, don’t live the kind of lives you once lived. Once you lived to satisfy your desires because you didn’t know any better. 15But because the God who called you is holy, you must be holy in every aspect of your life. 16Scripture says, “Be holy, because I am holy.” 17So if you call God your Father, live your time as temporary residents on earth in fear. He is the God who judges all people by what they have done, and he doesn’t play favorites. 18Realize that you weren’t set free from the worthless life handed down to you from your ancestors by a payment of silver or gold which can be destroyed. 19Rather, the payment that freed you was the precious blood of Christ, the lamb with no defects or imperfections. 20He is the lamb who was known long ago before the world existed, but for your good he became publicly known in the last period of time. 21Through him you believe in God who brought Christ back to life and gave him glory. So your faith and confidence are in God.
Love Each Other
22Love each other with a warm love that comes from the heart. After all, you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth. As a result you have a sincere love for each other. 23You have been born again, not from a seed that can be destroyed, but through God’s everlasting word that can’t be destroyed. That’s why ⌞Scripture says⌟,
24“All people are like grass,
and all their beauty is like a flower of the field.
The grass dries up and the flower drops off,
25but the word of the Lord lasts forever.”
This word is the Good News that was told to you.
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1 Peter 1: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
1 Peter 1
1
Greeting.#The introductory formula names Peter as the writer (but see Introduction). In his comments to the presbyters (1 Pt 5:1), the author calls himself a “fellow presbyter.” He addresses himself to the Gentile converts of Asia Minor. Their privileged status as a chosen and sanctified people makes them worthy of God’s grace and peace. In contrast is their actual existence as aliens and sojourners, scattered among pagans, far from their true country. 1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen sojourners of the dispersion#Dispersion: literally, diaspora; see Jas 1:1 and Introduction to that letter. Pontus…Bithynia: five provinces in Asia Minor, listed in clockwise order from the north, perhaps in the sequence in which a messenger might deliver the letter. in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,#Jas 1:1. 2in the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification by the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ: may grace and peace be yours in abundance.#Rom 8:29.
II. THE GIFT AND CALL OF GOD IN BAPTISM
Blessing. 3#A prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God who bestows the gift of new life and hope in baptism (new birth, 1 Pt 1:3) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The new birth is a sign of an imperishable inheritance (1 Pt 1:4), of salvation that is still in the future (to be revealed in the final time, 1 Pt 1:5).Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,#Ti 3:5. 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you#Mt 6:19–20. 5who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time. 6#As the glory of Christ’s resurrection was preceded by his sufferings and death, the new life of faith that it bestows is to be subjected to many trials (1 Pt 1:6) while achieving its goal: the glory of the fullness of salvation (1 Pt 1:9) at the coming of Christ (1 Pt 1:7).In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials,#Jas 1:2–3. 7so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.#1 Cor 3:13. 8Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,#2 Cor 5:6–7. 9as you attain the goal of [your] faith, the salvation of your souls.
10#The Spirit of Christ (1 Pt 1:11) is here shown to have been present in the prophets, moving them to search, investigate, and prophesy about the grace of salvation that was to come (1 Pt 1:10), and in the apostles impelling them to preach the fulfillment of salvation in the message of Christ’s sufferings and glory (1 Pt 1:12).Concerning this salvation, prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and investigated it, 11investigating the time and circumstances that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the glories to follow them.#Is 52:13–53:12; Dn 9:24. 12It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you with regard to the things that have now been announced to you by those who preached the good news to you [through] the holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels longed to look.
Obedience. 13#These verses are concerned with the call of God’s people to holiness and to mutual love by reason of their redemption through the blood of Christ (1 Pt 1:18–21).Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind,#Gird up the loins of your mind: a figure reminiscent of the rite of Passover when the Israelites were in flight from their oppressors (Ex 12:11), and also suggesting the vigilance of the Christian people in expectation of the parousia of Christ (Lk 12:35). live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance#The ignorance here referred to (1 Pt 1:14) was their former lack of knowledge of God, leading inevitably to godless conduct. Holiness (1 Pt 1:15–16), on the contrary, is the result of their call to the knowledge and love of God. 15but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct,#Mt 5:48; 1 Jn 3:3. 16for it is written, “Be holy because I [am] holy.”#Lv 11:44; 19:2.
Reverence. 17Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,#2:11. 18realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold#Is 52:3; 1 Cor 6:20. 19but with the precious blood of Christ#Ex 12:5; Jn 1:29; Heb 9:14. as of a spotless unblemished lamb.#Christians have received the redemption prophesied by Isaiah (Is 52:3), through the blood (Jewish symbol of life) of the spotless lamb (Is 53:7, 10; Jn 1:29; Rom 3:24–25; cf. 1 Cor 6:20). 20He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, 21who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Mutual Love.#The new birth of Christians (1 Pt 1:23) derives from Christ, the imperishable seed or sowing that produces a new and lasting existence in those who accept the gospel (1 Pt 1:24–25), with the consequent duty of loving one another (1 Pt 1:22). 22Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a [pure] heart.#Rom 12:10. 23You have been born anew,#1 Jn 3:9. not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God,#The living and abiding word of God: or, “the word of the living and abiding God.” 24for:
“All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like the flower of the field;
the grass withers,
and the flower wilts;#Is 40:6–8.
25but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.
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