Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

What does 1st Peter Chapter 1 mean?

The apostle Peter, one of the original 12 disciples chosen and trained by Jesus during His time on earth, begins a letter to Christians scattered by persecution. He writes to encourage them, starting by emphasizing exactly who they are as Christians and how God has blessed them in Christ.

First, through their faith in Christ, God has caused them to be born again to a living hope. Because Jesus is raised from the dead, Peter asserts, their hope in Jesus is not a wish—it is as alive as He is. Their inheritance as God’s children is eternal, full of glory, and secured forever. God Himself is guarding them!

Even in their suffering, which is all too real and causes sadness, Christians benefit. Our faith grows stronger, and our faith is worth more than gold. Our faith will bring great glory when Jesus is revealed. In fact, Peter says Christians have every reason to rejoice. The mystery of God’s plan, withheld for centuries from both prophets and angels, has been revealed to us in Christ.

Clearly, though, we are not home, yet. Peter next addresses the question of how God’s secure children should live now, between this moment and the day we are united with our Father—especially in a season of suffering and persecution.

First, we must see ourselves as holy (or “set apart”) people with a special purpose. We will live in the world, but we must live as foreigners, as people preparing to go home. We must mentally engage in setting all of our hope in God’s future grace for us. We should choose to act as those who are God’s own people, rejecting the evil desires that once drove our actions before we knew better.

Our choices in life matter. God placed a high value on our lives, paying for them with the blood of Christ. What we inherited from our human ancestors was a meaningless existence. We lived in futility. What God gave us, instead, is true purpose. In Christ, our lives have meaning and our choices have significant consequences.

One of the choices we are now free to make is to work hard to give pure love to other Christians. It’s a big part of our purpose and one way God intends for us to spend our brief lives on this side of eternity.

Our time here is brief, but our lives will go on for all eternity in Christ. He is the word of the Lord, and the word of the Lord, Peter writes, remains forever. That’s the good news that was preached to Peter’s readers, and which they believed.

Chapter Context
This beautiful, profound, and challenging first chapter of 1 Peter lays the foundation for the rest of Peter’s letter. In spite of whatever suffering we may face, God Himself has already shown us great mercy in Christ by including us in His family! Jesus is our living hope. Our future is secure and endless and perfect. As the children of God we have every reason to rejoice, even in this present darkness. Peter then calls us to prepare ourselves to live as the holy people God has made us to be.

Verse by Verse

Verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

Peter begins according to the custom of the time, identifying who the letter is from and to whom it is written. Peter states his name (given to him by Jesus) and his title. As one personally commissioned by Jesus, an apostle had the authority to speak on Christ’s behalf. Peter claims that authority here.

Peter writes to a very specific group. His intended audience is made up of people who are “exiles” (forced away from their homes), who are “scattered” (dispersed). These people are described as “elect,” also translated as “chosen.” Verse 2 will reveal what it means to be one of these elect.

Though Peter’s Christian readers may have been scattered, in part, by religious persecution, his use of the word “exile” points to one of the main ideas of this letter: that believers no longer call this time and place home. Our citizenship is in heaven; we represent our true king and country while living as aliens and strangers in a foreign culture.

The particular scattered group of exiles Peter mentions now reside in five Roman providences of Asia Minor, an area currently found in northern Turkey. The letter was intended to be passed among the churches in the region, likely to be read aloud to each group of believers.

Context Summary
1 Peter 1:1–2 introduces the letter, identifying both writer and audience. The message is from the apostle whom Jesus named ”Peter,” formerly named Simon. He writes to the Christians scattered and persecuted for their faith across several regions. Peter here refers to these believers as ”elect,” meaning those specially chosen by God.

Verse 2. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

The word “elect” appears in verse 1 in many translations, but it is described in verse two. What does it mean to be one of the “elect,” one of the chosen ones of God? In what ways are believers in Christ the “elect”?

First, we are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. That means God knew us before something. Before what? Ephesians 1:4 says that God chose us in Christ even “before the foundation of the world.” 1 Peter 1:20 says that Christ Himself was foreknown by the Father in the same way. God didn’t just know about us; He knew us—personally, somehow—and He chose us. More, we are chosen through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. That means God’s Holy Spirit is involved in making us “set apart” just for God, in making us people God can call “holy.”

Finally, we are chosen for something: obedience to Jesus and “sprinkling with His blood.” As odd as this sounds to a modern reader, Peter’s Jewish audience would have understood that immediately. Under the Old Testament law, the blood of an animal sacrifice was required for the forgiveness of sin, and for showing what belonged to God. We have not been literally sprinkled with Jesus’ physical blood, of course. Yet, His blood was literally spilled when He died on the cross to pay for our sin. His shedding of blood made it possible for us to be made clean from our sin and for God to claim ownership of us and declare us to be “holy.” So, we fulfill our purpose in the universe when we obey Christ. It’s what we were chosen for.

Peter ends the verse with his greeting, a prayer that God’s grace and peace would be multiplied to those reading the letter

Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Peter shows us an appropriate response to God’s great mercy to us: praise. Specifically, he blesses God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is one being, in three persons. Peter’s letter will reveal some of the distinctions between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this case, he praises the Father while acknowledging Christ as our Lord.

Peter blesses God for His mercy. As we have seen already in verse 2, God has chosen us, sanctifies us, and gives us great purpose. All of this happens without our ever needing to earn any recognition from Him. This is “grace,” which is when someone gives something positive the other person does not deserve. “Mercy” is when someone withholds a negative consequence another deserves.

Instead of the punishment we deserve, God gave us something we could never have purchased or earned: He caused us to be born again. This is the very thing Jesus told Nicodemus must happen for anyone to see the kingdom of God (John 3). Specifically, God caused us to be born again into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

It’s one thing to hope we will be saved, to yearn for life after death. Jesus proved that this hope is not a fantasy. He died, then showed Himself alive to many witnesses. Our faith is not a wish for a better world. The reason for our hope in an eternity with the Father is that our Lord is alive. Because He lives, those who believe in Him will also be resurrected.

Bless God for His great mercy!

Context Summary
1 Peter 1:3–12 is one of the most loved passages in all of Scripture. It begins as a blessing to God, but also describes how incredibly He has blessed us in Christ. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, our hope is not a wish—it is as alive as He is. Our inheritance as God’s children is eternal, full of glory, and secured forever. Even in our suffering, we have every reason to rejoice. The mystery of God’s plan has been revealed to us in Christ. We are being saved!

Verse 4. to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

In verse 3, Peter revealed that we are born again to a living hope. Now he continues, explaining that we are also born again to an inheritance. How can we have an inheritance? Because, in Christ, we have become heirs of God’s endless fortunes. How can we possibly be heirs of God? Because, in Christ, we have become God’s own children. Incredible!

In Romans 8:15–16, Paul says that we “have received the Spirit of adoption,” and that we cry, “Abba! Father!” “Abba” is a term of endearment, much like calling someone “Dad,” or even “Daddy.” It’s a reflection of the warmth and closeness we can have with God. It’s this spirit that makes us heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ Himself.

The Christians Peter was writing to were experiencing heavy persecution for their faith in Christ. They were suffering. We all suffer. One of the ways that we suffer is that we have very little of value in this world. What we do have—what we earn or what our parents and grandparents may leave to us—can easily be lost or taken away.

But as children of God, our inheritance can never be lost. It is ours now and ours forever. It is imperishable (can’t die), undefiled (can’t become corrupted or broken), and unfading (can never lose its value). Our forever inheritance of limitless worth is being kept—right this minute—in heaven for us.

Verse 5. who by God ‘s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In verses 3 and 4, Peter revealed that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope and a forever inheritance of limitless worth. Now he writes that the merciful God who gives us those great gifts is also actively guarding us, right in this moment.

Guarding us from what, suffering? No, as Peter will soon say, we will suffer. God is guarding our inheritance, and He is guarding us from anything that might cause our inheritance—our eternal life with Him forever—to be lost. The Greek term used in this verse is phrouroumenous, a military term, also translated as “shielded,” “kept,” or “protected.”

We are being guarded by God’s power. How powerful is God? How able is He? He is the God who created the universe. He is the God who raised Christ from the dead. He is the God of all. He is able. We are being guarded by God’s power through faith. It’s not our faith that is powerful. It is God. But it is a faith through which this relationship with God began and is maintained. We trusted Him to save, and we continue to trust that He will do everything necessary to keep us saved.

By God’s grace, through faith, we have been saved (Ephesians 2:8–9), from the eternal penalty of our sin. We are being saved from the power of sin, growing more and more like Jesus. And, in this verse, Peter writes that we will be saved, even from the presence of sin, in Heaven. That is, our salvation will be fully revealed at just the right time. Until then, God guards us so that nothing can take that away.

Verse 6. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

In verses 3–5, Peter has just described the reality of our position as believers in Jesus Christ. God’s mercy to us is great. In Christ, we have a living hope that we, too, will be resurrected from the dead just as He was. Waiting for us is an endless, glorious inheritance with our Father in heaven. And right this minute, we ourselves are being shielded from losing that inheritance by God’s limitless power. Through faith in Christ, we have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved!

Here, Peter makes an assumption about our response to this reality. He says that we rejoice in this. Do we? It’s important here to separate the word “rejoice” from the idea of feeling only positive emotions. To “rejoice,” in this sense, does not necessarily mean to “be happy,” as we understand the terms today. While rejoicing may include positive feelings, the New Testament often communicates that rejoicing is a choice about how we think about our lives (James 1:2; Philippians 4:4).

In fact, Peter quickly acknowledges that his readers may be grieved or distressed by various trials in the present moment. He realizes they may be experiencing negative emotions because of their negative circumstances—and yet, he still assumes they are rejoicing in the reality of their eternal circumstances in Christ.

We must conclude then, that this “rejoicing” is less about feelings and more about faith. It is less about maintaining some perfect emotional state and more about a declaration: “My life is worth rejoicing over because of what God is doing for me right now. I am provided for. My future is secure. Nothing can change that. I am rejoicing!”

Verse 7. so that the tested genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

In verse 6, Peter has written that, as Christians, we rejoice. This is in response to God’s great mercy, and our great hope of resurrection and being eternally provided for in heaven. In fact, we rejoice even while feeling grieved or distressed because of the trials we face in our present moment.

Now he reveals that these trials which cause us grief have a point. They exist for a reason. For the Christian believer, suffering always serves a purpose (Romans 5:3–4; James 1:2–4). Peter describes the benefit of these trials, which distress us but don’t prevent us from rejoicing: they test, purify, and prove our faith. When trials come, the believer makes a choice to continue to trust God, in and through the trial. God continues to provide. Our faith grows stronger.

Peter compares and contrasts our faith with the classic standard for value: gold. Like gold, our faith is refined and purified by the heat of our trials. Unlike earthly gold, our faith will continue to be of great worth even in eternity.

Finally, Peter says that our faith provides an opportunity to participate in giving and receiving praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. When Christ returns and all come to understand the truth, He will receive honor as the true Lord and King, and our faith in Him will be fully vindicated.

Verse 8. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Christianity—our faith in Christ, the Son of God—is not about a process or a system or a philosophy. It’s not a way of looking at the world or improving ourselves as human beings. It’s about a person. It’s about trusting and loving a person.

Peter had seen Jesus, and had been personally trained by Him. Peter knew and loved Christ as a man, and as God, based on three years of personal, face-to-face experience. Peter saw Jesus alive after seeing Him dead. The vast majority of the believers reading Peter’s words had never seen the Messiah with their own eyes. Peter seems to marvel at their believing and loving Christ without seeing Him. Maybe Peter was remembering what he heard Jesus say to Thomas, who believed in the resurrection only after personally seeing Jesus’ wounds: “…Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

As in verse 6, Peter assumes that faith and love this concrete, this real, results in real rejoicing. Saving faith in Christ brings with it a joy which can’t be expressed. Words can’t contain it. It’s a joy full of glory, reflecting our future with Christ in the moment in front of us. Again we see that the choice to rejoice, even the middle of our trials, is an act of faith. It doesn’t require soaring emotions, but it certainly can contribute to them. Joy flows from our growing confidence in the Christ we love.

Verse 9. obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Verse 9 completes the thought Peter began in verse 8. Peter’s readers—like us today—had not seen Jesus with their eyes as Peter had. Still, they loved and believed in Him. And, as all Christians do, they rejoiced in their believing in Him. That faith, though, is not just a thing to have for its own sake. Faith in Christ has an outcome, a result. It’s a faith that is leading to something.

Peter writes that by that faith they are receiving or obtaining the salvation of their souls. They, we, are right now being saved. “Salvation,” according to the Bible, comes in three ways. The first is “justification,” which is the one-time salvation from an eternity in hell. The second is “sanctification,” which is the ongoing process of salvation from the influence of sin in our lives. The third is the permanent and complete absence of sin we will experience in heaven.

Notice that Peter phrases this particular mention of salvation in the present tense. Our faith in Christ is right now, in this moment, resulting in our salvation, both from the penalty and power of sin. Peter has also described our salvation as something that has already happened (1 Peter 1:3) and something that will eventually happen (1 Peter 1:5).

It’s clear that our souls need saving. It’s also clear that God has promised that our salvation, by His grace through our faith in Christ, is done, is being done, and will be done. In Him, we can be completely confident in all aspects of that salvation.

Verse 10. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,

Verse 10 has to be read and understood together with verse 11. Peter has just finished referring to the salvation of those who trust in Christ. This salvation is available only by God’s grace through the faith of those who believe (Ephesians 2:8–9).

This idea of salvation by God’s grace was not new to Peter, or the other apostles. It had been described and predicted by Israel’s prophets generations before, in the Old Testament Scriptures. Peter now reveals to us something about those prophets. Though these men were deeply respected by his readers, they need to realize that these prophets themselves did not fully understand—yet—the message God had given them.

And these ancient writers knew full well that they were missing part of the puzzle. The prophets, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, wrote of God’s coming grace for those of Peter’s time (and ours). Then, these prophets searched and asked questions, hoping to understand what they had written. Verse 11 describes specifically what they wanted to know.

Verse 11. inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

In verse 10, Peter reveals to us that the Old Testament prophets who wrote about the coming salvation by God’s grace didn’t fully understand it. They searched and asked questions about it.

He continues the sentence in verse 11: The prophets wanted to know the “who” and “when” Christ’s Spirit was referring to as they were directed to write the words of their prophecies. Who was the person who would bring this salvation, the Christ who would suffer and then be glorified? And when would it happen? Isaiah chapters 11 and 53 are examples of these prophecies.

In verse 12, Peter gives us the answer they received, but verse 11 is important. It is a clear statement that the Old Testament prophets were not writing their own ideas. Christ’s Spirit—the Holy Spirit—was in them, directing as they wrote the very words of God. It’s a truth that Peter will state even more clearly in 1 Peter 1:20–21.

Peter reinforces another crucial idea in this verse: In the ancient prophesies, God promised a Savior who would suffer and then be glorified. Jesus’ life and death and resurrection fulfilled those prophesies. That same God has now promised that, even though Christians may now suffer, we will also be glorified. God has proven Himself trustworthy to keep such a promise.

Verse 12. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Verses 10 and 11 explained an important truth about the earlier prophets of Israel. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the prophets of the Old Testament had written about a coming salvation by God’s grace. They had written about a savior who would suffer and then be glorified. Then they had searched and asked: “Who is this person and when will this happen?”

What was revealed to them was this: As they wrote the words of God under the influence of the Holy Spirit, they were serving not themselves but future generations. The Christ would come after their time.

Peter means for his readers (and for us) to understand what a huge deal it is that the message of salvation by God’s grace has been revealed to us now. God didn’t tell the prophets—or, apparently, the angels, even when they asked—but He has shown us. Hundreds of years after the prophets’ time, this good news, or “gospel,” about salvation through faith in Christ, was delivered. It was given to Peter’s audience by that same Holy Spirit, through the preaching and teaching of others. And now, thousands of years later, it has been delivered to us by that same Holy Spirit.

Verse 13. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Where will we set our hope today, in this life, on this side of eternity? That’s what Peter is addressing in verse 13.

What does it mean to set or fix our hope on something? It’s a question of where we will turn to find meaning for our lives, to find relief from suffering, to fill up the emptiness that every soul experiences (Romans 8:22–25). With what will we occupy our hearts? In what will we invest our thoughts, energy, and focus? If all that Peter has told us so far in this letter is true—that we, as Christians, will be resurrected as Christ was, that God guards us and our inheritance with Him in eternity, that our salvation is secure—then there is only one logical place to set our hope. That is in God’s grace to us at the future coming of Jesus, the moment in which all the longings of our hearts will be fully satisfied.

Still, even for those of us who believe, it is difficult for us to keep our hope set on that day. In fact, we are told to make a deliberate choice to set our hope there. We need to do this on purpose, instead of setting our hope on things that cannot truly satisfy, such as money, pleasure, or prestige. Obeying this command will take mental work. So Peter writes that we should stay alert, “preparing your minds for action.”

We must take control of where our thoughts go, and what our minds dwell on. If we do not fully engage in intentional hope-setting, we will be easily distracted by the false hope of satisfaction the world continually offers us.

Context Summary
1 Peter 1:13–25 describes how Christians—those God has caused to be born again—should live now. We must mentally engage in setting all of our hope in God’s future grace for us. We must choose to act as those who are God’s own people, rejecting the evil desires that drove our actions before we knew better. Our choices matter. Our God placed a high value on our lives, paying for them with the blood of Christ. Since God has made us able, we must now strive to earnestly give love to each other.

Verse 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

Peter continues to tell us how to direct ourselves in light of the reality that, by God’s grace, we are His children and that our true home is with Him in eternity. In verse 13, Peter wrote that we should be intentional about setting all of our hope on the day when Jesus returns. Next, he writes that we must stop doing what comes naturally.

Everyone who is in Christ—who is a believer—has a before and an after. There was a time before we trusted in Christ when we did not know the truth. We did not understand. We lived in ignorance of what was real and what mattered. And so we followed our own desires instead of God’s desire for us. And our desires were evil: to bring ourselves gratification and relief at any cost.

Now that we are in Christ—in our “after”—Peter calls us obedient children (literally, “children of obedience”). Something profound has changed in us. We have become heirs of God Himself. We are built to obey our Father. It’s not just what we should do; it’s who we are. So, Peter writes that we must live up to who we are. We must stop conforming to the pattern we followed “before.” That’s not us any longer. We must follow a new pattern.

Verse 15. but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

It can be tempting to walk away from verses 15 and 16 in discouragement. A shallow reading may lead us to believe that God requires absolute perfection from His children right now and forever. And yet, we can’t seem to find any of God’s children who are leading perfect lives. So what do these verses mean?

It is helpful to see them as being about our identity in Christ, as well as about our conduct. In his letter thus far, Peter has already described believers in Jesus as people who are saved, are being saved, and who will be saved. He has told us to change the direction of our minds and actions while already giving us the title of “children of obedience.” Now in verse 15, he reinforces what we know. We know our God is “holy,” set apart, “other” from the rest of fallen creation. What we may not realize is that we, too, are made to be holy, set apart, “other” from the rest of humankind. The emphasis seems to be that we must live up to what we already are.

We will not achieve perfectly sinless conduct on this side of eternity. However, we are made to be completely set apart from the world in our conduct right now. In Christ, we are holy. In Christ, we must live as holy people live. Our right choices will not save us. Peter’s letter has made clear that salvation has already taken place and only by God’s grace through faith in Christ. We are saved people. We are God’s people. Now we must live like God’s people. That is God’s standard for us, and it should be our standard for ourselves—even with the understanding that we will fail along the way.

Verse 16. since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Verse 16 finishes the thought begun in verse 15. Peter quotes a well-known command of God to His people Israel (Leviticus 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:7). He does this to drive home a point, particularly to his Jewish readers, that God has always commanded His children to “be holy.” It’s not a new idea.

Verse 15 and 16 can seem daunting, at first. The command to be as holy as God seems like an impossible task. But God isn’t giving us a hopeless requirement. It’s helpful to look at the passages Peter is quoting from to better understand what the word “holy” means to God. For Israel, it was very much about living differently from the other nations around them. To be “holy”—literally, “set apart”—meant to refuse to eat certain foods or wear certain clothes. To be holy meant respecting your parents. To be holy meant to keep God’s commands. God’s desire for His people was to be like Him, and He is holy. That’s still His desire. The difference between the holiness commanded in the Old Testament and what’s here is found in what Peter has already written in this letter. That is, God has already made us holy in Christ. He has already set us apart and saved us. Now he calls us to make choices that reflect who we already are.

In other words, Christians are called to change our conduct to fit our identity. As holy people, we shouldn’t be “okay” with our sin. We shouldn’t accept falling into the old patterns. We are to act as holy people act. Will we make perfectly sinless choices in this life from here forward? No. We still rely on God’s grace and forgiveness. Is God’s standard for us now that we would live in perfect holiness? Yes, and it should become our standard for ourselves, as well, even if we won’t achieve it until we are with our Father in eternity.

Verse 17. And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one ‘s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,

Verse 17 combines quite a few varied ideas. First, Peter reminds us that this relationship we have with God—by His grace and through our faith in Christ—is a relationship between a child and a Father. It’s a relationship of open communication. He has called us (1 Peter 1:15), and we call on Him.

This is a Father who has proven His love for us (Romans 5:8) and right now actively shields us and the inheritance He has promised us in heaven (1 Peter 1:6). He is a good Father. We are saved; we are secure. But this is not a Father who smiles and nods approvingly at every choice we make. He judges our conduct impartially and individually. In other words, He judges our actions with absolute fairness and with complete understanding of each of us specifically.

This has to be carefully understood. This is not a judgment about whether or not God will allow us into heaven, or punish us in His wrath. Already in this letter, Peter has been clear that decision is made and done. Our Father has given His believing children credit for Jesus’ perfectly righteous life and has allowed His Son’s death to pay the price for our sins.

But our Father does judge. He judges our works. He pays attention to whether our actions are those of “holy people” set apart for His purposes (1 Peter 1:15) or whether our choices continue to be driven by the “evil desires” we had when we lived in ignorance (1 Peter 1:14; 1 Corinthians 3:10–15). Knowing this should change the way we live. We should stop trying to convince ourselves and the world around us that we belong here. We should stop trying to fit in. We should embrace our status as foreigners, strangers, and people in exile. We should live like the Father we wait to be united with.

And, yes, we should live with some amount of healthy fear. Not a terror of God’s wrath or eternal punishment, that’s clear. Instead, this is a fear of loving parental discipline (Hebrews 12:4–11) and a solemn awareness that the God of the universe watches and expects to see us make choices that bring Him glory.

Verse 18. knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

In verse 17, Peter has revealed that our loving Father God judges the actions of His saved children. This is not to decide our eternal fate, but to weigh whether our choices are those of a holy, set-apart people. Peter writes that we should live out our lives on earth as foreigners and with “fear,” meaning “reverence.”

Why fear? In part, the idea is that we should carry solemn awareness of the great worth God has placed on our lives. We should appreciate the great expectation He has to make use of us, as His children, for His plans and for His glory (Philippians 2:12–13). That awareness should motivate us to be cautious about making worthless choices.

Peter demonstrates the value God has placed on us by showing the price He paid for us. He didn’t pay mere cash: “silver or gold.” He didn’t pay temporary currency for an eternal transaction. Verse 19 will reveal that He paid for us with the blood of His own Son, a currency of limitless value. We cannot overestimate our worth in our Father’s eyes.

And what did He redeem us from? Worthlessness. He didn’t just save us from hell; he bought us out of the futility of human existence that we had inherited from our ancestors. He bought us out of an empty, meaningless waste of time—all that the world can truly offer us. Peter’s point in all of this may be that our choices now, after that transaction, truly matter. As people of great value to God—holy people—we should be terrified that we will squander our days continuing to invest ourselves in worthless things.

Verse 19. but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Verse 19 continues the thought begun in verse 18. Peter is showing the great value Christians, God’s children, carry in the eyes of our Father. It can be measured by the price He was willing to pay. He made a great sacrifice in order to possess us, to call us His own people. Peter has already shown that God didn’t pay for us in mere human currency like silver or gold. Our worth to Him can’t be weighed in pounds or dollars. Instead, in verse 19, Peter writes that we were redeemed with something that will still hold value long after this world’s economies are forgotten.

Our Father purchased us with the blood of Christ. The value God place on our lives was equal to that of the very life of His “only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Peter describes Christ as a lamb free from blemish or defect. His Jewish readers, especially those who grew up participating in the sacrificial system, would have immediately understood the reference. In fact, some may have carried a memory of watching as a perfect, beautiful year-old lamb was killed, understanding that its blood was being spilled to cover their sin for a time.

As the sinless, perfectly righteous Son of God, the life of Jesus—His blood—was of such great value that He became the final offering required under that Old Covenant system. No more animal sacrifices are needed to temporarily cover human sin (Hebrews 9–10). Instead, the Father paid the ultimate price to redeem us, giving limitless value to lives that would otherwise have been futile and empty.

Verse 20. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross wasn’t improvised. God didn’t make it up in response to the unfolding events of history. Peter writes that Christ was known before the world was founded. As God, Jesus existed in eternity past as the one whose blood would cover the sins of all who receive salvation. Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and return to the Father were always God’s plan to save us. Always. Jesus was always the answer to the questions asked by the prophets and the angels investigating what the Holy Spirit’s Old Testament prophecies were pointing to (1 Peter 1:10–12).

Finally, in Peter’s lifetime and those of his readers—the beginning of what Peter calls the “last times”—God revealed the mystery. He showed Himself and His plan to the world by coming to earth as a baby, a man, God in flesh, the final sacrifice for sin. Why? For our sake. God’s great gift of mercy, and the timing of that gift in human history, demonstrates God’s great love for us (John 3:16; Romans 5:8).

Verse 21. who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Continuing his thought from verse 20, that Jesus had been revealed as God’s Son and the sacrifice for sin for our sake, Peter writes that it is through Christ that we have become believers in God. Peter heard Jesus say the same Himself in John 14:6–7: Nobody comes to the Father except through the Son. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Many may say they believe in God, but only through trusting in Christ do we truly put our faith in the Father.

God’s plan didn’t stop with the sacrifice of His only birth Son as the payment for sin. Peter says that God also raised Christ from the dead and gave Him glory. Describing that glory given to Jesus by the Father, Paul wrote that God “…highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9).

So our faith and hope are in God. In the same way that God had a plan for Christ’s life and death and resurrection and glory, He has a plan for our life, death, resurrection, and glory. We trust the God who did all of that in and through Christ and know He will do the same in and through us. Our hope is in exactly the right place.

Verse 22. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

In his letter, Peter has described what our lives were like before we trusted in Christ for our salvation by God’s grace. We lived in ignorance, driven along our empty, futile way by our selfish passions or evil desires. We served ourselves, to our own destruction, and could do nothing else. All of that changed when God saved us. He declared our lives worthy of the blood of His Son. He rescued us from emptiness and set us apart for one thing: His purposes. Then, Peter wrote, God commanded us to “be holy,” to stop living for self and to be fully available to Him.

Now Peter writes that our obedience to the truth has a purifying effect on our souls. It’s not that we make ourselves clean from sin by our obedience. God has declared us clean from sin through the blood of Jesus, His death in our place. Rather, it’s that when we obey, we are not sinning! We are living the pure, holy lives God intends for His people. When we obey Him, we stop being double-minded, torn between our selfishness and fulfilling His will for us. Setting our desires aside allows us to give ourselves over fully to loving each other—without being half-hearted or false.

So, Peter says, we should go for it with everything we’ve got. We should abandon our own “evil desires” and work hard at loving each other, instead. The word translated as “earnestly” or “deeply” in this verse—ektenōs in Greek—means “at full stretch” or “in an all-out manner, with an intense strain.” Just as an athletics coach might tell a player to “leave it all on the field,” Peter tells us to completely exhaust all of our resources in a single-hearted effort to give love to each other.

Verse 23. since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

In the previous verse, Peter charged his readers to love each other deeply or earnestly from pure hearts. He connects that command to the reminder that, as Christians, we have been born again. It’s an odd thought, when first read. When Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3 that nobody can see God’s kingdom unless they are born again, Nicodemus recognized the figure of speech. He saw that this was biologically impossible. Jesus made it clear that He was referring to a spiritual birth.

Being born physically does not make us alive spiritually. In fact, Paul wrote that we all start out spiritually dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). God is the one who makes us alive when we come to Him through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:5–9). Peter wrote at the beginning of this chapter that God had caused his believing readers to be born again. So, as Christians who have been born again, we now have the ability to love each other with spiritually alive hearts. We can do this with all our might and complete sincerity.

This spiritual birth leads to a life that will never end. Physical birth results from a seed that dies eventually. But the new birth springs from an undying seed, through God’s undying word. What is this “word of God”? In verse 25, Peter will tell us it is the good news that has been preached to us. We sometimes call it the gospel. It is the message from God that He will forgive our sins and make us spiritually alive forever in Christ.

Verse 24. for “All flesh is like grassand all its glory like the flower of grass.The grass withers,and the flower falls,

This verse must be taken together with verse 25. Peter quotes from Isaiah 40:6–8 to back up his statement in verse 23 that we are born again through the undying Word of God. Human life, though intense and beautiful in many ways, comes and goes in a season. Even the most productive, most privileged, most adventurous of mortal lives begin to fade just as they get underway.

This is understood and grieved by people of every culture, every generation and every belief system. Human life is achingly temporary. Peter writes this letter, in part, to remind His readers that God has provided (by grace and through faith in Christ) a true home and a secure future on the other side of this temporary life. In Him, we have hope of a future without end.

However, the specific point he is making here is about the word of the Lord, and it concludes in verse 25.

Verse 25. but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Verse 25 completes Peter’s quote from Isaiah 40:6–8. Isaiah’s poem describes a glorious field of flowering grass that quickly withers and dries up. It’s a picture of human existence, intense but all too brief. But that’s not the end of the poem. By contrast, the Word of the Lord remains forever. While we may come and go on this side of eternity, one generation after another, God’s truth remains the same throughout all of time. It never changes.

Peter has made the case in this first part of his letter that the word of the Lord has now been revealed to his readers, and therefore to us as well. Specifically, it is the good news—also called “the gospel”—that was preached to us, which we believed, which made it possible for us to be born again.

Because the word of the Lord remains forever, human beings can, also. We can live forever through believing the word and placing our faith in Christ.

End of Chapter 1.

Please Note:

The material use in this post, video is from BibleRef.com which is from Got Questions Ministries and is posted here to be read by Immersive reader in the Edge Browser. If you copy this material please follow these rules:

•Content from BibleRef.com may not be used for any commercial purposes, or as part of any commercial work, without explicit prior written consent from Got Questions ministries.

•Any use of our material should be properly credited; please make it clear the content is from BibleRef.com.

•BibleRef.com content may not be altered, modified, or otherwise changed unless such changes are specifically noted.