Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance

1 Peter 1

New Living Translation (NLT)

Greetings from Peter

1 This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.^{[a] 2} God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
May God give you more and more grace and peace.

The Hope of Eternal Life

³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, ⁴ and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. ⁵ And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

⁶ So be truly glad.^[b] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. ⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. ⁹ The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
¹⁰ This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. ¹¹ They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.
¹² They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

A Call to Holy Living

¹³ So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. ¹⁴ So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. ¹⁵ But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. ¹⁶ For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”^[c]

¹⁷ And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” ¹⁸ For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. ¹⁹ It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. ²⁰ God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.
²¹ Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

²² You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.^[d] Love each other deeply with all your heart.^[e]
23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. ²⁴ As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass;
    their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
²⁵     But the word of the Lord remains forever.”^[f]

And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

Footnotes:

1. 1:1 Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were Roman provinces in what is now Turkey.
2. 1:6 Or So you are truly glad.
3. 1:16 Lev 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7.
4. 1:22a Greek must have brotherly love.
5. 1:22b Some manuscripts read with a pure heart.
6. 1:24-25 Isa 40:6-8.

journey on 2014: In this you rejoice

1 Peter 1

English Standard Version (ESV)

Greeting

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 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.

Born Again to a Living Hope

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, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 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. 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, ⁹ obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 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. 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.

Called to Be Holy

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. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵ but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶ since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 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, ¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰ He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 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.
²² Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, ²³ since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;


 ²⁴ for

“All flesh is like grass
    and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
    and the flower falls,
²⁵ but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

 

Footnotes:

1. 1 Peter 1:13 Greek girding up the loins of your mind

Cross references:

1. 1 Peter 1:1 : See James 1:1
2. 1 Peter 1:2 : Acts 2:23; [Rom. 8:29; 11:2]
3. 1 Peter 1:2 : See 1 Thess. 4:3
4. 1 Peter 1:2 : Heb. 10:22; 12:24
5. 1 Peter 1:2 : 2 Pet. 1:2
6. 1 Peter 1:2 : Dan. 4:1; Jude 2
7. 1 Peter 1:3 : 2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3
8. 1 Peter 1:3 : Titus 3:5
9. 1 Peter 1:3 : ver. 23
10. 1 Peter 1:3 : ch. 3:21; [1 Cor. 15:20]
11. 1 Peter 1:4 : Rom. 8:17
12. 1 Peter 1:4 : [ch. 5:4]
13. 1 Peter 1:4 : [Col. 1:5; 2 Tim. 4:8]
14. 1 Peter 1:5 : Eph. 2:8
15. 1 Peter 1:5 : [ch. 5:10; Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17; Heb. 12:11]
16. 1 Peter 1:6 : James 1:2; [ch. 4:12]
17. 1 Peter 1:7 : James 1:3
18. 1 Peter 1:7 : Job 23:10; Ps. 66:10; Prov. 17:3; Isa. 48:10
19. 1 Peter 1:7 : 1 Cor. 3:13
20. 1 Peter 1:7 : Rom. 2:7, 10; 1 Cor. 4:5; [2 Thess. 1:7-12]
21. 1 Peter 1:8 : [1 John 4:20]
22. 1 Peter 1:8 : [Heb. 11:27]; See John 20:29
23. 1 Peter 1:9 : Rom. 6:22
24. 1 Peter 1:10 : 2 Pet. 1:19; [Dan. 8:15; Matt. 13:17; Luke 10:24]
25. 1 Peter 1:11 : Dan. 9:24-26
26. 1 Peter 1:11 : Rom. 8:9; [2 Pet. 1:21]; See Acts 16:7
27. 1 Peter 1:11 : See Matt. 26:24
28. 1 Peter 1:11 : Isa. 52:13–53:12; Luke 24:26; Acts 3:18
29. 1 Peter 1:12 : Dan. 12:4, 9, 13
30. 1 Peter 1:12 : [Matt. 13:17; Heb. 11:39, 40]
31. 1 Peter 1:12 : Acts 2:2-4
32. 1 Peter 1:12 : [Dan. 8:13; 12:5-7; Eph. 3:10]
33. 1 Peter 1:13 : See Luke 12:35
34. 1 Peter 1:13 : ch. 4:7; 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:6, 8; 2 Tim. 4:5
35. 1 Peter 1:14 : ch. 4:2, 3; Rom. 12:2; Titus 3:3
36. 1 Peter 1:14 : Acts 17:30
37. 1 Peter 1:15 : 1 John 3:3; [2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 4:7; Heb. 12:14]
38. 1 Peter 1:15 : James 3:13
39. 1 Peter 1:16 : Cited from Lev. 11:44
40. 1 Peter 1:17 : Jer. 3:19; Mal. 1:6; 2 Cor. 6:18; [Matt. 6:9]
41. 1 Peter 1:17 : See Ps. 62:12
42. 1 Peter 1:17 : See James 2:1
43. 1 Peter 1:17 : ch. 3:15; 2 Cor. 7:1; [Rom. 11:20]
44. 1 Peter 1:18 : [Ps. 49:8; 130:8; 1 Cor. 6:20; Titus 2:14; 2 Pet. 2:1]
45. 1 Peter 1:18 : See Eph. 4:17
46. 1 Peter 1:19 : See Acts 20:28
47. 1 Peter 1:19 : See John 1:29
48. 1 Peter 1:19 : Heb. 9:14; [Ex. 12:5]
49. 1 Peter 1:20 : See Rom. 16:26
50. 1 Peter 1:20 : Heb. 1:2
51. 1 Peter 1:21 : John 12:44
52. 1 Peter 1:21 : [Rom. 10:9]; See Acts 2:24
53. 1 Peter 1:21 : Acts 3:13; Heb. 2:9; [ch. 3:22]; See John 7:39
54. 1 Peter 1:22 : Rom. 12:9; See Heb. 13:1
55. 1 Peter 1:22 : 1 Tim. 1:5
56. 1 Peter 1:23 : ver. 3; [John 3:3; James 1:18]
57. 1 Peter 1:23 : John 1:13
58. 1 Peter 1:23 : Heb. 4:12
59. 1 Peter 1:24 : James 1:10, 11; Cited from Isa. 40:6, 8
60. 1 Peter 1:25 : [Matt. 24:35]
61. 1 Peter 1:25 : Isa. 40:9