1 Peter 1

     1:1. The apostle Peter addresses the elect (chosen) aliens (i.e., all the believers, cf. 2:10-11) who are scattered throughout the greater part of Asia Minor.

     1:2.  This verse is as clear a statement of the Trinitarian nature of redemption as can be found anywhere (then further explained in succeeding verses).

     We are sovereignly chosen beforehand according to the Father’s plan, set apart by the sanctifying work of the Spirit (who causes us to be born again, v.3), that we may be brought into obedience to Jesus Christ as our Lord and be sprinkled clean by his blood (his life given for us).

     1:3.  The basis of our faith, beautifully explained and expressed here, is the resurrection of our Lord from the dead.  We, who in Adam were by nature dead in sins, now are reborn to a living hope, and all by the great mercy of God.

     1:4-5.  Nothing can take away the inheritance the Lord has secured for us in heaven, for we are protected by the power of God.  “Indwelling corruption would soon quench grace in their hearts, if it were not kept alive by divine power” (Thomas Boston).  But by his power sustaining our faith, we know that we also will be raised.  Our faith will be vindicated when he is revealed coming in his glory at the end of this last age (cf.7).

     1:6-7.  We rejoice in this, even though our faith is now tested by the sorrows of this perishing world.  These things are a great trial of faith, though this life is but for a little while, not to be compared with the glory to be revealed when he comes (cf. 2 Cor.4:17).

     1:8-9.  We live by faith, for we do not see him now (cf. Heb.11:1).  But our faith not only gives us inexpressible joy now, it will result in the salvation of our souls.

     1:10-12.  (Cf. the praise, the suffering, the hope and faith of Ps. 89; see Simeon’s prophesy, Luke 2:25-35; see Heb. 11:39-40).  The Spirit of Christ spoke through the prophets of old.  But they could only look forward in faith to what the preachers of the gospel, having been empowered by that same Holy Spirit, have announced in these last times (20).  It is a word from heaven so wonderful and mysterious that even the holy angels strained to gain a clear glimpse (12, margin).

     1:13-21.  Ours is not to be a passive waiting, but an active and serious preparation for the Lord’s coming, with our hope fixed on that day, and not on the perishing things of this world (13; 4, 7).  By God’s grace, we have been brought from ignorance and slavery to sin into God’s family.  If God is our Father, we must be his obedient children, for he is holy.  He is an impartial judge of hearts and actions.  He will not wink at our sins (14-17).  In so far as they put their trust in the perishing things of this world, both Jews and Gentiles inherited a futile way of life from their forefathers (18), a way of death.  Even the God given ordinances of the temple sacrifices were meant to fade away.  But our hope is in the precious blood of the pure and spotless eternal Lamb of God, who has appeared in these last days for the sake of those who by his grace believe in him.  God raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that our faith and hope are not in perishing things, but in God alone (19-21).

      1:22-25.  Since by the word of truth we have been born again of imperishable seed (cf. 1:3-4), we must sincerely love our brothers in the faith from the heart.  The old enmities must be cast away.  The things of the flesh all soon pass away like the grasses of summer, but we are a new creation, an imperishable seed brought into being by the living and abiding word of the Lord, preached as good news to us (see Is. 40:6-9).