1 Peter 1

1From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those God has chosen who live as foreigners, scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2God the Father chose you as he knew beforehand, and the Spirit set you apart, so that you would obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. May grace and peace be yours in ever greater measure.

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Out of his great mercy he has given us a new birth. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead he has brought us into a hope that is alive, 4and into an inheritance that can never decay, never be stained, and never wither. That inheritance is kept safe in heaven for you, 5and God’s power is keeping you under guard through faith until the salvation that stands ready to be revealed at the last time. 6This is why you are overjoyed, even though for a little while now, if it must be so, you have been distressed by trials of many kinds. 7They come so that your faith, once tested and shown to be genuine, may be found to bring praise and glory and honor at the time Jesus Christ is revealed. Faith like that is worth far more than gold, and gold perishes, even though it too is tested by fire. 8You have never seen him, yet you love him. You do not see him even now, but you believe in him, and you are overjoyed with a joy that words cannot express, a joy already filled with glory, 9because you are receiving what your faith aims at: the salvation of your souls.

10This salvation is what the prophets looked into, searching it out with great care, when they prophesied about the grace God meant for you. 11They tried to learn what time, and what sort of time, was being shown to them by the Spirit of Christ who was in them, as the Spirit told beforehand of the sufferings in store for Christ and the glories to come after them. 12God showed the prophets that what they spoke of was not for their own benefit; they were serving you. Those same things have now been reported to you by the people who brought you the good news through the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven. Even angels long to bend down and look into these things.

13So brace your minds for action and stay clear-headed. Put your hope entirely on the grace that is coming to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14Live as children who obey. Do not let yourselves be shaped by the desires you used to follow back when you did not know any better. 15Instead, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, just as the one who called you is holy, 16because it is written, “You are to be holy, because I am holy.”

17If you call on God as Father, the one who judges each person by what they have done and shows no favoritism, then live in fear of him for as long as you are strangers far from home. 18For you know the price of your release from the useless way of living you inherited from your forefathers. That price was not silver or gold, things that decay, 19but the precious blood of Christ, who was like a lamb without flaw or stain. 20God knew him before the world was made, and in this final age he has made him known for your sake. 21It is through him that you trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So your faith and hope are fixed on God.

22Now that you have made yourselves pure by obeying the truth, so that you have a genuine love for your brothers and sisters, keep loving one another from the heart with all your strength. 23You have been born anew, not from a seed that dies but from one that cannot die, through the word of God, which is alive and lasts. 24For “all people are like grass, and all their glory is like a wildflower. The grass dries up and the flower drops off. 25But the word of the Lord lasts forever.” And that word is the good news that was announced to you.