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1 Peter 1 — Commentary 4

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Benson Commentary 1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 1 Peter 1:1 . Peter, &c., to the strangers — Or sojourners, as ???????????? more properly signifies; that is, to the Jewish or Gentile Christians sojourning on earth: see on 1 Chronicles 29:15 ; Psalm 39:12 ; Hebrews 11:13 . Scattered — ????????? , of the dispersion, or dispersed, partly, probably, by the persecution mentioned Acts 8:1 ; or the expression may merely signify, that they lived at a distance from each other, being scattered through the widely-extended regions here mentioned; through Pontus, &c. — He names these five provinces in the order wherein they occurred to him, writing from the east. All these countries lie in the Lesser Asia. The Asia here distinguished from other provinces, is that which was usually called the Proconsular Asia, being a Roman province. 1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 1 Peter 1:2 . Elect — Called out of the world, and from a state of ignorance and sin, guilt and depravity, weakness and wretchedness, by the word, the Spirit, and providence of God; and in consequence of obeying the call, by turning to God in true repentance, living faith, and new obedience, chosen — Or accepted of God. For all true believers, or genuine Christians, whose faith works by love, have continually the title of God’s elect in the New Testament. See notes on Romans 8:28 ; Romans 8:33 ; Ephesians 1:4-5 . “Election,” says the Rev. J. Wesley, “in the Scripture sense, is God’s doing any thing that our merit or power has no part in. The true predestination, or fore-appointment of God, Isaiah , 1 st, He that believeth shall be saved from the guilt and power of sin. 2d, He that endureth to the end shall be saved eternally. 3d, They who receive the precious gift of faith, thereby become the sons of God; and being sons, they shall receive the Spirit of holiness, to walk as Christ also walked. Throughout every part of this appointment of God, promise and duty go hand in hand. All is free gift; and such is the gift, that the final issue depends on our future obedience to the heavenly call. But other predestination than this, either to life or death eternal, the Scripture knows not of. Moreover, it Isaiah , 1 st, Cruel respect of persons; an unjust regard of one, and an unjust disregard of another. It is mere creature partiality, and not infinite justice: 2d, It is not plain Scripture doctrine, (if true,) but, rather, inconsistent with the express written word, that speaks of God’s universal offers of grace; his invitations, promises, threatenings, being all general. 3d, We are bid to choose life, and reprehended for not doing 2:4th, It is inconsistent with a state of probation in those that must be saved or must be lost. 5th, It is of fatal consequence; all men being ready, on very slight grounds, to fancy themselves of the elect number. But the doctrine of predestination is entirely changed from what it formerly was. Now it implies neither faith, peace, nor purity. It is something that will do without them all. Faith is no longer, according to the modern predestinarian scheme, a divine evidence of things not seen, wrought in the soul by the immediate power of the Holy Ghost; not an evidence at all, but a mere notion. Neither is faith made any longer a means of holiness; but something that will do without it. Christ is no more a Saviour from sin; but a defence, a countenancer of it. He is no more a fountain of spiritual life in the souls of believers, but leaves his elect inwardly dry, and outwardly unfruitful; and is made little more than a refuge from the image of the heavenly; even from righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. According to the foreknowledge of God — That is, speaking after the manner of men; for, strictly speaking, there is no foreknowledge, any more than after-knowledge, with God; but all things are known to him as present from eternity to eternity.” As none but the truly penitent and believing have in Scripture the title of God’s elect, so such may be properly styled, elect according to the foreknowledge of God, because God knows beforehand from eternity who will turn to him in repentance and faith, and who will not; but, as Milton observes, “Foreknowledge has no influence on their fault, Which had no less proved certain unforeknown.” Nor is there any inconsistency between the divine prescience and human liberty; both are true, according to the Scripture; and doubtless God can reconcile them, if we cannot. Macknight explains the clause thus: “The persons to whom the apostle wrote were with propriety said to be elected according to the foreknowledge of God, because, agreeably to the original purpose of God, discovered in the prophetical writings, Jews and Gentiles indiscriminately were made the visible church and people of God, and entitled to all the privileges of the people of God, by their believing the gospel,” namely, with a faith working by love to God and man: “God’s foreknowledge of all believers to be his people,” [that is, true, genuine believers, possessed of living, loving, and obedient faith; for only such are God’s people,] “was revealed in the covenant with Abraham. This the apostle mentions to show the Jews that the believing Gentiles were no intruders into the church of God. He determined, from the beginning, to make them his people. See Romans 11:2 , where God is said to have foreknown the whole Jewish nation; and 1 Peter 1:20 , where the sacrifice of Christ is said to be foreknown before the foundation of the world.” Through sanctification of the Spirit — Through the renewing and purifying influences of the Spirit on their souls; for sanctification implies an internal change wrought in the heart, the first part of which is termed regeneration, John 1:13 , or a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17 ; Titus 3:5 ; producing, 1st, Power over sin, 1 Peter 4:1-2 ; Romans 6.; over the world, 1 John 5:4 ; and the flesh, Romans 8:2 . 2d, Devotedness to God and his service in heart and life. 3d, A continually increasing conformity to the divine image. Unto obedience — To engage and enable them to yield themselves up to all holy obedience; namely, both internal, to the great law of love toward God and man, with every holy disposition connected therewith; and external, to all God’s known commands. And sprinkling of the blood of Jesus — That is, through his atoning blood, which was typified by the sprinkling of the blood of sacrifices under the law, in allusion to which it is termed, ( Hebrews 12:24 ,) the blood of sprinkling. This is the foundation of all the rest, for by this we are, 1st, Introduced into a state of justification and peace with God, being freed from a condemning conscience, put in possession of the Holy Spirit, and rendered capable of obeying, Hebrews 9:13-14 ; and hereby, 2d, Our obedience is rendered acceptable to God, which it would not be if it were not sprinkled with his blood, or recommended by his mediation. Grace unto you — The unmerited favour and love of God, with those influences of the Spirit, which are the effect thereof; and peace — All sorts of blessings; be multiplied — Possessed in great abundance. 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Peter 1:3-4 . Blessed be the God and Father, or, God even the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ — His only-begotten and beloved Son; who, according to his abundant mercy — His compassion for us in our state of ignorance and guilt, depravity and weakness; his undeserved love and goodness, the source of all our blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal: hath begotten us again — Regenerated us; to a lively — ????? , living, hope — A hope which implies true spiritual life, is the consequence of repentance unto life, living faith, justification by faith, and a birth from above, by which we pass from death unto life; a hope which revives the heart, and makes the soul lively and vigorous: by the resurrection of Christ — Which not only proved him to be the Son of God, ( Romans 1:4 ,) and demonstrated the truth and importance of his doctrine, which brought life and immortality to light, but manifested the acceptableness and efficacy of the sacrifice he offered for sin, opened an intercourse between God and man, made way for our receiving the Holy Ghost, and is a pledge and earnest of our resurrection, he having risen the first-fruits of them that sleep in him. To an inheritance — For if we are children, then are we heirs; incorruptible — Not like earthly inheritances or possessions, of whatever kind, which are both corruptible in themselves, tending in their own nature to dissolution and decay; and are possessed by that which is corruptible, even through the medium of the body, with its senses and members, all tending to decay and dissolution. But the inheritance we expect is neither corruptible in itself, nor shall we that enjoy it be corruptible, either in soul or body. Undefiled — Every thing here is therefore corruptible, because it has been defiled with the sin of man, and laid under a curse, so that vanity and misery are attached to the enjoyment of every thing; and we ourselves, having been defiled in soul and body, have all the seeds of vanity and misery sown in our frame. But the inheritance reserved for us has not been defiled by any sin, and therefore has no curse, vanity, or misery attached to it: Revelation 22:3 . And we ourselves, when admitted into that world, shall be perfectly pure, and shall have in our frame no hinderance to the most perfect enjoyment. And fadeth not away — As every thing in this world does, decaying in lustre and glory, in sweetness, or the pleasure it yields in the enjoyment, and in value to us, who can only have a life estate in any thing; whence, whatever we possess is continually decreasing in value to us, as the time approaches when we are to be dispossessed of it. But the inheritance above, on the contrary, will not decay in any of these respects: its value, its glory and sweetness, or the pleasure it yields in the enjoyment, will continue the same to all eternity; or rather, will continually increase; new glories opening upon us, new pleasures offering themselves to our enjoyment, and new riches not ceasing to be conferred upon us from the inexhaustible stores of divine and infinite beneficence. Reserved in heaven — And therefore not subject to such changes as are continually taking place here on earth; for you — Who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and immortality. 1 Peter 1:4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:5 . Who are kept — Who, though now surrounded with many apparent dangers, are not left defenceless, but are guarded, kept as in a garrison, as the word ????????????? signifies; by the power of God — Which worketh all in all; or secured from all real harm, under the observation of his all-seeing eye, and the protection of his almighty hand; through faith — Through the continued exercise of that faith, by which alone salvation is both received and retained. The clause is very emphatical: “It represents,” says Macknight, “believers as attacked by evil spirits and wicked men, their enemies, but defended against those attacks by the power of God, through the influence of their faith, ( 1 John 5:4 ,) just as those who remain in an impregnable fortress are secured from the attacks of their enemies by its ramparts and walls.” Ready — ??????? , prepared, to be revealed — In all its glory; in the last time — The time of Christ’s second coming; the grand period, in which all the mysteries of divine providence shall beautifully and gloriously terminate. Some have thought that by the salvation here spoken of, the apostle meant the preservation from the destruction brought on the Jewish nation by the Romans, which preservation the disciples of Christ “obtained, by observing the signs mentioned in their Master’s prophecy concerning that event. For, when they saw these signs take place, they fled from Jerusalem to places of safety, agreeably to their Master’s order, Matthew 24:16 . But what is said, 1 Peter 1:9-12 , concerning this salvation; that it is a salvation, not of the body, but of the soul, to be bestowed as the reward of faith; that the prophets, who foretold this salvation, searched diligently among what people, and at what time, the means of procuring it were accomplished; that it was revealed to the prophets that these means were to be accomplished, not among them, but among us; and that these things were to be preached by the apostles as actually come to pass: I say, the above- mentioned particulars concerning the salvation to be revealed in the last time, do not agree to the deliverance of the Christians from the destruction of Jerusalem, but are applicable only to the salvation of believers in general from eternal death, by a resurrection to an immortal life in heaven, at the time of Christ’s coming, when this salvation is to be revealed; and that time is called the last time, because it will be the concluding scene of God’s dispensations relating to our world.” — Macknight. 1 Peter 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 1 Peter 1:6 . Wherein — In which living hope of such a glorious inheritance, and in being so kept to the enjoyment of it, ye, even now, greatly rejoice — ?????????? , ye are exceeding glad, or leap for joy, though for a season, ?????? ???? , now — A little while: such is our whole life compared to eternity! if need be — When God sees it needful, and the best means for your spiritual profit; ye are in heaviness — ?????????? , grieved, or in sorrow; but not in darkness: for they still retained both faith and hope, 1 Peter 1:3 ; 1 Peter 1:5 ; yea, and love, 1 Peter 1:8 . From this we learn that the people of God are never afflicted except when it is either necessary for, or conducive to, their spiritual improvement. What a consolation is this to the afflicted! That the trial of your faith — The trying whether it be genuine, or the proof of it upon trial; being much more precious — Or much more important, or of greater consequence, than the trial of gold — Or that your faith, being tried, and proved to be genuine upon trial, which is more precious than gold, (for gold, though it bear the fire, will yet perish with the world,) may be found, though it doth not yet appear, unto praise — From God himself; or may be approved and commended by him; and honour — From men and angels; and glory — Assigned by the great Judge; at the appearing of Jesus Christ — At the time of the restitution of all things, when he shall appear for the perfect and final salvation of his followers. One reason why the Christians, in the first age, were subject to persecution and death was, as Macknight observes, “that their faith being put to the severest trial, mankind might have, in their tried and persevering faith, what is infinitely more profitable to them than all the gold and silver in the world; namely, such an irrefragable demonstration of the truth of the facts on which the Christian religion is built, as will bring praise, and honour, and glory, to God, and to the martyrs themselves, at the last day. For what can be more honourable to God, than that the persons, whom he appointed to bear witness to the resurrection of Christ, and to the other miracles by which the gospel was established, sealed their testimony with their blood? Or what greater evidence of the truth of these miracles can the world require, than that the persons who were eye-witnesses of them, lost their estates, endured extreme tortures, and parted with their lives, for bearing testimony to them? Or what greater felicity can these magnanimous heroes wish to receive than that which shall be bestowed on them at the revelation of Jesus Christ, when their testimony shall be put beyond all doubt, their persecutors shall be punished, and themselves rewarded with the everlasting possession of heaven?” 1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 1 Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 1 Peter 1:8-9 . Whom having not seen — ??????? , known, that is, personally in the flesh; ye love — Namely, on account of his amiable character, and for the great things he hath done and suffered for you, and the great benefits he hath bestowed on you. It is very possible, as Doddridge observes, that among these dispersed Christians, there might be some who had visited Jerusalem while Christ was there, and might have seen, or even conversed with him; but as the greater part had not, St. Peter speaks, according to the usual apostolic manner, as if they all had not. Thus he speaks of them all as loving Christ, though there might be some among them who were destitute both of this divine principle and of that joy which he here describes as ?????????? ??? ??????????? , unutterable and glorified; that is, such joy as was an anticipation of that of the saints in glory. Receiving — Even now already, with unspeakable delight, as a full equivalent for all your trials; the end of your faith — That which in your faith you aim at, and which is the seal and the reward of it; the salvation of your souls — From the guilt and power of your sins, and all the consequences thereof, into the favour and image of God, and a state of communion with him; implying a qualification for, and earnest of, complete and eternal salvation. The Jews thought that the salvation to be accomplished by the Messiah would be a salvation from the Roman and every foreign yoke; but that would only have been a salvation of their bodies: whereas the salvation which believers expect from Christ is the salvation of their souls from sin and misery, and of their bodies from the grave. 1 Peter 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 1 Peter 1:10-11 . Of which salvation — That is, concerning the nature and extent of it, and the way and means of attaining it, namely, by believing and obeying the gospel, to be preached among all nations: (see the margin:) the prophets have inquired — ?????????? , sought with accuracy, or were earnestly inquisitive about; and searched diligently — (Like miners searching for precious ore,) after the meaning of the prophecies which they delivered; who prophesied — Long ago; of the grace of God toward you — Of his abundant overflowing grace to be bestowed on believers under the dispensation of the Messiah: searching what, or what time — What particular period; and what manner of time — By what marks to be distinguished; or in what age of the world, and what events should then take place. From this it appears that in many instances the prophets did not understand the meaning of their own prophecies, but studied them, as others did, with great care, in order to find it out. See Daniel 7:28 ; Daniel 12:8 . This care they used more especially in examining the prophecies which they uttered concerning Christ. The Spirit of Christ which was in them — The Holy Spirit, as a Spirit of prophecy communicated to them by Christ, who therefore then existed, and that not as a creature, for no creature can give the Holy Ghost but a person properly divine. Here then we learn that the inspiration of the Jewish prophets was derived from Christ; it was his Spirit (see Galatians 4:6 ) which spoke in them. The same Spirit he promised to the apostles, John 16:7 ; John 16:13 . Wherefore, the prophets and apostles being inspired by one and the same Spirit, their doctrine must be, as in fact it is, the same. When it testified beforehand — Moved them to foretel and show; the sufferings of Christ, (see the margin,) and the glory that should follow — ??? ???? ????? ????? , the glories that should succeed these sufferings; namely, the glory of his resurrection, ascension, exaltation, and the effusion of his Spirit; the glory of the last judgment, and of his eternal kingdom; and also the glories of his grace in the hearts and lives of true believers. 1 Peter 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 1 Peter 1:12 . Unto whom — So searching; it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us — Not so much for their own benefit as for ours, to whose time the accomplishment of their prophecies was reserved; they did minister the things which are now reported unto you — Performed the office of foretelling the things, the accomplishment whereof has been declared unto you. In other words, that they did not so much by their predictions serve themselves or that generation, as they have served us, who now enjoy what they only saw afar off. With the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven — Confirmed by the inward powerful testimony of the Holy Ghost, as well as the mighty effusion of his miraculous gifts. Which things the angels desire to look into — To obtain a more perfect insight into, and knowledge of, as being matters of their admiration and delight, because in them the manifold wisdom of God is displayed, and by them the salvation of men is procured and effected, which they rejoice in. The expression, the angels desire to look into, is literally, to stoop down to. “But stooping being the action of one who desires to look narrowly into a thing, it properly means to look attentively. The omission of the article before ??????? , angels, renders the meaning more grand. Not any particular species of angels, but all the different orders of them, desire to look into the things foretold by the prophets, and preached by the apostles. See Ephesians 3:10 . This earnest desire of the angels to contemplate the sufferings of Christ, was emblematically signified by the cherubim placed in the inward tabernacle, with their faces turned down toward the mercy-seat, Exodus 25:20 . To that emblem there is a plain allusion in the word ????????? here, to stoop. The apostle’s meaning is, If our salvation, and the means by which it is accomplished, are of such importance as to merit the attention of angels, how much more do they merit our attention, who are so much interested in them!” — Macknight. Here is a beautiful gradation: prophets, righteous men, kings, desired to hear and see the things which Christ did and taught, Matthew 13:17 ; but what the Holy Ghost taught concerning Christ, the very angels long to understand. 1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 1 Peter 1:13-16 . Wherefore — Since your lot is fallen into these glorious times, wherein you enjoy such high privileges above what the people of God formerly enjoyed; since the blessings which are set before you are so invaluable, and are so freely offered you, and you have such great encouragement to believe you may attain them; gird up the loins of your mind — Prepare to pursue them with vigour, constancy, and perseverance, and to perform the various duties which they lay you under an indispensable obligation steadily to practise. The apostle alludes to the manners of the eastern countries, in which the men’s garments being long and flowing, they prepared themselves for travelling, and other active employments, by girding them up with a girdle put round their loins, to prevent their being encumbered by them. The loins of the mind, therefore, is a figurative expression for the faculties of the soul, the understanding, memory, will, and affections, which the apostle signifies must be gathered in and girded, as it were, about the soul by the girdle of truth, so as to be in a state fit for continual and unwearied exertion in running the Christian race, fighting the good fight of faith, and working out our salvation with fear and trembling. Our mind must not be overcharged at any time with surfeiting and drunkenness, or the cares of this life: our affections must be placed on proper objects, and in a just degree; and especially must be set on the things that are above, which are to be our portion and felicity for ever: our various passions must be under the government of reason and religion, of the truth and grace of God. Be sober — Or rather, watchful, as ???????? properly signifies, as servants that wait for their Lord; and hope to the end — ??????? ???????? , hope perfectly, namely, with the full assurance of hope; for the grace — The blessings flowing from the free favour of God; to be brought unto you at the final and glorious revelation of Jesus Christ — At the end of the world. As obedient children — As children of God, obedient to him in all things; not fashioning — Or conforming; yourselves — In spirit and conduct; according to — Or, as if you were influenced by; your former desires in your ignorance — When you were unacquainted with those better things which now claim the utmost vigour of your affections. But as he which hath called you — To be his children and his heirs; is holy — A being perfectly pure and spiritual; be ye holy — In imitation of him, your heavenly Father; in all manner of conversation — ?? ???? ????????? , in your whole behaviour, in all your tempers, words, and works, from day to day. 1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 1 Peter 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 1 Peter 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:17 And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: 1 Peter 1:17 . And if ye call on the Father — With an expectation of being heard; or, as you desire or expect audience and acceptance at God’s hands; who, without respect of persons — Which can have no place with God; see note on Romans 2:11 ; judgeth according to every man’s work — According to the tenor of his life and conversation; pass the time of your sojourning — The short season of your abode on earth; in fear — In the reverential and awful fear of God, in an humble and loving fear of offending him, in a watchful fear of your spiritual enemies, and in a jealous fear of yourselves, lest a promise being left you of entering into his rest, you should, through lukewarmness, sloth, and indolence, or through levity, carelessness, and negligence, after all, come short of it. This fear is a proper companion and guard of hope. The word ???????? , here rendered sojourning, properly signifies the stay which travellers make in a place while finishing some business. The term, therefore, is applied with great propriety to the abode of the children of God in the present world, as it signifies that this earth is not their home, and that they are to remain in it only a short time. See on Hebrews 11:13 . 1 Peter 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 1 Peter 1:18-21 . Forasmuch as ye know, &c. — That is, be holy in your whole behaviour, because ye know what an immense price your redemption cost; that you were not redeemed with corruptible things — Such as all visible and temporal things are; even silver and gold — Highly as they are prized, and eagerly as they are sought; from your vain conversation — Your foolish, sinful way of life, a way wholly unprofitable to yourselves, and dishonourable to God; received by traditions from your fathers — Which you had been engaged in by the instruction or example of your forefathers. The Jews derived from their fathers that implicit regard for the traditions of the elders, by which they made the law of God of none effect, with a variety of other corrupt principles and practices. In like manner the Gentiles derived their idolatry, and other abominable vices, from the teaching and example of their fathers; for, in general, as Whitby justly remarks, the strongest arguments for false religions, as well as for errors in the true, is that men have received them from their fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ — Blood of immense value, being the blood of the only-begotten Son of God, who had glory with the Father before the world was; as of a lamb without blemish and without spot — See on Leviticus 22:21-22 . The sacrifice of himself, which Christ offered to God without spot, being here likened to the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, and of the lambs daily offered as sin-offerings for the whole nation, we are thereby taught that the shedding of Christ’s blood is a real atonement for the sins of the world. Hence John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And to show the extent of the efficacy of his sacrifice, that it reaches backward to the fall of man, as well as forward to the end of time, he is said ( Revelation 13:8 ) to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Who verily was foreordained — ????????????? , foreknown, before the foundation of the world — Before God called the universe into being; but was manifested — Namely, in the flesh, John 1:14 ; 1 John 3:8 ; in these last times — Of the Mosaic economy, or in the times of the gospel, the last dispensation of divine mercy; see note on Hebrews 1:2 ; for you — Jews or Gentiles; who by him — Through the virtue of his sacrifice, and the efficacy of his grace; do believe in God — In the one living and true God, as your Friend and Father; that raised him up from the dead — Thereby confirming his doctrine, showing the efficacy of his atonement, procuring for you the Holy Spirit, and assuring you of your resurrection; see on 1 Peter 1:3 ; and gave him glory — Placed him at his own right hand, and invested him with all power in heaven and on earth, for the salvation of his followers, and the destruction of his and their enemies. See Hebrews 10:13 . That your faith and hope might be in God — That you might be encouraged to believe in God as reconciled to you through Christ, that you might hope on good grounds that he will glorify you as he hath done Christ your Head; or, that your faith and hope might terminate in God the Father, or be ultimately fixed on him through the mediation of his Son. 1 Peter 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 1 Peter 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 1 Peter 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 1 Peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 1 Peter 1:22-23 . Seeing you have purified your souls — By applying to this fountain which God has opened for sin and for uncleanness, and by believing and obeying the truth, which God hath appointed to be the grand means of sanctification, delivering such as obey it from the power, and purifying them from the defilement of sin, John 8:32 ; John 17:17 ; through the Spirit working by the word, unto the unfeigned love of the brethren — For the fruit of the Spirit is love to the children of God, as well as to God their heavenly Father. See that ye love one another with a pure heart — A heart purified from all earthly and sensual affections, and corrupt pas

Expositors

Expositor's Bible Commentary 1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Chapter 1 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER THE WORK OF THE TRINITY IN MAN’S ELECTION AND SALVATION 1 Peter 1:1-2 "WHEN thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren," { Luke 22:32 } was the Lord’s injunction to St. Peter, of which this Epistle may be considered as a part fulfillment. So richly stored is it with counsel, warning, and consolation that Luther, the conflicts of whose life will bear some comparison with the trials of these Asian converts, calls it one of the most precious portions of the New Testament Scriptures. Its value is further enhanced because in so many places the Apostle reverts in thought or word to his own life-history, and draws his teaching from the rich stream of personal experience. Even the name which he sets at the head of the letter had its lesson in connection with Jesus. Most Jews took a second name for profaner use in their commerce with the heathen; but to Simon, the son of Jonas, Peter must have been a specially sacred name, must have served as a watchword both to himself and to all others who had learnt the story of its bestowal and the meaning which was bound up with it. That a letter by St. Peter should be, as this is, of a very practical character is no more than we might expect from what we know of the Apostle from the Gospels. Prompt in word and action, ever the spokesman of the twelve, he seems made for a guide and leader of men. What perhaps we should not have expected is the very definite doctrinal language with which the Epistle opens. Nowhere in the writings either of St. Paul or St. John do we find more full or more instructive teaching concerning the Holy Trinity. And herein St. Peter has been guided to choose the only order which tends to edification. Sound lessons for Christian life must be grounded upon a right faith, and a brother can afford no strength to his brethren unless first of all he point them clearly to the source whence both his strength and theirs must come. Of the previous intercourse between St. Peter and those to whom he writes we can only judge from the Epistle itself. The Apostle’s name disappears from New Testament history after the Council of Jerusalem, { Acts 15:1-41 } but we feel sure his labors did not cease then; and though the first message of Christianity may have been brought to these Asiatic provinces by St. Paul, the allusions which St. Peter makes to the trials of the converts are such as seem impossible had he not himself labored among them. The frequent reminders, the special warnings, could come only from one who knew their circumstances very intimately. Allusions to the former lusts indulged in, in their days of ignorance, to the reproaches which they now have to suffer from their heathen neighbors, to their going astray like lost sheep, are a few of the unmistakable evidences of personal knowledge. He writes to them as "sojourners of the dispersion." In the minds of the Jews this name would wake up sad memories of their past history. It told of that great break in the national unity which was made by the tarrying in Babylon of so many of the people at the time of the return, then of those painful periods in later days when their nation, as the vassal now of Persia, now of Greece, of Egypt, of Syria, and of Rome, was made the sport of the world-powers as they rose and fell, times in which Israel could see few tokens of the Divine favor, could hear no voice of the prophet to encourage or to guide. But now to those who had accepted the Gospel of Christ those dark years would be seen to have been in no wise barren of blessing and of profit. The scattered Jews had carried much of their faith abroad among the nations; schools of religious teaching had arisen; the chosen people in their dispersion had adopted the language best known among the other nations; and thus the outcome of those sorrowful times had been a preparation for the Gospel. Proselytes had been made in the countries of their exile, and a wider field opened for the Christian harvest. The dispersion of Israel had been made, as it were, a bridge over which the grace of God passed for publishing the glad tidings of the Gospel, and to gather Jew and Gentile alike into the fold of Christ. But it would be a mistake to restrict the word "dispersion" here to the Jewish converts. The Apostle speaks more than once in his letter to those who had never been Jews, to men who { 1 Peter 1:14 } had been fashioned according to their former lusts in ignorance; who had in times { 1 Peter 2:10 } no share with God’s people; who { 1 Peter 4:13 } had wrought the will of the Gentiles, walking in lasciviousness, lusts, and abominable idolatries. To these too since their conversion the name "dispersion" might be fitly applied. They were but a few here and there among the multitudes of heathendom. And their acceptance of the faith of Jesus must have given to their lives a different aspect. It must often be so with the faithful. Their life is from the world apart. It must have been specially thus with these Christians in Asia. They could be verily only strangers and sojourners; their true home could never be made among their heathen surroundings. As the Jew in old days sighed for Jerusalem, so their hope was centered on a Jerusalem above. Yet God had a mission for them in the world. This is a special portion of St. Peter’s message. As the scattered Jews of old had opened a door for the spreading of the Gospel, so the Christians of the dispersion were to be its witnesses. Their election had made them a peculiar people; but it was that they might show forth the praises of Him who had called them out of darkness into His marvelous light, and that by their good works the heathen might be won to glorify God when in His own time He should visit them too with the day-star from on high. But beside the words which speak of severance and pilgrimage, the Apostle uses one of a different character. With that large charity and hope which is stamped upon the whole of the New Testament, he calls these scattered Christian converts the elect of God. Just as St. Paul so often includes whole Churches, even though he find in them many things to blame and to reprove, under the title of "saints" or "called to be saints," so it is here. And the sense of their election is intended to be a mighty power. It is to bind them wherever they may be scattered into one communion in Christ Jesus. Through the world they are dispersed, but in Christ they constitute a great unity. And the sense of this is to lift their hearts above any sorrowing for their isolation in the world. For through Christ they have { 1 Peter 1:4 } an inheritance, a home, a claim of sonship; and their salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. Later generations have witnessed much unprofitable controversy round this word "election." Some men have seen nothing else in the Bible, while others have hardly acknowledged it to be there at all. Then some have labored to reconcile to their understandings the two truths of God’s sovereignty and the freedom of the human will, not content to believe that in God’s economy there may be things beyond their measure. St. Peter, like the other New Testament writers, enters on no such discussions. Whether amid the full assurance of newly quickened faith the first Christians found no room for intellectual difficulties, or whether the spirit within them led them to feel that such questions must ever be insoluble, we cannot know; but it is instructive to note that the Scripture does not raise them. They are the growth of later days, of times when Christianity was widespread, when men had lost the feeling that they were strangers and pilgrims of the dispersion, and were no longer prepared to welcome, with St. Peter and St. Paul, every Christian brother into the number of God’s chosen ones, counting them as those who had been called to be saints. Of the election of believers the Apostle here speaks in its origin, its progress, and its consummation. He views it as a process which must extend through the whole life, and connects its various stages with the Three Persons of the Trinity. But, with the same practical instinct which has already been noticed, he enters on no statements about the nature of the Godhead in itself; he neither discusses what may be known of God, nor how the knowledge is to be obtained. He says no word to intimate that the mention of three Persons may be difficult to understand in co-relation to the unity of the Godhead. Such inquiries exercise the mind, but can hardly further, what was St. Peter’s special aim, the edification and comfort of the soul. That result comes from the inward experience of what each Person of the Godhead is to us, and on this the Apostle has a lesson. He makes plain for us the share which Father, Son, and Spirit bear in the work of human salvation. Christians, he teaches us, are elect, chosen to be saints, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father; the election is maintained when their lives are constantly hallowed by the influence of the Holy Ghost; while in Christ they have not only an example of perfect obedience after which they must strive, but a Redeemer whose blood can cleanse them from all the sins from which the most earnest strivings will not set them free. Of these things the Christian soul can have experience. It is thus that the life of the elect believer begins, grows, and is perfected. It begins "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." Here St. Peter may be his own interpreter. In his sermon on the day of Pentecost he employs the same word, "foreknowledge," and he is the only one who uses it in the New Testament. There { Acts 2:23 } he says that Christ was delivered up to be crucified by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. And on the same subject in this very chapter { 1 Peter 1:20 } he speaks of Jesus as foreknown, as a Lamb without spot and blemish before the foundation of the world. In these passages we are carried back beyond the ages into the Divine council-chamber, and we find the whole course of human history naked and open before the eyes of the All-seeing. God knew even then what the history of the human race would be, saw that sin would find an entrance into the world, and that a sacrifice would be needed, if sinners were to be redeemed. Yet He called the world and its tenants into being, and provided the ransom in the person of His only Son. Why this was well-pleasing unto Him it is not ours to discuss; whether for the uplifting of humanity by providing an opportunity for moral obedience or for the greater manifestation of His infinite love. But whatever else is mysterious, one thing is plain: the counsel of the Holy One is seen to be a counsel of mercy and of love; and though its operation may not seldom be perplexing to our finite powers, the Apostle teaches us that this determination from all eternity was made with infinite tenderness. He tells us it was the ordinance of our Father. The beginning and the end thereof are hidden from us. We learn only a fragment of His dealings during the brief period of a human life. But men may rest content with the proof of their election in the sound of the Gospel message which they hear. They who are thus called may count themselves for chosen. This call is the Divine testimony that God is choosing them. Concerning His intention towards others who may seem to have passed away without hearing of His love, or who are living as though no loving message of glad tidings had ever been proclaimed, we must rest in ignorance, only assured that the Eternal God is as truly their Father as we know Him to be ours. To limited human knowledge the course of the world has ever been, must ever be, full of darkness and perplexities. Men gaze upon it as they do upon the wrong side of a piece of tapestry as it is woven. To such observers the pattern is always obscure, many a time quite unintelligible. For full knowledge we have to wait to the end. Then the web will be reversed. God’s designs and their working comprehended; we shall know even as we are known, and, with hearts and voices tuned to praise, shall cry, "He hath done all things well." Of such a revelation the poet (Shelley, Adonais, Stanza 3) sings, a revelation of the all-seeing, unchanging Jehovah and of the glorious enlightenment that shall be in His presence:- "The one remains, the many change and pass; Heaven’s light for ever shines, earth’s shadows fly: Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, Stains the white radiance of eternity, Until death tramples it to fragments." In this wise would St. Peter have us think of the grace of election. It has its beginning from our Father; its fulfillment will also be with Him. The measure and the manner of its bestowal are according to His foreknowledge, according to the same foreknowledge which provided in Christ an atonement for sin, which appointed Him to die, and that not for some sinners only, but for the sins of the whole world. But in the call according to God’s foreknowledge the believer is not perfected. He must live worthily of his calling. And as his election at the first is of God, so the power to hold it fast is a Divine gift. He who would rejoice over God’s election must feel and constantly foster within himself the "sanctification of the Spirit." To be made holy is his great need. This demands a life of progress, of renewal, a daily endeavor to restore the image which was lost at the Fall. "Be ye holy, for I am holy," is a fundamental precept of both Old and New Testaments; and it is a continual admonition, speaking unto Christians that they go forward. Under the Law the lesson was enforced by external symbols. Holy ground, holy days, holy offices, kept men alive to the need of preparation, of purification, before they could be fit to draw near unto God or for God to draw near unto them. For thus there is opened a more excellent way: the inward, spiritual cleansing of the heart. Christ has gone away where He was before, and sends down to His servants the Holy Ghost, who bestows power that the election of the Father may be made sure. Hence we can understand those frequent exhortations in the epistles, "Walk in the Spirit"; "Live in the Spirit"; "Quench not the Spirit." The Christian life is a struggle. The flesh is ever striving for the mastery. This enemy the believer must do to death. And as aforetime, so now, sanctification begins with purification. Christ sanctifies His Church, those whom He has called to Him out of the world; and the manner is by cleansing them through the washing of water with the word. Here we gladly think of that sacrament which He ordained for admission into the Church as the beginning of his Divine operation, as the wonted entrance of the Holy Ghost for His work of purifying. But that work must be continued. He is called "holy" because He makes men holy by His abode with them. And Christ has described for us how this is brought to pass. "He shall take of Mine," says our Lord, "and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine". { John 16:14-15 } Every good gift, which the Father who calls men hath, the Spirit is sent to impart. The words speak of the gradual manner of its bestowal; all things may be given, but they are given little by little, as men can or are fit to receive them. He shall take a portion of what is Mine, is the literal meaning of the Evangelist’s phrase. { John 16:15 } The plural phrase, ????? ??? ???? ? ????? , marks the boundless supply, the singular, ?? ??? ???? ??????? , the Spirit’s choice of such a portion there from as best suits the receiver’s needs and powers. In this wise men may become gradually conformed to the image of Christ, grow more and more like Him day by day. More and more will they drink in of the whole truth, and more and more will they be sanctified. In this daily enlightenment must God’s faithful ones live, a life whose atmosphere is the hallowing influence of the Holy Ghost. But it is to be no mere life of receptivity, with no effort of their own. The Apostle makes this clear elsewhere, when he says, "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts" { 1 Peter 3:15 } -make them fit abodes for His Spirit to dwell in; lead your lives in holy conversation, that the house may be swept and garnished, and you be vessels sanctified and meet for the Master’s use. Thus chosen by the Father and led onward by the Spirit, the Christian is brought ever nearer to the full purpose of his calling: "unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." The Christ-pattern which the Spirit sets before men is in no feature more striking than in its perfect obedience. The prophetic announcement of this submission sounds down to us from the Psalms: "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God"; and the incarnate Son declares of Himself, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent He, and to finish His work": and even in the hour of His supreme agony His word is still, "Father, not My will, but Thine, be done." Specially solemn, almost startling, is the language of the Apostle to the Hebrews when he says of Jesus that "He learned obedience by the things which He suffered," and that "it became the Father, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make Christ, the Captain of their salvation, perfect through suffering." With the Lord as an example, obedience is made the noblest, the New Testament form of sacrifice. But when such obedience was connected with the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, the Jews among St. Peter’s converts must have been carried in thought to that scene described in Exodus 24:1-18 . There, through Moses as a mediator, we read of God’s law being made known to Israel, and the people with one voice promised obedience: "All the words which the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." Then followed a sacrifice; and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words"; and the Lord drew nigh unto His people, and the sight of the glory of the Lord on Mount Sinai was like devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel. For Christians there is a Mediator of a better covenant. We are not come unto the mount that burned with fire, but unto Mount Zion. { Hebrews 12:18-22 } In that other sacrament of His own institution, our Lord makes us partakers of the benefits of His Passion. With His own blood He constantly maketh His people pure, fitting them to appear in the presence of the Father. There at length the purpose of their election shall be complete in fullness of joy in the sight of Him who chose them before the foundation of the world. Thus does the Apostle set forth his practical, profitable lessons on the work of the Trinity in man’s election and salvation; and he concludes them with a benediction part of which is very frequent in the letters of St. Paul: "Grace to you and peace." The early preachers felt that these two blessings traveled hand in hand, and comprised everything which a believer could need: God’s favor and the happiness which is its fruit. Grace is the nurture of the Christian life; peace is its character. These strangers of the dispersion had been made partakers of the Divine grace. This very letter was one gift more, the consolation of which we can well conceive. But St. Peter models his benediction to be a fitting sequel to his previous teaching. "Grace," he says, "to you and peace be multiplied." The verb "be multiplied" is only used by him here and in the Second Epistle, and by St. Jude, whose letter has so much in common with St. Peter’s. In this prayer the same thought is with him as when he spake of the stages of the Christian election. There must ever be growth as the Sign of life. Let them hold fast the grace already received, and more would be bestowed. Grace for grace is God’s rule of giving, new store for what has been rightly used. This one word of his prayer would say to them, Seek constantly greater sanctification, more holiness, from the Spirit; yield your will to God in imitation of Jesus, who sanctified Himself that His servants might be sanctified. Then, though you be strangers of the dispersion, though the world will have none of you, you shall be kept in perfect peace, and feel sure that you can trust His words who says to His warfaring servants, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Chapter 2 THE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE 1 Peter 1:3-9 "OUT of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," words true of all this letter, but of no part more true than of the thanksgiving with which it opens. The Apostle recalls those dark three days in which the life he bore was worse than death. His vaunted fidelity had been put to the proof, and had failed in the trial; his denial had barred the approach to the Master whom he had disowned. The crucifixion of Jesus had followed close upon His arrest, and Peter’s bitter tears of penitence could avail nothing. He to whom they might have appealed was lying in the grave. The Apostle’s repentant weeping saved him from a Judas-like despair, but dreary must have been the desolation of his soul until the Easter morning’s message told him that Jesus was alive again. We can understand the fervency of his thanksgiving: "Blessed be God, which hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead." No better image than the gift of a new life could he find to describe the restoration that came with the words of the angel from the empty tomb, "He is risen; go your way: tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee." The Lord forgave His sinning, sorrowing servant, and through this forgiveness he lived again, and bears printed forever on his heart the memory of that life-giving. The very form of his phrase in this verse is an echo from the resurrection morning. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Only in a few passages resembling this in St. Paul’s epistles is God called "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ." But Peter is, mindful of the Lord’s own words to Mary, "Go unto My brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God"; { John 20:17 } and now that he is made one of Christ’s heralds, the feeder of His sheep, he publishes the same message which was the source of his own highest joy, and which he would make a joy for them likewise. That God is called theirs, even as He is Christ’s, is an earnest that Jesus has made them His brethren indeed. To the doctrine of their election according to the foreknowledge of the Father he now adds the further grace which couples the Fatherhood of God with the brotherhood of Christ. That these gifts are purely of God’s grace he also implies: "He begat us again." Just as in natural birth the child is utterly of the will of the parents, so is it in the spiritual new birth. "According to God’s great mercy" we are born again and made heirs of all the consequent blessings. This passage from death unto life is rich, in the first place, in immediate comfort. Witness the rejoicing amidst his grief which St. Peter experienced when he could cry to the Master, "Lord, Thou knowest all things: Thou knowest that I love Thee." But the new life looks forever onward. It will be unbroken through eternity. Here we may taste the joy of our calling, may learn something of the Father’s love, of the Savior’s grace, of the Spirit’s help; but our best expectations center ever in the future. The Apostle terms these expectations a lively, or rather a living, hope. The Christian’s hope is living because Christ is alive again from the dead. It springs with ever-renewed life from that rent tomb. The grave is no longer a terminus. Life and hope endure beyond it. And more than this, there is a fresh principle of vitality infused into the soul of the newborn child of God. The Spirit, the Life-giver, has made His abode there; and death is swallowed up of victory. In continuing his description of the living hope of the believer, the Apostle keeps in mind his simile of Fatherhood and sonship, and gives to the hope the further title of an inheritance. As sons of Adam, men are heirs from their birth, but only to the sad consequences of the primal transgression. Slaves they are, and not free men, as that other law in their members gives them daily proof. But in the resurrection of Jesus the agonized cry of St. Paul, "Who shall deliver me?," { Romans 7:24 } has found its answer. Christians are begotten again, not to defeat and despair, but to a hope which is eternal, to an inheritance which will endure beyond the grave. And as in their spiritual growth they are ever aspiring to an ideal above and beyond them, in respect to the saintly inheritance they have a like experience. They begin to grasp it now in part, and have even here a precious earnest of the larger blessedness; they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise and marked as the redeemed of God’s own possession. { Ephesians 1:13-14 } But that which shall be is rich with an exceeding wealth of glory; Christ keeps the good wine of His grace to the last. How beggared earthly speech appears when we essay by it to picture the glory that shall be revealed for us! The inheritance of the Christian’s hope demands for its description those unspeakable words which St. Paul heard in paradise, but could not utter. The tongues of men are constrained to fall back upon negatives. What it will be we cannot express. We only know some evils from which it will be free. It shall be incorruptible, like the God and Father { Romans 1:23 } who bestows it. Eternal, it shall contain within it no seed of decay, nothing which can cause it to perish. Neither shall it be subject to injury from without. It shall be undefiled, for we are to share it with our elder Brother, our High-priest, { Hebrews 7:26 } who is now made higher than the heavens. Earthly possessions are often sullied, now by the way they are attained, now by the way they are used. Neither spot nor blemish shall tarnish the beauty of the heavenly inheritance. It shall never fade away. It is amaranthine, like the crown of glory { 1 Peter 5:4 } which the chief Shepherd shall bestow at His appearing; it is as the unwithering flowers of paradise. Nor are these the only things which make the heavenly to differ from the earthly inheritance. In this life, ere a son can succeed to heirship, the parent through whom it is derived must have passed away; while the many heirs to an earthly estate diminish, as their number increases, the shares of all the rest. From such conditions the Christian’s future is free. His Father is the Eternal God, his inheritance the inexhaustible bounty of heaven. Each and all who share therein will find an increase of joy as the number grows of those who claim this eternal Fatherhood, and with it a place in the Father’s home. St. Peter adds another feature which gives further assurance to the believer’s hope. The inheritance is reserved. Concerning it there can be no thought of dwindling or decay. It is where neither rust nor moth can corrupt, and where not even the arch-thief Satan himself can break through to steal. There needs no preservation of the incorruptible and undefiled, but it is especially kept for those for whom it is prepared. He who has gone before to make it ready said, "I go to prepare it for you." The Apostle has made choice of his preposition advisedly. He says, ??? ???? -on your behalf; for your own possession. The inheritance is where Christ has gone before us, in heaven, of which we can best think, as Himself hath taught us, as the place "where He was before," { John 6:62 } the Father’s house, in which are many mansions. There it is in store, till we are made ready for it. For the present life is only a preparation-time. Ere we are ready to depart we must pass through a probation. God suffers His beloved ones to be chastened, but He sends with the trial the means of rescue. They are guarded. The word which St. Peter here uses is one applicable to a military guard, such as would be needed in the country of an enemy. God sees what we stand in need of. For we are still in the territory of the prince of this world. But mark the abundant protection: "by the power of God through faith." The Apostle’s language sets our guardianship forth under a double aspect. The Christian is in ( ?? ) the power of God. Here is the strength of our wardship. Under such care the believer is enabled to walk amid the trials of the world unscathed. Yet the Divine shield around him is not made effective unless he do his part also. Through faith the shelter becomes impregnable. The Christian goes forward with full assurance, his eyes fixed on the goal of duty which his Master has set before him, and, heedless of assailants, perseveres in the struggles which beset him. Then, even in the fiercest fires of trial, he beholds by his side the Son of God, and hears the voice, "It is I; be not afraid." Thus to the faithful warfarer the victory is sure. And to this certainty St. Peter points as he continues, and calls the heavenly inheritance a salvation. This will be the consummation. " Sursum corda " is the believer’s constant watchword. The completed bliss will not be attained here. But when the veil is lifted which separates this life from the next, it is ready to be manifested and to ravish the sight with its glory. The sense of this salvation ready to be revealed nerves the heart for every conflict. By faith weakness grows mighty. Thus comes to pass the paradox of the Christian life, which none but the faithful can comprehend: "When I am weak, then I am strong"; "I can do all things through Christ, that giveth me power." Hence comes the wondrous spectacle, which St. Peter was contemplating, and which amazed the heathen world, exceeding joy in the midst of sufferings. "Wherein ye greatly rejoice," he says. Some have thought him to be referring to a mental realization of the last time, about which he has just spoken-a realization so vivid to the faith of these converts that they could exult in the prospect as though it had already arrived. And this exposition is countenanced in some degree by words which follow ( 1 Peter 1:9 ), where he describes them as now receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls. But it seems less forced to consider the Apostle as speaking with some knowledge of the circumstances of these Asian Christians, a knowledge of the trials they had to undergo, and how hope was animating them to look onwards towards their inheritance, which was but a little while in reversion, towards the salvation which was so soon to be revealed. Full of this hope, he says, ye greatly rejoice, though ye have had many things to suffer. Then he proceeds to dwell on some of the grounds for their consolation. Their trials, they knew, were but for a little while, not a moment longer than the need should be. Their sorrow would have an end; their joy would last for evermore. The form of St. Peter’s words, it is true, seems to imply that there must always be the need for our chastening. And what else can the children of Adam expect? But it is He, the Father in heaven, who fixes both the nature and the duration of His children’s discipline. Some men have felt within themselves the need of chastisement so keenly that they have devised systems for themselves whereby they should mortify the flesh, and prepare themselves for the last time. But of self-appointed chastenings the Apostle does not speak. Of such the converts to whom he writes had no need. They "had been put to grief in manifold temptations." We can gather from the Epistle itself some notion of the troublous life these scattered Christians had amid the crowd of their heathen neighbors. They were regarded with contempt for refusing to mingle in the excesses which were so marked a feature of heathen life and heathen worship. They were railed upon as evil-doers. They suffered innocently, were constantly assailed with threatenings, and passed their time oft in such terror that St. Peter describes their life as a fiery trial. Yet in the word ( ???????? ) which he here employs to picture the varied character of their sufferings we seem to have another hint that these did not fall out without the permission and watchful control of God Himself. It is a word which, while it

Illustrator

Peter. 1 Peter 1:1-2 The several names of St. Peter John Rogers. 1. Simeon or Simon: that he had at his circumcision. 2. Cephas, a stone: given him by Christ at his calling, to signify that He meant to make him a stout defender of the faith. 3. Peter: the Greek equivalent of the Syriac Cephas.Learn — 1. Christ's kindness to Peter in giving him a name to assure him of some grace which He would bestow on him. Though we cannot do this, yet it behoves us to give our children such names as may put them in mind of some good thing; either to imitate some good man or woman whose name they bear, or else to follow some good that the name puts them in mind of. 2. In that he puts his name to his Epistle, he shows his godliness. A man bold for truth may be blamed, but cannot be shamed. This condemns the vile practice of the wicked, who hide themselves in the dark. We must do nothing but that we dare put our hands to it, and our names. ( John Rogers. )

Matthew Henry

1:1-9 This epistle is addressed to believers in general, who are strangers in every city or country where they live, and are scattered through the nations. These are to ascribe their salvation to the electing love of the Father, the redemption of the Son, and the sanctification of the Holy Ghost; and so to give glory to one God in three Persons, into whose name they had been baptized. Hope, in the world's phrase, refers only to an uncertain good, for all worldly hopes are tottering, built upon sand, and the worldling's hopes of heaven are blind and groundless conjectures. But the hope of the sons of the living God is a living hope; not only as to its object, but as to its effect also. It enlivens and comforts in all distresses, enables to meet and get over all difficulties. Mercy is the spring of all this; yea, great mercy and manifold mercy. And this well-grounded hope of salvation, is an active and living principle of obedience in the soul of the believer. The matter of a Christian's joy, is the remembrance of the happiness laid up for him. It is incorruptible, it cannot come to nothing, it is an estate that cannot be spent. Also undefiled; this signifies its purity and perfection. And it fadeth not; is not sometimes more or less pleasant, but ever the same, still like itself. All possessions here are stained with defects and failings; still something is wanting: fair houses have sad cares flying about the gilded and ceiled roofs; soft beds and full tables, are often with sick bodies and uneasy stomachs. All possessions are stained with sin, either in getting or in using them. How ready we are to turn the things we possess into occasions and instruments of sin, and to think there is no liberty or delight in their use, without abusing them! Worldly possessions are uncertain and soon pass away, like the flowers and plants of the field. That must be of the greatest worth, which is laid up in the highest and best place, in heaven. Happy are those whose hearts the Holy Spirit sets on this inheritance. God not only gives his people grace, but preserves them unto glory. Every believer has always something wherein he may greatly rejoice; it should show itself in the countenance and conduct. The Lord does not willingly afflict, yet his wise love often appoints sharp trials, to show his people their hearts, and to do them good at the latter end. Gold does not increase by trial in the fire, it becomes less; but faith is made firm, and multiplied, by troubles and afflictions. Gold must perish at last, and can only purchase perishing things, while the trial of faith will be found to praise, and honour, and glory. Let this reconcile us to present afflictions. Seek then to believe Christ's excellence in himself, and his love to us; this will kindle such a fire in the heart as will make it rise up in a sacrifice of love to him. And the glory of God and our own happiness are so united, that if we sincerely seek the one now, we shall attain the other when the soul shall no more be subject to evil. The certainty of this hope is as if believers had already received it. 1:10-12 Jesus Christ was the main subject of the prophets' studies. Their inquiry into the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow, would lead to a view of the whole gospel, the sum whereof is, That Christ Jesus was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. God is pleased to answer our necessities rather than our requests. The doctrine of the prophets, and that of the apostles, exactly agree, as coming from the same Spirit of God. The gospel is the ministration of the Spirit; its success depends upon his operation and blessing. Let us then search diligently those Scriptures which contain the doctrines of salvation. 1:13-16 As the traveller, the racer, the warrior, and the labourer, gathered in their long and loose garments, that they might be ready in their business, so let Christians do by their minds and affections. Be sober, be watchful against all spiritual dangers and enemies, and be temperate in all behaviour. Be sober-minded in opinion, as well as in practice, and humble in your judgment of yourselves. A strong and perfect trust in the grace of God, is agreeable with best endeavours in our duty. Holiness is the desire and duty of every Christian. It must be in all affairs, in every condition, and towards all people. We must especially watch and pray against the sins to which we are inclined. The written word of God is the surest rule of a Christian's life, and by this rule we are commanded to be holy every way. God makes those holy whom he saves. 1:17-25 Holy confidence in God as a Father, and awful fear of him as a Judge, agree together; and to regard God always as a Judge, makes him dear to us as a Father. If believers do evil, God will visit them with corrections. Then, let Christians not doubt God's faithfulness to his promises, nor give way to enslaving dread of his wrath, but let them reverence his holiness. The fearless professor is defenceless, and Satan takes him captive at his will; the desponding professor has no heart to avail himself of his advantages, and is easily brought to surrender. The price paid for man's redemption was the precious blood of Christ. Not only openly wicked, but unprofitable conversation is highly dangerous, though it may plead custom. It is folly to resolve, I will live and die in such a way, because my forefathers did so. God had purposes of special favour toward his people, long before he made manifest such grace unto them. But the clearness of light, the supports of faith, the power of ordinances, are all much greater since Christ came upon earth, than they were before. The comfort is, that being by faith made one with Christ, his present glory is an assurance that where he is we shall be also, Joh 14:3. The soul must be purified, before it can give up its own desires and indulgences. And the word of God planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eternal life. In contrast with the excellence of the renewed spiritual man, as born again, observe the vanity of the natural man. In his life, and in his fall, he is like grass, the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away. We should hear, and thus receive and love, the holy, living word, and rather hazard all than lose it; and we must banish all other things from the place due to it. We should lodge it in our hearts as our only treasures here, and the certain pledge of the treasure of glory laid up for believers in heaven.