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This book is one of the letters that the Apostle Peter wrote to his fellow believers. We call this book
1 Peter
1
1 Peter 1:1-2
I, Peter, am writing this letter to Jewish believers who have been scattered throughout five provinces in Asia Minor. I wish that God will bless them.
1 I, Peter, who have been appointed by Jesus Christ {one whom Jesus Christ has appointed} to be an apostle, am writing this letter to you believers whom God has chosen to belong to him. You are living in the Roman provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Just like the Jews who lived in Israel long ago were scattered to other countries far from their homes [MET], you now live far from heaven, which is your true home. 2 God our Father previously chose you, and his Spirit has set you apart in order that you would obey Jesus Christ. He did that in order that just like Moses sprinkled the Israelites with blood when God established the old covenant [MET], Jesus would establish his new covenant with you with the blood that flowed from his body when he died. May God act very kindly to you, and may he give you much inner peace.
God has done great things for you. Although you are now enduring trials to test your faith, you are rejoicing about your salvation. That salvation is something that the prophets who lived long ago did not fully understand.
1 Peter 1:3-12
3 Praise God, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because he has been very merciful to us, he has given us new life [MET]. Because he has caused Jesus Christ to become alive again after he died, he has enabled us to live very confidently; that is, to fully expect to receive the things that God/he has promised to give us. 4 He has enabled us to expect to receive an absolutely imperishable/indestructible [TRI] inheritance that has been {that God has} preserved in heaven for us. 5 God, by his mighty power, is guarding you as you trust in Jesus. He is keeping you safe so that he may, at the end of the time in which we now live (OR, when Jesus returns), completely deliver you from Satan’s power. 6 You rejoice because of what will happen then, but now you are grieving for a short time while God is allowing you to be tested {various things to test you [MET]}, as precious metals are tested {someone tests precious metals} to see if they are pure. These trials that you are experiencing are necessary 7 to prove that you really do trust in Jesus. His proving that will be more valuable than gold, which does not last forever even though it is purified by being put {someone tries to make it pure by putting it} in a hot fire. As a result of your passing the test and proving that you really do trust in Jesus, God will honor you very highly [TRI] when Jesus Christ comes again. 8 You love Jesus, although you have not seen him. Although you do not see him now, you rejoice very much [DOU] 9 because you are experiencing the result of your believing in him; that is, God is saving you [SYN] from the guilt of your sins.
10 As for those who long ago spoke messages that God had revealed to them about how God would act kindly toward you in ways which you did not deserve, they ◄investigated very carefully/tried very hard to learn► [DOU] about how God would save you. 11 They wanted to know whom the Spirit of Christ that was in them was referring to, and what time he was talking about, when he told beforehand that the Messiah would suffer and die, and that glorious/wonderful things would happen to him and to us afterwards. 12 It was revealed to {God told} them that it was not for their own sake that he was revealing these things to them, but that it was for your sake. It was these things that were proclaimed to you by those who told you the message about Christ {that those who told you the message about Christ proclaimed to you}. They proclaimed these things to you because the Holy Spirit whom God sent from heaven enabled them to do that. And even angels would like to know more about these truths about how God saves us.
You must live holy and reverent lives and love each other, because Christ has bought you and given you a new life.
1 Peter 1:13-25
13 Therefore, prepare your minds [MET] as people fasten their belts around their waists to prepare to work. What I mean is that you should ◄discipline your minds/control what you think about►, and by doing that conduct your lives fully and confidently expecting to receive the good things that God will kindly do for you when Jesus Christ returns from heaven. 14 And because you should obey your heavenly Father [SIM], as children ought to obey their fathers here on earth, do not do the evil things that you used to desire to do when you did not know God’s truth. 15 Instead, just like God, the one who chose you to belong to him, is ◄holy/separate from evil►, you also must be ◄holy/separate from evil► in everything that you do, 16 because it is {someone/Moses has} written in the Scriptures that God said, “You must be ◄holy/separate from evil► because I am ◄holy/separate from evil►.”
17 God is the one who ◄impartially/without favoritism► judges what each person does. Since you call him ‘Father’, live ◄reverently/with great respect for him► during the time that you are living here on earth. While you are living here, you are like exiles/foreigners [MET] because you are away from heaven, which is your true home. 18 Live reverently because you know that it was not with things that will not last forever, things like gold and silver, that God bought you to free you from your useless life-style that you learned from your ancestors. 19 Instead, it was with the precious blood of Christ that flowed from his body when he died that God bought you. Christ’s death was a perfect sacrifice for us [MET], like the lambs that the Jewish priests sacrificed were perfect, without any blemishes/defects/flaws or spots [DOU]. 20 Christ was chosen by God {God chose Christ} before the world was created {he created the world}. But it was not until now, when the time in which we are living will soon end, that he was revealed for your sake. 21 Because of what Christ has done, you are trusting in God, who caused Christ to become alive again after he died, and greatly honored him. As a result, God is the one in whom you are trusting and confidently expecting that he will do great things for you.
22 Because you have been made pure by obeying the truth, with the result that you sincerely love your fellow believers, continue to love each other earnestly and sincerely/wholeheartedly. 23 I ask you to do this, because you now have a new life [MET]. It was not by means of something that will perish that you received this new life. Instead, it was by means of something that will last forever; that is, by believing the life-giving and enduring message of God. 24 We know that this is true because, as the prophet Isaiah wrote,
All people will die [SIM], like grass dies. And all the greatness/honor that people have will not last forever,
like the flowers [SIM] that grow up in the grass do not last long.
The grass withers and the flowers die,
25 but God’s message endures/lasts forever.
This message that endures/lasts is the message about Christ that was proclaimed to you.

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© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.