Even as these believers faced persecution, they could remember God’s grace and continue to live as God desired. Not all believers are persecuted for their faith, but everyone faces times of stress, discouragement, or despair. This section introduces the blessings of salvation (1:3–12). Peter’s words echo through the centuries, reminding us of God’s grace and sovereignty over all of life, encouraging us to glorify and live for him.
1:3 Peter launched into praise of God the Father, who had chosen and cleansed the believers (1:2). All honor goes to God. The Old Testament believers praised God, but the New Testament believers praised him with an entirely new name, one never used in the Old Testament: Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is “Father,” the first person of the Trinity. He did not exist before the Son, for the Son has always existed (John 1:1–3; 17:5, 24). God the Father sent the Son, and the Son responded in full obedience.
We find God’s mercy always at the center of any discussion of salvation. Only God’s mercy would allow him to have compassion for sinful and rebellious people. Salvation is given to us because of God’s boundless mercy alone. That salvation is called the privilege of being born again. Jesus used this concept of new birth when he told Nicodemus that he had to be “born again” in order to see God’s Kingdom (see John 3). In the new birth, we become dead to sin and alive to God with a fresh beginning. People can do no more to accomplish their “new birth” than they could do to accomplish their own natural birth. In his introductory comments, Peter thanked God for the new spiritual lives of the believers to whom he was writing.
Believers are born again not for this world, in which they are no more than foreigners, but for a wonderful expectation of life to come. That expectation is based on the conviction that God will keep his promises to raise us because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. By rising from the dead, Christ made the necessary power available for our resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:22). Christ’s resurrection makes us certain that we too will be raised from the dead. Believers are “born again” from their sinful state into the life of grace, which, in the end, will become a life of glory. We shouldn’t be discouraged by earthly trials, for we have the Resurrection to be our backup.
1:4 The word translated inheritance is also used in the Old Testament to describe the inheritance to which the Jews had looked forward in the Promised Land of Canaan (Numbers 32:19; Deuteronomy 2:12; 19:8–10). Christians look forward to another inheritance—eternal life with God. Jesus Christ is God’s only Son; thus he is sole heir (Mark 12:7). However, as children of God, believers also become heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17) of this priceless inheritance.
Peter used three Greek words, each beginning with the same letter and ending with the same syllable in Greek, to describe this inheritance (aphthartos, amiantos, amarantos).
This inheritance is pure—it won’t lose its glory or freshness. It is undefiled—it will never become unfit for us or polluted by sin. It is beyond the reach of change and decay—meaning it will never pass away, disappear, or come to ruin as the result of hostile forces. These words contrast this inheritance with all earthly, human possessions. Nothing in the natural order—catastrophe, sin, age, evil—can affect it. God has made it indestructible, existing for all eternity.
Believers have noncancelable and nontransferable reservations in heaven. The inheritance is kept in heaven for us. The word kept is in the perfect tense in Greek, expressing a past activity with results that continue in the present; God has been keeping and still keeps the inheritance there—prepared, reserved, certain, and waiting. No matter what harm might come to believers on earth, the inheritance awaits, for it is kept safe with God.
1:5 In these words, Peter answered concerns that might have arisen in the minds of persecuted believers: Will we be able to endure and remain faithful to Christ if persecution becomes more intense? What good is an inheritance kept in heaven if we are not kept safe?
Peter explained that, in spite of persecution and even violent death, God, in his mighty power, will protect them. The word translated protect is a military term used to refer to a garrison within a city (see also 2 Thessalonians 3:3; Jude 1:24). It’s an inner area of protection. No matter how the world persecuted or killed believers’ bodies, God was guarding their souls. Peter gave a double locked security for believers. First, the inheritance is protected (1:4); second, the believers are protected to receive that inheritance because they were trusting him.
Believers have already received salvation through their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior, but the fullness of that salvation, its complete rewards and blessings, will be revealed on the last day—that is, the judgment day of Christ (see Romans 14:10; Revelation 20:11–15). What has started will be fully disclosed when he returns.
1:6 Because of the promises of the inheritance, believers can be truly glad—referring to deep, spiritual joy (see Luke 1:46–47; Acts 16:34; 1 Peter 4:13). This type of rejoicing remains, unhindered and unchanged by what happens in this present life. Believers would have to endure many trials. When Peter wrote of trials, he meant the response of an unbelieving world to people of faith. Christians became the target of persecution for four main reasons: (1) They refused to worship the emperor as a god and thus were viewed as atheists and traitors. (2) They refused to worship at pagan temples, so business for these moneymaking enterprises dropped wherever Christianity took hold. (3) They didn’t support the Roman ideals of self, power, and conquest, and the Romans scorned the Christian ideal of self-sacrificing service. (4) They exposed and rejected the horrible immorality of pagan culture.
Grief and suffering do not happen without cause or reason. While it may never be clear to us, God must be trusted to carry out his purposes, even in times of trial. All believers face such trials when they let their lights shine into the darkness. We must accept trials as part of the refining process that burns away impurities and prepares us to meet Christ. Trials teach us patience (Romans 5:3–4; James 1:2–3) and help us grow to be the people God wants. In comparison to the wonderful joy ahead, the trials last only for a while. Because of this they could rejoice, even as they suffered grief.
1:7 While God may have different purposes in the trials that face his people, one overriding result of all trials is clear: they test people’s faith, showing that it is strong and pure. To God, believers’ faith is more precious than mere gold, the most valuable and durable substance of the time.
Genuine faith is indestructible for all eternity. However, it may take the fire of trials, struggles, and persecutions to purify it, removing impurities and defects. God values a fire-tested (or “stress-tested”) faith. Through trials, God burns away our self-reliance and self-serving attitudes, so that our genuineness reflects his glory and brings praise to him.
How do trials prove the strength and purity of one’s faith? A person living a comfortable life may find it very easy to be a believer. But to keep one’s faith in the face of ridicule, slander, persecution, or even death proves the true value of that faith. Such faith results in praise and glory and honor bestowed upon the believers by God himself when Jesus Christ returns (is revealed) to judge the world and take believers home.
1:8 Peter had known Jesus Christ personally—talked with him, walked with him, questioned him, professed faith in him. Yet Peter understood that most of the believers to whom he wrote had not known Jesus in the flesh. He commended their love for him even though they had never seen him (see also John 20:29). And even though they could not see him, they put their trust in him. To trust him means “to put one’s confidence in,” “to depend upon.”
We, like Peter’s audience, have not ever seen Christ in the flesh, but one day our faith will be rewarded when Christ returns to take us home. On that day and for eternity, we shall see him face-to-face (Revelation 22:3–5). Until then, we live by faith, with hope and joy. This ought to give us glorious, inexpressible joy.
1:9 Believers express joy (1:8) because of their belief in and love for Jesus Christ. The reward for trusting Christ will be the salvation of their souls. Believers receive salvation when they accept Jesus Christ as Savior, yet salvation will not be complete until Jesus Christ returns and makes everything new. In the meantime, we continue growing in the Christian life and experiencing more and more of the blessings of salvation. As we continue to believe and rejoice, we also continue to grow toward maturity in Christ and to our promised salvation.
1:10–11 This salvation, now so clear to those who believe, had been a mystery to the Old Testament prophets who wrote about it through the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, but wanted to know more about it. The prophets were amazed by the prophecies God gave them. They had many questions, and they wondered what was meant by Christ’s suffering. Peter was saying, “How can you be discouraged? Don’t you realize that you have seen the fulfillment of all the prophets’ yearning?” Jesus once said to his listeners, “Many prophets and godly people have longed to see and hear what you have seen and heard, but they could not” (Matthew 13:17; see also Luke 10:23–24). The believers of Peter’s day (as well as believers today) had the privilege of understanding the prophets’ writings better than the prophets themselves had understood them. All of those prophets’ predictions regarding the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ had been completely fulfilled. Other prophecies concerning the end times are being or are yet to be fulfilled.
1:12 The Spirit revealed to the prophets that the prophecies would not happen during their lifetime. The prophets had the great honor of having Christ’s Spirit speak through them, but the privileges of our understanding are even greater and should move us to an even deeper commitment to Christ.
All the experiences regarding the coming salvation that the prophets had so wanted to see and hear have now been announced by those who preached the Good News. As the Spirit inspired the prophets, so he inspired the apostles and missionaries in the first century. This is all so wonderful that even the angels are watching these events unfold. Angels are spiritual beings created by God who help carry out his work on earth. Just as the prophets could not understand or experience the coming salvation and grace because it would occur after their lifetimes, neither can the angels understand or experience it because they are spiritual beings who do not need the blood of Christ to save them.
The word translated “watching” means to peek into a situation as an outsider. The angels watch (and often are sent to minister to) believers as they struggle and face ridicule or persecution. The angels know that God’s people are recipients of God’s grace and blessings and that one day they will be highly honored in the coming Kingdom.
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Source:
Bruce Barton et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2001), 1103–1105.
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