Reflections on 1 Peter 1

1 Peter 01 (Contemporary English Version)
1. From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. To God's people who are scattered like foreigners in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
   
2. God the Father decided to choose you as his people, and his Spirit has made you holy. You have obeyed Jesus Christ and are sprinkled with his blood. I pray that God will be kind to you and will keep on giving you peace!
   
3. Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is so good, and by raising Jesus from death, he has given us new life and a hope that lives on.
   
4. God has something stored up for you in heaven, where it will never decay or be ruined or disappear.
   
5. You have faith in God, whose power will protect you until the last day. Then he will save you, just as he has always planned to do.
   
6. On that day you will be glad, even if you have to go through many hard trials for a while.
   
7. Your faith will be like gold that has been tested in a fire. And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed. They will show that you will be given praise and honor and glory when Jesus Christ returns.
   
8. You have never seen Jesus, and you don't see him now. But still you love him and have faith in him, and no words can tell how glad and happy
   
9. you are to be saved. That's why you have faith.
   
10. Some prophets told how kind God would be to you, and they searched hard to find out more about the way you would be saved.
    
11. The Spirit of Christ was in them and was telling them how Christ would suffer and would then be given great honor. So they searched to find out exactly who Christ would be and when this would happen.
    
12. But they were told that they were serving you and not themselves. They preached to you by the power of the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven. And their message was only for you, even though angels would like to know more about it.
    
13. Be alert and think straight. Put all your hope in how kind God will be to you when Jesus Christ appears.
    
14. Behave like obedient children. Don't let your lives be controlled by your desires, as they used to be.
    
15. Always live as God's holy people should, because God is the one who chose you, and he is holy.
    
16. That's why the Scriptures say, "I am the holy God, and you must be holy too."
    
17. You say that God is your Father, but God doesn't have favorites! He judges all people by what they do. So you must honor God while you live as strangers here on earth.
    
18. You were rescued from the useless way of life that you learned from your ancestors. But you know that you were not rescued by such things as silver or gold that don't last forever.
    
19. You were rescued by the precious blood of Christ, that spotless and innocent lamb.
    
20. Christ was chosen even before the world was created, but because of you, he did not come until these last days.
    
21. And when he did come, it was to lead you to have faith in God, who raised him from death and honored him in a glorious way. That's why you have put your faith and hope in God.
    
22. You obeyed the truth, and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart.
    
23. Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever.
    
24. The Scriptures say, "Humans wither like grass, and their glory fades like wild flowers. Grass dries up, and flowers fall to the ground.
    
25. But what the Lord has said will stand forever." Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.

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Peter was addressing "the temporary residents of the Dispersion," who were undergoing various trials. He began his letter by pointing them to their permanent reality rather than their temporary circumstances. Whether we are undergoing various trials which may include persecution and suffering or trying to live as Christians in a pluralistic and materialistic world, we need a reality check. And the question becomes, "What is real?" Is it the mundane things we encounter everyday or is it the new life we have in Jesus Christ as citizens of heaven? Peter would say it is the later. He says as much in 1:3-4, "He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you."

So reality for the Christian is the inheritance they have which is kept for them in heaven. The present is an interim period. It is temporary. And during this period we are "being protected by God's power through faith." Peter says that this temporary condition has a purpose, though, for it demonstrates the genuiness of our faith and will result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus is revealed for all to see. We are, in fact, privileged in this reality that is ours, for the prophets of old were able only to see it from afar. As Peter says, "It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you concerning things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Angels desire to look into these things." So it is a privilege not only that the prophets dreamed of but that angels desire as well. And it is ours. We must keep our eyes focused on this rather than the immediate circumstances that surround us.

With these things well in mind, Peter says to "get your minds ready for action." Our state as citizens of heaven who are temporarily dispersed in this world is not one in which we drift mindlessly along until this period is past. This is a period in which the genuiness of our faith is demonstrated so we are called to action. With our hope set completely on the grace that is ours, we are to be obedient children who are no longer conformed to the desires that were previously ours and are to be holy in all our conduct as "the One who called (us) is holy."

Peter will refer more in coming chapters to this holy conduct, but in the last verses of this first chapter he refers to its result in "sincere love of the brothers." Indeed, love among Christian brothers is a distinguishing mark of Christians. Jesus pointed to this with His disciples, "By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35)