1 Peter 1
v.1
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,
v.4-5
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade - kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
v.7
These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
God takes various methods of trying his people, with a design to test the value of their piety, and to separate it from all impure mixtures:
- He tries his people by prosperity - often as decisive a test of piety as can be applied to it. There is much pretended piety, which will bear adversity, but which will not bear prosperity. The piety of a man is decisively tested by popularity; by the flatteries of the world; by a sudden increase of property; and in such circumstances it is often conclusively shown that there is no true religion in the soul.
- He tries his people by sudden transition from one to the other… In prosperity we may have shown that we were grateful, and benevolent, and disposed to serve God; but our religion will be subjected to a new test, if we are suddenly reduced to poverty. In sickness and poverty, we learn to be patient and resigned, and perhaps even happy. But the religion which we then cultivated may be little adapted to a sudden transition to prosperity; and in such a transition, there would be a new trial of our faith. That piety which shone so much on a bed of sickness, might be little suited to shine in circumstances of sudden prosperity. The human frame may become accustomed either to the intense cold of the polar regions, or to the burning heats of the equator; but in neither case might it bear a transition from one to the other. It is such a transition that is a more decisive test of its powers of endurance than either intense heat or cold, if steadily prolonged.
v.8
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy
The word translated “joy inexpressible” occurs only here in the New Testament, and describes a joy so profound as to be beyond the power of words to express.” (Grudem) “Their joy was no ordinary, earth-born joy.” (Hiebert)
As we mature in the faith, God gives us the language to more accurately express the cries of our hearts to Him. His Scriptures teaches us how we ought to pray to Him and present our petitions and requests unto Him. Yet, there is one thing that man cannot and will never be able to fully express. Joy. We believe in God and we have joy inexpressible as exemplified by the Trinitarian joy between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
v.9
for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
v.13
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
See more in 1 Peter 1 13 1Peter1 v 13.
v.15-16
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
The main idea behind holiness is not moral purity but it is the idea of “apartness.” The idea is that God is separate, different from His creation, both in His essential nature and in the perfection of His attributes.
Many Christians have what we might call a “cultural holiness.” They adapt to the character and behavior pattern of Christians around them. As the Christian culture around them is more or less holy, so these Christians are more or less holy. But God has not called us to be like those around us. He has called us to be like Himself. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the will of God.
v.22
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
Similar flow to Hebrews 12:14, 1 Thessalonians 4:9.
No one is made pure without personal intention or effort - any more than one becomes accomplished or learned without personal exertion. One of the leading effects of the agency of the Holy Spirit is to excite us to make efforts for our own salvation; and there is no true piety which is not the fair result of culture, as really as the learning of a Person, or the harvest of the farmer.
Love one another with a pure heart fervently - ektenos. Stretch ourselves out in our love for one another (Acts 12:5).