1 Peter 1:13-21
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Obedience. 13 [a]Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind,[b] live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance[c] 15 but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct,(A) 16 for it is written, “Be holy because I [am] holy.”(B)
Reverence. 17 Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,(C) 18 realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold(D) 19 but with the precious blood of Christ(E) as of a spotless unblemished lamb.[d] 20 He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, 21 who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Mutual Love.[e]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1:13–25 These verses are concerned with the call of God’s people to holiness and to mutual love by reason of their redemption through the blood of Christ (1 Pt 1:18–21).
- 1:13 Gird up the loins of your mind: a figure reminiscent of the rite of Passover when the Israelites were in flight from their oppressors (Ex 12:11), and also suggesting the vigilance of the Christian people in expectation of the parousia of Christ (Lk 12:35).
- 1:14–16 The ignorance here referred to (1 Pt 1:14) was their former lack of knowledge of God, leading inevitably to godless conduct. Holiness (1 Pt 1:15–16), on the contrary, is the result of their call to the knowledge and love of God.
- 1:19 Christians have received the redemption prophesied by Isaiah (Is 52:3), through the blood (Jewish symbol of life) of the spotless lamb (Is 53:7, 10; Jn 1:29; Rom 3:24–25; cf. 1 Cor 6:20).
- 1:22–25 The new birth of Christians (1 Pt 1:23) derives from Christ, the imperishable seed or sowing that produces a new and lasting existence in those who accept the gospel (1 Pt 1:24–25), with the consequent duty of loving one another (1 Pt 1:22).
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