1 Peter 1:1-12

New Testament for Everyone

Genuine faith and sure hope

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus the Messiah, to God’s chosen ones who live as foreigners among the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ² who have been set aside in advance by God the father, through the sanctification of the spirit, for obedience and for sprinkling with the blood of Jesus the Messiah. May grace and peace be poured out lavishly on you!

³ May God be blessed, God the father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah! His mercy is abundant, and so he has become our father in a second birth into a living hope through the resurrection from the dead of Jesus the Messiah. ⁴ This has brought us into an incorruptible inheritance, which nothing can stain or diminish. At the moment it is kept safe for you in the heavens, ⁵ while you are being kept safe by God’s power, through faith, for a rescue that is all ready and waiting to be revealed in the final time.

⁶ That is why you celebrate! Yes, it may well be necessary that, for a while, you may have to suffer trials and tests of all sorts. ⁷ But this is so that the true value of your faith may be discovered. It is worth more than gold, which is tested by fire even though it can be destroyed. The result will be praise, glory and honor when Jesus the Messiah is revealed. ⁸ You love him, even though you’ve never seen him. And even though you don’t see him, you believe in him, and celebrate with a glorified joy that goes beyond anything words can say, ⁹ since you are receiving the proper goal of your faith, namely, the rescue of your lives.

Ransomed by grace

¹⁰ The prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be given to you searched and inquired about this rescue. ¹¹ They asked what sort of time it would be, the time that the Messiah’s spirit within them was indicating when speaking of the Messiah’s sufferings and subsequent glory. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, when they were ministering these things—things which have now been announced to you by the holy spirit who was sent from heaven, through those who preached the good news to you. The angels long to gaze on these things!