The Daily Audio Bible

¹³ Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and trust completely in that grace which is brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform yourselves to the former lusts of your ignorance.

¹⁵ But as He Who has called you is holy, so you be holy, in all manner of conversation.

¹⁶ Because it is written, “Be holy. For I am holy.”

¹⁷ And if you call him ‘Father’ (Who judges according to the work of each, without respect of persons), pass the time of your dwelling here in fear,

¹⁸ knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things - like silver and gold from your ineffective lifestyle received by the traditions of the Fathers -

¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb undefiled and without spot.

²⁰ He was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sakes,

²¹ You, through Him, believe in God Who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

²² Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth (through the Spirit) toward brotherly love without hypocrisy, love one another fervently, with a pure heart;

²³ being born anew - not of mortal seed, but of immortal - by the word of God, Who lives and endures forever.

²⁴ For “all flesh is as grass. And all the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls away.

²⁵ “But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which is preached among you.

2 Therefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all blasphemy,

² desire the sincere milk of the word, as newborn babies; so that by it you may grow

³ (if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is bountiful),

⁴ coming to Him as to a living stone, indeed rejected by man but chosen by God and precious.

⁵ You also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood; to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

⁶ Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I put a Chief Cornerstone in Zion, elect and precious. And the one who believes in Him shall not be put to shame.”

⁷ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious. But to those who are disobedient, “the Stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the Chief Cornerstone,”

⁸ and, “a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense,” to those who stumble at the word, being disobedient. To this they were also appointed.

⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set at liberty; so that you would show forth the virtues of the One Who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,

¹⁰ In the past, you were not a people, yet are now the people of God; who in the past were not under mercy, but now have obtained mercy.