1 Peter 1 Commentary

The Apostle Peter writes to persecuted Christians forced to move from Jerusalem to various parts of Asia Minor. He reminds them of God’s foreknowledge in choosing them and the Spirit’s work in setting them apart as holy. He wishes for them all the grace and peace they will need to live faithfully for Christ.

Peter praises God for His merciful work in bringing believers to a present position of salvation, assuring them of eternal rewards for faithful service at a future aspect of salvation when Christ returns.

Believers are to rejoice knowing their salvation is secure. Even though we must endure various trials on earth which God designed to test our trust, love, and faithful obedience, we can have joy. Our faithfulness will be acknowledged when Jesus returns. This should result in believers experiencing deep inner joy while making their lives count for eternity.

Peter explains the paradox of the salvation of the believer’s soul as something so special the prophets spoke about it without understanding it, and the angels, who cannot experience it, became curious to see it how it was lived out in the life of a believer.

When believers understand the high value of living faithfully during times of suffering, they know it will save life on earth from being wasted. They know enduring suffering will result in making their lives count for eternity. Peter exhorts the letter’s recipients to be clear-headed, focusing on the rewards that Christ will give when He returns. This will encourage believers to live in obedience to God’s Holy Word rather than be controlled by the desires of their sinful flesh. This is because when we live walking according to the Spirit, God’s holy nature directs His children to live holy lives—lives set apart to live in God’s (good) design to love and serve one another.

God’s children are to live their lives on earth with a healthy respect for their heavenly Father because He will hold them accountable for their work and because they know the high value of the cost of their redemption.

Though God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son knew about Jesus’s bloody death before creating the earth, Christ, in God’s timing, came to earth for the benefit of those who would by Christ’s work believe in God. God was the one who resurrected Jesus and gave Him glory, resulting in the believer’s hope and faith being in God.

Peter asserts that because his readers are living in obedience to God’s Word and have dedicated their lives to genuinely loving their fellow believers, they are to heartily love one another. The reason for doing this is that their physical lives now have the eternal Spirit living within. This change did not happen through temporary human effort, but by means of the life-giving and eternal Word of God. This truth is confirmed by Isaiah 40:6-8, which contrasts our temporary, decaying earthly lives with the eternal, life-giving Word of God. This is the Word that Peter and his fellow apostles have proclaimed to his readers.