1 Peter 1:3 to 9 · Passage · Hope
A Living Hope
Peter's first letter opens with a blessing of God that names three gifts and then turns to the trials of its readers.
Peter wrote this blessing to believers he called exiles, scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
- The passage
- 1 Peter 1:3 to 9
- Book
- 1 Peter
- Hold in memory
- 1 Peter 1:3
Summary
Peter's readers were suffering, and the passage names what God keeps safe for them through it. Their hope lives because Jesus rose from the dead, and it looks ahead to an inheritance and a salvation that God Himself holds secure. Their trials are real and grievous, yet they last a little while and serve to prove faith. So the readers can love a Christ they have not seen and rejoice while they grieve.
- The new birth is God's act of mercy, and Peter uses the same verb for it in verses 3 and 23.
- The inheritance is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, and it is reserved in heaven.
- Believers are shielded by God's power through faith until the last time.
- Peter compares tested faith with gold refined by fire and counts the faith the more precious.
- The prophets searched for this salvation and foretold it long before it came (1 Peter 1:10 to 11).
Born Again to a Hope That Lives
Verse 3 names the giver, the gift and the event on which the gift depends.
First Peter was written to believers grieved by trials, and its opening verses give them a reason for joy that their circumstances do not supply. The passage is one of the chief texts of hope, the confident expectation of what God has promised, because it shows where hope comes from and why it lasts.
The question the page answers is what Peter meant by a living hope and how it holds while believers suffer. Below stand the Greek of verse 3, a table of the gifts of verses 3 to 5 and the turn of verses 6 to 9 to joy in the middle of grief. The readers Peter wrote to and the teachers who have read the passage follow, John Bunyan among them in prison.
Peter's word for the new birth is anagennēsas, which means having begotten again. It is an aorist participle, so it names a birth God has already given, and Peter uses the same verb again in verse 23.
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.Peter returns to the new birth and names the seed it comes from, the word of God that lives and endures.
What the New Birth Gives
Verses 3 to 5 name three gifts of the new birth.
What the new birth gives lasts, because the resurrection, heaven and God's power stand behind it.
| Verse | What the new birth gives | The words of the Berean text | What the Greek adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Peter 1:3 | A living hope | a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead | Zōsan, living, is a present participle, so the hope goes on living, and the resurrection is the reason it lives. |
| 1 Peter 1:4 | An inheritance | an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you | Tetērēmenēn, reserved, is a perfect participle, so the inheritance has been kept and stays kept. |
| 1 Peter 1:5 | A salvation | the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time | Phrouroumenous, shielded, is a present participle, so God's guard over believers goes on until that salvation is revealed. |
Peter describes the inheritance with three Greek adjectives. Aphthartos (G862) means undecaying, and the lexicon counts 7 uses. Amiantos (G283) means pure, and Hebrews 7:26 uses it of Christ. Amarantos (G263) means unfading, and the lexicon counts this one use.
Verses 6 to 9, Joy in the Middle of Trials
Verses 6 to 9 move from the readers' trials to the salvation of their souls.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trialsPeter names the grief of the trials in the same sentence as the joy, and he limits the trials to a little while.
so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.The trials have a purpose, the proving of faith, and its reward comes when Christ is revealed.
Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.Job, in the middle of his losses, trusts that God's testing will bring him out like refined gold.
A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the LORD is the tester of hearts.Proverbs sets the furnace for gold beside the LORD, who tests the heart in the same way.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy,Peter sets the readers' love and joy in the present tense, in the middle of the trials of verse 6.
Peter himself had seen Jesus, and he calls himself "a witness of Christ's sufferings" (1 Peter 5:1).
Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”Jesus spoke this blessing to Thomas, and it reaches every reader of Peter's letter.
now that you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.The joy rests on a salvation the readers are receiving already, which verse 5 says is still to be revealed in full.
Job 23:10, Proverbs 17:3, 1 Peter 1:8, John 20:29, 1 Peter 1:9
Exiles of the Dispersion
The Greek of the letter's address and a verse from its fourth chapter show who the readers were and what they were suffering.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the elect who are exiles of the Dispersion throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosenThe address places the readers away from home, which gives weight to the inheritance reserved in heaven in verse 4.
The Greek calls the readers parepidēmois, sojourners, people living for a time away from their home. The word diaspora, the Dispersion, stands three times in the New Testament, here, in James 1:1 and in John 7:35, where it names the Jews scattered among the Greeks.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.Peter returns to the trials of chapter 1 and calls them a fiery trial, the fire that verse 7 says proves faith.
Hope Set on the Risen Christ
Peter sets the hope in a long history of prophecy and returns to its ground before the chapter ends.
Concerning this salvation, the prophets who foretold the grace to come to you searched and investigated carefully, trying to determine the time and setting to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.The prophets' search shows that the salvation of verses 5 and 9 was promised long before Peter's readers heard of it.
Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him; and so your faith and hope are in God.Verse 21 returns to the resurrection of verse 3 and joins faith and hope in one clause.
How the Passage Has Been Read
Albert Barnes and John Wesley read the passage word by word, and John Bunyan read it in prison.
died 1688 · John Bunyan
John Bunyan, after twelve years in prison, named 1 Peter 1:21 among the blessed words that came to him "in this my imprisoned condition" (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, section 321). In the next section he wrote that he had "seen a truth in this scripture", 1 Peter 1:8, the verse of the readers who love Christ without having seen Him (section 322).
1703 to 1791 · John Wesley
John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, wrote on verse 6 that the readers were in "sorrow; but not in darkness", for they kept their faith, hope and love.
1798 to 1870 · Albert Barnes
"They had no claim to the favor, and the favor was great", Albert Barnes wrote in his Notes on verse 3. On verse 5 he noted that the verb behind shielded is used in 2 Corinthians 11:32 of a city "kept with a garrison". He read the verse to mean that believers are "so kept that you will finally obtain salvation".
A Hope Set Fully on Grace
Verse 13 draws a command out of the blessing.
Everything in verses 3 to 9 is either given now or kept by God, so the reader's part is to wait for it with a clear mind.
Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.Peter tells believers where to set their hope, on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring when He is revealed.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, the Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek based on Abbott-Smith (1922), Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0.
- STEP Bible, the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (TAGNT), Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0, with Strong's numbers, morphology, glosses and transliterations.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832 to 1869), on 1 Peter 1:3 and 1:5.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on 1 Peter 1:6.
- John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, sections 319, 321 and 322 (Religious Tract Society edition, 1905).
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