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1 Peter

1 Peterchapter 1

25 verses · BSB1 Peter book hub →

Speaks with:James 1×41 Peter 5×3Romans 12×3Hebrews 12×21 Peter 1×2Hebrews 9×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Written to elect sojourners of the Dispersion, chosen 'according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.' Then the doxology that sets the key: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,' unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven (1:3-4). Trials are the fire proving faith more precious than gold: 'whom not having seen ye love.' The prophets searched what the Spirit of Christ in them signified, 'which things angels desire to look into' (1:12). You were redeemed not with silver or gold but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish.

Context

Epistle · Peter — 1 Peter overview

  • A. 1–12 A Living Hope and an Inheritance That Cannot Fade
  • B. 13–21 Gird Up Your Minds: Be Holy, You Were Bought With Blood
  • C. 22–25 Born Again of Seed That Never Dies

The outline

  1. A.A Living Hope and an Inheritance That Cannot Fadevv. 1 to 12

    Read vv. 1 to 12 →

  2. B.Gird Up Your Minds: Be Holy, You Were Bought With Bloodvv. 13 to 21

    Read vv. 13 to 21 →

  3. C.Born Again of Seed That Never Diesvv. 22 to 25

    Read vv. 22 to 25 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Suffering, then glory

Pattern

1 Peter reads the whole Christian life on the shape the prophets searched out: the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Every chapter of the letter walks its readers through the fire toward the far side of it.

Peter writes to churches entering Nero's decade, and he does not promise escape; he promises sequence. Because the pattern is Christ's own, suffering for the name is not a sign that grace failed but the road glory has always taken.

  1. 1 Peter 1:11 you are here

    The prophets' own study

    The Spirit of Christ in them testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

  2. 1 Peter 2:21

    Leaving us an example

    Christ also suffered for us, that ye should follow his steps.

  3. 1 Peter 3:18

    The just for the unjust

    Christ also hath once suffered for sins, that he might bring us to God.

  4. 1 Peter 4:13

    Partakers of Christ's sufferings

    When his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

  5. 1 Peter 5:10

    After ye have suffered a while

    The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Kept by the power of God

Pattern

Three letters end the canon on one verb: God keeps. Paul's deposit is kept against that day, Peter's scattered strangers are kept for a reserved inheritance, and Jude opens on the preserved and closes on him that is able to keep you from falling.

The keeping runs one direction: in every beat the keeper is God and the kept are his people. Each letter can command endurance because safety rests on the keeper, and Jude turns the doctrine into worship before the letter ends.

  1. 2 Timothy 1:12

    Able to keep my deposit

    I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

  2. 1 Peter 1:4-5 you are here

    Kept for the inheritance

    The inheritance is reserved in heaven for the heirs, and the heirs are kept by the power of God through faith for it.

  3. Jude 1:1

    Preserved in Jesus Christ

    Jude's first word to the called is that they are sanctified and preserved.

  4. Jude 1:24

    Able to keep you from falling

    The letter that exposes the apostates closes on the God who presents his own faultless before the presence of his glory.

The world behind this chapter

1 Peter 1
When
The years just before Nero's persecution · c. AD 62–64
Where
Written from 'Babylon' — most likely Rome — to believers across five Roman provinces in what is now Turkey
Who first heard it
Mixed congregations of Jewish and Gentile background living as outsiders in their own towns

The history

The five provinces named at the start — Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia — trace a circuit. A letter carrier landing on the Black Sea coast could work his way around through the interior and back, reading the letter in each town. The order is a route, not a list.

The words for the readers are legal words. A resident alien lived in a town legally but permanently belonged elsewhere: he paid taxes, had limited rights, could not hold office, and was always the outsider. Peter takes the status his readers actually held in their towns and makes it their identity before God.

Refining gold was familiar work. Ore was heated until the metal ran and the impurities rose to be skimmed off, and the fire was judged by the purity that came out. Peter's readers were being told what the heat in their lives was for.

The inheritance language plays against Roman inheritance law, which everyone knew was fragile. An estate could be confiscated by the state, eaten by debt, or seized in a family lawsuit. An inheritance that cannot perish, spoil, or fade is a deliberate contrast, and it is kept somewhere no magistrate can reach.

What it meant to them

These readers had lost standing at home. The letter opens by telling them the standing they lost is not the one that counts — they are chosen, and the loss is temporary and purposeful.

The reminder that prophets and even angels strained to see what these ordinary provincials now knew put small, harassed house churches at the center of something very old and very large.

Sources cited

  • Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
  • Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on 1 Peter 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 19 · A picture of Christ

'When I see the blood, I will pass over you' -> redeemed 'with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish.'

Exodus 12:13→

The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

1 Pet 1:18-19; TSK

v. 19 · A picture of Christ

Passover lamb 'without blemish' -> Christ's 'precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish.'

Exodus 12:5→

Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.

TSK; 1 Pet 1:19

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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