1311
Introduction To First Peter
Writer.
Date.
Probably a.d. 60.
That "Babylon" refers to the former city on the
Euphrates, or to Rome, cannot be inferred from 1 Peter 5:13.
The text is obscure on this point.
Theme.
While Peter undoubtedly has scattered Jewish believers in mind, his
Epistles comprehend Gentile believers also (1 Peter 2:10). The present Epistle,
written from a church on Gentile ground (1 Peter 5:13), presents all the foundational
truths of the Christian faith, with special emphasis on the atonement.
The distinctive note of First Peter is preparation for victory over
suffering. The last-named word occurs about fifteen times, and is the key-word of
the Epistle.
The Epistle is in three parts:
I. Christian suffering and conduct in the light of full salvation, II. The believer's life in view of his sevenfold position,
and of the vicarious suffering of Christ,
1 Peter 2:9-4:19.
III. Christian service in the light of the coming of the
Chief Shepherd,
1 Peter 5:1-14.
; 1 Peter 1:2,
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
Election, Summary:
In both Testaments the Hebrew and Greek words are
rendered "elect," "election," "choose," "chosen." In all cases they mean, simply,
"chosen," or "to choose"; and are used of both human and divine choices.
- (1) In the latter use election is:
- (2)
Election is according to the foreknowledge of God
(1 Peter 1:2), and wholly of grace, apart from human merit
(Romans 9:11; Romans 11:5, 6).
- (3)
Election proceeds from the divine volition
(John 15:16).
Election is, therefore:
- (1) The sovereign act of God in grace whereby certain
are chosen from among mankind for Himself
(John 15:19).
- (2) The sovereign act of God whereby certain elect persons are chosen
for distinctive service for Him
(Luke 6:13; Acts 9:15; 1 Corinthians 1:27, 28).
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Election: The sacred writers do not expalin the many difficulties concerning this central doctrine.
They fail to relate "elect" to the other scripture truth taught: "The freedom of the human will."
(1) In the presence of an insoluble mystery
(2) Their silence teaches the proper attitude of a Christian
b craig
Book Introduction -
1 Peter
Read
first chapter of 1 Peter
WRITER: The Apostle Peter (1 Peter
1:1)
DATE: Probably A.D. 60. That "Babylon" refers to the
former city on the Euphrates, or to Rome, cannot be inferred
from 1 Peter
5:13. The text is obscure.
THEME: While Peter undoubtedly has scattered Jewish
believers in mind, his Epistles comprehend Gentile believers
also (1 Peter
2:10). The present Epistle, written from a church on
Gentile ground (1 Peter
5:13), presents all the foundational truths of the
Christian faith, with special emphasis on the atonement. The
distinctive note of First Peter is preparation for victory
over suffering. The last-name word occurs about fifteen times,
and is the key-word to the Epistle.
The Epistle is in three parts:
- Christian suffering and conduct in the light of full
salvation, 1:1-2:8
- The believer's life in view of his sevenfold position,
and of the vicarious suffering of Christ, 2:9-4:19
- Christian service in the light of the coming of the
Chief Shepherd, 5:1-14
1:2 Elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of
the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
Elect
Election, Summary: In both Testaments the Hebrew and
Greek words are rendered "elect," "election," "choose,"
"chosen." In all cases they mean, simply, "chosen," or "to
choose"; and are used of both human and divine choices.
(1) In the latter use election is: (a) corporate, as of
the nation of Israel, or the church Isaiah
45:4; Ephesians
1:4 and (b) individual 1 Peter
1:2
(2) Election is according to the foreknowledge of God 1 Peter
1:2 and wholly of grace, apart from human merit ; Romans
9:11; 11:5,6.
(3) Election proceeds from the divine volition John
15:16.
Election is, therefore:
(1) The sovereign act of God in grace whereby certain are
chosen from among mankind for Himself. John
15:19.
(2) The sovereign act of God whereby certain elect
persons are chosen for distinctive service for Him. Luke
6:13; Acts
9:15; 1 Corinthians
1:27,28
1:7 That
the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ:
might
Suffering, in First Peter, is set in the light of:
(1) assured salvation, 1 Peter
1:2-5.
(2) the greater glory at Christ's appearing, 1 Peter
1:7;
(3) Christ's sufferings and coming glories, 1 Peter
1:11
(4) the believer's association with Him in both, 1 Peter
2:20,21; 3:17,18
4:12,13.
(5) the purifying effect of suffering, 1 Peter
1:7; 4:1,2;
5:10.
(6) that Christ is now glorified in the believer's
patient suffering, 1 Peter
4:16.
(7) that suffering is disciplinary, 1 Peter
4:17-19; 1 Corinthians
11:31,32; Hebrews
12:5-13.
1:9
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your
souls.
salvation
(See Scofield "Romans 1:16")
.
1:10 Of
which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched
diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto
you:
salvation
(See Scofield "Romans 1:16")
.
1:13
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope
to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ;
for the grace
Grace (in salvation). 1 Peter
5:12; Romans
3:24 (See Scofield "John 1:17")
.
1:18
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain
conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
redeemed
(See Scofield "Romans 3:24")
.
1:20 Who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you,
foreordained
The divine order is foreknowledge, election,
predestination. That foreknowledge determines the election
or choice is clear from 1 Peter
1:2 and predestination is the bringing to pass of the
election. "election looks back to foreknowledge;
predestination forward to the destiny." But Scripture
nowhere declares what it is in the divine foreknowledge
which determines the divine election and predestination. The
foreknown are elected, and the elect are predestinated, and
this election is certain to every believer by the mere fact
that he believes 1 Thessalonians
1:4,5
See Predestination (See Scofield "Ephesians 1:5")
.
1312_1; 1 Peter 1:20, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world
Foreknowledge, Election, Predestination
The divine order is foreknowledge, election, predestination. That foreknowledge
determines the election or choice is clear from 1 Peter 1:2, and predestination is
the bringing to pass of the election. "Election looks back to foreknowledge;
predestination forward to the destiny." But Scripture nowhere declares what it is in
the
divine foreknowledge which determines the divine election and predestination.
The foreknown are elected, and the elect are predestinated, and this election is
certain to every believer by the mere fact that he believes
(1 Thessalonians 1:4, 5). See
Ref. Note Page 1250_1, "Predestination," Ephesians 1:5.
1311_2; 1 Peter 1:7,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory
Suffering, in First Peter, is set in the light of:
(1) assured salvation, 1 Peter 1:2-5;
(2) the greater glory at Christ's appearing, 1 Peter 1:7;
(3) Christ's sufferings and coming glories, 1 Peter 1:11;
(4) the believer's association with Him in both,
1 Peter 2:20, 21; 1 Peter 3:17, 18; 1 Peter 4:12, 13;
(5) the purifying effect of suffering,
1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 4:1, 2; 1 Peter 5:10;
(6) that Christ is now glorified in the believer's patient suffering,
1 Peter 4:16;
(7) that suffering is disciplinary,
1 Peter 4:17-19. (I Corinthians 11:31, 32; Hebrews 12:5-13.)
1311_a;
1 Peter 1:1, to the strangers scattered throughout
1311_b; ,
1 Peter 1:2, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
1311_c; ,
1 Peter 1:2b, through sanctification of the Spirit
1311_d;
1 Peter 1:3, begotten us again unto a lively hope
1311_e;
1 Peter 1:3b, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
1311_f;
1 Peter 1:5, Who are kept by the power of God
1311_g;
1 Peter 1:5, through faith unto salvation
1311_h;
1 Peter 1:6, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations
1311_i;
1 Peter 1:7, glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ
1311_j;
1 Peter 1:9, even the salvation of your souls
1312_a;
1 Peter 1:10, Of which salvation the prophets have enquired
1312_b;
1 Peter 1:10b, searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace
1312_c;
1 Peter 1:11, the Spirit of Christ which was in them
1312_d;
1 Peter 1:12, the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent
1312_e;
1 Peter 1:13, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be
1312_f;
1 Peter 1:14, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts
1312_g;
1 Peter 1:16, it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy
1312_h;
1 Peter 1:16b, it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy
Sanctify, holy persons, New Testament
1312_i;
1 Peter 1:18, ye were not redeemed with corruptible things
1312_j;
1 Peter 1:19, But with the precious blood of Christ
1312_k;
1 Peter 1:20, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world
Predestination, foreknown. Foreknowledge.
1312_l;
1 Peter 1:20b, before the foundation of the world
1312_m;
1 Peter 1:20c, but was manifest in these last times for you
1312_n;
1 Peter 1:22, truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
1312_o;
1 Peter 1:24, For all flesh is as grass
1312_p;
1 Peter 1:25, But the word of the Lord endureth for ever
1312_q;
1 Peter 1:25b, But the word of the Lord endureth for ever
1312_r;
1 Peter 1:25c, this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you
M_132; 1 Peter 1:15, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation
Worhip Beginnings, Exodus 30:34-38.
How does a church choose acceptable music for services?
This is the last chapter of Why I Left The Contemporary
Christian Music Movement and is written mainly for the music minister who is
struggling between Traditional and Contemporary music. I have
long struggled with this question too. When I finally awoke to
the problems of using contemporary music styles in church, I
cried out to Judy, 'Well, then, tell me what music I should be
using!' Earlier when I confronted Chris' youth pastor about the
rock concert in church, he challenged me to come up with guidelines
for what constitutes acceptable music. We are all looking
for guidance.
I collect 'Worship Guidelines' from church websites to see
what they are doing. At Contemporary Christian Music churches, they typically go out of
their way to praise their music diversity but I find no guidelines
for what constitutes an appropriate music style. This should be
no surprise to us by now, since we have seen that the very core
of Contemporary Christian Music philosophy denies that there can be any guidelines
about music styles, because one is considered as good as
another.
M_133
How can we objectively tell the difference between 'bad'
and 'good' music? What are the guidelines we should use to
choose appropriate and acceptable music for praise and worship?
I personally wanted a manual on it. Our only standard for
objectivity is the Bible. Humanly speaking, how I wish that God
had left us a chapter defining acceptable church music! Some
think he left us a Bible full of such music instruction but I cannot
find enough detail that applies specifically to today's controversy.
Our God, who spent so much time laying out the exact detail of
the Tabernacle, could surely leave us a chapter (preferably in
the New Testament) with verses that explicitly state: 'Do not
use any music that the pagans are using today'; or These are
the approved instruments — use no others'; or Thou shalt
worship me only with music set to 6/8 time and no back-beat.'
But he chose not to.
This fact begs the question: Have we elevated the place of
church music in our worship to a level close to idolatry, to a
level never intended by God? I believe both sides are guilty of
this. Perhaps that is why God and Jesus were not more specific
on how to conduct a New Testament church musical service.
Maybe they wanted us to pay more attention to good preaching,
a subject on which the Bible goes into great detail and one
which we know God will use.
Let's face the facts then — as long as fallible man selects the
music, there will be less than 100% objectivity. We should accept
that some subjectivity will always be involved in music
selection. If we do, then we can understand more readily why
it is so important to learn the biblical principles for discerning
questionable practices and avoiding evil that were covered in
an earlier chapter on personal preferences. I also recommend
a diligent study of
1 Chronicles 15 and 16
where David organized
the musical structure of temple worship. This will help us
to understand how a fallible man can become acceptable to
God as a music minister before him, trusted to choose the music
and the instruments wisely. A good introduction to this study is
found in chapter 1 of Tim Fisher's Music Discipleship.
M_134
That said, here is my advice. First and foremost, anyone
who chooses music for God's people should be concerned about
his or her relationship with Jesus Christ. How is yours? Do you
have a personal relationship with Jesus? Are you living a changed
life as a result? Do you live with any unconfessed sin that hinders
your spiritual discernment?
Next, because we serve a holy God who demands separation from
the world for his ministers
(1 Peter 1:15), we must
be very careful with our own personal music preferences. We
cannot listen to secular or Christian rock and roll all day long
and then expect to choose service music that is acceptable to
God. The same goes for other forms of secular and Christian
music, including (sorry, friends) country & western. When we
bathe our ears in these styles, we become tainted by the world
and it will affect our music choices. In my case, you read how
a steady diet of Promise Keeper music and Contemporary Christian Music classic rock
styles inevitably became the dominant music I chose for the
service.
Now assuming that those important issues have been dealt
with, here are some of my practical 'in the trenches' suggestions
for anyone who wants to reform their services.
1. Learn to live by the principles. All music used in church
should be selected using the biblical principles discussed
earlier in this book. It should not have any hint of immorality
(guilt by association) and it should not be offensive to
other Christians. Wait a minute, Dan — are you saying that
if only one person is offended, even if I don't really like that
person and I know he is the weaker brother, I need to submit
to his wishes? No, I am saying that we need to get the
beam out of our own eye first so we can see clearly what
our brother needs.
M_135
2. If it's got that swing, it ain't good to sing! I mean Christian
soft rock, Praise and Worship tunes, hard rock, country rock, easy jazz,
pop rock, rap, hip-hop, reggae, ska, blues, big band and all
other forms influenced by rock. I hope by now you have
seen clear and understandable reasons for this. If you are
wondering if a particular song has a rock beat influence and
cannot determine it by yourself, send me an e-mail and I'll
help. I can spot that back-beat a mile away.
3. Break up the praise band Without drums and electric guitars
to influence you, it will be very hard to choose the wrong
music. De-emphasize the beat and you will often find that
there is not much left in a Contemporary Christian Music piece. Put the traditional
musicians back in there and see what happens. As an additional
benefit, you will also greatly please the elder members
and the classically trained musicians of your church. What
do you say to the praise band members? Give them a copy
of this book.
4. If you think the music might offend someone, it probably
will, so ASK FIRST! Contemporaries have an aggravating
habit of 'Sing first, ask questions later.' And then they
wonder why some people develop resentment. Don't restrict your
research only to the members of the worship team and
everyone else who thinks exactly like you. Ask the opinion
of at least one person who is ten years older than you.
5. Hymns are usually safe and sound. There are some great
and powerful hymns that will lead people to worship God
just as effectively as any new Integrity Hosanna praise song.
Yes, I know the Contemporary comeback here, that some
hymns are not theologically pure; but if you are a Christian
leader, you should be able to discern that. Don't throw out
the baby with the bath water.
M_136
6. Contemporary songs are acceptable, as long as the emphasis
is not on a syncopated beat, but on melody and harmony.
That in effect rules out the vast majority of today's Contemporary Christian Music or
Praise and Worship music, which are heavily dominated by a syncopated
beat. But fear not, because there are many good songs out
there that you have missed because you spent so much time
being a Contemporary and living in their world. E-mail me
for some suggestions. And of course, the lyrics must be
doctrinally sound just like the hymns you choose.
7. Use music for congregational singing, not just words on a
screen. Stop treating your congregation as a group of music
illiterates. Every church has a sufficient number of members
who can read music. If you don't have music for everyone,
then buy it! Remember those old hymnals? They have four-part
songs so everyone can harmonize and find a comfortable
part. When you make this change, you will also solve
another irritating problem. At services that use only words
on the screen, I often hear people trying to harmonize but
they are making it up because they don't remember the right
notes or they never learned the music. This leads to bad
singing and clashing notes. That is not music done decently
and in order. Give those who want to harmonize the notes
to read!
8. Put the microphones back on the stands. Take the mikes out
of the hands of the singers. Handheld mikes encourage a
performance style that emphasizes the performer, which often
leads musicians to mimic secular entertainers in style and
fashion and to desire music that is performance-oriented.
CONCLUSION
M_137
C. S. Lewis once commented that when a person is walking in
the wrong direction, sometimes the best way to make progress
is to turn around, go back and get on the right road.1 He was
trying to point out that moving ahead is not always progress in
the qualitative sense of the word. For the past two or three
decades Christian music has taken giant steps — but, I believe,
in the wrong direction. It's time to turn around —- or, as the
Bible puts it, to repent.
I have shown from my experience that Contemporary Christian Music's acceptance
into the church came into being out of our self-indulgence and
lusts, that it has been justified by deceptive arguments, and
that it is fueled by our desire for music that feeds our sinful
nature. We have been deceived into believing that we can use
any style of music in our worship service and that God accepts
it. This is false! Our acceptance of this lie has harmed an entire
generation of older Christians, has split churches, and is
encouraging immorality, self-indulgence and divisive attitudes in
the church.
M_138
But the bottom line to all of this boils down to one thing. We
have an active enemy called Satan and he wants to erode the
effectiveness of the local church from the inside out. So far, I
think he has made excellent progress with music controversies.
But I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to expose this and help us to
overcome it. I claim the promise of 1 John 4:4: 'You are of
God, little children, and have overcome them, because he who
is in you is greater than he who is in the world.'
I have written this book because Judy and I want to rescue
the butterflies that were wounded and hurt in the storm of the
Contemporary Praise & Worship movement. Butterflies, let us
know if we have encouraged you. I also hope that leaders and
followers of this movement have had their eyes opened by God
to see the spiritual and emotional damage caused by the Contemporary Christian Music
storm. I welcome a respectful and honest dialogue with anyone
who has comments or questions. *
* ~Dan Lucarini, "Why I Left The Contemporary Christian Music Movement." Evangelical Press, p. [sales@evangelicalpress.org]
Please contact me at Dan Lucarini.
May our great and gracious God grant us all repentance
from worldliness and give us the will to reform our worship
practices, so that they are pleasing and acceptable to him!
Copyright Statement
These files are considered public domain and are a
derivative of an electronic edition that is available in the
Online Bible Software
Library.
Bibliography
Information
Scofield, C. I. "Scofield
Reference Notes on 1 Peter 1". "Scofield Reference Notes
(1917 Edition)".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/srn/view.cgi?book=1pe&chapter=001>.
1917.
INTRODUCTION
ITS GENUINENESS is attested by 2 Peter
3:1 Also by POLYCARP (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical
History, 4.14]), who, in writing to the Philippians,
quotes many passages: in the second chapter he quotes 1 Peter
1:13,21; 3:9
EUSEBIUS says of PAPIAS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.39]
that he, too, quotes Peter's First Epistle. IRENÆUS
[Against Heresies, 4.9.2] expressly mentions it; and in
[4.16.5], 1 Peter
2:16 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [Miscellanies, 1.3, p.
544], quotes 1 Peter
2:11,12,15,16 [4, p. 584], 1 Peter
3:14-17 [p. 585], 1 Peter
4:12-14 EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.25])
mentions this Epistle; in [Homily 7, on Joshua, vol. 2,
p. 63], he mentions both Epistles; and
[Commentary on Psalm 3 and on John], he mentions 1 Peter
3:18-21 TERTULLIAN [Antidote to the Scorpion's
Sting, 12], quotes expressly 1 Peter
2:20,21 [Antidote to the Scorpion's Sting, 14], 1 Peter
2:13,17 EUSEBIUS states it as the opinion of those before
him that this was among the universally acknowledged
Epistles. The Peschito Syriac Version contains it. The
fragment of the canon called MURATORI'S omits it. Excepting
this, and the Paulician heretics, who rejected it, all ancient
testimony is on its side. The internal evidence is
equally strong. The author calls himself the apostle Peter, 1 Peter
1:1 and an "elder," 1 Peter
5:1 the warmth of Peter's character; and, as ERASMUS says,
this Epistle is full of apostolic dignity and authority and is
worthy of the leader among the apostles.
PETER'S PERSONAL HISTORY.--Simon, Or Simeon, was a native
of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee, son of Jonas or John. With
his father and his brother Andrew he carried on trade as a
fisherman at Capernaum, his subsequent place of abode. He was
a married man, and tradition represents his wife's name as
Concordia or Perpetua. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
says that she suffered martyrdom, her husband encouraging her
to be faithful unto death, "Remember, dear, our Lord." His
wife's mother was restored from a fever by Christ. He was
brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew, who had been a
disciple of John the Baptist, but was pointed to the Saviour
as "the Lamb of God" by his master (John
1:29 by which chiefly he is known, indicative of his
subsequent character and work in the Church, "Peter"
(Greek) or "Cephas" (Aramaic), a stone
(Matthew
4:18 subsequent period. The leading incidents in his
apostolic life are well known: his walking on the troubled
waters to meet Jesus, but sinking through doubting (Matthew
14:30 the divine person and office of Jesus (Matthew
16:16; Mark
8:29; John
11:27 notwithstanding the difficulties in the way of such
belief, whence he was then also designated as the
stone, or rock (Matthew
16:18 but his rebuke of his Lord when announcing what was
so unpalatable to carnal prejudices, Christ's coming passion
and death (Matthew
16:22 his passing from one extreme to the opposite, in
reference to Christ's offer to wash his feet (John
13:8,9 that he would never forsake his Lord,
whatever others might do (Matthew
26:33 curses (Matthew
26:75 and prophecy of his faithfulness unto death, after
he had received from him a profession of "love" as often
repeated as his previous denial (John
21:15-17 zealous, pious, and ardently attached to the
Lord, but at the same time impulsive in feeling, rather than
calmly and continuously steadfast. Prompt in action and ready
to avow his convictions boldly, he was hasty in judgment,
precipitate, and too self-confident in the assertion of his
own steadfastness; the result was that, though he abounded in
animal courage, his moral courage was too easily overcome by
fear of man's opinion. A wonderful change was wrought in him
by his restoration after his fall, through the grace of his
risen Lord. His zeal and ardor became sanctified, being
chastened by a spirit of unaffected humility. His love to the
Lord was, if possible, increased, while his mode of
manifesting it now was in doing and suffering for His name,
rather than in loud protestations. Thus, when imprisoned and
tried before the Sanhedrim for preaching Christ, he boldly
avowed his determination to continue to do so. He is well
called "the mouth of the apostles." His faithfulness led to
his apprehension by Herod Agrippa, with a view to his
execution, from which, however, he was delivered by the angel
of the Lord.
After the ascension he took the lead in the Church; and on
the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, he exercised the
designed power of "the keys" of Christ's kingdom, by opening
the door of the Church, in preaching, for the admission of
thousands of Israelites; and still more so in opening (in
obedience to a special revelation) an entrance to the "devout"
(that is, Jewish proselyte from heathendom) Gentile,
Cornelius: the forerunner of the harvest gathered in from
idolatrous Gentiles at Antioch. This explains in what
sense Christ used as to him the words, "Upon this rock I will
build my Church" (Matthew
16:18 connection with whom only he was given the
designation: a title shared in common on the same grounds by
the rest of the apostles, as the first founders of the Church
on Christ, "the chief corner-stone" (Ephesians
2:20 A name is often given in Hebrew, not that the
person is actually the thing itself, but has some special
relation to it; as Elijah means Mighty Jehovah, so
Simon is called Peter "the rock," not that he is so, save by
connection with Jesus, the only true Rock (Isaiah
28:16 1 Corinthians
3:11 therefore called so (Matthew
16:23 confession of Christ, the Rock, he became identified
with Him, and is accordingly so called (Matthew
16:18 instance on record of Peter's having ever claimed or
exercised supremacy; on the contrary, he is represented as
sent by the apostles at Jerusalem to confirm the
Samaritans baptized by Philip the deacon; again at the council
of Jerusalem, not he, but James the president, or leading
bishop in the Church of that city, pronounced the
authoritative decision: Acts
15:19 doubtless (though certainly not supremacy), was
given him on the ground of his age, and prominent earnestness,
and boldness in taking the lead on many important occasions.
Hence he is called "first" in enumerating the apostles. Hence,
too, arise the phrases, "Peter and the Eleven," "Peter and the
rest of the apostles"; and Paul, in going up to Jerusalem
after his conversion, went to see Peter in particular.
Once only he again betrayed the same spirit of vacillation
through fear of man's reproach which had caused his denial of
his Lord. Though at the Jerusalem council he advocated the
exemption of Gentile converts from the ceremonial observances
of the law, yet he, after having associated in closest
intercourse with the Gentiles at Antioch, withdrew from them,
through dread of the prejudices of his Jewish brethren who
came from James, and timidly dissembled his conviction of the
religious equality of Jew and Gentile; for this Paul openly
withstood and rebuked him: a plain refutation of his alleged
supremacy and infallibility (except where
specially inspired, as in writing his Epistles). In all other
cases he showed himself to be, indeed, as Paul calls him, "a
pillar" (Galatians
2:9 him in "Babylon," whence he wrote this First Epistle
to the Israelite believers of the dispersion, and the Gentile
Christians united in Christ, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia.
JEROME [On Illustrious Men, 1] states that "Peter,
after having been bishop of Antioch, and after having preached
to the believers of the circumcision in Pontus, &c.
[plainly inferred from 1 Peter
1:1 in the second year of Claudius went to Rome to refute
Simon Magus, and for twenty-five years there held the
episcopal chair, down to the last year of Nero, that is, the
fourteenth, by whom he was crucified with his head downwards,
declaring himself unworthy to be crucified as his Lord, and
was buried in the Vatican, near the triumphal way." EUSEBIUS
[Chronicles, Anno 3], also asserts his episcopate at
Antioch; his assertion that Peter founded that Church
contradicts Acts
11:19-22 His journey to Rome to oppose Simon Magus arose
from JUSTIN'S story of the statue found at Rome (really the
statue of the Sabine god, Semo Sanctus, or Hercules,
mistaken as if Simon Magus were worshipped by that name,
"Simoni Deo Sancto"; found in the Tiber in 1574, or on an
island in the Tiber in 1662), combined with the account in Acts
8:9-24 impossible, as it would make Peter, at the
interview with Paul at Antioch, to have been then for some
years bishop of Rome! His crucifixion is certain from Christ's
prophecy, John
21:18,19 DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH (in EUSEBIUS
[Ecclesiastical History, 2.25]) asserted in an epistle
to the Romans, that Paul and Peter planted both the Roman and
Corinthian churches, and endured martyrdom in Italy at the
same time. So TERTULLIAN [Against Marcion, 4.5, and
The Prescription Against Heretics, 36, 38]. Also Caius,
the presbyter of Rome, in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical
History, 2.25] asserts that some memorials of their
martyrdom were to be seen at Rome on the road to Ostia. So
EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 2.25, and
Demonstration of the Gospel, 3.116]. So LACTANTIUS
[Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, 2]. Many
of the details are palpably false; whether the whole be
so or not is dubious, considering the tendency to concentrate
at Rome events of interest [ALFORD]. What is certain is, that
Peter was not there before the writing of the Epistle to the
Romans (A.D. 58), otherwise he would have been mentioned in
it; nor during Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, otherwise he
would have been mentioned in some one of Paul's many other
Epistles written from Rome; nor during Paul's second
imprisonment, at least when he was writing the Second Epistle
to Timothy, just before his martyrdom. He may have gone
to Rome after Paul's death, and, as common tradition
represents, been imprisoned in the Mamertine dungeon, and
crucified on the Janiculum, on the eminence of St. Pietro in
Montorio, and his remains deposited under the great altar in
the center of the famous basilica of St. Peter. AMBROSE
[Epistles, 33 (Edition Paris, 1586), p. 1022] relates
that St. Peter, not long before his death, being overcome by
the solicitations of his fellow Christians to save himself,
was fleeing from Rome when he was met by our Lord, and on
asking, "Lord, whither goest Thou?" received the answer, "I go
to be crucified afresh." On this he returned and joyfully went
to martyrdom. The church called "Domine quo vadis" on
the Appian Way, commemorates the legend. It is not unlikely
that the whole tradition is built on the connection which
existed between Paul and Peter. As Paul, "the apostle of the
uncircumcision," wrote Epistles to Galatia, Ephesus, and
Colosse, and to Philemon at Colosse, making the Gentile
Christians the persons prominently addressed, and the Jewish
Christians subordinately so; so, vice versa, Peter, "the
apostle of the circumcision," addressed the same churches, the
Jewish Christians in them primarily, and the Gentile
Christians also, secondarily.
TO WHOM HE ADDRESSES THIS EPISTLE.--The heading, 1 Peter
1:1 elect strangers (spiritually pilgrims) of
the dispersion" (Greek), clearly marks the
Christians of the Jewish dispersion as prominently
addressed, but still including also Gentile Christians
as grafted into the Christian Jewish stock by adoption and
faith, and so being part of the true Israel. 1 Peter
1:14; 2:9,10;
3:6;
4:3
this. Thus he, the apostle of the circumcision, sought to
unite in one Christ Jew and Gentile, promoting thereby the
same work and doctrine as Paul the apostle of the
uncircumcision. The provinces are named by Peter in the
heading in the order proceeding from northeast to south and
west. Pontus was the country of the Christian Jew Aquila. To
Galatia Paul paid two visits, founding and confirming
churches. Crescens, his companion, went there about the time
of Paul's last imprisonment, just before his martyrdom. Ancyra
was subsequently its ecclesiastical metropolis. Men of
Cappadocia, as well as of "Pontus" and "Asia," were among the
hearers of Peter's effective sermon on the Pentecost whereon
the Spirit decended on the Church; these probably brought home
to their native land the first tidings of the Gospel.
Proconsular "Asia" included Mysia, Lydia, Caria, Phrygia,
Pisidia, and Lyaconia. In Lycaonia were the churches of
Iconium, founded by Paul and Barnabas; of Lystra, Timothy's
birthplace, where Paul was stoned at the instigation of the
Jews; and of Derbe, the birthplace of Gaius, or Caius. In
Pisidia was Antioch, where Paul was the instrument of
converting many, but was driven out by the Jews. In Caria was
Miletus, containing doubtless a Christian Church. In Phrygia,
Paul preached both times when visiting Galatia in its
neighborhood, and in it were the churches of Laodicea,
Hierapolis, and Colosse, of which last Church Philemon and
Onesimus were members, and Archippus and Epaphras leaders. In
Lydia was the Philadelphian Church, favorably noticed in Revelation
3:7 &c.; that of Sardis, the capital, and of Thyatira,
and of Ephesus, founded by Paul, and a scene of the labors of
Aquila and Priscilla and Apollos, and subsequently of more
than two whole years' labor of Paul again, and subsequently
censured for falling from its first love in Revelation
2:4 and as one of the seven churches receives unqualified
praise. In Mysia was Pergamos. Troas, too, is known as the
scene of Paul's preaching and raising Eutychus to life (Acts
20:6-10 staying for a time with Carpus (2 Timothy
4:13 Church is expressly named in Scripture elsewhere.
When Paul at an earlier period "assayed to go into Bithynia"
(Acts
16:7 suffered him not. But afterwards, we infer from 1 Peter
1:1 Spirit did impart the Gospel to that country, possibly
by Peter's ministry, In government, these several churches, it
appears from this Epistle (1 Peter
5:1,2 when Paul addressed the Ephesian "elders" at Miletus
(Acts
20:17,28 "feed") in very similar language; elders or
presbyter-bishops ruled, while the apostles exercised the
general superintendence. They were exposed to persecutions,
though apparently not systematic, but rather annoyances and
reproach arising from their not joining their heathen
neighbors in riotous living, into which, however, some of them
were in danger of falling. The evils which existed among
themselves, and which are therefore reproved, were ambition
and lucre-seeking on the part of the presbyters (1 Peter
5:2,3 members in general, and a want of sympathy and
generosity towards one another.
HIS OBJECT seems to be, by the prospect of their heavenly
portion and by Christ's example, to afford consolation to the
persecuted, and prepare them for a greater approaching ordeal,
and to exhort all, husbands, wives, servants, presbyters, and
people, to a due discharge of relative duties, so as to give
no handle to the enemy to reproach Christianity, but rather to
win them to it, and so to establish them in "the true grace of
God wherein they stand" (1 Peter
5:12 ALFORD rightly argues that "exhorting and testifying"
there, refer to Peter's exhortations throughout the
Epistle grounded on testimony which he bears to the
Gospel truth, already well known to his readers by the
teaching of Paul in those churches. They were already
introduced "into" (so the Greek, 1 Peter
5:12 safe standing-ground. Compare 1 Corinthians
15:1 Gospel wherein ye stand." Therefore he does
not, in this Epistle, set forth a complete statement of this
Gospel doctrine of grace, but falls back on it as already
known. Compare 1 Peter
1:8,18 1 Peter
3:15; 2 Peter
3:1 of teaching of Paul, but as an independent witness in
his own style attests the same truths. We may divide the
Epistle into: (I) The inscription (1 Peter
1:1,2 believers as born again of God. By the motive of
hope to which God has regenerated us (1 Peter
1:3-12 faith, considering the costly price paid for
our redemption from sin (1 Peter
1:14-21 brethren as begotten of God's eternal word, as
spiritual priest-kings, to whom alone Christ is precious (1 Peter
1:22; 2:10
example in suffering, maintaining a good conversation
in every relation (1 Peter
2:10; 3:14
having in view Christ's once-offered sacrifice, and His future
coming to judgment (1 Peter
3:15; 4:11
adversity, as looking for future glorification with
Christ, (1) in general as Christians, 1 Peter
4:12-19 1 Peter
5:1-11 second part from the first, 1 Peter
2:11 the second, 1 Peter
4:12 [BENGEL]. (III). The conclusion.
TIME AND PLACE OF WRITING.--It was plainly before the open
and systematic persecution of the later years of Nero
had begun. That this Epistle was written after Paul's
Epistles, even those written during his imprisonment at Rome,
ending in A.D. 63, appears from the acquaintance which Peter
in this Epistle shows he has with them. Compare 1 Peter
2:13 1 Peter
1:2 elcom.net/bible?passage=Eph+1:3">Eph 1:3; 1 Peter
1:14 1 Peter
2:13 1 Peter
2:18 com.net/bible?passage=Eph+5:22">Eph 5:22; 1 Peter
3:9 com.net/bible?passage=Php+2:14,Ro+12:13">Php 2:14
Ro 12:13 Hebrews
13:2 elcom.net/bible?passage=1Pe+5:1">1Pe 5:1 with
Romans
8:18 with 1 Thessalonians
5:6 1 Peter
5:13 have been after Colossians
4:10 (A.D. 61-63), when Mark was with Paul at Rome, but
intending to go to Asia Minor. Again, in 2 Timothy
4:11 (A.D. 67 or 68), Mark was in or near Ephesus, in Asia
Minor, and Timothy is told to bring him to Rome. So that it is
likely it was after this, namely, after Paul's martyrdom, that
Mark joined Peter, and consequently that this Epistle was
written. It is not likely that Peter would have entrenched on
Paul's field of labor, the churches of Asia Minor, during
Paul's lifetime. The death of the apostle of the
uncircumcision, and the consequent need of someone to follow
up his teachings, probably gave occasion to the testimony
given by Peter to the same churches, collectively addressed,
in behalf of the same truth. The relation in which the Pauline
Gentile churches stood towards the apostles at Jerusalem
favors this view. Even the Gentile Christians would naturally
look to the spiritual fathers of the Church at Jerusalem, the
center whence the Gospel had emanated to them, for counsel
wherewith to meet the pretensions of Judaizing Christians and
heretics; and Peter, always prominent among the apostles in
Jerusalem, would even when elsewhere feel a deep interest in
them, especially when they were by death bereft of Paul's
guidance. BIRKS [Horæ Evangelicæ] suggests that false
teachers may have appealed from Paul's doctrine to that of
James and Peter. Peter then would naturally write to confirm
the doctrines of grace and tacitly show there was no
difference between his teaching and Paul's. BIRKS prefers
dating the Epistle A.D. 58, after Paul's second visit to
Galatia, when Silvanus was with him, and so could not have
been with Peter (A.D. 54), and before his imprisonment at
Rome, when Mark was with him, and so could not have been with
Peter (A.D. 62); perhaps when Paul was detained at Cæsarea,
and so debarred from personal intercourse with those churches.
I prefer the view previously stated. This sets aside the
tradition that Paul and Peter suffered martyrdom together at
Rome. ORIGEN'S and EUSEBIUS' statement that Peter visited the
churches of Asia in person seems very probable.
The PLACE OF WRITING was doubtless Babylon on the Euphrates
(1 Peter
5:13 matter-of-fact communications and salutations in a
remarkably plain Epistle, the symbolical language of prophecy
(namely, "Babylon" for Rome) should be used. JOSEPHUS
[Antiquities, 15.2.2; 3.1] states that there was a
great multitude of Jews in the Chaldean Babylon; it is
therefore likely that "the apostle of the circumcision" (Galatians
2:7,8 would at some time or other visit them. Some have
maintained that the Babylon meant was in Egypt because Mark
preached in and around Alexandria after Peter's death, and
therefore it is likely he did so along with that apostle in
the same region previously. But no mention elsewhere in
Scripture is made of this Egyptian Babylon, but only of
the Chaldean one. And though towards the close of Caligula's
reign a persecution drove the Jews thence to Seleucia, and a
plague five years after still further thinned their numbers,
yet this does not preclude their return and multiplication
during the twenty years that elapsed between the plague and
the writing of the Epistle. Moreover, the order in which the
countries are enumerated, from northeast to south and west, is
such as would be adopted by one writing from the Oriental
Babylon on the Euphrates, not from Egypt or Rome. Indeed,
COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, in the sixth century, understood the
Babylon meant to be outside the Roman empire. Silvanus,
Paul's companion, became subsequently Peter's, and was the
carrier of this Epistle.
STYLE.--Fervor and practical truth, rather than logical
reasoning, are the characteristics, of this Epistle, as they
were of its energetic, warm-hearted writer. His familiarity
with Paul's Epistles shown in the language accords with what
we should expect from the fact of Paul's having "communicated
the Gospel which he preached among the Gentiles" (as revealed
specially to him) to Peter among others "of reputation" (Galatians
2:2 answer of a good conscience toward God" (1 Peter
3:21 of God" (Greek), 1 Peter
2:19 "living hope" (1 Peter
1:3 and that fadeth not away" (1 Peter
1:4 (1 Peter
5:14 than as at present exalted and hereafter to be
manifested in all His majesty. Glory and hope
are prominent features in this Epistle (1 Peter
1:8 WEISS entitles him "the apostle of hope." The
realization of future bliss as near causes him to regard
believers as but "strangers" and "sojourners" here. Chastened
fervor, deep humility, and ardent love appear, just as we
should expect from one who had been so graciously restored
after his grievous fall. "Being converted," he truly does
"strengthen his brethren." His fervor shows itself in often
repeating the same thought in similar words.
In some passages he shows familiarity with the Epistle of
James, the apostle of special weight with the Jewish
legalizing party, whose inspiration he thus confirms (compare
1 Peter
1:6,7 1 Peter
1:24 spelcom.net/bible?passage=James+1:21">Jas
1:21; 1 Peter
4:8 James
4:6 Testament quotations are the common ground of both.
"Strong susceptibility to outward impressions, liveliness of
feeling, dexterity in handling subjects, dispose natures like
that of Peter to repeat afresh the thoughts of others"
[STEIGER].
The diction of this Epistle and of his speeches in Acts is
very similar: an undesigned coincidence, and so a mark of
genuineness (compare 1 Peter
2:7 1 Peter
2:24 1 Peter
1:10 Acts
3:15; 10:40
Acts
3:19,26
There is, too, a recurrence to the language of the Lord at
the last interview after His resurrection, recorded in John
21:15-23 "the Shepherd . . . of . . .
souls," 1 Peter
2:25 God," "the chief Shepherd," 1 Peter
5:2,4 "Feed My lambs . . . sheep"; also "Whom
. . . ye love," 1 Peter
1:8; 2:7
2 Peter
1:14 WIESINGER well says, "He who in loving impatience
cast himself into the sea to meet the Lord, is also the man
who most earnestly testifies to the hope of His return; he who
dated his own faith from the sufferings of his Master, is
never weary in holding up the suffering form of the Lord
before his readers to comfort and stimulate them; he before
whom the death of a martyr is in assured expectation, is the
man who, in the greatest variety of aspects, sets forth the
duty, as well as the consolation, of suffering for Christ; as
a rock of the Church he grounds his readers against the storm
of present tribulation on the true Rock of
ages."
EXPOSITION
CHAPTER 1
1Pe
1:1-25. ADDRESS TO THE ELECTED OF THE GODHEAD:
THANKSGIVING FOR THE LIVING HOPE TO WHICH WE ARE BEGOTTEN, PRODUCING JOY AMIDST SUFFERINGS: THIS SALVATION AN OBJECT OF DEEPEST INTEREST TO PROPHETS AND TO
ANGELS: ITS COSTLY PRICE A MOTIVE TO HOLINESS AND LOVE, AS WE ARE BORN AGAIN
OF THE EVER-ABIDING WORD OF GOD.
1. Peter--Greek form of
Cephas, man of rock.
an
apostle of Jesus Christ--"He who preaches otherwise than
as a messenger of Christ, is not to be heard; if he preach as
such, then it is all one as if thou didst hear Christ speaking
in thy presence" [LUTHER].
to the strangers scattered--literally,
"sojourners of the dispersion"; only in Joh
7:35 and Jas 1:1, in New Testament, and the
Septuagint, Ps
147:2, "the outcasts of Israel"; the designation
peculiarly given to the Jews in their dispersed state
throughout the world ever since the Babylonian captivity.
These he, as the apostle of the circumcision, primarily
addresses, but not in the limited temporal sense only; he
regards their temporal condition as a shadow of their
spiritual calling to be strangers and pilgrims on
earth, looking for the heavenly Jerusalem as their home. So
the Gentile Christians, as the spiritual Israel, are
included secondarily, as having the same high calling. He (1Pe
1:14; 2:10; 4:3) plainly refers to Christian
Gentiles (compare 1Pe
1:17; 1Pe 2:11). Christians, if they rightly consider
their calling, must never settle themselves here, but feel
themselves travellers. As the Jews in their
dispersion diffused through the nations the knowledge
of the one God, preparatory to Christ's first advent, so
Christians, by their dispersion among the unconverted, diffuse
the knowledge of Christ, preparatory to His second advent.
"The children of God scattered abroad" constitute one whole in
Christ, who "gathers them together in one," now partially and
in Spirit, hereafter perfectly and visibly. "Elect," in the
Greek order, comes before "strangers"; elect, in
relation to heaven, strangers, in relation to the
earth. The election here is that of individuals to
eternal life by the sovereign grace of God, as the sequel
shows. "While each is certified of his own election by the
Spirit, he receives no assurance concerning others, nor are we
to be too inquisitive [Joh
21:21, 22]; Peter numbers them among the elect, as
they carried the appearance of having been regenerated"
[CALVIN]. He calls the whole Church by the
designation strictly belonging only to the better portion of
them [CALVIN]. The election to
hearing, and that to eternal life, are distinct.
Realization of our election is a strong motive to holiness.
The minister invites all, yet he does not hide the truth that
in none but the elect will the preaching effect eternal
blessing. As the chief fruit of exhortations, and even of
threatenings, redounds to "the elect"; therefore, at the
outset, Peter addresses them. STEIGER translates, to "the elect pilgrims who
form the dispersion in Pontus.", &c. The order of
the provinces is that in which they would be viewed by one
writing from the east from Babylon (1Pe
5:13); from northeast southwards to Galatia, southeast to
Cappadocia, then Asia, and back to Bithynia, west of Pontus.
Contrast the order, Ac
2:9. He now was ministering to those same peoples as he
preached to on Pentecost: "Parthians, Medes, Elamites,
dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea," that is, the Jews now
subject to the Parthians, whose capital was Babylon,
where he labored in person; "dwellers in Cappadocia, Pontus,
Asia, Phrygia, Bithynia," the Asiatic dispersion derived from
Babylon, whom he ministers to by letter.
2.
foreknowledge--foreordaining love (1Pe
1:20), inseparable from God's foreknowledge, the
origin from which, and pattern according to
which, election takes place. Ac
2:23, and Ro 11:2, prove "foreknowledge" to be
foreordination. God's foreknowledge is not the
perception of any ground of action out of Himself; still in it
liberty is comprehended, and all absolute constraint debarred
[ANSELM in STEIGER].
For so the Son of God was "foreknown" (so the Greek for
"foreordained," 1Pe
1:20) to be the sacrificial Lamb, not against, or without
His will, but His will rested in the will of the Father; this
includes self-conscious action; nay, even cheerful
acquiescense. The Hebrew and Greek "know"
include approval and acknowledging as one's own.
The Hebrew marks the oneness of loving and
choosing, by having one word for both, bachar
(Greek, "hairetizo," Septuagint). Peter
descends from the eternal "election" of God through the new
birth, to the believer's "sanctification," that from this
he might again raise them through the consideration of their
new birth to a "living hope" of the heavenly
"inheritance" [HEIDEGGER]. The divine
three are introduced in their respective functions in
redemption.
through--Greek, "in"; the element in which we
are elected. The "election" of God realized and manifested
itself "IN" their sanctification.
Believers are "sanctified through the offering of Christ once
for all" (Heb
10:10). "Thou must believe and know that thou art holy;
not, however, through thine own piety, but through the blood
of Christ" [LUTHER]. This is the true
sanctification of the Spirit, to obey the Gospel, to trust in
Christ [BULLINGER].
sanctification--the Spirit's setting apart of
the saint as consecrated to God. The execution of God's
choice (Ga
1:4). God the Father gives us salvation by gratuitous
election; the Son earns it by His blood-shedding; the Holy
Spirit applies the merit of the Son to the soul by the Gospel
word [CALVIN]. Compare Nu
6:24-26, the Old Testament triple blessing.
unto obedience--the result or end
aimed at by God as respects us, the obedience which
consists in faith, and that which flows from faith; "obeying
the truth through the Spirit" (1Pe
1:22). Ro
1:5, "obedience to the faith," and obedience the fruit of
faith.
sprinkling,
&c.--not in justification through the atonement once for
all, which is expressed in the previous clauses, but (as the
order proves) the daily being sprinkled by Christ's blood,
and so cleansed from all sin, which is the privilege of
one already justified and "walking in the light."
Grace--the source of "peace."
be multiplied--still further than
already. Da
4:1, "Ye have now peace and grace, but still not in
perfection; therefore, ye must go on increasing until the old
Adam be dead" [LUTHER].
3. He begins, like Paul, in
opening his Epistles with giving thanks to God for the
greatness of the salvation; herein he looks forward (1) into
the future (1Pe
1:3-9); (2) backward into the past (1Pe
1:10-12) [ALFORD].
Blessed--A distinct Greek word
(eulogetos, "Blessed BE") is used
of God, from that used of man (eulogemenos, "Blessed
IS").
Father--This whole Epistle accords with the Lord's
prayer; "Father," 1Pe
1:3, 14, 17, 23; 2:2; "Our," 1Pe
1:4, end; "In heaven," 1Pe
1:4; "Hallowed be Thy name," 1Pe
1:15, 16; 3:15; "Thy kingdom come," 1Pe
2:9; "Thy will be done," 1Pe
2:15; 3:17; 4:2, 19; "daily bread," 1Pe
5:7; "forgiveness of sins," 1Pe
4:8, 1; "temptation," 1Pe
4:12; "deliverance," 1Pe
4:18 [BENGEL]; Compare 1Pe
3:7; 4:7, for allusions to prayer. "Barak,"
Hebrew "bless," is literally "kneel." God, as the
original source of blessing, must be blessed through all His
works.
abundant--Greek,
"much," "full." That God's "mercy" should reach us,
guilty and enemies, proves its fulness. "Mercy" met our
misery; "grace," our guilt.
begotten us again--of the Spirit by the
word (1Pe
1:23); whereas we were children of wrath naturally, and
dead in sins.
unto--so
that we have.
lively--Greek, "living." It has life in itself,
gives life, and looks for life as its object [DE WETTE]. Living is a
favorite expression of Peter (1Pe
1:23; 1Pe 2:4, 5). He delights in contemplating
life overcoming death in the believer. Faith and
love follow hope (1Pe
1:8, 21, 22). "(Unto) a lively hope" is further explained
by "(To) an inheritance incorruptible . . . fadeth
not away," and "(unto) salvation . . . ready to be
revealed in the last time." I prefer with BENGEL and STEIGER to join as
in Greek, "Unto a hope living (possessing life
and vitality) through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ." Faith, the subjective means of the spiritual
resurrection of the soul, is wrought by the same power whereby
Christ was raised from the dead. Baptism is an objective means
(1Pe
3:21). Its moral fruit is a new life. The connection of
our sonship with the resurrection appears also in Lu
20:36; Ac 13:33. Christ's resurrection is the cause of
ours, (1) as an efficient cause (1Co
15:22); (2) as an exemplary cause, all the saints being
about to rise after the similitude of His resurrection. Our
"hope" is, Christ rising from the dead hath ordained the
power, and is become the pattern of the believer's
resurrection. The soul, born again from its natural state into
the life of grace, is after that born again unto the life of
glory. Mt
19:28, "regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the
throne of His glory"; the resurrection of our bodies is a kind
of coming out of the womb of the earth and entering upon
immortality, a nativity into another life [BISHOP PEARSON]. The four
causes of our salvation are; (1) the primary cause, God's
mercy; (2) the proximate cause, Christ's death and
resurrection; (3) the formal cause, our regeneration; (4) the
final cause, our eternal bliss. As John is the disciple of
love, so Paul of faith, and Peter of
hope. Hence, Peter, most of all the apostles, urges the
resurrection of Christ; an undesigned coincidence between the
history and the Epistle, and so a proof of genuineness.
Christ's resurrection was the occasion of his own restoration
by Christ after his fall.
4. To an inheritance--the
object of our "hope" (1Pe
1:3), which is therefore not a dead, but a
"living" hope. The inheritance is the believer's
already by title, being actually assigned to him; the entrance
on its possession is future, and hoped for as a certainty.
Being "begotten again" as a "son," he is an "heir," as earthly
fathers beget children who shall inherit their
goods. The inheritance is "salvation" (1Pe
1:5, 9); "the grace to be brought at the revelation of
Christ" (1Pe
1:13); "a crown of glory that fadeth not away."
incorruptible--not having within the
germs of death. Negations of the imperfections which meet us
on every side here are the chief means of conveying to our
minds a conception of the heavenly things which "have not
entered into the heart of man," and which we have not
faculties now capable of fully knowing. Peter, sanguine,
impulsive, and highly susceptible of outward impressions, was
the more likely to feel painfully the deep-seated
corruption which, lurking under the outward splendor of
the loveliest of earthly things, dooms them soon to rottenness
and decay.
undefiled--not
stained as earthly goods by sin, either in the acquiring, or
in the using of them; unsusceptible of any stain. "The rich
man is either a dishonest man himself, or the heir of a
dishonest man" [JEROME]. Even Israel's
inheritance was defiled by the people's sins.
Defilement intrudes even on our holy things now, whereas God's
service ought to be undefiled.
that fadeth not away--Contrast 1Pe
1:24. Even the most delicate part of the heavenly
inheritance, its bloom, continues unfading. "In
substance incorruptible; in purity undefiled; in
beauty unfading" [ALFORD].
reserved--kept up (Col
1:5, "laid up for you in heaven," 2Ti
4:8); Greek perfect, expressing a fixed and
abiding state, "which has been and is reserved." The
inheritance is in security, beyond risk, out of the reach of
Satan, though we for whom it is reserved are still in the
midst of dangers. Still, if we be believers, we too, as well
as the inheritance, are "kept" (the same Greek, Joh
17:12) by Jesus safely (1Pe
1:5).
in
heaven--Greek, "in the heavens," where it can
neither be destroyed nor plundered. It does not follow that,
because it is now laid up in heaven, it shall
not hereafter be on earth also.
for you--It is secure not only in itself
from all misfortune, but also from all alienation, so that no
other can receive it in your stead. He had said us (1Pe
1:3); he now turns his address to the elect in order to
encourage and exhort them.
5. kept--Greek, "who are
being guarded." He answers the objection, Of what use is it
that salvation is "reserved" for us in heaven, as in a calm
secure haven, when we are tossed in the world as on a troubled
sea in the midst of a thousand wrecks? [CALVIN]. As the inheritance is "kept" (1Pe
1:4) safely for the far distant "heirs," so must they be
"guarded" in their persons so as to be sure of reaching it.
Neither shall it be wanting to them, nor they to it. "We are
guarded in the world as our inheritance is kept in
heaven." This defines the "you" of 1Pe
1:4. The inheritance, remember, belongs only to those who
"endure unto the end," being "guarded" by, or IN "the power of God, through faith."
Contrast Lu
8:13. God Himself is our sole guarding power. "It
is His power which saves us from our enemies. It is His
long-suffering which saves us from ourselves" [BENGEL]. Jude
1, "preserved in Christ Jesus"; Php
1:6; 4:7, "keep"; Greek, "guard," as here. This
guarding is effected, on the part of God, by His "power," the
efficient cause; on the part of man, "through faith," the
effective means.
by--Greek, "in." The believer lives spiritually
in God, and in virtue of His power, and God lives in
him. "In" marks that the cause is inherent in the means,
working organically through them with living influence, so
that the means, in so far as the cause works organically
through them, exist also in the cause. The power of God which
guards the believer is no external force working upon him from
without with mechanical necessity, but the spiritual power of
God in which he lives, and with whose Spirit he is clothed. It
comes down on, and then dwells in him, even as he is in it
[STEIGER]. Let none flatter himself he is
being guarded by the power of God unto salvation, if he be not
walking by faith. Neither speculative knowledge and
reason, nor works of seeming charity, will avail, severed from
faith. It is through faith that salvation is both received and
kept.
unto salvation--the
final end of the new birth. "Salvation," not merely
accomplished for us in title by Christ, and made over to us on
our believing, but actually manifested, and finally
completed.
ready to be
revealed--When Christ shall be revealed, it shall be
revealed. The preparations for it are being made now, and
began when Christ came: "All things are now ready"; the
salvation is already accomplished, and only waits the Lord's
time to be manifested: He "is ready to judge."
last time--the last day, closing the day
of grace; the day of judgment, of redemption, of the
restitution of all things, and of perdition of the
ungodly.
6. Wherein--in which prospect
of final salvation.
greatly
rejoice--"exult with joy": "are exuberantly glad."
Salvation is realized by faith (1Pe
1:9) as a thing so actually present as to cause exulting
joy in spite of existing afflictions.
for a season--Greek, "for a little time."
if need be--"if it be God's
will that it should be so" [ALFORD], for
not all believers are afflicted. One need not invite or lay a
cross on himself, but only "take up" the cross which God
imposes ("his cross"); 2Ti
3:12 is not to be pressed too far. Not every believer, nor
every sinner, is tried with afflictions [THEOPHYLACT]. Some falsely think that
notwithstanding our forgiveness in Christ, a kind of
atonement, or expiation by suffering, is needed.
ye are in heaviness--Greek, "ye
were grieved." The "grieved" is regarded as past, the
"exulting joy" present. Because the realized joy of the coming
salvation makes the present grief seem as a thing of
the past. At the first shock of affliction ye were
grieved, but now by anticipation ye rejoice,
regarding the present grief as past.
through--Greek, "IN": the
element in which the grief has place.
manifold--many and of various kinds (1Pe
4:12, 13).
temptations--"trials" testing your faith.
7. Aim of the "temptations."
trial--testing, proving. That
your faith so proved "may be found (aorist; once for
all, as the result of its being proved on the
judgment-day) unto (eventuating in) praise," &c., namely,
the praise to be bestowed by the Judge.
than that of gold--rather, "than gold."
though--"which perisheth,
YET is tried with fire." If gold, though
perishing (1Pe
1:18), is yet tried with fire in order to remove dross and
test its genuineness, how much more does your faith, which
shall never perish, need to pass through a fiery trial to
remove whatever is defective, and to test its genuineness and
full value?
glory--"Honor" is
not so strong as "glory." As "praise" is in words, so
"honor" is in deeds: honorary reward.
appearing--Translate as in 1Pe
1:13, "revelation." At Christ's revelation shall take
place also the revelation of the sons of God (Ro
8:19, "manifestation," Greek, "revelation"; 1Jo
3:2, Greek, "manifested . . . manifested," for
"appear . . . appear").
8. not having seen, ye
love--though in other cases it is knowledge of the
person that produces love to him. They are more
"blessed that have not seen and yet have believed," than they
who believed because they have seen. On Peter's own love to
Jesus, compare Joh
21:15-17. Though the apostles had seen Him, they now
ceased to know Him merely after the flesh.
in whom--connected with "believing": the result
of which is "ye rejoice" (Greek, "exult").
now--in the present state, as
contrasted with the future state when believers "shall
see His face."
unspeakable--
(1Co
2:9).
full of
glory--Greek, "glorified." A joy now already
encompassed with glory. The "glory" is partly in
present possession, through the presence of Christ, "the Lord
of glory," in the soul; partly in assured anticipation. "The
Christian's joy is bound up with love to Jesus:
its ground is faith; it is not therefore either
self-seeking or self-sufficient" [STEIGER].
9. Receiving--in sure
anticipation; "the end of your faith," that is, its crowning
consummation, finally completed "salvation" (Peter here
confirms Paul's teaching as to justification by faith):
also receiving now the title to it and the first-fruits
of it. In 1Pe
1:10 the "salvation" is represented as already
present, whereas "the prophets" had it not as yet present.
It must, therefore, in this verse, refer to the present:
Deliverance now from a state of wrath: believers even
now "receive salvation," though its full "revelation" is
future.
of . . .
souls--The immortal soul was what was lost, so
"salvation" primarily concerns the soul; the body shall
share in redemption hereafter; the soul of the believer
is saved already: an additional proof that "receiving
. . . salvation" is here a thing present.
10. The magnitude of this
"salvation" is proved by the earnestness with which "prophets"
and even "angels" searched into it. Even from the beginning of
the world this salvation has been testified to by the Holy
Spirit.
prophets--Though there
is no Greek article, yet English Version is
right, "the prophets" generally (including all the Old
Testament inspired authors), as "the angels"
similarly refer to them in general.
inquired--perseveringly: so the Greek. Much more
is manifested to us than by diligent inquiry and search the
prophets attained. Still it is not said, they searched
after it, but concerning (so the Greek
for "of") it. They were already certain of the redemption
being about to come. They did not like us fully see,
but they desired to see the one and the same Christ
whom we fully see in spirit. "As Simeon was anxiously desiring
previously, and tranquil in peace only when he had seen
Christ, so all the Old Testament saints saw Christ only
hidden, and as it were absent--absent not in power and grace,
but inasmuch as He was not yet manifested in the flesh"
[CALVIN]. The prophets, as private
individuals, had to reflect on the hidden and far-reaching
sense of their own prophecies; because their words, as
prophets, in their public function, were not so much their
own as the Spirit's, speaking by and in them: thus Caiaphas. A
striking testimony to verbal inspiration; the words
which the inspired authors wrote are God's words expressing
the mind of the Spirit, which the writers themselves searched
into, to fathom the deep and precious meaning, even as the
believing readers did. "Searched" implies that they had
determinate marks to go by in their search.
the grace that should come unto you--namely, the
grace of the New Testament: an earnest of "the grace" of
perfected "salvation . . . to be brought at the
(second) revelation of Christ." Old Testament believers also
possessed the grace of God; they were children of God, but it
was as children in their nonage, so as to be like servants;
whereas we enjoy the full privileges of adult sons.
11. what--Greek, "In
reference to what, or what manner of time." What
expresses the time absolutely: what was to be the era
of Messiah's coming; what manner of time; what events
and features should characterize the time of His coming. The
"or" implies that some of the prophets, if they could not as
individuals discover the exact time, searched into its
characteristic features and events. The Greek for
"time" is the season, the epoch, the fit time in God's
purposes.
Spirit of Christ
. . . in them-- (Ac
16:7, in oldest manuscripts, "the Spirit of Jesus"; Re
19:10). So JUSTIN MARTYR says, "Jesus was He who appeared and
communed with Moses, Abraham, and the other patriarchs."
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
calls Him "the Prophet of prophets, and Lord of all the
prophetical spirit."
did
signify--"did give intimation."
of--Greek, "the sufferers (appointed)
unto Christ," or foretold in regard to Christ.
"Christ," the anointed Mediator, whose
sufferings are the price of our "salvation" (1Pe
1:9, 10), and who is the channel of "the grace that should
come unto you."
the
glory--Greek, "glories," namely, of His
resurrection, of His ascension, of His judgment and coming
kingdom, the necessary consequence of the sufferings.
that should
follow--Greek, "after these (sufferings)," 1Pe
3:18-22; 5:1. Since "the Spirit of Christ" is the
Spirit of God, Christ is God. It is only because the
Son of God was to become our Christ that He manifested Himself
and the Father through Him in the Old Testament, and by the
Holy Spirit, eternally proceeding from the Father and Himself,
spake in the prophets.
12. Not only was the future
revealed to them, but this also, that these revelations of the
future were given them not for themselves, but for our good in
Gospel times. This, so far from disheartening, only quickened
them in unselfishly testifying in the Spirit for the partial
good of their own generation (only of believers), and for the
full benefit of posterity. Contrast in Gospel times, Re
22:10. Not that their prophecies were unattended with
spiritual instruction as to the Redeemer to their own
generation, but the full light was not to be given till
Messiah should come; it was well that they should have this
"revealed" to them, lest they should be disheartened in not
clearly discovering with all their inquiry and search
the full particulars of the coming "salvation." To Daniel (Da
9:25, 26) the "time" was revealed. Our immense
privileges are thus brought forth by contrast with theirs,
notwithstanding that they had the great honor of Christ's
Spirit speaking in them; and this, as an incentive to still
greater earnestness on our part than even they manifested (1Pe
1:13, &c.).
us--The
oldest manuscripts read "you," as in 1Pe
1:10. This verse implies that we, Christians, may
understand the prophecies by the Spirit's aid in their most
important part, namely, so far as they have been already
fulfilled.
with the Holy Ghost
sent down--on Pentecost. The oldest manuscripts omit
Greek preposition en, that is, "in"; then
translate, "by." The Evangelists speaking by the Holy Spirit
were infallible witnesses. "The Spirit of Christ" was in the
prophets also (1Pe
1:11), but not manifestly, as in the case of the Christian
Church and its first preachers, "SENT down
from heaven." How favored are we in being ministered to, as to
"salvation," by prophets and apostles alike, the latter now
announcing the same things as actually fulfilled which the
former foretold.
which
things--"the things now reported unto you" by the
evangelistic preachers "Christ's sufferings and the glory that
should follow" (1Pe
1:11, 12).
angels--still
higher than "the prophets" (1Pe
1:10). Angels do not any more than ourselves possess an
INTUITIVE knowledge of redemption. "To
look into" in Greek is literally, "to bend over so as
to look deeply into and see to the bottom of a thing." See on
Jas
1:25, on same word. As the cherubim stood bending over the
mercy seat, the emblem of redemption, in the holiest place, so
the angels intently gaze upon and desire to fathom the depths
of "the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels" (1Ti
3:16). Their "ministry to the heirs of salvation"
naturally disposes them to wish to penetrate this mystery as
reflecting such glory on the love, justice, wisdom, and power
of their and our God and Lord. They can know it only through
its manifestation in the Church, as they personally have not
the direct share in it that we have. "Angels have only the
contrast between good and evil, without the power of
conversion from sin to righteousness: witnessing such
conversion in the Church, they long to penetrate the knowledge
of the means whereby it is brought about" [HOFMAN in ALFORD].
13. Wherefore--Seeing that the
prophets ministered unto you in these high Gospel privileges
which they did not themselves fully share in, though
"searching" into them, and seeing that even angels "desire to
look into" them, how earnest you ought to be and watchful in
respect to them!
gird up
. . . loins--referring to Christ's own words, Lu
12:35; an image taken from the way in which the Israelites
ate the passover with the loose outer robe girded up about the
waist with a girdle, as ready for a journey. Workmen,
pilgrims, runners, wrestlers, and warriors (all of whom are
types of the Christians), so gird themselves up, both to
shorten the garment so as not to impede motion, and to gird up
the body itself so as to be braced for action. The believer is
to have his mind (mental powers) collected and always ready
for Christ's coming. "Gather in the strength of your spirit"
[HENSLER]. Sobriety, that is,
spiritual self-restraint, lest one be overcome by the
allurements of the world and of sense, and patient
hopeful waiting for Christ's revelation, are the true
ways of "girding up the loins of the mind."
to the end--rather, "perfectly," so that there
may be nothing deficient in your hope, no casting away of
your confidence. Still, there may be an allusion to the
"end" mentioned in 1Pe
1:9. Hope so perfectly (Greek, "teleios") as
to reach unto the end (telos) of your faith and
hope, namely, "the grace that is being brought unto you in (so
the Greek) the revelation of Christ." As grace
shall then be perfected, so you ought to hope
perfectly. "Hope" is repeated from 1Pe
1:3. The two appearances are but different stages of the
ONE great revelation of Christ, comprising
the New Testament from the beginning to the end.
14. From sobriety of
spirit and endurance of hope Peter passes to
obedience, holiness, and reverential fear.
As--marking their present
actual character as "born again" (1Pe
1:3, 22).
obedient
children--Greek, "children of obedience": children
to whom obedience is their characteristic and ruling
nature, as a child is of the same nature as the mother and
father. Contrast Eph
5:6, "the children of disobedience." Compare 1Pe
1:17, "obeying the Father" whose "children" ye are. Having
the obedience of faith (compare 1Pe
1:22) and so of practice (compare 1Pe
1:16, 18). "Faith is the highest obedience, because
discharged to the highest command" [LUTHER].
fashioning--The outward fashion (Greek,
"schema") is fleeting, and merely on the surface. The
"form," or conformation in the New Testament, is
something deeper and more perfect and essential.
the former lusts in--which were
characteristic of your state of ignorance of God: true of both
Jews and Gentiles. The sanctification is first described
negatively (1Pe
1:14, "not fashioning yourselves," &c.; the putting
off the old man, even in the outward fashion, as well
as in the inward conformation), then positively (1Pe
1:15, putting on the new man, compare Eph
4:22, 24). "Lusts" flow from the original birth-sin
(inherited from our first parents, who by self-willed desire
brought sin into the world), the lust which, ever since
man has been alienated from God, seeks to fill up with earthly
things the emptiness of his being; the manifold forms which
the mother-lust assumes are called in the plural lusts.
In the regenerate, as far as the new man is concerned,
which constitutes his truest self, "sin" no longer exists; but
in the flesh or old man it does. Hence arises the conflict,
uninterruptedly maintained through life, wherein the new man
in the main prevails, and at last completely. But the natural
man knows only the combat of his lusts with one another, or
with the law, without power to conquer them.
15. Literally, "But (rather)
after the pattern of Him who hath called you (whose
characteristic is that He is) holy, be (Greek,
'become') ye yourselves also holy." God is our grand model.
God's calling is a frequently urged motive in Peter's
Epistles. Every one that begets, begets an offspring
resembling himself [EPIPHANIUS]. "Let the
acts of the offspring indicate similarity to the Father"
[AUGUSTINE].
conversation--deportment, course of life: one's way of
going about, as distinguished from one's internal nature, to
which it must outwardly correspond. Christians are already
holy unto God by consecration; they must be so also in their
outward walk and behavior in all respects. The outward
must correspond to the inward man.
16. Scripture is the
true source of all authority in questions of doctrine and
practice.
Be ye . . .
for I am--It is I with whom ye have to do. Ye are mine.
Therefore abstain from Gentile pollutions. We are too prone to
have respect unto men [CALVIN]. As I am
the fountain of holiness, being holy in My essence, be
ye therefore zealous to be partakers of holiness, that
ye may be as I also am [DIDYMUS]. God is
essentially holy: the creature is holy in so far as it is
sanctified by God. God, in giving the command, is willing to
give also the power to obey it, namely, through the
sanctifying of the Spirit (1Pe
1:2).
17. if ye call on--that is,
"seeing that ye call on," for all the regenerate pray
as children of God, "Our Father who art in
heaven" (Mt
6:9; Lu 11:2).
the
Father--rather, "Call upon as Father Him who
without acceptance of persons (Ac
10:34; Ro 2:11; Jas 2:1, not accepting the Jew above the
Gentile, 2Ch
19:7; Lu 20:21; properly said of a judge not biassed in
judgment by respect of persons) judgeth," &c. The Father
judgeth by His Son, His Representative, exercising His
delegated authority (Joh
5:22). This marks the harmonious and complete unity of the
Trinity.
work--Each man's
work is one complete whole, whether good or bad.
The particular works of each are manifestations of the general
character of his lifework, whether it was of faith and love
whereby alone we can please God and escape condemnation.
pass--Greek, "conduct
yourselves during."
sojourning--The outward state of the Jews in their
dispersion is an emblem of the sojourner-like
state of all believers in this world, away from our true
Fatherland.
fear--reverential,
not slavish. He who is your Father, is also your Judge--a
thought which may well inspire reverential fear. THEOPHYLACT observes, A double fear is mentioned
in Scripture: (1) elementary, causing one to become
serious; (2) perfective: the latter is here the motive
by which Peter urges them as sons of God to be obedient.
Fear is not here opposed to assurance, but to
carnal security: fear producing vigilant caution lest
we offend God and backslide. "Fear and hope flow
from the same fountain: fear prevents us from falling
away from hope" [BENGEL]. Though
love has no fear IN it, yet
in our present state of imperfect love, it needs to have fear
going ALONG WITH It as a subordinate
principle. This fear drowns all other fears. The believer
fears God, and so has none else to fear. Not to fear God is
the greatest baseness and folly. The martyrs' more than mere
human courage flowed from this.
18. Another motive to
reverential, vigilant fear (1Pe
1:17) of displeasing God, the consideration of the costly
price of our redemption from sin. Observe, it is we who
are bought by the blood of Christ, not heaven. The blood of
Christ is not in Scripture said to buy heaven for us: heaven
is the "inheritance" (1Pe
1:4) given to us as sons, by the promise of God.
corruptible--Compare 1Pe
1:7, "gold that perisheth," 1Pe
1:23.
silver and
gold--Greek, "or." Compare Peter's own words, Ac
3:6: an undesigned coincidence.
redeemed--Gold and silver being liable to corruption
themselves, can free no one from spiritual and bodily death;
they are therefore of too little value. Contrast 1Pe
1:19, Christ's "precious blood." The Israelites
were ransomed with half a shekel each, which went towards
purchasing the lamb for the daily sacrifice (Ex
30:12-16; compare Nu
3:44-51). But the Lamb who redeems the spiritual
Israelites does so "without money or price." Devoted by sin to
the justice of God, the Church of the first-born is redeemed
from sin and the curse with Christ's precious blood (Mt
20:28; 1Ti 2:6; Tit 2:14; Re 5:9). In all these passages
there is the idea of substitution, the giving of one
for another by way of a ransom or equivalent. Man is "sold
under sin" as a slave; shut up under condemnation and the
curse. The ransom was, therefore, paid to the righteously
incensed Judge, and was accepted as a vicarious satisfaction
for our sin by God, inasmuch as it was His own love as well as
righteousness which appointed it. An Israelite sold as a
bond-servant for debt might be redeemed by one of his
brethren. As, therefore, we could not redeem ourselves, Christ
assumed our nature in order to become our nearest of kin and
brother, and so our God or Redeemer. Holiness is the natural
fruit of redemption "from our vain conversation"; for He
by whom we are redeemed is also He for whom we
are redeemed. "Without the righteous abolition of the curse,
either there could be found no deliverance, or, what is
impossible, the grace and righteousness of God must have come
in collision" [STEIGER]; but now, Christ
having borne the curse of our sin, frees from it those who are
made God's children by His Spirit.
vain--self-deceiving, unreal, and unprofitable:
promising good which it does not perform. Compare as to the
Gentiles, Ac
14:15; Ro 1:21; Eph 4:17; as to human philosophers, 1Co
3:20; as to the disobedient Jews, Jer
4:14.
conversation--course
of life. To know what our sin is we must know what it cost.
received by tradition from your
fathers--The Jews' traditions. "Human piety is a vain
blasphemy, and the greatest sin that a man can commit" [LUTHER]. There is only one Father to be imitated,
1Pe
1:17; compare Mt
23:9, the same antithesis [BENGEL].
19. precious--of inestimable
value. The Greek order is, "With precious blood, as of
a lamb without blemish (in itself) and without spot
(contracted by contact with others), (even the blood)
of Christ." Though very man, He remained pure in
Himself ("without blemish"), and uninfected by any
impression of sin from without ("without spot"), which
would have unfitted Him for being our atoning Redeemer: so the
passover lamb, and every sacrificial victim; so too, the
Church, the Bride, by her union with Him. As Israel's
redemption from Egypt required the blood of the paschal lamb,
so our redemption from sin and the curse required the blood of
Christ; "foreordained" (1Pe
1:20) from eternity, as the passover lamb was taken up on
the tenth day of the month.
20. God's eternal
foreordination of Christ's redeeming sacrifice, and completion
of it in these last times for us, are an additional
obligation on us to our maintaining a holy walk, considering
how great things have been thus done for us. Peter's language
in the history corresponds with this here: an undesigned
coincidence and mark of genuineness. Redemption was no
afterthought, or remedy of an unforeseen evil, devised at the
time of its arising. God's foreordaining of the
Redeemer refutes the slander that, on the Christian theory,
there is a period of four thousand years of nothing but an
incensed God. God chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world (Eph
1:4).
manifest--in His
incarnation in the fulness of the time. He existed from
eternity before He was manifested.
in these last times-- 1Co
10:11, "the ends of the world." This last dispensation,
made up of "times" marked by great changes, but still
retaining a general unity, stretches from Christ's ascension
to His coming to judgment.
21. by him--Compare "the
faith which is by Him," Ac
3:16. Through Christ: His Spirit, obtained for us
in His resurrection and ascension, enabling us to believe.
This verse excludes all who do not "by Him believe in God,"
and includes all of every age and clime that do. Literally,
"are believers in God." "To believe IN (Greek, 'eis') God"
expresses an internal trust: "by believing to love God,
going INTO Him, and cleaving to Him,
incorporated into His members. By this faith the ungodly is
justified, so that thenceforth faith itself begins to
work by love" [P. LOMBARD]. To
believe ON (Greek,
"epi," or dative case) God expresses the
confidence, which grounds itself on God, reposing on
Him. "Faith IN (Greek, 'en')
His blood" (Ro
3:25) implies that His blood is the element IN which faith has its proper and abiding place.
Compare with this verse, Ac
20:21, "Repentance toward (Greek, 'eis,'
'into,' turning towards and going into) God and
faith toward (Greek, 'eis,' 'into') Christ":
where, as there is but one article to both repentance
and faith, the two are inseparably joined as together
forming one truth; where "repentance" is, there "faith" is;
when one knows God the Father spiritually, then he must know
the Son by whom alone we can come to the Father. In Christ we
have life: if we have not the doctrine of Christ, we have not
God. The only living way to God is through Christ and His
sacrifice.
that raised
him--The raising of Jesus by God is the special ground of
our "believing": (1) because by it God declared openly His
acceptance of Him as our righteous substitute; (2) because by
it and His glorification He received power, namely, the Holy
Spirit, to impart to His elect "faith": the same power
enabling us to believe as raised Him from the dead. Our faith
must not only be IN Christ, but BY and THROUGH Christ.
"Since in Christ's resurrection and consequent dominion our
safety is grounded, there 'faith' and 'hope' find their
stay" [CALVIN].
that your faith and hope might be in God--the object
and effect of God's raising Christ. He states what was
the actual result and fact, not an exhortation, except
indirectly. Your faith flows from His
resurrection; your hope from God's having "given
Him glory" (compare 1Pe
1:11, "glories"). Remember God's having raised and
glorified Jesus as the anchor of your faith and hope in God,
and so keep alive these graces. Apart from Christ we could
have only feared, not believed and hoped in God.
Compare 1Pe
1:3, 7-9, 13, on hope in connection with faith;
love is introduced in 1Pe
1:22.
22. purified . . . in
obeying the truth--Greek, "in your (or
'the') obedience of (that is, 'to') the truth
(the Gospel way of salvation)," that is, in the fact of your
believing. Faith purifies the heart as giving it the
only pure motive, love to God (Ac
15:9; Ro 1:5, "obedience to the faith").
through the Spirit--omitted in the oldest
manuscripts. The Holy Spirit is the purifier by bestowing the
obedience of faith (1Pe
1:2; 1Co 12:3).
unto--with
a view to: the proper result of the purifying of your
hearts by faith. "For what end must we lead a chaste life?
That we may thereby be saved? No: but for this, that we may
serve our neighbor" [LUTHER].
unfeigned-- 1Pe
2:1, 2, "laying aside . . . hypocrisies
. . . sincere."
love of
the brethren--that is, of Christians. Brotherly
love is distinct from common love. "The Christian
loves primarily those in Christ; secondarily, all who might be
in Christ, namely, all men, as Christ as man died for all, and
as he hopes that they, too, may become his Christian brethren"
[STEIGER]. BENGEL
remarks that as here, so in 2Pe
1:5-7, "brotherly love" is preceded by the purifying
graces, "faith, knowledge, and godliness," &c. Love
to the brethren is the evidence of our regeneration and
justification by faith.
love one
another--When the purifying by faith into love of the
brethren has formed the habit, then the act
follows, so that the "love" is at once habit and
act.
with a pure
heart--The oldest manuscripts read, "(love) from the
heart."
fervently--Greek, "intensely": with all the
powers on the stretch (1Pe
4:8). "Instantly" (Ac
26:7).
23. Christian brotherhood flows
from our new birth of an imperishable seed, the abiding word
of God. This is the consideration urged here to lead us to
exercise brotherly love. As natural relationship gives
rise to natural affection, so spiritual relationship gives
rise to spiritual, and therefore abiding love, even as the
seed from which it springs is abiding, not transitory
as earthly things.
of
. . . of . . . by--"The word of God"
is not the material of the spiritual new birth, but its mean
or medium. By means of the word the man receives the
incorruptible seed of the Holy Spirit, and so becomes
one "born again": Joh
3:3-5, "born of water and the Spirit": as there is
but one Greek article to the two nouns, the
close connection of the sign and the grace, or new birth
signified is implied. The word is the remote and
anterior instrument; baptism, the proximate and
sacramental instrument. The word is the instrument in relation
to the individual; baptism, in relation to the Church as a
society (Jas
1:18). We are born again of the Spirit, yet not
without the use of means, but by the word of God. The word is
not the beggeting principle itself, but only that by which it
works: the vehicle of the mysterious germinating power [ALFORD].
which liveth
and abideth for ever--It is because the Spirit of God
accompanies it that the word carries in it the germ of life.
They who are so born again live and abide for ever, in
contrast to those who sow to the flesh. "The Gospel bears
incorruptible fruits, not dead works, because it is itself
incorruptible" [BENGEL]. The word is an
eternal divine power. For though the voice or speech vanishes,
there still remains the kernel, the truth comprehended in the
voice. This sinks into the heart and is living; yea, it is God
Himself. So God to Moses, Ex
4:12, "I will be with thy mouth" [LUTHER]. The life is in God, yet it is
communicated to us through the word. "The Gospel
shall never cease, though its ministry shall" [CALOVIUS]. The abiding resurrection glory
is always connected with our regeneration by the
Spirit. Regeneration beginning with renewing man's soul
at the resurrection, passes on to the body, then to the
whole world of nature.
24. Scripture proof that the
word of God lives for ever, in contrast to man's natural
frailty. If ye were born again of flesh, corruptible seed, ye
must also perish again as the grass; but now that from which
you have derived life remains eternally, and so also will
render you eternal.
flesh--man
in his mere earthly nature.
as--omitted in some of the oldest manuscripts.
of man--The oldest manuscripts
read, "of it" (that is, of the flesh). "The glory" is the
wisdom, strength, riches, learning, honor, beauty, art,
virtue, and righteousness of the NATURAL
man (expressed by "flesh"), which all are transitory (Joh
3:6), not OF MAN (as English
Version reads) absolutely, for the glory of man, in his
true ideal realized in the believer, is eternal.
withereth--Greek,
aorist: literally, "withered," that is, is withered as a thing
of the past. So also the Greek for "falleth" is
"fell away," that is, is fallen away: it no sooner is
than it is gone.
thereof--omitted in the best manuscripts and versions.
"The grass" is the flesh: "the flower" its
glory.
25. (Ps
119:89.)
this is the word
. . . preached unto you--That is eternal which
is born of incorruptible seed (1Pe
1:24): but ye have received the incorruptible seed, the
word (1Pe
1:25); therefore ye are born for eternity, and so are
bound now to live for eternity (1Pe
1:22, 23). Ye have not far to look for the word; it is
among you, even the joyful Gospel message which we preach.
Doubt not that the Gospel preached to you by our
brother Paul, and which ye have embraced, is the eternal
truth. Thus the oneness of Paul's and Peter's creed
appears. See my Introduction,
showing Peter addresses some of the same churches as Paul
labored among and wrote
to.
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