1 Peter Chapter 1
Showing all 25 verses for 1 Peter Chapter 1.
The People's Bible is written by people, for the people. Each verse below shows:
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, "
"Peter, sent by Jesus Christ as his messenger, writes to Christians who are living as outsiders, scattered across five Roman provinces in what's now modern Turkey."
I know what it's like to feel like you don't belong where you are. Wherever you feel like an outsider - at work, in your family, in your own head - that's exactly where I want to meet you and walk with you.
"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. "
"These readers were chosen by God the Father, who knew them in advance; set apart by the Spirit; and brought into a life of obedience, cleansed as if by the sprinkled blood of Jesus. Peter wishes them ever-increasing grace and peace."
You don't have to prove yourself to be loved by me first. I choose you before you've done anything to deserve it - and that's exactly why you can relax enough to actually live well.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, "
"Praise God, who out of his great mercy has given us a fresh start and a living, active hope - made possible by Jesus rising from the dead."
I want you to have a hope that survives contact with real life - not a fragile optimism that shatters at the first setback, but something built to last through whatever you're facing right now.
"To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, "
"This hope points to an inheritance that can't decay, can't be spoiled, and can't fade - kept safe for you in heaven."
Nothing anyone takes from you in this life can touch what actually matters most. I want you to hold your possessions and status loosely, because your real security was never in them to begin with.
"Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. "
"God's own power is guarding you through your trust in him, keeping you safe until this rescue is fully revealed at the end of time."
I'm not just interested in where you end up - I'm with you for the whole road, protecting and holding you through every difficult stretch, not just waiting for you at the finish line.
"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: "
"This gives you real reason for joy, even though right now you may be going through a rough patch, weighed down by all kinds of trials."
You don't need to fake happiness or hide your pain to have real hope. I can sit with you in genuine sorrow and genuine joy at the same time - they aren't opposites, and you don't have to choose.
"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: "
"These trials test your faith the way fire tests and purifies gold - and your faith, unlike gold, doesn't wear out, and one day it will be shown to be worth real praise, honour, and glory."
I don't waste your pain. Every hard thing you push through with integrity is quietly making you more solid, more genuine, more yourself - even when it doesn't feel like progress at the time.
"Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: "
"You love him even though you've never seen him; you trust him even though you can't see him now - and that trust fills you with a joy too great for words."
You don't need to see me to know me, and you don't need proof on demand to trust what's true. Some of the deepest, most real connections in life are the ones you can't hold in your hand.
"Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. "
"What you're receiving as the outcome of your trust is the rescue and wellbeing of your very soul."
What I'm offering isn't a set of rules to follow for their own sake - it's the wellbeing of your whole inner life. Everything I ask of you is in service of that, never against it.
"Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: "
"This rescue is something the Old Testament prophets studied hard and searched for - they were the ones who spoke in advance about this coming grace."
What you're experiencing is part of something far bigger than your own moment - a story people have longed for and searched after for centuries. You're not alone in time any more than you're alone in space.
"Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. "
"They were trying to work out who, and when, the Spirit of Christ within them was pointing to, as it spoke in advance about the Messiah's sufferings and the glory that would follow."
Don't be surprised when the road to something good runs straight through something hard. That pattern isn't a flaw in the plan - it's been true since long before you, and it was true for me too.
"Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. "
"It was made clear to those prophets that their message wasn't really for their own benefit but for people like you, who now hear it explained by those who preached it through the Holy Spirit - something so remarkable even angels long to understand it."
You matter more than you know - what you've received is something even greater beings find worth staring at in wonder. Never think your ordinary life is too small to be significant.
"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; "
"So get your minds ready for action, stay clear-headed, and fix your hope firmly on the grace that will be yours when Jesus is revealed."
Get serious about your own mind - what you dwell on shapes everything else. I'm not asking you to sit and wait; I'm asking you to actively, clear-headedly set your hope on what's good and let that steer you.
"As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: "
"Live like children who listen to their parent, no longer shaping your lives around the old cravings you had before you knew any better."
Your past mistakes don't define you - they were often just not knowing better. What matters now is which voice you let steer your choices going forward.
"But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of "
💡 Highlighted words feature Jacobean 1611 tooltips to clarify shifted 17th-century English terms.
"Instead, since the one who called you is whole and good through and through, let that same wholeness show in everything you do."
I don't want a version of you that's good in some rooms and different in others. I want the same integrity to run through your whole life - your private thoughts, your public actions, everything.
"Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. "
"As it's written in scripture: "Be holy, because I am holy.""
Real integrity isn't a modern invention or a passing trend - it's ancient, tested wisdom about what makes a life work. I'm inviting you into something that has stood the test of a very long time.
"And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: "
"And since you call on a Father who judges everyone fairly, with no favouritism, based on what they actually do - live out your time here with a healthy, humble respect for that."
You don't need connections, wealth, or status to matter to me - I judge you by what you actually do, not by who you know. Take that seriously, and let it steady you rather than frighten you.
"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain received by tradition from your fathers; "
💡 Highlighted words feature Jacobean 1611 tooltips to clarify shifted 17th-century English terms.
"You know that you weren't bought back from your old, empty way of living - the one handed down to you by your ancestors - with anything as ordinary as silver or gold."
Real freedom from the patterns you inherited - from family, culture, from what everyone around you just does - doesn't come from wealth or status. It comes from something that touches you at a deeper level than any of that can reach.
"But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: "
"Instead, it was the precious life-blood of Christ that paid the price - given like a flawless, spotless sacrificial lamb."
What was done for you cost something real and was done freely, out of love - not owed, not transactional. When you grasp that, it changes how lightly or seriously you treat your own life and the lives of others.
"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, "
"He was chosen for this before the world even existed, but has only now, in these recent times, been revealed - for your sake."
You are not an afterthought or a footnote. What's happening in your life connects to something that was set in motion before time itself began, and it was always meant to reach you specifically.
"Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. "
"Through Christ, you trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory - so that your faith and hope rest in God."
I want your trust to rest on something solid, not on me alone as an idea, but on the character of God shown through real action. That's a foundation that can actually hold the weight of your hope.
"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: "
"Since you've cleaned up your inner lives by following the truth through the Spirit, and that's led you to a genuine love for each other - now love one another deeply and sincerely, with your whole heart."
Don't settle for surface-level niceness with people close to you - I want you loving each other properly, without pretending, without holding back. That kind of love is costly, and it's exactly the point.
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. "
"You've been given a completely fresh start - not through anything that decays, but through something imperishable: the living, eternal word of God."
Real change in you doesn't come from gritting your teeth and trying harder - it comes from something planted deep that grows on its own, something built to last rather than fade like everything else does.
"For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: "
"All human life is like grass, and all our impressive achievements like the flowers on that grass - the grass dries up, and the flower drops and is gone."
Chasing status and appearances is chasing something that's already fading even while you're chasing it. I want you free from that treadmill, resting instead on what actually lasts.
"But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. "
"But God's word lasts forever - and this is the very message that's been preached to you as good news."
What I've given you isn't going anywhere - not when the world changes, not when your circumstances change, not ever. You can build your whole life on it without fear of it giving way.