1 Peter

Book of 1 Peter

1 Peter 1

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect sojourners of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,

2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, in order to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 for an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,

5 who in the power of God are kept through faith to the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 In which you rejoice, being now for a little while, if need be, sorrowful in diversified temptations,

7 that the proof of your faith, much more precious than gold that perishes, though tried by fire, may be found for praise and glory and honor in the revelation of Jesus Christ,

8 whom not seeing, you love; on whom not now looking but believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious,

9 receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning which salvation the prophets that prophesied of the grace that was for you, earnestly sought and inquired,

11 inquiring into what and what kind of time the Spirit of Christ that was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings that were for Christ, and the glories after these;

12 to whom it was revealed, that not for themselves, but for you, they were ministering these things, which are now announced to you through those that preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, into which things angels desire earnestly to look.

13 Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope perfectly for the grace to be brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

14 As children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to the desires which you formerly had in your ignorance,

15 but as he that called you is holy, become yourselves also holy in all behavior,

16 because it is written: Be you holy, for I am holy.

17 And if you call on, as a Father, him who judges without respect of persons, according to each one‘s work, spend the time of your sojourning in fear;

18 knowing that not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, you were redeemed from your fruitless mode of life delivered to you by your fathers;

19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb blameless and without spot;

20 foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in the last of the times for you,

21 who through him do believe in God who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22 Having purified your souls in obedience to the truth, to unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart earnestly,

23 having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by means of the word of God that lives and abides.

24 Because all flesh is as grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass; the grass withers, and the flower of it falls;

25 but the word of the Lord abides for ever. And this is the word which as gospel has been preached to you.

1 Peter 2

1 Having, then, laid aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

2 as babes just born, earnestly desire the spiritual unadulterated milk, that by it you may grow to salvation,

3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 To whom coming, a living stone, by men indeed disapproved, but with God chosen, precious,

5 yourselves also as living stones are builded up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ;

6 because it is contained in Scripture: Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner-stone, chosen, precious, and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed.

7 To you, therefore, that believe is the preciousness; but to those that believe not, a stone which the builders rejected, this became the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,

8 to them that stumble at the word being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people, that you should show forth the virtues of him that has called you out of darkness into his wonderful light:

10 who once were not a people, but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

11 Beloved, I beseech that you as strangers and sojourners abstain from fleshly desires, which war against the soul,

12 having your conduct among the Gentiles, that in what they speak against you as evildoers, they may, because of your good works, while beholding them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

13 Be subject, therefore, to every human creation for the Lord‘s sake; whether to the king as supreme,

14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, but the praise of those that do good;

15 for so is the will of God that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

16 as free, and not holding freedom as a cloak of malice, but as the servants of God.

17 Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

18 Household servants, be subject in all fear to your masters, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse.

19 For this is praiseworthy, if because of consciousness of God any one endures sorrows, suffering wrongfully.

20 For what glory is there, if, being buffeted for your faults, you take it patiently? But if, when you do well and suffer, you take it patiently, this is praiseworthy with God.

21 For to this end were you called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps;

22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth;

23 who when reviled reviled not in turn, when suffering he threatened not, but committed his cause to him that judges righteously,

24 who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that having died to sins we should live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed;

25 for you were as sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 3

1 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, that even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained through the conduct of the wives,

2 having beheld your conduct that is chaste in fear.

3 Whose adorning let it not be the outward, of braiding the hair, and of putting around of golden ornaments or of putting en of dresses,

4 but the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible ornament of the meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

5 For so in former time also the holy women that hoped in God adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands,

6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose children you have become by doing good and not being afraid of any terror.

7 Husbands, likewise, dwell according to knowledge with the feminine as the weaker vessel, bestowing honor as on those that are also heirs with you of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.

8 Finally, be all of the same mind, sympathetic, loving the brethren, compassionate, humble-minded,

9 not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but, on the other hand, blessing; because to this end were you called, that you might inherit blessing.

10 For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile;

11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it;

12 because the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears incline to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

13 And who is he that will do you evil if you become zealots for that which is good?

14 But if you should even suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are happy. But fear not their fear, neither be troubled;

15 but sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every one that asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you; but with meekness and fear;

16 having a good conscience, that in what you are evil spoken of, they may be ashamed who falsely accuse your good conduct in Christ.

17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if the will of God should will it, than for doing evil.

18 For Christ also once suffered for sins, a just man for unjust men, that he might bring us to God, having been indeed put to death in flesh, but made alive in spirit,

19 in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison,

20 that were disobedient once when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while an ark was prepared, in which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

21 Which (water) in its antitype, baptism, now saves you also (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the inquiry of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.

1 Peter 4

1 Christ then having suffered in the flesh, do you also arm yourselves with the same mind, because he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

2 that you may no longer live the rest of your time in the flesh to the desires of men, but to the will of God.

3 For the time past is sufficient to have worked the will of the Gentiles, in having walked in lasciviousness, desires, wine-drinkings, carousals, banquetings, and lawless idolatries;

4 at which they are astonished, since you run out with them into the same confusion of riot, speaking evil of you,

5 who shall give an account to him that is ready to judge the living and dead.

6 For to this end was the gospel preached even to the dead, that they might indeed be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

7 But the end of all things is at hand. Be sober-minded, therefore, and be watchful that you may pray;

8 above all things have earnest love towards one another, for love covers a multitude of sins;

9 be hospitable one towards another without murmuring;

10 as each one has received a gracious gift, minister the same one to another as good stewards of the diversified grace of God;

11 if any one speaks, as the oracles of God: if any one ministers, as from the strength that God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and might from age to age: amen.

12 Beloved, be not astonished at the fiery trial that is among you, that has come upon you for a trial, as if a strange thing is happening to you,

13 but as far as you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that also in the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with gladness.

14 It you are reproached * in the name of Christ, happy are you, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. * Because you wear the name.

15 For let not any one of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men‘s matters;

16 but if he suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name.

17 For it is the time that judgment should begin at the house of God; but if first at us, what shall be the end of those that obey not the gospel of God?

18 And if the righteous man is scarcely saved, the ungodly and sinner, where shall he appear?

19 So, then, let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in well-doing, as to a faithful creator.

1 Peter 5

1 Elders that are among you I exhort who am the fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who also am a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

2 be shepherds to the flock of God that is among you, not from necessity, but willingly, according to God, not for the sake of base gain, but readily,

3 neither as being lords of the portions,* but becoming examples to the flock;

*The parts of the flock under their care.

4 and when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive the crown of glory that fades not away.

5 Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves to the elder, yes, do you all clothe yourselves with humility one towards another; for God sets himself against the proud, but gives grace to the lowly.

6 Humble yourselves therefore under the strong hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,

7 casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

8 Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour:

9 whom resist firm in faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

10 But the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered awhile, will himself make you perfect, establish, strengthen, confirm you.

11 To him be might through the ages, amen.

12 By Silvanus to you the faithful brother, as I suppose, I have written in few words, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God, in which you stand.

13 She that is elected together with you in Babylon salute you, and so does Mark my son.

14 Salute one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all that are in Christ.