1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
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.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you,
5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations,
7 that the trial of your faith (being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tested with fire) might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
8 whom having not seen, ye love. In Him, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
9 receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, and have prophesied of the grace that should come unto you,
11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them had signified when He testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
12 Unto them it was revealed that they ministered, not unto themselves, but unto us the things which are now reported unto you by those who have preached the Gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven — things which the angels desire to look into.
13 Therefore 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.
14 As obedient children, do not fashion yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance,
15 but as He who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of living,
16 because it is written: “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”
17 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.
18 For ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain way of living which ye received by tradition from your fathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
20 who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
21 By Him ye believe in God, who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 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,
23 being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever;
24 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;
25 but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.” And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
