Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

PETER,

AN APOSTLE

OF

JESUS CHRIST,

To the chosen sojourners of the dispersion
In Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and
Bithynia:

According to the foreknowledge of God the
Father,

In consecration of the Spirit,

To obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begot us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and which does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through

1:5.

faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last day.

And you greatly rejoice in this, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief with various trials, that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold which perishes, though it is proved by fire, might be found to praise and glory and honor at the revealing of Jesus Christ; whom, though you have not seen him, you love; on whom, though you do not now see him, yet you believe, and exultingly rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith,—the salvation of your souls.

Now concerning this salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come to you: searching what time, or what kind of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed to, when it witnessed beforehand the sufferings appointed for Christ and the glories which should follow them. And to them it was, revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things which have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven.

And into these things angels desire to look.

1:13.

So girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, and set your hope perfectly on the grace which is being brought to you in the revealing of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children do not be fashioning yourselves according to your former desires in the time of your ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, you, yourselves, also be holy in every kind of conduct. For it is writ

ten:

Ye shall be holy,

For I am holy.

And if you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges each man's work, conduct yourselves during the time of your sojourning in fear knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain conduct handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot, even that of Christ; who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times, for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

Having purified your souls in your obedience to the truth to unfeigned brotherly love, love each

I: 22.

other heartily and earnestly. For you have been begotten again, not from corruptible seed, but from incorruptible, through God's living and abiding word.

For,

All flesh is as grass,

All the glory thereof as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower falleth,

But the word of the Lord abideth forever.

Now this is the word which was brought as good news to you.

So putting away all malice,

All guile,

Hypocrisy,

Envies,

And all evil speakings,

As new-born babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that you may grow by it to salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but with God chosen, precious, you also as living stones build yourselves up a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it is contained in Scripture:

Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, held in honor.

2:6.

And he that believeth on him shall not be put to

shame."

So for you believers is the honor. believers

and,

The stone which the builders rejected,

But for un

The same was made the head of the corner,

A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.

For they stumble at the word being disobedient. And they were appointed to this also.

But you are a chosen race,

A royal priesthood,

A holy nation,

A people for God's own possession, That you may make known the excellences of him

Who called you out of darkness
Into his wonderful light.

For in time past you were no people.
But now you are the people of God.
You had not obtained mercy.

But now you have obtained mercy.

Beloved, I beg you as strangers and sojourners, abstain from fleshly desires which war against the soul behaving yourselves nobly among the heathen, that, in what they speak against you as

:

« ÎnapoiContinuă »