So girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, and set your hope perfectly on the favor 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 written :

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 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 as grass,

All the glory thereof as the flower of grass.

The grass withereth, and the flower falleth,
But the message of the Lord abideth forever.
Now this is the message which was brought as
good news to you.
So putting away all malice,

All deceit,
Hypocrisy,
Envies,

And all evil speakings, As new-born babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without deceit, so that you may grow by it to salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is kind.

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 And he that believeth on him shall not be put to

shame. So for you believers is the honor. But for unbelievers

The stone which the builders rejected,

The same was made the head of the corner,

and,

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,
So 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.

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

2:12.

evil doers, they may by your noble deeds which they look at, praise God in the day of visitation,

Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; whether to the king as supreme or to governors as sent by him for vengeance on evil doers and for praise to those who do well : (for thus it is the will of God that by well doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men): as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of baseness but as slaves of God.

Honor everybody.
Love the brotherhood.
Fear God.
Honor the king.

Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters,

With all fear.
Not only to the good and gentle,

But also to the crooked.
For this is thankworthy,

If through consciousness of God,
Any one endures griefs, suffering wrongfully.
For what praise is it,
If, when you are at fault and are cuffed,
You shall take it patiently?
But if, when you do well and suffer for it,

You take it patiently,
This is thankworthy with God.

2:20.

For to this you were called,
Because Christ also suffered for you
Leaving you an example,
So that you should follow his steps.
Who did not sin, neither was deceit found in

his mouth.
Who when he was reviled, did not revile

again.
When he suffered he did not threaten,
But committed himself to him who judges

impartially:
Who his own self bore our sins
In his body on the tree,
So that we, having died to sins,

Might live to right doing.
By whose stripes you were cured.
For you were like sheep going astray,
But are now returned
To the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

In the same way, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, so that, if any one does not give heed to the instruction, they may without instruction be gained by the behavior of their wives, as they watch your chaste behavior coupled with reverence. And your adorning, let it not be the outward adorning of platting the hair and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on clothes, but let it be the hidden