1 Peter 1:13-21

1 Peter 1:13-21

Analysis:—Exhortations to firmness and sobriety, to holiness in mind and conversation, to filial reverence of God,—all founded on love and gratitude for the precious redemption by the blood of Christ.

1913Wherefore 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;2014As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:2115But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner 16of conversation;22Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.23 17And 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:2418Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers25; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot:2620Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,27but was manifest in these last times for you, 21Who by him do believe in God,28 that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory;29that your faith and hope might be in God.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1 Peter 1:13. Wherefore, Διό refers to all the preceding account of the possession (by grace) of the elect. The New Testament state of grace is mainly designed to beget a perfect hope in the future consummation and perfecting of salvation. This hope essentially facilitates the full use of salvation with a view to holiness, to which exhortation is made in 1 Peter 1:14, etc. In 1 Peter 1:13, hope should be regarded as the central and leading idea, the other exhortations being added as participles. The object of that hope is the grace, which manifests itself in σωτηρία, in perfect salvation. The preposition ἐπί does not indicate the ground and strength of hope as Steiger and Weiss maintain, for it is not contrary to the New Testament usus loquendi to connect ἐπί with the object, cf. 1 Timothy 5:5; Acts 9:42; Acts 11:17; Acts 22:19; Winer, 5th edition, p. 241; 1 John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 1:10; Acts 24:15.—Join τελείως not with νήφοντες but with ἐλπίσατε. The hope existing in its first beginnings shall become so firm, that no suffering shall be able to shake it, and that it shall embrace whatever it contains in itself, and that it shall ever continue to the end. [ita, ut nihil disideretur.—Wahl.—M.]

For the grace—brought to you.—Ἐπὶ τὴν φερομένην ὑμῖν χάριν. The proper meaning of this expression depends on the interpretation of ἐν . The verb ἀποκαλύπτειν occurs indeed in a wider sense, to denote the revelation of the truth to the mind, or that of Jesus Christ, Matthew 11:25; Matthew 16:17; Luke 10:21; Galatians 1:16; Gal 3:23; 1 Corinthians 2:10. Hence ἀποκαλύψις μυστηρίου Romans 16:25; and several times ἀποκαλύψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. It is applied to inward revelation as contrasted with human instruction, Galatians 1:12; Revelation 1:1; cf. Ephesians 1:17; Eph 3:3; 2 Corinthians 12:1. But ἡ without the article, and without further specification, is the constant expression denoting the visible return of Christ. It is never used of His first advent in the flesh, cf. 1Pe 1:7; 1 Peter 4:13; 1Pe 5:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; Romans 8:18-19; 1 Corinthians 1:7. Particularly decisive are 1 Peter 1:5 and 1 Peter 1:7, where the reference is evidently to the second advent of Christ in the flesh. So Œcum. Theophylact, Grotius, Carpzov, Starke and others. It is difficult to combine both ideas, viz.: an inward and an outward revelation (Calvin, Beza, Bengel), and a clear sense possible only on the consideration that the revelation or advent of Christ to judgment is necessarily both inward and outward. The Apostle sees the advent of Christ as nearly impending, indeed as already present, 1Pe 4:7; 1 Peter 1:20, and consequently speaks of grace, not as to be brought unto them hereafter, but as already brought to them [even now bearing down upon them.—M.]. In this sense φέρειν is used in the LXX. at Genesis 33:11. Hence it is unnecessary to assume a confusion of the present and future tenses.—χάρις in the usual sense, not=χάρισμα, as Grotius maintains. The objection of Weiss that the general biblical representation makes the second advent of Christ not a second revelation of grace, but a revelation of righteous judgment, 1 Peter 4:5; Romans 2:5, is met by clear passages, e. g. Luke 21:28. To the ungodly it will be a day of terror, but to believers a day of honour and glory. Then, at the appearing of Christ, it will become manifest, what is meant by being in favour (by standing in grace) with God, Malachi 4:2. It has already been announced to you by the prophets (1 Peter 1:12) but by Christ it is laid at your door, yea, laid in your bosom.

Gird up—sober.— Ἀναζωσάμενοι—νήφοντες. The perfect hoping is more clearly defined and confirmed by two participial additions. The first exhorts to girding up the loins. Peter thinks doubtless of the words of Jesus, “Let your loins be girded about,” Luke 12:25 and with a view to avoiding all misunderstanding, adds, “the loins of your mind.” Perhaps he alludes also to the significant commandment, “With your loins girded” Exodus 12:11; and in that case the explanation of the addition is more simple and evident, cf. Jeremiah 1:17; Ephesians 6:14.—The loins were girded by gathering the long folds of the wide undergarment in a girdle in order to supply the body with a firm stay and to remove all hinderances, when the object was to work, to set out on a jourdey, to run, to carry a burden, to wrestle or to go to war. So the Christian should gird the διάνοια, gather up all distractedness and fickleness, and be astir and ready, that is, his thoughts and his will should be alive and concentrated when there is a call for work, for fight and for suffering. Beware of distractedness and idleness, but also of irritation, morbid excitement and exaggeration and eccentricity. Sobriety is to be the preventive of the latter. Both the girding and the sobriety are to be taken figuratively, although sobriety of the body is taken for granted. Compare the exhortation at Luke 21:34, and Romans 13:14. Elsewhere sobriety is joined with vigilance that shall ward off all sleepiness and indolence, 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Peter 5:8; sometimes it occurs, as here, alone, 1Th 5:8; 2 Timothy 4:5; 1 Peter 4:7. [Mentis sobrietas et vigilantia requiritur, sicque metaphora in lumborum cinctura prius reposita ἐξηγετικῶς explicatur. Gerhard. ‘Non temperantiam solum in cibu et potu commendat, sed spiritualem potius sobrietatem, quum sensus omnes nostros continemus, ne se hujus mundi illecebris inebrient.’—Calvin.—M.] The hope of Christians might become mixed up with foolish and fanatical fancies of the glories of a temporal Messianic kingdom and premature expectations of the same as in the case of the Thessalonians (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:2, etc.) against which the Apostle wishes to warn them. The present tense denotes necessary endurance in sobriety, while the Aorists ἐλπίσατε and ἀναζωσάμενοι concentrate the lasting action, as it were into one moment and denote them to depend upon one principal act.

1 Peter 1:14. As children of obedience.—Who sets his hopes in grace alone acquires the impulse and ability to fulfil the commandment of holiness. The exhortation proper is contained in 1 Peter 1:15. The contrary of children of obedience, are children of disobedience, in whom the devil is working, Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6; who are consequently called children of wrath, Eph 2:3; 2 Peter 2:14. Obedience comprises here, as in 1 Peter 1:2. both the willing reception of the word of God and subjection to its precepts. Children of light, Ephesians 5:8, are such as are born out of light and into light, with the property and calling to shine as lights; so children of faith are such as are born out of faith and into the life of faith and obedience. Our heavenly Father is their begetter, 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:17, and assurance of faith coupled with obedience their mother, while on the other hand the devil is the father of unbelievers John 8:44; and evil concupiscence their mother. Ὡς denotes the reason, because you are children of obedience, cf. John 5:19; 1 Peter 2:13; 1 Peter 4:16. [τέκνα ὑπακοῆς. “This phraseology,” says Winer, Gram., 6th ed. p. 252, “is to be attributed to the vivid imagination of Orientals, which represents mental and moral derivation or dependence under the form of son or child. Sir 4:11. Children of disobedience are those who are related to ἀπείθεια as a child to a mother, those in whom disobedience has become predominant and a second nature.”—M.]

Not fashioning—ignorance.—The exhortation to holiness is now more clearly defined by reference to their ante-Christian state. As Christians, you dare not pursue a course that is in unison with your former walk in sinful lusts. συσχηματίζεσθαι (from σχῆμα, the form of a thing, the fashion and mode of life, the manner in which one appears) to form or fashion one’s self after something, to conform to it, Romans 12:12; to make oneself like to, cf. Rom 8:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:22. Lusts are not sensual impulses and wants only, but desires of what is different from what God allows, desires of evil comprehensively described by John (1 John 2:16) as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life; cf. Galatians 5:19 etc. They include, also, the proud aims of ambition, of the lust of power and of the desire of knowledge. The lusts are more clearly defined by ‘in your ignorance.’ Sin darkens the understanding by the cloud of prejudices and false notions, cf. Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:18; and ignorance on the other hand, is the mother of many sins. A hint might be found in the circumstance that the Epistle is addressed to former heathens, who were devoid of all clear moral consciousness, of all definite discrimination between good and evil, between right and wrong; but the Jews also are charged with ignorance as the reason of their rejecting Christ, Acts 3:17, etc., and the degree to which their moral consciousness had been confused and clouded by the tenets of the Sanhedrim, is well known. This passage therefore is not decisive. In the case of believers, lusts belong to the past, inasmuch as their power is virtually broken and the spirit has the supremacy, although it must ever contend with the law in their members.

1 Peter 1:15. But according to the pattern of that Holy One who hath called you.—What is in the heart must appear in the life. Conform not to your former lusts but aspire after conformity to the Holy God; συσχηματιζόμενοι may be understood; so Œcumenius and Theophylact. Calling is closely connected with election, being the realization and assurance of it. It takes place sometimes mediately sometimes immediately; its end is the light and salvation of God out from the darkness, 1 Peter 2:21. If God calls, it is man’s duty to hear and to follow, cf. 1 Samuel 3:10. Thus he becomes, by constant yielding, a child of obedience. Weiss sees in the reference to the Holy God a hint of the Old Testament character of the Epistle, but this is not conclusive per se. The Aorist Imperative donotes an action that is to take place immediately, cf. Winer, Gram. 6th ed. p. 329.

All manner of conversation, in all your behaviour toward God and your neighbour. [Nulla sit pars vitæ quæ, non hunc bonum sanctitatis odorem redoleat. Calv.—M.]

1 Peter 1:16. Because it is written.—διότι gives the reason why holiness is necessary. For γένεσθε, Lachmann and Tischendorf read ἔσεσθε. The end and aim of believers is the same in the New Testament and in the Old Testament, although the ways are different. Man’s holiness is effected by his participating in the holiness of God in Christ, Hebrews 12:10; Leviticus 20:8.

And if ye call upon as Father Him. If, does not denote doubt, but the necessary consequence of the one from the other. [Si non dubitantis est, sed supponentis rem notam. Est enim omnium renatorum communis oratio, Pater noster qui es in cœlis. Estius.—M.] You ought not to regard God as your Father nor call upon Him as such in the Lord’s Prayer, if you will not walk before Him in holy fear. The exhortation to a holy conversation is parallel to a conversation in the fear of God; both are founded on the filial relation. ἐπικαλεῖσθε may mean simply to call or to call upon or pray to. Gerhard recognized already a reference to the Lord’s Prayer. If you confess before the world in your prayer that God is at once your Father and Judge, then …; cf. 1Pe 1:14; 1 Peter 2:2; Matthew 5:45; Matthew 5:48; Luke 6:35. In the Old Testament God is called the Father of Israel on account of the peculiar covenant-relation, into which He had entered with Israel, Malachi 2:10; Malachi 1:6; Deuteronomy 32:6; cf. 2 Samuel 7:14. The Apostle doubtless thinks here of Malachi 1:6 etc. where a similar condition is found, where God’s relation of Father and Master is made the reason of an exhortation to reverence, where at Malachi 1:8-9 the question is twice asked, “Will He regard your persons?” and where Malachi 2:2, the judicial revelation of God is mentioned, cf. Malachi 2:9; Malachi 3:5; Malachi 3:18; [S. Barnabas, Ephesians 4:0; “Meditemur timorem Dei, Dominus non accepta personâ judicat mundum; unusquisque secundum quod facit accipiet.—M.]

Who without respect of persons—work. πρόσωπον λαμβάνειν—נָשָׂא פָנִים, Luke 20:21 is to regard the person, to take cognizance of outward relations, to make injurious distinction between rich and poor, the talented and the untalented, high and low, citizens and strangers, James 2:4. God judges very differently; He looks at the heart and the character of men and at their exhibition in deeds. Justification at the last judgment depends upon the inward state and the outward works of believers and unbelievers. So taught our Lord Himself, Matthew 16:27; Matthew 7:19; Matthew 25:31 etc.; and with this agree John, Revelation 22:12; Revelation 3:11; John John 8:51; cf. John 13:15; James, 1 Peter 2:13 etc.; Peter, 1 Peter 2:12 and Paul, Romans 2:6 etc.; Romans 8:13; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians 3:24-25; Galatians 6:7-9. The Scriptures uniformly teach that forgiving grace is not conditioned by any work; it is absolutely free and unmerited and presupposes nothing beyond a penitent mind and an appropriating of the righteousness of Christ; but it insists upon a life corresponding with the will of God, and even supplies the needed strength to lead it. Faith must work by love, Galatians 5:6. It is the living root of all good works, while unbelief is the father of every sin. God looks upon the life of a man as one connected work. Hence we have here the singular ἔργον as at Matthew 16:27 πρᾶξις; for God looks at the one source of all our work, on our relation to the truth revealed in our conscience and in His word. But since all rational creatures ought to know the perfect justice of His decision, He judges them according to their works and here all mankind fall into only two classes. There is no inconsistency between this passage and John 5:22, where it is said that the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son [for, as Didymus says, the Father is the fons judicii, judicante filio Pater est qui judicat.—M.], just as the creation of the world is ascribed to the Father, although mediated by the Son, John 1:1 etc.; cf. 1 Peter 3:12; 1 Peter 3:22; 1 Peter 4:5; 1 Peter 5:4; 2 Peter 2:9. [John 5:22 clearly implies that He who has delegated the judgment to the Son is the Judge.—M.]

In fear.—This does by no means militate, as Weiss maintains, against the Petrine and Johannean fundamental conceptions of the Christian life, as expressed Romans 8:15; 2Ti 1:7; 1 John 4:18. These passages speak of a slavish fear which in believers makes room to filial love; filial fear and dread remains also in the children of God, while they continue in a state of imperfection; it flows from the contrast between themselves and God, from their dependence on Him and their remembrance of His holiness and justice, from the possibility of a relapse, cf. Philippians 2:12, and mostly exhibits itself as a holy fear to grieve his love, to displease Him and to provoke His disfavour. Calvin: “Fear is here opposed to security,” cf. Romans 11:20; 2Co 7:1; 2 Peter 3:17; Psalms 34:10; Psalms 19:10.—A reason of fear is also contained in the additional clause: “the time of your sojourning,” while you tarry here below among strangers. You are not yet at home, but only on the way; like seafaring men you may possibly be cast on a strange coast. At all events you must fight your way through the world’s hatred. John 15:19.

[Wordsworth: Here is a connected series of arguments and motives to holiness, derived from a consideration,1. Of the holy nature of Him whom we invoke as Father, whose children we are, whom therefore we are bound to imitate and to obey.

2. Of His office as Judge, rewarding every man according to his work, whom therefore we ought to fear.

3. Of Christ’s office as Redeemer, and of His nature as an all-holy Redeemer, paying the costly price of His own blood to ransom us from a state of unholiness, and purchasing us to Himself, with His blood. Therefore we are not our own, but His; and being His, bought by His blood, we owe Him, who is the Holy One, the service of love and holiness. Cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 1:14; and Clem. Romans 1:7. ἀτενίσωμεν εἰς τὸ αἶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ ἴδωμεν ὡς ἕστι. τίμιον τῷ Θεῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτι διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν ἐκχυθέν. cf. S. Aug. Serm. 36.

4. Of our transitory condition in this life. On the special allusion in παροικία, sojourning see 1 Peter 2:11.

5. Of the gift of the spirit of holiness.6. Of our new birth by the living Word of God.—M.]

1 Peter 1:18. Forasmuch as ye know.—The consideration of the inestimable benefit of salvation supplies a new argument for aspiration to holiness of mind and conversation, v. 1 Peter 1:18-19. Bede gives the right connection. “In proportion to the price at which you have been redeemed from the corruption of carnal life should be your fear not to grieve your Saviour’s heart by a relapse, for the punishments will correspond to the worth of the ransom.” This knowledge is the knowledge of faith, flowing from the fundamental consciousness of Christians, cf. 1 Peter 3:9; 1 Peter 5:9; James 1:3.

Redeemed.—λυτροῦν denotes not any release or deliverance, but to release by payment of a corresponding ransom. It corresponds to the Hebrew גָּאַל and פָּדָה, Exodus 6:6; Psalms 74:2; Psalms 77:16; Psalms 106:10; Deuteronomy 7:8; Deuteronomy 9:26; Jeremiah 15:21; Jeremiah 31:11. So Christ says that He was giving His life as a ransom for many, Matthew 20:28 : cf. Mark 10:45; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14. The comparison of the blood of Christ with gold and silver proves that the word must be taken in its original sense. ἐξαγοράζειν is used in the same sense at Gal 3:13; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Corinthians 7:23; Revelation 5:9. The manner in which the redemption has been effected, is therefore the production and payment of an equivalent, viz.: the satisfaction, the substitution, cf. Ephesians 5:2; Ephesians 1:7; Romans 3:24; Hebrews 9:15.—Who received the ransom? Not the devil as maintained by some, but the Supreme Lawgiver and Judge. The justice of God, outraged by sin, was satisfied—the satisfaction itself, however, being appointed by the love of God Himself; allusions to which are even found in the sacrifices of the Old Testament, Leviticus 17:11. Because this last passage states that the soul of the flesh is in the blood and that it is the blood which maketh atonement by the soul, cf. 1 Peter 1:14; blood is designated as the means of atonement both here and Romans 3:24-25; Romans 5:8-9; while elsewhere the soul, the life of Christ is said to have been given. Blood has atoning virtue, for “without shedding of blood is no remission,” Hebrews 9:22. Redemption relates therefore primarily to the curse and guilt of sin and secondarily to its enslaving power. The two ideas are not very sharply separated in Holy Writ, cf. 1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 53:7. It is most dear, most precious blood because it is undefiled by sin and passion and because it is the blood of the God-man and more valuable by far than the blood of many thousand valiant warriors. The addition 1 Peter 1:19, ὡς , etc., confirms our explanation. ὡς indicates a well-known reason and refers to Isaiah 53:0. While in Isaiah the figure of the Lamb denotes immediately only the patient, silent suffering of the Messiah in His atoning death, the predicates used by the Apostle, clearly relate to sacrificial lambs, and particularly to the Paschal Lamb, cf. John 1:29; John 1:36. Every sacrificial lamb had to be without blemish, Leviticus 4:32; Leviticus 3:6; Leviticus 22:20 etc.; Leviticus 1:10; Leviticus 12:6; Leviticus 14:10; Numbers 28:3; Numbers 28:11; Exodus 12:5. Christ as the Spiritual Sacrificial Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7; John 19:36) was perfectly pure within and unstained by sin without, as Bengel rightly explains. “In se non habet labem, neque extrinsecus maculam contraxit.” Cf. 1 John 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 7:26; Ephesians 5:27. From what are the children of God redeemed?

From your vain conversation, inherited from your fathers. [So the German.—M.] This describes the being of this world as untrue, as having its root in appearances, and as devoid of all foundation, strength and vitality, cf. Romans 1:21; Eph 4:17; 1 Corinthians 3:20; 2 Peter 2:18; Romans 8:20. Its main stay and support lies in the force of habits, ideas, views, principles and maxims transmitted from father to child through successive generations. Men justify their ways, saying, ‘Such was the practice of our fathers and our forefathers,’ and continue in the bonds of error and sinful lusts. Calov. explains πατροπαραδότου of original sin and of imitating paternal examples. The deep-rootedness of this vain conversation notwithstanding, deliverance and redemption from it is found in the death and blood of Jesus Christ. The Apostle does not specify how the atonement of Christ effects redemption from the power of sin; we may doubtless supply this solution (cf. 1 Peter 2:24) thus: having been redeemed from the curse of the law by the blood of Jesus, we are enabled to be cleansed from sin, to be united to God and to approach Him with joy and courage. The Holy Spirit’s power is present to deliver us from the dominion of sin.—Χριστοῦ, an explanatory addition serving as a transition to what follows.

1 Peter 1:20. The personality and work of Christ were neither the natural result of the world’s development nor the suddenly formed decree of God in time [as distinguished from eternity, M.], as if after the lapse of four thousand years He had suddenly thought of contriving this way of salvation, but Christ was destined and ordained from before the foundation of the world to redeem us by His blood; hence the prophets did foretell His life and sufferings, His death and glorious exaltation, 1 Peter 1:11-12. The antithesis φανερωθέντος does not warrant the positive conclusion that the Apostle thinks of the real (opposed to ideal) preëxistence of Christ. The sense might be as follows: The Messiah having ideally existed in the Spirit of God, in the fulness of time became also really manifest. But reverting to 1 Peter 1:11, where mention is made of the Spirit of Christ in the prophets, and considering that correctly speaking the φανεροῦν, is the manifestation of a previously hidden existence, and that while believers are said to have been fore-ordained it is never affirmed that they were manifested, we feel inclined to agree with Lutz and Schumann that the real preëxistence of Christ is probably presupposed here; φανεροῦν, however, relates also to the continuing manifestation of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel.

Before the foundation of the World.—καταβολή, the act of καταβάλλεσθαι denotes laying something down, laying the foundation; applied to the foundations of the earth (Job 38:6; Proverbs 8:29)=founding, creation, cf. John 17:24; Eph 1:4; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2-3; Colossians 1:26. The remark of Oettinger that the creation of the world is called καταβολή because the Visible originated from the Invisible by a fall, is ingenious, but far-fetched and untenable. He maintains that the word signifies casting off. Ἐπ̓ ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων; Tischendorff and Lachmann read ἐσχάτου. Χρόνοι periods of time shorter than aeons. The καιροί are definite portions of those periods. They are called, Act 2:17; 2 Timothy 3:1, the last days. They form, since they have a similar character, a unit, and are called on that account the last hour, 1 John 2:18, or the last time, Judges 18:0. It would seem to signify therefore the period from the glorification of Christ to His first visible advent [vulgo, his second advent, M.] cf. 1 Peter 1:5; but ἐπί may also mean, “near at hand,” a sense in which it may be shown to be used at least with local reference.—Ἐσχάτων to be taken as neuter on account of the succeeding Article.

For you who.—Believers are the end and aim in the manifestation of the Redeemer: you may therefore view it, as if Christ had come for you only, cf. 1 Corinthians 2:7. The design of His manifestation was to make you also believers. You owe it to Him that you are able to believe (δἰ αὑτοῦ). Weiss gives the following connection: The manifestation of Christ effected by means of the preaching of the Gospel (1 Peter 1:12) and culminating in His resurrection and exaltation to glory, begets believing trust in God, who did work this miracle of miracles. He that has done such great things is also able (humanly speaking) to accomplish the greatest and highest expectations we can cherish. Thus faith becomes hope in God, who has done this miracle. Hope appears here as a new feature superadded to faith, cf. Romans 5:2; Ephesians 1:18. [Your faith rests on Christ’s resurrection—it was God who raised him; your hope on Christ’s glorification; it is God who has given him that glory. Alford.—M.] Εἰς Θέον signifies resting in, entering into God. Petr. Lomb. Credendo in Deum ire.—ὡστε denotes sequence not purpose. The exhortation here reverts once more to 1 Peter 1:12, with this difference, that what there is urged, is here supposed to exist.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The disciple of Jesus must intimately combine with confident repose in the grace of atonement, the desire after the pattern of God to become holy and to walk in holiness before Him, 1 Peter 1:13-15.

2. The state of Christians is marked by the singular characteristic that they must become what they are: born into lively hope, they have to learn daily to hope anew. They stand in faith and love, 1 Peter 1:5; 1 Peter 1:8, yet must ever suffer themselves to be anew excited thereto, 1 Peter 1:13. They are dead with Christ, Colossians 3:3, yet must daily mortify anew their sinful members, Colossians 3:5, etc. The riddle is solved by distinguishing between what we are in the eternal view of God and what in empirical reality, or between what we are in the new principle of life and what in its gradual development. That which is implanted in the idea and in the germ must be followed by a voluntary and all-sided development. [This sentence may have a misty air to some, but I found it difficult to give the sense of the original without a long circumlocution. Light is shed upon it by the consideration that idea is not used in the popular, but in the philosophical sense. It appears to come nearer to ideal than to idea proper.—M.] By the side of the new man there continues, until we die, the old man who must be crucified day by day.

3. All exhortation to holiness of mind and conversation will prove ineffectual and unsuccessful, unless the firm foundation of it lies in confidence in the grace of God that meets us half-way in Christ, 1 Peter 1:13. The hope to which that confidence gives rise, namely, the hope of the glorious possession of heaven, supplies the power of victory in view of the temptations and enjoyments of this earthly world.

4. The agreement of the Old and New Testaments is evident from the circumstance that holiness after the pattern of God is in both the chief requirement and end of our vocation. Compare the Sermon on the Mount. The only difference being that the idea of holiness in the New Testament is more profound and spiritual than in the Old.

5. Justification at the last judgment will depend on our works; our works, whether flowing from faith or unbelief, will determine our respective destiny, 1 Peter 1:17; cf. Romans 2:13; Romans 2:6-7; Matthew 25:34; Rev 20:12; 2 Corinthians 9:6.

6. The blood of Jesus Christ is not the same as His death. Elsewhere also it is specially emphasized as the means of redemption, the ransom, Romans 3:25; Rom 5:9; 1 John 5:6; Hebrews 10:29; Hebrews 9:22; Hebrews 13:20; Acts 20:28; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:20; 1 John 1:7; Revelation 1:5; Revelation 5:9; Revelation 7:14; Revelation 12:11. God’s law for the government of the world having been broken by sin, the blood of the holy God-Man is needed as an atonement, 1 Peter 1:19.

7. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the seal set to the atoning virtue of His blood and at the same time the pledge of the perfecting of those, who as members of His body are united to Him, the head.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The tightened girdle of faith is a main essential to the pilgrim passing through the world to heaven.—The loins serve the purposes of walking, warring and carrying; the powers of the soul corresponding to these purposes have need to be strengthened.—“The Christian in the heavenly race, Must firmly set and keep his face, Fixed on Jerusalem.”—Tersteegen. The blissful end of Christian hope, 1 Peter 1:13.—The grace offered by Christ is the solid foundation for the soul’s anchor to rest upon.—True faith is not an idle dream nor hollow talk.—The features of the regenerate exhibit the impress of their heavenly Father’s image.—Spiritual blindness both the consequence and cause of the dominion of sinful lusts. 1 Peter 1:14.—Fear of self-deception, relapse and new offences against God is the sure guardian of our hope.—How do we recognize the time of our visitation?—What glorious hopes flow from the glory which Christ has obtained from His Father? Starke. Would you be God’s child, you must imitate Him, Ephesians 5:1-17. What a great alliance! a bought slave, preferred to the distinction of an adopted child, it is to be hoped, will not complain of having to render to his Redeemer a reasonable and joyful service, after his former experience of the rudder and the whip.—If you meet with some adversity, think yourself for a night in uncomfortable quarters, you will have better accommodation when you get home.—You are greatly in error, and abuse the Gospel, if you consider all manner of vain conversation to belong to Christian liberty. In the work of salvation, redemption as the cause of salvation cannot be dissociated from the condition annexed to it, which is the renunciation of every evil work—the two, redemption and renunciation should go hand-in-hand, Luke 1:74-75.—We are bound to honour, love and obey our parents and ancestors, but not to follow them in the vanity of conversation and sinful habits, Ephesians 6:1-2; Matthew 10:37. Beware to form too low an opinion of any man, and still more to injure his soul’s welfare, for every one has been redeemed by the inestimable price of the blood of Jesus.—If the atoning blood of Jesus is to benefit us, we must also carry the innocence, gentleness and patience of the Lamb of God, Colossians 1:22.—Who, after the Apostle’s doctrine preaches another Gospel is not of God, but of the devil, and he is by no means to be heard, Galatians 1:8.

Lisco:—Motives to zeal for holiness: (a) the grace offered to Christians; (b) the blessedness of their filial relation to God; (c) the redemption effected by Jesus Christ.—The real character of Christ’s redeemed people: (a) they are full of faith in God and Jesus Christ; (b) earnestly struggling with sin they strive after holiness; (c) they walk in righteousness and obedience to the commandments of God; (d) they abound in zeal to do good and are rich in faithful love of the brethren.—How the preciousness and assurance of our hope founded on the resurrection of Christ should influence our whole behaviour. The value of the blood of Christ: (1) what makes it invaluable: (a) the holiness of Him who shed it; (b) the glory of the work accomplished by it; (2) what is the evidence of our appreciation of the value of it.

Besser, in illustration of 1 Peter 1:19, supplies the following narrative: A wealthy and kind Englishman once bought in the slave-market a poor negro for twenty pieces of gold. His benefactor presented him moreover with a certain sum of money, that he might buy therewith a piece of land and furnish himself with a home. Am I really free? May I go whither I will? cried the negro in the joy of his heart; well, let me be your slave, Massa: you have redeemed me, and I owe all to you. This touched the gentleman to the quick: he took the negro into his service, and he never had a more faithful servant. But, said that Englishman, I ought to learn a lesson from my grateful servant, which until then, alas, had little engaged my attention, namely, what is meant by the words: “Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold—but with the precious blood of Christ.”

[1 Peter 1:13. Grace is bearing down upon, coming to meet the Christian who with girded loins sets out on his pilgrimage. The prodigal son was met by his Father.—M.] Faith establishes the heart on Jesus Christ, and hope lifts it up, being on that rock, over the head of all intervening dangers, crosses and temptations, and sees the glory and happiness that follow after them.—Gather up your affections, that they hang not down to hinder you in your race and so in your hopes of obtaining; and do not only gather them up, but tie them up, that they fall not down again, or if they do, be sure to gird them straiter than before.—We walk through a world where there is much mire of sinful pollutions and therefore cannot but defile them; and the crowd we are among will be ready to tread on them, yea our own feet may be entangled in them and so make us stumble and possibly fall.

Leighton:

1 Peter 1:14. The soul of man unconverted is no other but a den of impure lusts, wherein dwell pride, uncleanness, avarice, malice, etc. Just as Babylon is described Revelation 18:2; or as Isaiah 13:21. Were a man’s eyes opened he would as much abhor to remain with himself in that condition, “as to dwell in a house full of snakes and serpents,” as St. Austin says. As the offices of certain persons are known by the garb or livery they wear, so transgressors: where we see the world’s livery we see the world’s servants; they fashion or habit themselves according to their lusts; and we may guess that they have a worldly mind by their conformity to worldly fashions.

Clarke:—Obedience to God is as much the mark of right knowledge, as a sinful life is the sure sign of ignorance of God.

1 Peter 1:15. Summa religionis est imitari quem colis (In Leighton).—Clarke:—Heathenism scarcely produced a god whose example was not the most abominable; their greatest gods, especially, were paragons of impurity; none of their philosophers could propose the objects of their adoration, as objects of imitation.

Leighton:

1 Peter 1:17. This fear is not cowardice, it doth not debase, but elevate the mind, for it drowns all lower fears, and begets true fortitude and courage to encounter all danger for the sake of a good conscience and the obeying of God. The righteous is as bold as a lion, Proverbs 28:1. He dares do any thing but offend God: and to dare to do that is the greatest folly, and weakness, and baseness in the world. From this fear have sprung all the generous resolutions and patient sufferings of the saints and martyrs of God; because they durst not sin against Him, therefore they durst be imprisoned, and impoverished and tortured, and die for Him. Thus the prophet sets carnal and godly fear as opposite, and the one as expelling the other, Isaiah 8:12-13. And our Saviour, Luke 12:4, “Fear not them which kill the body, but fear him which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you fear Him.” Fear not, but fear, and therefore fear, that you may not fear.—He made all the persons and he makes all those differences Himself, as it pleaseth Him; therefore He doth not admire them as we do; no, nor at all regard them: we find very great odds betwixt stately palaces and poor cottages, betwixt a prince’s robes and a beggar’s cloak; but to God they are all one, all these petty grievances vanish in comparison of His own greatness; men are great and small compared one with another; but they all amount to just nothing in respect of Him; we find high mountains and low valleys on this earth, but compared with the vast compass of the heavens, it is all but as a point, and hath no sensible greatness at all.

[Our sojourn on earth is a state of probation, from which the fear of God is inseparable.—M.]

[1 Peter 1:18. The doctors of the synagogue had delivered traditions to the Jews which made the worship of God vain, Matthew 15:9; and the Gentiles sought to justify their vain idolatry on the plea of tradition, saying (on the authority of Plato, Tim. p. 1053 E. and Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 3, n. 3, 6.) That they “were not to be moved, by any persuasions, from the religion which they had received from their forefathers.”—M.]

[1 Peter 1:19. “All glory be to Thee, almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that Thou, of Thy tender mercy, didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.” Book of Common Prayer, Communion Office.—M.]

[1 Peter 1:20. The Jews say, that “When God created the world, He held forth His hand under the throne of glory, and created the soul of the Messiah and His company, and said to Him, Wilt thou heal and redeem my sons, after six thousand years? He answered, Yes. God said to Him, If so, wilt thou bear chastisements, to expiate their iniquity, according to what is written, (Isaiah 53:4) ‘Surely, He bore our griefs?’ He answered, I will endure them with joy.” And to this representation of this covenant made with the Messiah “before the creation of the world” it may be the Apostle here refers. In the style of Philo, he is ἀΐδιος Λόγος, “the Eternal Word, the first born and the most ancient Son of the Father, by whom all the species were framed.” This therefore is according to the received opinion of the Jews. Whitby citing Cartw. Mellif. I. p. 2974, 75, and De Plaut. Noe, p. 169, D.—M.]

Leighton:

1 Peter 1:21. When you look through a red glass, the whole heavens seem bloody; but through pure unclouded glass, you receive the clear light, that is so refreshing and comfortable to behold. When sin unpardoned is betwixt, and we look on God through that, we can perceive nothing but anger and enmity, in His countenance; but make Christ once the medium, our pure Redeemer, and through Him, as clear transparent glass, the beams of God’s favourable countenance shine in upon the soul; the Father cannot look upon his well beloved Son, but graciously and pleasingly.

[Redemption flows from the precious blood of Christ, faith and hope from His glorious resurrection.—M.]

Footnotes:

[19] 1 Peter 1:13. [ German:—Wherefore with the loins of the mind girded and with soberness of spirit, fix all your hope on the grace which is being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.—M.]

[Translate:—Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, being sober, and hope perfectly for the grace which is being.—M.]

1 Peter 1:14; 1 Peter 1:14. [ Children of obedience, so Greek. German.—M.]

1 Peter 1:15; 1 Peter 1:15. [ But after the pattern of that Holy One.—de Wette, Alford.—M.]

[22] 1 Peter 1:15. [ Conversation—behaviour.—M.]

1 Peter 1:16. [Cod. Sin. §10.—ἔσεσθαι διότι for γένεσθε ὅτι of Text. Rec.,—omits εἰμί.—M.]

[23] 1 Peter 1:17. [ And if ye call upon as Father, Him, etc., so German after the Greek.—M.]

[Cod. Sin. *ἀναστρεφόμενοι.—M.]

1 Peter 1:18; 1 Peter 1:18. [ Knowing that.—M.]

1 Peter 1:18; 1 Peter 1:18. [ Out of your vain conversation, delivered to you from your fathers (Alford), inherited from the fathers, German.—M.]

1 Peter 1:20; 1 Peter 1:20. [ Who indeed, instead of, Who verily.—M.]

[27] 1 Peter 1:20. [ But was manifested.—M.]

[Cod. Sin. *ἀνεγνώσω—ἔσχατοι τοῦ χρόνου.—(**τῶν χρόνων)—M.]

1 Peter 1:21; 1 Peter 1:21. [ Who through Him believe on God.—M.]

[29] 1 Peter 1:21. [ So that your faith and hope are on God.—M.]

[German:—So that your faith may also become hope in God.—M.][Cod. Sin. *ἐγείροντ.—M.]