1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones, sojourners of the Dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: may grace and peace be multiplied to you.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4unto an inheritance imperishable and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you,
5who are being guarded by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6In this you rejoice greatly, though now for a little while, if it must be, you have been grieved by various trials,
7so that the proven genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes though tested by fire — may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
8whom, not having seen, you love; in whom, though not seeing him now but believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
9receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10Concerning this salvation the prophets sought out and searched carefully, those who prophesied about the grace destined for you,
11searching into what person or what time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified beforehand of the sufferings destined for Christ and the glories after these,
12to whom it was revealed that not for themselves but for you they were serving these things, which have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.
13Therefore, having girded up the loins of your mind, being sober-minded, set your hope completely on the grace being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14As children of obedience, not being conformed to the desires you formerly had in your ignorance,
15but as the one who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16because it is written: “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
17And if you call upon as Father the one who judges impartially according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear throughout the time of your sojourning,
18knowing that you were redeemed from your futile way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things, silver or gold,
19but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
20foreknown before the foundation of the world but manifested in the last of the times for your sake,
21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22Having purified your souls in obedience to the truth unto sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from the heart,
23having been born again, not from perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.
24For “all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass withered, and the flower fell off,
25but the word of the Lord abides forever.” And this is the word that was preached as gospel to you.
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