1 Peter 1:1-12

Contemporary English Version

1 From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

To God's people who are scattered like foreigners in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

² God the Father decided to choose you as his people, and his Spirit has made you holy. You have obeyed Jesus Christ and are sprinkled with his blood.^[a]

I pray that God will be kind to you and will keep on giving you peace!

A Real Reason for Hope

³ Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is so good, and by raising Jesus from death, he has given us new life and a hope that lives on. ^4 (A) God has something stored up for you in heaven, where it will never decay or be ruined or disappear.

⁵ You have faith in God, whose power will protect you until the last day.^[b] Then he will save you, just as he has always planned to do. ⁶ On that day you will be glad, even if you have to go through many hard trials for a while. ^7 (B) Your faith will be like gold that has been tested in a fire. And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed. They will show that you will be given praise and honor and glory when Jesus Christ returns.

⁸ You have never seen Jesus, and you don't see him now. But still you love him and have faith in him, and no words can tell how glad and happy ⁹ you are to be saved. This is why you have faith.

¹⁰ Some prophets told how God would treat you with undeserved grace, and they searched hard to find out more about the way you would be saved. ¹¹ The Spirit of Christ was in them and was telling them how Christ would suffer and would then be given great honor. So they searched to find out exactly who Christ would be and when this would happen. ¹² But they were told that they were serving you and not themselves. They preached to you by the power of the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven. And their message was only for you, even though angels would like to know more about it.