1 Peter 1:3-45
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Ok so I had to include verse 5 because of its significance. If you’re going to memorize through 4, 5 is just the icing on top.
Though not significant to the verse, the context will still help set the stage for our verse. 1st Peter was written just before or shortly after July, AD 64 when the city of Rome was burnt by Nero History shows that Nero’s motivation was to build more and to build more he evidently needed to destroy what already existed**. The Romans were devastated and this destruction had many implications. Being very religious (their temples were destroyed) this proved their deities unable to protect them. Nero redirected the Romans hostility to the Christians and suffering was imminent. As we previously discussed in our memorization of 1st Peter 1:18-19, suffering was on the menu for Peter’s audience and lest we have an arms-length transaction with Peter’s doctrine and its contextual significance we will be reminded of Paul’s warning to Timothy in 2nd Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”. That all is very inclusive, and though you may not live in China where persecution is very tangible, if you are living your life and there is not an element of persecution, perhaps you’re just going with the flow and we need to have an entirely different discussion and Peter’s words of encouragement are the last thing you need. As much as I hate to assume, let’s assume there is an element of persecution in your life. Peter’s words will transcend our difficulties and circumstances to give us the peace that is only available in Jesus Christ (Phil 4:6-7). Let’s look at why this is so.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!-remember blessing God, hallowing His name is our ultimate goal (see the Lords Prayer Matt 6:9, or 1 Cor 10:31) and glorifying Him is the chief end of man.
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, -so how were we saved and why were we saved???according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again. We were born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,-so in light of any suffering you may be going through or will go through you have an inheritance, kept in heaven for you. This light and momentary affliction should be seen as just that regardless of the difficulty, it is nothing compared to our inheritance.
5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. – So why is that all significant? Because regardless of how difficult your suffering may be, by God’s power you are being protected through faith for the ultimate goal of your faith is the salvation of your soul that will be revealed in the last time. Are you living by faith?
In case you’re saying well Peter you don’t really know how bad I have it, let me remind you that history shows Peter watched as his wife was crucified and encouraged her with “Remember the Lord” and when it was time for him to be crucified he stated he was not worthy to be crucified in a like manner as his Lord and was crucified upside down.**
OK so that should make our unbearable day a little more doable. By His grace and for His glory…carry on!
**(see MacArthur Study Bible 1Peter Background and Setting).