1 Peter 1:¹⁷ If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; ¹⁸ knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, ¹⁹ but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. ²⁰ For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you ²¹ who 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.

1) “1:17 is interesting. We are not saved by our works, but we will be judged by our works. Bottom line, you must try to live holy and not sin even though you don’t have to be sinless. God’s grace will save you by the blood of Jesus. But at the same time, if you go back into sin, your sins will cause you to fall from grace and lose your eternal life when you die. 2 Peter 2:²⁰ For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. ²¹ For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. ²² It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” Therefore, we need to conduct ourselves in “fear” while on earth. Aren’t we supposed to have full assurance of our salvation and not be fearful of standing before God in judgment? Doesn’t “perfect love cast our fear” (1 John 4:¹⁷ By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.)” Yet Peter tells them to live in fear while on earth. Bottom line is that we still need to be fearful of losing our salvation while on earth. Paul, the proponent of “salvation by grace through faith, not works”, echoes this fear command: Philippians 2:¹² So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure.”

2) The motivation for this appeal to be holy is that they were “redeemed (lutroó: To redeem, to ransom, to liberate by paying a ransom price) by the blood of the Lamb”. In the ancient Greco-Roman world, the concept of redemption was well understood in the context of slavery and captivity. A person could be freed from slavery or imprisonment if a ransom was paid. The ransom price to free us from the slavery of sin was the blood of Jesus, i.e. his death on the cross. Some of the early church fathers thought that God paid this ransom price to Satan, but that is not true. God paid the ransom price to Himself to satisfy his wrath against our sin so that he could justify us. That appeasing of God’s wrath is called propitiation. This plan to redeem us by the blood of Jesus was “foreknown” by God before he even started the creation week in Genesis 1. How is that? He knew he was going to create humns with free will and that they, given the choice of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, would chose to sin, and then everyone born after the fall would make the same choice to sin. Romans 5:¹² Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned.” So God is thinking, “I love all people and want them to have a way to be saved from my just wrath; how can I do that”? Maybe he could let us try to save ourselves by good works, or even by buying our salvation with “gold or silver”? No that would not satisfy God’s wrath. The only thing that would satisfy HIs wrath against our sins was to let His Son become flesh and die for us. I don’t understand why that was the only thing that could do that, but it was. So Jesus appeared the first time in his incarnation (God becoming flesh, John 1:14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us) and God proved that he would redeem us by the blood of Jesus by raising Jesus from the dead.

3) 1 Peter 1:²² Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brothers and sisters, fervently love one another from the heart, ²³ for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For, “All flesh is like grass, And all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, ²⁵ But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you.” Peter now switches from “obedience” verses to “love” verses for the first time. We purify (hagnizó: To purify, to cleanse, to sanctify) ourselves by obedience, by no conforming to our former lusts, by living a set apart life. But is that all there is to the Christian life, just stay away from sin? No. God wants us to purify ourselves so that we can love one another: a sincere, fervent love from the heart. Replace the “lusts” with “love”. The whole spirit of Christianity is “love”. The motivation is that we have been “born again” of the imperishable seed of the word of God that endures forever. We have a new self that is filled with love for one another b/c God loved us and gave His Son to save us. I know that has been the biggest challenge in my Christian walk. I was raised where the emphasis seemed to be getting all the right doctrines even though I’m sure that love was preached and shown by a lot of church members. My parents never said “I love you” until they were in their 70’s and I was in my 40’s, although I know they loved me. They were raised on the farm in the depression and WWII, working hard all their lives. Expressing emotion was not something they were raised in and they didn’t show it in my life. Maybe in my last days I can work on that!

4) 1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, ² and like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, ³ if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” “Therefore (based on what went on before), i.e. you were born again (1:23) so you are “newborns” spiritually. Newborns feed on milk and spiritual newborns feed on the milk of the word of God, i.e. the basics of obedience and love. The Hebrew writer talks about the “meat” of the word as he discusses the priesthood of Melchizadek and the change of the Law in Hebrews 5:¹¹ About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, ¹³ for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” So God doesn’t want us to keeping eating milk but that is where we all start as spiritual newborns. But first you must put away the bad stuff in your heart and mind. The motivation for all this: “if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord”.