BibleWare/BibWare.bin/bibtrans/weymouth.exe/1PE.WNT

Text File | 1993-06-07 | 17KB | 318 lines

1:1 Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ: To God's own people
 scattered over the earth, who are living as foreigners in
 Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, /1 Roman Asia, and Bithynia,
1:2 chosen in accordance with the foreknowledge of God the
 Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, with a view
 to their obedience and to their being sprinkled with the blood
 of Jesus Christ. May more and more grace and peace be granted
 to you.
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
 in His great mercy has begotten us anew to an /2 ever-living
 hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1:4 to an inheritance imperishable, undefiled and unfading,
 which has been reserved in Heaven for you,
1:5 whom God in His power is guarding through faith for a
 salvation that even now stands ready for unveiling /3 at the
 End of the Age.
1:6 /4 Rejoice triumphantly /5 in the prospect of this, even if
 now, /6 for a short time, you are compelled to sorrow amid
 various trials.
1:7 The sorrow comes in order that the testing of your
 faith--being more /7 precious than that of gold, which perishes
 and yet /8 is proved by fire--may be found to result in praise
 and glory and honour at the re-appearing of Jesus Christ.
1:8 Him you love, though /9 your eyes have never looked on Him.
 In Him, though at present you cannot see Him, you nevertheless
 trust, and triumph with a joy which is unspeakable and is
 crowned with glory,

1:9 while you are securing as the outcome of your faith the /1
 salvation of your souls.
1:10 There were Prophets who earnestly inquired about that
 salvation, and closely searched into it--even those who spoke
 beforehand of the grace which was to come to you.
1:11 They were eager to know the time which the Spirit of Christ
 within them kept indicating, or the characteristics of that
 time, when they solemnly made known beforehand the sufferings
 that were to come upon Christ and the glories which would
 follow.
1:12 To them it was revealed that they were serving not
 themselves but you, when they foretold the very things which
 have now been openly declared to you /2 by those who, having
 been taught by the Holy Spirit which had been sent from Heaven,
 brought you the Good News. Angels long to /3 stoop and look
 into these things.
1:13 Therefore gird up your minds and fix your hopes calmly and
 unfalteringly upon the boon that is soon to be yours, at the
 re-appearing of Jesus Christ.
1:14 And, since you delight in obedience, do not shape your
 lives by the cravings which used to dominate you in the time of
 your ignorance,
1:15 but--in imitation of the holy One who has called you--you
 also must be holy in all your habits of life.
1:16 Because it stands written, <"You are to be holy, because I
 am holy.">
1:17 And if you address as your Father Him who judges /4
 impartially in accordance with each man's actions, then spend
 in fear the time of your stay here on earth,
1:18 knowing, as you do, that it was not with a ransom of
 perishable wealth, such as silver or gold, that you were set
 free from your frivolous habits of life which had been handed
 down to you from your forefathers,

1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ--as of an /1
 unblemished and spotless lamb.
1:20 He was pre-destined indeed to this work, even before the
 creation of the world, but has been plainly manifested /2 in
 these last days for the sake of you who, through Him,
1:21 /3 are faithful to God, who raised Him from among the dead
 and gave Him glory, so that /4 your faith and hope are resting
 upon God.
1:22 Now that, through your obedience to the truth, you /5 have
 purified your souls for cherishing sincere brotherly love, you
 must love another heartily and fervently.
1:23 For you have been begotten again by God's /6 ever-living
 and enduring word from a germ not of perishable, but of
 imperishable life.
1:24 <"All mankind /7 resemble the herbage, and all their beauty
 is like its flowers. The herbage dries up, and its flowers drop
 off;
1:25 But the word of the Lord remains for ever."> And that means
 the Message which has been proclaimed among you in the Good
 News.
2:1 Rid yourselves therefore of all /8 ill-will and all
 deceitfulness, of insincerity and envy, and of all evil
 speaking.
2:2 Thirst, /9 like newly-born infants, for pure milk for the
 soul, that by it you may /10 grow up to salvation;
2:3 if you have had any experience of the goodness of the Lord.
2:4 Come to Him, the ever-living Stone, rejected indeed by men
 as worthless, but in God's esteem chosen and /11 held in
 honour.
2:5 And be yourselves also like living stones that are being
 built up into a spiritual house, to become a holy priesthood to
 offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
 Christ.

2:6 For it is contained in Scripture, <"See, I am placing on
 Mount Zion a Cornerstone, chosen, and held in honour, and he
 whose faith rests on Him shall never have reason to feel
 ashamed.">
2:7 To you believers, therefore, that honour belongs; but for
 unbelievers-- <"A Stone which the builders rejected has been
 made the Cornerstone,">
2:8 and <"a Stone for the foot to strike against, and a Rock to
 stumble over."> Their foot strikes against it because they are
 disobedient to God's Message, and to this they were appointed.
2:9 But you are a chosen race, a priesthood of kingly lineage, a
 holy nation, a people belonging specially to God, that you may
 /1 make known the perfections of Him who called you out of
 darkness into His marvellous light.
2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of
 God. Once you had not found mercy, but now you have.
2:11 Dear friends, I entreat you as pilgrims and foreigners not
 to indulge the cravings of your lower natures: for all such
 cravings wage war upon the /2 soul.
2:12 Live honourable lives among the Gentiles, in order that,
 although they now speak against you as evil-doers, they may yet
 witness your good conduct, and may glorify God on the /3 day of
 reward and retribution.
2:13 Submit, for the Lord's sake, to every authority set up by
 man, whether it be to the /4 Emperor as supreme ruler,
2:14 or to /4 provincial Governors as sent by /5 him for the
 punishment of evil-doers and the encouragement of those who do
 what is right.

2:15 For it is God's will that by doing what is right you should
 thus /1 silence the /2 ignorant talk of foolish persons.
2:16 Be free men, and yet do not make your freedom /3 an excuse
 for base conduct, but be God's bondservants.
2:17 Honour every one. Love the brotherhood, fear God, honour
 the Emperor.
2:18 Household servants, /4 be submissive to your masters, and
 show them the utmost respect--not only if they are kind and
 thoughtful, but also if they are unreasonable.
2:19 For it is an acceptable thing with God, if, from a sense of
 duty to Him, a man patiently submits to wrong, when treated
 unjustly.
2:20 /5 If you do wrong and receive /6 a blow for it, /7 what
 credit is there in your bearing it patiently? But if when you
 do right and suffer for it you bear it patiently, this is an
 acceptable thing with God.
2:21 And it is to this you were called; because Christ also
 suffered on your behalf, leaving you an example so that you
 should follow in His steps.
2:22 He never sinned, and no deceitful language was ever heard
 from His mouth.
2:23 When He was reviled, He did not answer with reviling; when
 He suffered He uttered no threats, but left /8 His wrongs in
 the hands of the righteous Judge.
2:24 The burden of our sins He Himself carried in His own body
 to the Cross and bore it there, so that we, having died so far
 as our sins are concerned, may live righteous lives. By His /9
 wounds yours have been healed.
2:25 For you were straying like lost sheep, but now you have
 come back to the Shepherd and /10 Protector of your souls.
3:1 Married women, in the same way, /11 be submissive to your
 husbands, so that even if some of them /12 disbelieve the
 Message, they may, /13 apart from th