JEAN'S BIBLE STUDY COM

KJV    NAS

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen

(218k) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> Man is a spectator of his own salvation >> We are chosen before the foundation of the world

(219h) Predestination (Key verse) – Predestination is definitely a reality in the Scriptures, but John Calvin's version of it is not. About him and others of his caliber Jd-4 says, “Certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” John Calvin is one of those who have "crept in unnoticed," who taught irresistible grace and spoke about predestination in terms of man’s will being excluded. This is isolating certain aspects of the gospel from the rest of scripture and focusing on them to the exclusion of everything else, and is absolutely not how we study Scripture. Calvinists have concluded that the grace of God is all about God and nothing about man, as though we are mere recipients of His grace, playing no part in it at all. If that were the case, then why is Paul a servant of the new covenant (2Cor 3-6)? How could he participate in the gospel of Christ if he were not involved in His grace? God wants us involved so He can reward us in heaven, and so He can also condemn the devil, who has rebelled against Him. The devil most likely believes in Calvinism, irresistible rebellion, as though it were impossible for him to resist the temptation to pursue God’s throne, which is a fallacy, and this is why he has taught man to believe in irresistible grace, so the things we don’t do for Christ are not our fault. Thus through Calvinism, we escape accountability with God, as though it were His fault we did nothing for the cause of Christ. An opposing subject to Calvin's version of predestination is Working (with) the Grace of God (114a). 

(220c) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> Predestination >> Predestined according to His foreknowledge – Being chosen by the foreknowledge of God is the best way to understand the concept of predestination. While predestination is a fact, some of the greatest scholars cannot avoid getting lost in the swirling ideas before coming to any solid conclusion regarding many of its difficult implications. Adding the word “foreknowledge” helps us come to terms with predestination, and clarifies just how God predestines us, and helps us see that we are more than mere robots. None of us like the feeling of being predestination, as though no matter what we do it was pre-decided. Predestination bears the connotation of God forcing our hand, whereas foreknowledge shows Him watching things unfold as He knew they would. We can accept and even be comforted by a God who knows the future, yet even this has implications that are difficult for some. For example, what about pain and suffering? The fact that God knows about these things in advance and does nothing about it seems to add salt to the wounds, but they forget that God is a free agent too; He has decided not to be our referee for some very good reasons. Protecting us from harm would literally cause Him to force His hand on others, and He has designed us all as free agents, including the bad guys. Instead, God has chosen faith to step in as His referee, which allows evil to exist without marring His reputation in the minds of His saints, even those who are martyred for their faith. God foreknew the extent of His sanctifying work on each of us. He knew how far we would walk with Him. The rest of the world who cannot accept Him by faith would not accept Him under any other circumstances either, no matter what He did to accommodate them. So, man’s rebellion plays the opposite role of faith, introducing chaos to His creation as an effort to sabotage God’s plan and purpose. However, the system that God has established cannot be sabotaged or manipulated, for He uses evil just as He uses good to perfect His people through faith. However, none of these address the biggest question-mark of predestination: hell. Why did God make certain people if He knew beforehand that they would choose not to serve Him and lose their souls to eternal damnation? This is the conundrum that seems to convict God of sin. Instead of serving Him to avoid hell, many reject Him to secure their place in the eternal flames, and according to some people's rendition of predestination God has already made that decision for them. They think that hell should not exist, that there is no evil great enough that anyone should deserve eternal punishment, but the assumption they are making is that they know God, when in fact they are going to hell for the very opposite reason, because they don't know God. Hell exists because of the nature of God; He is so great and amazing, and He made a universe to prove that fact to everyone, and to reject Him in the face of so much evidence in His favor deserves a place like hell. For the man who hates God, the very presence of God is a worse hell than hell itself. Therefore, hell is a place of mercy apart from His presence. 

1Pet 1-1

(105l) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Led by the Spirit into the fire >> Into the wilderness >> Wilderness of safety -- This verse goes with verses 6&7. We Christians reside in the world as aliens. The world might say we act as though we came from a different planet, being a peculiar people, but it is more accurate to say we are aliens from a foreign land, as in Abraham’s case, who is the father of our faith, for he too was a sojourner. We are in the world, but we are not of the world; this is not our home. We were born into it, but when we received Christ we were born into the Kingdom of God.  

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

2&3 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1Pet 1-2

(37h) Judgment >> Judgment of God >> Redemption of man >> His blood delivered us from destruction – This verse goes with verse 7

(80l) Thy kingdom come >> Prayer >> The priesthood >> Jesus ministered to people through His ministry toward God

(87e) Thy kingdom come >> Ministry to God through obedience >> Seeking the glory of God

(115ja) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through obedience of faith >> Through determination >> Determined to be set apart from the world – God sanctifies us through obedience. There are two things happening here: God contributes His sanctification, while we contribute our sanctification, that from the world. Whenever we see this cooperation between God and man, we call it “Working (with) the grace of God.” It’s not just God doing things in us, and it’s not we doing things by ourselves, but it’s both us and Him working together, man cooperating with God to accomplish salvation (v5).

(132c) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> Spirit of God in the spirit of man >> Spirit gives access to the Father through Christ -- This verse goes with verse 11

(191l) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Set apart >> Set apart by the Holy Spirit

(255f) Trinity >> Father, Son and Holy Spirit >> The process of imparting the substance of God >> Father discloses the Word by the Spirit

1Pet 1,3-7 

(249ga) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Wealth >> True perception of wealth >> The infinite and eternal wealth of God >> God’s perception of wealth >> Our blessed hope of eternal life -- These verses go with verses 18&19. We value our faith, but we don’t usually consider it more precious than gold, but when we consider how hard we had to work to foster a sincere faith in God, and especially when we observe just how rare genuine faith is in the world, maybe we should consider faith more precious than gold. Gold and silver have always been used as money, and so Peter was saying that our faith is more precious than money, but God doesn’t value money at all, though He infinitely values our faith. God values our faith because He is the very embodiment of faith. In other words there is a physical equivalent of faith, and God is made of it, and it will never be true of us. We will have a resurrected body that will be just as much spiritual as it is physical. God the Father also has a body, and the material of His physical being is equivalent to faith.

1Pet 1-3,4

(13f) Servant >> Serve the body >> Promoting its health >> Servant is anointed – It is significant that Peter said we were born-again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because that is exactly what happened to him. After Jesus rose from the dead He breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20-22). This happened before His ascension and before Pentecost, which is the second tier in God’s plan of salvation, called the anointing, given for living victoriously in this life. "Christ" literally translated means anointed one; hence the term "Christians" means: anointed ones. Some Pentecostals say that we all must have some kind of emotional/spiritual experience at our baptism or we can’t go to heaven. This is gibberish, but the anointing is not gibberish; the anointing was the point of Pentecost. The Church has almost completely rejected this anointing through reams of false doctrine concocted to explain the anointing, but all they have managed to do was turn off people to the anointing, so Christians don’t even seek it anymore, which is a shame. Most don’t want any part of it; they are afraid of it, yet it is completely biblical. For the Church to disregard the anointing is a huge mistake. Those who walk by the Spirit in this life by an anointing will find the transition into the next life a relatively seamless experience, for there is an anointing reserved in heaven for our relationship with God that we will also use to interface with His creation throughout eternity.

(35c) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> God’s immeasurable generosity – The words Holy Spirit and life go together like peas and carrots. Jesus spoke extensively about them being iconic together. It only makes sense that if we have been born of the Spirit who gives us hope, then it is a living hope. Sinners consider these words flowery superlatives, because they don’t believe what they mean. What is a living hope? We are not just hoping for heaven; rather, heaven has come down to us in the form of the Spirit, which is the very essence of heaven, and that Spirit is defined as the life of God, who has caused us to be born-again. He promises to remain with us for life, and His main purpose is to lead us on our trail of good works that He has prepared for us from the foundation of the world, and that trail will lead us straight into the Kingdom of Heaven. Our hope is not contained in the pages of the Bible, but in the Spirit of our God, who dwells in us, who teaches us about the Bible, and for this reason it is a living hope.

1Pet 1-3

(31e) Gift of God >> Grace >> Salvation >> God’s mercy overrules man’s sin

(39a) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Resurrection of Jesus Christ -- This verse goes with verse 21

(121f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope >> Expectation >> Expecting good things based on God’s character >> Expectation based on God’s generosity -- This verse goes with verse 21

(238a) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> Born again >> Born of the Spirit by the will of God >> Born again by the will of the Father -- This verse goes with verse 23

(254g) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> Jesus is the substance of God’s life >> Jesus conquered death because He is life – We have been born of the Spirit to a living hope in Christ, who was raised from the dead. Everything God has done for us has been all about “life”, which was one of the buzz words that Jesus used frequently to describe what God was doing through Him. He talked about life in ways that challenged our previous notions about life. He talked about the life of God in regard to the Holy Spirit, the life that would one day raise His own body from the grave. This is the life of God the Father, even though He has a form of his own, which no one knows, a form that Jesus never even attempted to describe. We are no doubt in store for a surprise or two when we get to heaven and discover this person whom we have believed for the salvation of our souls.

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

4&5 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1Pet 1,4-7

(43k) Judgment >> Satan destroyed in the absence of sin >> Perfected in weakness

(226a) Reserved In Heaven (Key verse)

(226d) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven >> Reserved in heaven >> Our inheritance is reserved in heaven – The rewards that we will enjoy in heaven throughout all eternity will be implanted in our bodies. For example, in this world there are some people who are very beautiful, but their outward appearance is not an accurate depiction of their inner self. Not so in heaven. Paul said that as star differs form star in glory, so people will differ from each other in luminosity (1Cor 15,35-44). In heaven our outward appearance will accurately reflect our inner self, determining our radiance, but there will be other rewards too, such as a heightened innate ability to know God, which is determined right here and now by the relationship we have with Him in this life.

(243g) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> The indestructible kingdom >> The body of Christ is indestructible >> The indestructible kingdom within us -- This verse goes with verses 6&7. These things are significant based on the kind of world in which we were physically born and the kind of life we have in the flesh, where everything perishes. Forget bananas on the countertop and a week later they have turned black and inedible. Things grow and die and become putrid, so we bury them or the stench will make life unbearable and spread disease until the living follows the dead, but the hope we have inherited is imperishable. The location of our hope is a place where death doesn’t exist. There is no stench where there is no death, and there is no sin or capacity to defile; no more need for cleansing. Everything in this life has a crescendo and then fades away, including us. In our twenties we had a prime of life; we reached the top of the hill, and then started down the other side, but Peter says we have inherited something from God that has no downhill slope. It will never fade, and it is waiting for us. Eternity waits for nothing; it knows no time, yet all of creation waits for the children of God to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

1Pet 1,5-9

(86e) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> God’s works act as evidence to support our beliefs

(87ia) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Those who obey believe in God >> Those who obey the Holy Spirit

(156e) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of salvation >> You will know them by their endurance

(233j) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> Seek His glory without wavering >> Seek His glory through perseverance

(236j) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >> Invest in the treasures of the kingdom >> Invest your life in God’s faith – Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Mat 6,19-21). Our rewards for doing the will of God are of the same substance as our inheritance of eternal life. He commanded us to store up these treasures that cannot be corrupted or destroyed, but will maintain their luster throughout eternity and are reserved in heaven for us. To the degree that we serve the Lord is the degree to which we will store up treasures in heaven. That is, to the degree that we walk on the trail of good works that God has prepared for us according to Eph 2-10 is the degree to which we will receive a reward for doing the will of God. Many people have a problem with doing something for a reward, like a pigeon in a box pecking on buttons for a pellet. Others think that seeking a reward is a false motive for doing the will of God, but Jesus didn’t think so. God wants to reward us for doing his will. What is wrong with pursuing what God wants us to have? They say, ‘you shouldn’t do anything for a reward. Instead, the only good motive for doing God’s will is from love for Him.’ That sounds noble, but it is not biblical; what is biblical is 1John 4-10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” According to this verse, our love for God is irrelevant; what matters is that He loves us. Therefore, attempting to do the Lord’s will out of love is a form of self-righteousness. We shouldn’t be so quick to pass judgment on God’s kingdom by holding His reward in contempt, claiming that it is a lousy reason to do the will of God, because that is simply not true, and since we essentially know nothing about His reward being that it is spiritual. The more noble and biblical motive for doing the Lord’s will is that He might reward us for doing it. We are utterly impoverished without Him. To serve God out of love is like giving back what he gave to us; He doesn’t want His love back; He wants us to be receptacles of His love. Everything flows one way, from Him to us. 

1Pet 1,5-7

(98l) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Endurance invites the Holy Spirit into your life >> Endurance invites the glory of God – Trials are the result of living in this world, and Peter says we rejoice in spite of them, if not to spite them. The faith that we have in Jesus Christ rejoices all the more in the face of adversity. In good times we say this life is similar to heaven in that we will enjoy our lives then too, but when hardship and difficulties come, we say this life is not like heaven, for there are no hardships or difficulties there. Sin, sorrow, weeping and pain will be no more; instead, we will stand in the presence of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ in all His glory, and we will worship Him throughout eternity. This is our great hope.

(117c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Rest in Jesus (Sabbath) >> Rest in His yoke by faith – Jesus said about His yoke that it is easy and His burden is light by comparison to the world’s yoke, because of the grace of the Holy Spirit in our hearts giving us the desire and power to please Him. When we think of what He asks from us, we are to give Him everything. The Christian with the indwelling Holy Spirit has experienced a complete transformation. Over a period of years his life is slowly transforms into the image of Christ, “by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Phi 3-21). It is His yoke to subject ourselves to the will of God, because if we don’t, He will do it for us, and there is no honor in that. While we are subjecting ourselves, our flesh might as well be in hell the way it feels. Everything about our fleshly sinful nature diametrically opposes everything about God, so we must stop every minute and think twice about what we are saying and doing. Are we about to react according to the flesh? If we do, we know we’re wrong, because our flesh is never right, and we should never hope for the flesh to desire the will of God. We must place ourselves under subjection so that God can have His way with us, but if we refuse, then we are refusing the yoke of Christ, and Jesus said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Therefore, however we replace the yoke of Christ will be harder and cause more suffering and difficulty than what Jesus had intended for us, for God gives us the grace to endure His will, but apart from Him there is no grace given.

(215d) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> Fulfillment of God’s time >> Completion of a period of time

(28a) God Is Our Protector (Key verse)

(28b) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> God protects us through our faith – What about the people who are martyred for their faith, how are they protected by God? Peter Himself was martyred for his faith; how did God protect Him? It doesn’t matter what happens to the body; it is our spirit and our faith that has the higher priority, for these things are eternal. Although God doesn’t want any harm to come to us, yet God cannot violate the will of man, so if someone wants to harm us, God would have to violate the person’s will to stop him, which God will not do. For this reason physical harm can come to us, but both God and we have the power to make sure our faith in Him remains intact. Our life in heaven will be eternal and this life is only for a moment, so whatever happens to our bodies is incidental compared to the rewards and the blessing and the grace of God that He plans to deliver to us in eternity. Also, see Lk 21,16-19.

(50c) Judgment >> God judges the world >> These are the last days -- This verse goes with verse 20

(228h) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> God works in you to keep you in His will

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,

1Pet 1,6-9

(96a) Thy kingdom come >> Positive attitude about suffering >> Suffering under the hand of men

(98j) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> (Faith à Suffering [Circumstances] à Glory [Victory]) – The trials in our lives act as fire, and our faith is like gold; He puts the gold in the furnace and burns off the impurities. Our trials and tribulations do more to help us in our faith than harm us, like exercise to muscle. However, we can strain our muscles if we apply too much stress. For this reason Paul said in 1Cor 10-13 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” We can enjoy the good times in our lives, and in the bad times we can enjoy our growth. Everything that happens to us, good or bad, reduces to a single moment, when we meet Jesus Christ face-to-face. This is the moment for which we should live our entire lives, preparing our hearts, our faith and our obedience, so when we meet Him, He will be proud of us and we will rejoice, instead of it being a shameful experience.

1Pet 1,6-8

(125c) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Joy >> Joy is the result of investing in the kingdom >> Investing in a life of adversity

(5f) Responsibility >> Discipleship tested >> God tests your faith through hardship – To the one who struggles under trial and falls away, God has tested him, but to the one who bears up under trial and grows stronger through it, God refines his faith through hardship and adds to him an anointing. Nobody likes hard times, yet they are necessary to confirm our faith. It is this proof that God seeks, which was the heart of James’ message. Without hardship, all we could do is proclaim our faith, and everyone is quick to do that, but the one who struggles, does so alone. Hardship has the uncanny ability to weed out the disingenuous from the sincere. During good times we can enjoy our lives, but it is during hard times when God leans over and takes a closer look. When we bear up under trial and the thought of giving up never crosses our minds, this glorifies God. The Kingdom of Heaven must be a special place if he allows only those who have been tested and endured to the end.

(8d) Responsibility >> Prepare to interact with God >> Entering the realm of the Spirit – These verses go with verse 13. There are basically two things that we must endure before we will see any results in pursuing the realm of the spirit: we must accept many of the things that God is willing for us to endure in the world with all of its hardships, and we must endure the will of God itself. His calling and our planned destiny can be very challenging at times.

(32l) Gift of God >> Father will honor your devotion to Him >> He will honor your faith

(42e) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Innocent before God

(43a) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Conform to the Resurrection of Christ’s death – God says that our faith is special, but He also says that it is invisible without an opportunity to exercise our faith, and the vehicle of operation is hardship and difficulty. We try to make deals with God and promise Him faith in good times, saying, ‘Just give me an easy life and I will serve you as I see fit, and let me pursue my happiness.’ This is reminiscent of the statement James made, “Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (Jm 2-18). That is, show me faith without hardship and I will show you faith through hardship. It is a good thing that God wants this of us, since it proves that He intends to give us a very real kingdom that is founded on physical reality. We will not stand on clouds with harps and halo as we have seen so often on TV, where everything is nebulous, insubstantial, merely existing with no creation to enjoy. This is the world mocking the faith of those who know better. If the world's view of heaven were the case, then God would not expect us to manifest our faith in this world, but God intends to manifest His kingdom in the natural realm and give it to us to manage and enjoy. So the more we struggle in this life by faith, and because of faith, the more we understand that God’s coming kingdom is also a very real place, and we will be rulers of it, and for this reason God expects much from us. He is just giving us a little heads-up about what’s coming, and as much as He expects from us in this life is as much as He will expect from us in the life to come. We think the life to come will be a perfect place where nothing ever goes wrong, but that is probably unlikely; otherwise, why would God be testing us if He were not preparing us for the future? He is teaching us how to handle situations and difficulties and to trust Him.

(44f) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Transformed >> Completing the will of God -- These verses go with verse 13

(82j) Thy kingdom come >> Prayer >> Thankfulness >> Sacrifice of praise

(93n) Thy kingdom come >> Perspective on the circumstances of this life

(102m) Purifying Process (Key verse)

(103m) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Purified by circumstances >> Purified through faith

(105l) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Led by the Spirit into the fire >> Into the wilderness >> Wilderness of safety -- These verses go with verse 1

(192e) Die to self >> Result of putting off the old man >> Gain by losing >> Receiving from God by substitution >> Committed in the natural to receive in the spiritual – We worship God for the truth we know about Him but can’t understand. For example, we worship Him because He is infinite and eternal. We are eternal; we will never die, but God never had a beginning, and we will never be able to understand that, and so we worship Him for it. Also, we worship God because He consists of faith, and for this reason He places an infinite value on our faith, because faith behaves like Him. Mat 5-44,45 says, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” We are the children of God, who exercise faith in Him. He longs to see our faith to the point that He is willing to let us suffer in order to reap a harvest of faith. God values our faith because it is eternal. Every ounce of faith we produce for His glory and honor will be appended to our resurrected bodies as our reward for serving Him in a world of unbelief. Heb 11-35 says, “…others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection.” Paul wrote that stars differ from each other in glory resembling our resurrected bodies. God will append our reward of faith to our resurrected bodies for everyone to see.

(227d) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of heaven >> God rewards endurance >> Rewarded for overcoming sin – We do all things for the sake of meeting Christ for the first time. We do all things for the sake of hearing these words: “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Mat 25-23). These words are worth any amount of pain and suffering that God would ask us to endure. To be pleasing to God should be the goal of every Christian, for there is no greater honor. In order to go through fiery trials we must first accept them; that might not sound too hard, but there is a period when we all hesitate and react against hardship and strive to avoid it, looking for better circumstances and an easier life. Man is looking for the pursuit of happiness; that is what our founding fathers promised us in our country’s constitution, but we are not following them, for our earthy country is not our real home; we are following Christ, and our home is in heaven. The right that He has given us is not the pursuit of happiness but the right to become the children of God (Jn 1-12). Living as the children of God in a world that hates Him is a recipe for persecution of every imaginable kind.

(243g) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> The indestructible kingdom >> The body of Christ is indestructible >> The indestructible kingdom within us -- These verses go with verse 4. Peter’s statement that our faith is more precious than gold which is perishable, is not scientifically accurate according to the periodic table, which identifies gold as an element. One of the laws of nature that God imposed on this creation is that both energy and matter can be neither created nor destroyed. The reason energy and matter have this same property is that they are essentially the same thing. From the standpoint of everyday life this sounds preposterous, but from the standpoint of an atomic physicist who studies the inner workings of the atom, his field has concluded that matter and energy are one and the same thing. For example, Moses destroyed the golden calf, “And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.” (Exodus 32-20), yet the gold itself was never destroyed. That gold still exists somewhere, because it is an element; it cannot be reduced to a simpler form without tampering with the nucleus of the atom. Molecules are a combination of atoms, which can be separated into their parts, but atoms are elements, which cannot be divided. Nevertheless, Peter said that gold is perishable. When he said that, he was referring to the end of the Millennium age when God will destroy the present heavens and earth and create a new one in its place. 2Pet 3-10 says, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Therefore, when Peter used the word “perishable”, he was speaking about it in light of eternity. The creation that He builds after this one will endure before Him.

(246j) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Demonstration of God’s kingdom >> God demonstrates His glory >> Outward demonstration of an inward work

(250f) Priorities >> God’s prerequisites >> Sequence of priorities >> Natural then the spiritual (obedience then anointing)

1Pet 1-6

(240h) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Hindering the kingdom >> Natural disadvantage >> Natural disadvantage of the world

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

7-10 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. 10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 

1Pet 1,7-9

(218j) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest >> Reaping the harvest in eternity

1Pet 1-7

(37h) Judgment >> Judgment of God >> Redemption of man >> His blood delivered us from destruction – This verse goes with verses 17-19

(170f) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Outward appearance >> Temporary >> Whatever is temporary will perish -- This verse goes with verse 18. Peter didn’t say that our faith was more precious than gold; he said that the “proof” of our faith is more precious than gold, and the proof (product or result) of our faith is love. Therefore, Peter was saying that love is more precious than gold, having been tested by fire. The hotter the fire and the greater the tribulation and distress, the more faith we need and the greater effect that love has on its beneficiaries. Love that we demonstrate on those who would treat us with indignity is greater than the love we show to those who love us in return. It is a greater proof of our faith. To God it is more valuable than gold, which is perishable. We know that gold is not really perishable, because gold is an element. Gold is often found in compounds that change in chemical structure so that it no longer looks and acts like gold, yet none of the gold is destroyed, for it can just as easily be removed from those compounds and returned to its elemental state. So every atom of gold that existed thousands of years ago still exists somewhere, unless it has undergone nuclear change, which doesn’t happen in nature. So to say that gold is perishable is not really true, except for one thing: one day all the elements will melt with intense heat and be destroyed (2Pet 2,10-12), and God will create a new heavens and a new earth. Peter was saying that our faith is greater than this present creation, because it is temporal and our faith in Jesus Christ is eternal, in that God intends to reward our faith in heaven, which will never fade.

1Pet 1-8,9

(118c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Eyes of your spirit >> Seeing through the eyes of your spirit – Peter was a man who walked with Jesus for 3½ years; he had seen the Lord and we have not, yet we love Him as Peter did. What did Jesus say, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed” (Jn 20-29). Peter will be rewarded on many levels and in many ways for the many accomplishments he made in the name of the Lord to advance the Kingdom of God, yet one blessing we have over him is that we have never seen the Lord, requiring us to see Him through the eyes of our spirit. The fact that we have never seen the Lord is one of the foundational stones of our faith toward God that we often overlook. We “greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” How could we do that without the Holy Spirit dwelling in us? Jesus is just as real to the believer in the 21st century as he was to Peter, and what is the outcome of our faith but the salvation of our souls? So, living for Jesus is hope upon hope, faith upon faith, vision upon vision, joy upon joy and reward upon reward. When it comes to faithfulness toward God it is nothing but goodness, kindness and mercy, along with so many other things that He has prepared for those who have their gaze fixed on Him through the eyes of their spirit.

(205i) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> Faith versus works >> The faith of God versus the faith of men >> Faith is the work of God

1Pet 1-8

(95b) Thy kingdom come >> Positive attitude >> Speaking in tongues >> Groaning too deep for words

(208fa) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Being the friend of God >> Relationship with God through obedience >> We resemble Him through faith

1Pet 1,10-13

(115c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through your ministry >> Through your calling >> To build up the body of Christ

1Pet 1,10-12

(12k) Servant >> Bondservants the prophets

(80f) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word to learn the ways of God >> Understanding His will

(106i) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Means of hearing from God >> Through prophets – The prophet is a composite of God calling him and the man being willing to follow the Holy Spirit. We think of prophets as people who simply open their mouths and the word of God comes flowing out of them. In some churches it works this way, and the congregation is edified by it, but this is the gift of prophecy, which is different from being a prophet. The prophets of old have always been associated with hardship and suffering, and part of that entails the pursuit of the truth that God imparts into them. God reveals something to them, and from that point they spend the rest of their lives trying to understand it. Old Testament prophets and New Testament prophets are no different from anybody else. They may have been called from their mother’s womb to a special ministry, but everything else is the same. They bleed red; they sin like everybody else and they struggle with everything imaginable like everybody else. The only difference, God is leading them in ways that are highly unique.

(141g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> It bears witness to Jesus >> Prophesy about Jesus’ resurrection – A prophet is someone who struggles in ways nobody else does. For example, the true prophet has heard from God before his third birthday, and he probably heard God many times before that, but his memories have only begun to congeal. The prophet interprets almost everything differently from other people. He doesn’t just put a divine spin on things; rather, the interpretation involves the specific ministry that God has placed in him. Every prophet has a certain message that he has to share with the Church, like someone who majors in a certain discipline. The things the prophets wrote in the Old Testament were not things they could have possibly known by themselves, such as the resurrection, since the concept didn't exist until the prophet spoke it into existence. The things that God was revealing to them was foreign to every other aspect of their lives, and they had to find a place for the word of God in their hearts, meaning they had to hew out a place for His word to dwell in them, which is painful, like taking a shovel and digging out chunks of living flesh. To believe something that nobody else does is a hard life; this accounts for about nine-tenths of the pain and hardship of the prophet. This is why prophets can endure persecution; it is nothing compared to what he had to endure from the word of God itself.

(152kb) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> The Church holds the position of a prophet >> True prophets >> Prophesying the future – What is the true reward of a prophet? What motivates him to be so willing to obey? God has endowed him with an anointing, and the prophet will do anything to protect it, and the one thing he can do to protect the anointing and foster its growth is by doing the will of God. He gains everything he needs and wants from the anointing. The difference between those who prophesy and the prophet is that God has entrusted to the one who prophesies the oracle of God pertaining to his local church, whereas the prophet God entrusts His oracle that pertains to the entire Church worldwide.

1Pet 1-10,11

(100g) Thy kingdom come >> Diligence >> Diligence in studying the word of God – Jesus quoted a passage to Satan during His temptations in the wilderness, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4-4). The prophet without the word of God would die, just like he would die if he went without food, but what is more important to the prophet is not so much that he is fed, but that he feeds others who have the hearing ear and can receive the message. The only way the prophet can glorify God is to proclaim the message to others that they might be enlightened by the things the prophet has learned from the Holy Spirit that others unquestionably do not know. What generates the prophet’s suffering is the rejection of his message, which is more common than their reception. Man’s competitive nature gets in the way of receiving his message, thinking he doesn't need any help coming to know God. If he received the message of the prophet, he would be admitting weakness and ignorance and a lack of knowledge.

(214f) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> Dispensation of God’s revelations >> Dispensation of Christ

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

11&12 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have 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.

1Pet 1-11

(132c) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> Spirit of God in the spirit of man >> Spirit gives access to the Father through Christ -- This verse goes with verse 2

(254i) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Holy Spirit >> Holy Spirit is life >> Spirit of Jesus

1Pet 1-12

(13h) Servant >> Support the body >> Serve selflessly – This verse is about prophets who have the gift to understand the mind of God. They go through great hardships, partly because of what they are doing, but mostly because of their office as prophets. They carry a spirit that is clearly not of this world, and they are persecuted relentlessly. That is why in Hebrew chapter 11 it says that some of them lived in caves and holes in the ground, just because there was no where else left for them to go. However, they always managed to bring forth the Word of God, which proved timeless and indestructible, and is with us to this day. Although they sought to know the truth for themselves, they knew it was bigger than them, and that all the suffering they endured was not just for their cause, but for ours. 

(15k) Servant >> Angels >> Limitations of angels – Peter is talking about the Old Testament prophets, primarily Isaiah, who prophesied in chapter 53 about the sufferings of Christ. He said that the prophets were not serving themselves but us, suggesting that all those who are faithful in Christ who have things to share are not serving themselves but those who would benefit from their ministries, so we glean from each others’ understanding of the truth. For this reason the prophets wrote their words. Now, people throughout the generations can benefit from their words, and it is this benefiting from the words of the prophets that entertains angels. Angels watch in fascination at the process and development of faith in the working of the Holy Spirit as the saints go from one level of knowledge and wisdom to another, as mere children to men and women of faith. Isn't it nice to know that our progress of the faith draws the attention of angles? 

(68a) Authority >> Doing God’s work under His authority >> Ministry of helps >> Help God’s people – We think of the ministry of helps as something that little people do, while the pastor sits behind the pulpit and preaches the gospel, but it turns out that the ministry of helps is greater than what most people think. If the pastor is above the ministry of helps, then how much more are prophets, yet over time we read in the Bible what the prophets have written, and they have become a ministry of helps to us. Therefore, the pastor who stands behind the pulpit and ministers to us, as we mature in the faith and begin to develop a ministry of our own, the things the pastor has sown in our hearts have become a ministry. Everything eventually reduces to a ministry of helps over time. These are things into which angels long to look. It is intriguing to them to see people serving the Lord, preaching the word of God and seeing His Kingdom grow in the hearts of men and women, converts being made, more people believing in Jesus, and seeing the darkness slowly transformed into light. Angels are not casual spectators as they look upon our activities but have an input. Even angels have a ministry of helps in the delivery of God’s word and in the revelation of Jesus Christ and in the changing of momentum between the kingdoms of light and darkness, bringing God’s plan and purpose to fruition through spiritual warfare into which angels long to participate. All of creation helps establish His kingdom on the earth so one day He will manifest Himself in the natural realm as the God of creation and finally assume His rightful place among His people.

(76i) Thy kingdom come >> Desires of your heart >> Your interests

(109c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelations of the Holy Spirit >> Things revealed by the Spirit – Whatever the prophet says is the Spirit of his message. For example, Jeremiah’s emphasized the fact that Israel had fallen away from God and was on a collision course with judgment, and so this very Spirit is what taught him the things he learned. That is, God used Israel’s rebellion to teach Jeremiah about the suffering they would face. in a similar way, Isaiah’s message was largely on the first and second coming of Christ, and so his ministry was anointed with grace and mercy. In all of their struggles they understood that they weren’t doing it for themselves but for those who would believe in their words and inherit the kingdom of their prophecies and gospel that would spring from it that has been announced to us, things into which angels long to look. One of the great hardships of the prophet is the rejection of his message, because he knows their consequences, according to the weeping prophet, Jeremiah. 

(110d) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit speaks through His ministry in us

(149g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >> Preaching the word to the world >> Sowing the seed -- This verse goes with verses 23-25

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1Pet 1,13-17

(4b) Responsibility >> Advocate God’s cause >> Being accountable to the Judgment of God

(92l) Thy kingdom come >> The narrow way >> Our holy conduct along the narrow way – God wants us holy (homogenous) for the sake of conveying the proper message, homogenous meaning a single phase, as when they homogenize milk so the cream doesn't separate. This is the concept of being unleavened. Although Paul didn't use the word "holy" he was implying it in 1Cor 5,6-8 when he said a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough; leaven refers to sin. Being holy means we have alleviated the contradictions in our lives that would work against the gospel of Christ. We have killed the flesh with its passions and desires, so we are not a mixed bag of righteousness and sin, but single in heart and form. The things we do to contradict our faith is evil, so we need to rise above them and be Holy to the Lord, and God will perform miracles through us, because then He can trust us that we won't tear down what God is building in our lives and in those around us.

1Pet 1-13,14

(78n) Thy kingdom come >> Putting your heart on display >> The result of a renewed mind

1Pet 1-13

(8d) Responsibility >> Prepare to interact with God >> Entering the realm of the Spirit – This verse goes with verses 6&7

(44f) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Transformed >> Completing the will of God -- This verse goes with verses 6&7

(46c) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Subjecting your flesh >> Knowledge is our weapon

(83l) Thy kingdom come >> Be on the alert >> Remain on duty >> Be ready – The first century church fully expected Jesus to return in their lifetime, though we have all the more reason to hope, since so much time has elapsed that His return is now more imminent than ever, yet they also allowed for the possibility they wouldn’t see His return. It doesn’t matter if He comes in our lifetime or not, for the generation of His choosing will be blessed and all subsequent generations with the hope of eternal life. Every generation has hoped for His return; they wanted to see Him coming in His glory, and being Jews, they understood this to be the onset of the thousand-year reign of Christ, which is what the Jews expected even centuries before Jesus came in the flesh. So, Peter is saying to place our attention, that is, our hope on the second coming of Christ through the grace of God, which we will receive regardless if we are the favored generation. If we are living in the time of His return, then we had better prepare our minds for action and keep sober in spirit. Jesus said this more often than anything in the gospels regarding His second coming: “Stay on the alert.” He also told the parable of the Ten Virgins, who all fell asleep, both the wise and the foolish. So, He commanded us to stay on the alert, knowing we would all fall asleep. Therefore, what is important is not that we fall asleep, but that when we awaken, we will be prepared for action.

(86n) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Be doers of the word from the heart >> Love the truth

(97d) Thy kingdom come >> Attention >> Facing in the direction of the Lord >> Focusing your attention on God – The first step when fixing our hope on Christ is to face in His direction. If we are paying attention in class, we are not looking behind us; and if we are soldiers standing at attention, we are not talking to our buddies. We are to remain on duty, because the very worse thing that could happen during the days of His return is that we lose hope; we stop waiting for His return; we stop paying attention, as it says in some of His parables, we get drunk both literally and figuratively. When we hope for something, our attention is fixed on it. Hope implies meditation on our expectations, and Peter is saying that our hope is the revelation of Jesus Christ. This implies the fulfillment of all that is written in the Book of Revelation. When evil comes, we are to rejoice, for good will follow evil in the second coming of Christ.

(100l) Thy kingdom come >> Devotion >> In your ministry to God >> Devoted to worshipping God

(101f) Thy kingdom come >> Zeal >> Fulfill your calling with zeal

(108ha) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelation of Jesus Christ >> Spiritual revelation >> Revelation of His return – The revelation of Jesus Christ can be a point of contention to some people, as they study end time prophecy. Some will say this verse is referring to the Rapture, while others may say differently, but perhaps people are more right than wrong about their facts. It’s not about one person being right and the rest being wrong, in that Jesus intends to gradually reveal Himself on multiple levels and in many ways over a period of years. The seals represent the collapse of human civilization, which is powered by a failing world economy. Many will die from rioting and violence through anarchy, then from starvation and disease. Then the trumpets will trigger a great endtime revival in which many millions will be saved, and at the seventh trumpet the Rapture will occur. Once the bowls run their course Jesus Christ will return to the earth, destroying what remains of His enemies and setting up a thousand-year kingdom in Jerusalem. So, take your pick what you mean by the revelation of Jesus Christ, whether you mean bloodshed or death, misery or disease, revival or Rapture. Perhaps you mean them all, for they all pertain to His second coming, which will be both horrible and glorious, depending on our faith in Him.

(121i) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope Based On Faithfulness >> Hope based on perseverance – We are not called to place our hope in materialism or in a new car or new house. The more interests and concerns we place in this world, the less interest we have to place in the things of God. It’s just like money; you spend it and it’s gone. Our hope is a resource, unlike love which is unlimited. We can love one child with all our hearts and another child in the same way with the same heart, and we never run out of love, but hope is different. Hope is based on something and if that thing fails us, our hopes are dashed, and then love is no longer possible. For us, we place our attention on the object of our hope in anticipation of its manifestation, that is in Jesus Christ, and we persevere on keeping our attention on Him, attention being a limited resource.

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

14-16 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

1Pet 1,14-22

(42h) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Transformed >> Conform to the purity of Christ

1Pet 1,14-18

(133k) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holiness >> Having an awareness of God’s holiness >> The fear of God makes us aware of His holiness – Peter saw the need to fear God, and he also loved Him with all his heart. So we have these two things happening at the same time: the love of God and the fear of God. Some think these are diametrically opposed to each other, but they’re not; instead they fit hand in glove. We fear God because we love Him, and we love Him because we fear Him. Take one away and the other disappears. We can’t fear god if we don’t love Him, because to love Him is to believe in Him. We fear God because of what He has done for us. The blood of Jesus is holy to the Lord, and we are to fear that we don’t take advantage of His grace or treat Him as unholy. Communion was given to us as a ceremony and a celebration that we might always be mindful and fearful of His blood sacrifice that He has given in His own flesh. He did it for one reason, because we are sinners, and we should humble ourselves after God has demonstrated His love for us, “that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3-16). Peter is encouraging us not to go back to our old way of life. It would be pointless to go back to our old ways when we have been given a second chance. God has given us of His Spirit, so our second chance is based on a spiritual way of life, instead of the old fleshly lifestyle that we spent chasing feelings and like-minded people. We now have an option to be holy, suggesting that sexual cravings are the opposite of holiness, and thus opposite of God's plan and purpose. 

1Pet 1,14-17

(33i) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Children need to obey their Father

(192j) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Repent >> Stop practicing sin >> Stop sinning

1Pet 1,14-16

(22f) Sin >> Lust (craving pleasure) >> Fleshly desire – We need to understand that the lust of the fleshly mind is deceitful; it doesn’t tell us the truth but is a trap. We fanaticize a perfect scenario of the woman of our dreams, and we give her desire to explore every avenue of sexual pleasure, and there are some men who can make their fantasies come to life, but how does their story end? They will get older and less appealing and less able to perform, yet the lust of their mind does not decrease, and they are tormented with sexual desire. Eventually they reach 70 and 80 years old and unwilling to accept the circumstances of their aging bodies and die and meet God. Suddenly they realize they don’t belong in His heaven, so God will cast them from His presence, and there spend eternity in hell with the devil. They got there partly by their sexual prowess, fed by the lust of the mind with fleshly desires, leading to eternity without God. As for Christians, our purpose for overcoming fleshly temptation is for the sake of holiness, and we need to remember the promises we have in His word, again coming from Peter, “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1Pet 5-10). We all know that sexual lust is tormenting, desiring something we can’t have, and so the best thing to do is relinquish our evil desires to Christ, confessing our sins and do battle against them in our mind and refuse to allow our thought life to develop around these things.

(133a) Holiness (Key verse)

1Pet 1-14

(16ab) Sin >> The sin nature is instinctively evil >> Man’s flesh is related to the devil >> Man's flesh is tempted to deny God – We cannot reason with our fleshly mind; we can try to explain to it that we are four times older than the latest fraulein of our dreams, but none of these things make a dent in our lustful desires, because it just doesn’t care. It wants what it wants when it wants it, and it demands that we give it. To make no move in the direction of our fleshly desires is a good start, but if we allow our minds to continue dwelling on sexual fantasies, eventually we will cave to them, which will sabotage our entire lives, but again, our flesh doesn’t care what happens to us; it only wants what it wants. In other words, the lust of our flesh is identical to Satan, because those are exactly his sentiments toward us; he doesn’t care about us; he only wants what he wants. He knew he couldn’t have the throne of God, but he wanted it anyway, and he allowed it to dwell in his mind until it festered and overwhelmed him with desire, and eventually he made an attempt on His throne. We don’t want to be like Satan, and we don’t want to make his mistakes, because we don’t want to spend eternity in his hell.

(87j) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Being a slave to obedience

(168b) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Do not conform to the world >> Do not conform to the world’s version of love

(176a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Ignorance >> Misguided

(203k) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Back-slider >> Practicing sin >> Living in sin

1Pet 1-15,16

(91f) Thy kingdom come >> The called >> Walking along the narrow way >> Walking in God’s calling is to fulfill His purpose

(141j) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> Old Testament is for our instruction >> It reflects the nature of man in the law -- These verses go with verses 24&25

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

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;

1Pet 1,17-19

(37h) Judgment >> Judgment of God >> Redemption of man >> His blood delivered us from destruction – These verses go with verses 23-25. The fact that the blood of Christ was spotless signifies that Jesus was without sin, which some don’t believe was possible, but had He sinned even once, He would have become a sinner like Adam and couldn’t have died for our sin, like someone pulling up himself by his own bootstraps; it is impossible. Isn’t this the reason for the great value we should hold on the blood of Christ, that He was without sin, that He was the Son of God, that He was given to us by the Father as the embodiment of His grace and mercy. God's critics are unfounded in light of the grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ. Take Him out of the picture and they might have a point; when we look at the Old Testament, there is a lot of judgment and killing and death and destruction, but put Jesus back in the picture, if we don’t bow our heads in reverence for God, then we are just choosing to see things the way we want, regardless of the facts.

1Pet 1-17,18

(187ha) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Die to the flesh >> Spirit versus the flesh >> Deny the flesh to walk in the Spirit >> Deny bondage to walk in freedom

1Pet 1-17

(7m) Responsibility >> Use time wisely >> Get ready >> Live right during these times

(45b) Judgment >> God judges us for not judging ourselves >> Believer's judgment >> Judged According to our deeds

(45g) Judgment >> Believer’s sin >> God will judge us with the world if we live like them

(48f) Judgment >> Levels of judgment >> Judged according to your deeds >> In this life

(51g) Judgment >> Judging the Church with the world >> No partiality between saved and unsaved

(88g) Thy kingdom come >> Fear the judgment of God is the beginning of wisdom >> Fear the consequences of your disobedience – There is a healthy fear of God, and Peter wants us to walk in it, that it might steer us into the will of God, and away from the lust and greed of our past life. God judges impartially; He doesn’t care about our name or our position in life, or choose not to judge us for evil, or judge us for evil that others have done. He doesn’t wink at us because somehow we are better than other people. God is not a respecter of persons, and though we know this on some cognitive level, yet apparently we must think we are special and will get by with committing sin, though the Bible and our observations tell us that we won’t. Sin itself has the power to judge us through the consequences of our actions. If we don’t face consequences in this life for our behavior there is a judge who remembers and will bring our words and ways into account. For this reason, there is place to fear God even as Christians. In fact those who are not Christians don’t fear God; that is why they are not Christians. They might say they are afraid of dying, but that is not fearing God; that is fearing death. We fear God because we know He is a just judge, and how He decides to discipline us is what we deserve. If He were an ogre or a jerk, it wouldn’t matter what we did, He would judge us for things we did right, but God is not that way; He only judges us for the things we do wrong. For this reason we are in control of God’s judgment by deciding what we do, by determining in our minds to do what is right.

(96f) Thy kingdom come >> Positive attitude toward God >> Good attitude toward the Father

(184j) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Abusing the grace of God >> Dragging God’s Grace Through The Mud >> Unwilling to honor God’s grace – Peter is entreating us not to abuse the grace of God, not to drag it in the mud, for God impartially judges our works, giving reason to fear Him. Peter wasn’t the only one who warned us about God, though some continue to surmise that their sins are covered by the blood, giving them opportunity to lead a sinful lifestyle. This is actually very common in the Church today, resulting from a plethora of false teachings about the grace of God. From the outside, having a single focus on the grace of God has the appearance of goodness, and actually the grace of God is the best thing that has happened to man, but it is possible to abuse the grace of God (Rom 6-1,2). A word comes to mind, licentiousness, the root word "license" suggests that some people feel the grace of God has given them a license to sin. Jd-4 says, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” People who are licentious don’t feel the need to fear God; in fact, to even mention it makes them visibly angry. They have built walls around their version of faith to protect themselves from the truth, and they don’t like people jeopardizing their flimsy faith.

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

18&19 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.

1Pet 1,18-22

(8l) Responsibility >> Responsible to defend God’s cause >> Preparing the sacrifice – Paul rhetorically asked in 1Cor 15,35-58 what kind of body will we have? Then discussed farming, the farmer sows his seed, and the plant that results doesn’t look anything like the seed, so we plant a mere grain, which is what our earthly bodies represent. A grain of wheat does not look like a stalk of wheat, so our earthly bodies will not look like our heavenly bodies. The seed that we sow is our natural life in the flesh, Paul said in Rom 12-1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” He also said in 1Cor 9-27 “I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” Paul donated his body as a slave for the cause of Christ, saying that the grain of wheat must first die in the ground before it can send out roots and begin a new life, and so we sow all our current resources into the life to come that we might reap a better resurrected body.

1Pet 1,18-20

(243j) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> The indestructible kingdom >> The head of the body is indestructible >> Jesus is indestructible – Jesus paid the price of our sin with His own blood. We were not redeemed with perishable things like gold and silver. These metals that were mined thousands of years ago are potentially still with us today in exactly the same state, perfectly preserved. They don’t corrode; they don’t rust; they just sit there, because they are elements, appearing in the periodic table; they cannot be reduced to simpler forms, yet Peter is right. One day God will destroy the entire universe. Everything belonging to this physical realm will one day pass away, and God will create a whole new heavens and a whole new earth, and all the gold that is in the world or on any other planet will be destroyed, but those who have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb will live forever in paradise.

1Pet 1-18,19

(41c) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus presented Himself to God without sin for us

(105b) Thy kingdom come >> Pure in heart >> A pure heart is an unleavened heart

(209ja) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Jesus is our sacrifice >> Jesus paid the price for us >> Jesus is the lamb of God >> He was the Passover lamb

(249ga) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Wealth >> True perception of wealth >> The infinite and eternal wealth of God >> God’s perception of wealth >> Our blessed hope of eternal life -- These verses go with verses 3-7

1Pet 1-18

(16c) Sin >> Man’s nature is instinctively evil >> Man has a body of sin

(61e) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Futile way of life—Inherited sin / Personal choice

(170f) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Outward appearance >> Temporary >> Whatever is temporary will perish -- This verse goes with verses 23&24. It is interesting that Peter talked about silver and gold as perishable things. Shipwrecks from the sixteenth century still lie on the bottom of the ocean in ruinous heaps, but divers can recover the gold, and it comes to the surface like someone tossed it in the drink yesterday. Gold and silver are very stable elements and can be found on the periodic table. They are happy to remain gold and silver for thousands of years without changing one iota, yet compared to eternity they are considered perishable; eventually God will destroy this universe and create a new one in its place, according to Heb 1,10-12, "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; and they all will become old like a garment, and like a mantle You will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed. but You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end." We are to view things like silver and gold in contempt by comparison to the blood of Christ, especially since His blood will lead us to a heavenly kingdom where its streets are paved with gold.

(173k) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s Religion >> Deeds that are not initiated by God >> Traditions of men

1Pet 1-19

(233c) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the kingdom >> Seeking the goals of the kingdom >> Seek the goal of knowing God (faith)

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 

1Pet 1-20,21

(114j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Working God’s grace through Christ >> Salvation is through Christ – Jesus didn’t visit us for His own sake but for ours. He didn’t come because He had a need; He came because we needed God to forgive us for being estranged from Him. We have sinned in His presence, though we have never actually seen Him, and for that reason He is able to forgive us.

(234a) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the glory of God >> God chooses us as we seek His glory >> As we submit to Him

(236c) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Invest in the kingdom >> All things are for your sake >> God’s purpose is for your sake

1Pet 1-20

(50c) Judgment >> God judges the world >> These are the last days -- This verse goes with verse 5. When Peter said that Jesus appeared in these last times for our sake, he was referring to our age of grace. There is an age of Millennium ahead of us, but the age in which we are living is the last age of man’s reign, and for this reason the Bible calls it the last days. The Millennial age of Christ will be a time when Jesus reigns on the earth, and He will have all authority and power, and it will be a thousand-year reign of peace. There won’t be war after war as it is now. We gauge history by the wars we fought; for example, when we want to know when a certain artist lived, we ask what war was waged during his lifetime, for there was hardly a time when man was not at war. Jesus will demonstrate what the Church could have done if it had simply obeyed the Lord. God will charge the Church for all the wars that have been fought during the age of grace. We are the salt of the earth; we are the preservative of the world, and we also give it flavor. The Church has failed just as badly if not worse than the Jews in the ancient days of Israel with the Law of Moses. They had the example of Abraham, “who believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Romans chapter four). They never bothered to believe God; they preferred to follow His law, though they didn’t do that either. To the degree that Israel has contradicted its own belief system on every possible level, so the Church has done the same. What we don’t know about Israel and its reign on earth from Moses to the Babylonian takeover is that God intended them to be an example to the world; instead, Israel followed the world, and the Church has done the same. Had Israel obeyed the Lord, it would have become the world’s conscience, which would have had the effect of curbing sin, and many more would have found favor with God; the same could be said in the Church.

(220a) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> Predestination >> Predestined before the foundation of the world – To the degree that the Church was sincere and had a knowledge-based faith in Jesus is the degree to which its influence has made a genuine impact on the world, but in the same way that Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world, so God foreknew that the Church would fail, and sure as we know Christ appeared in these last days for our sake, so we know He will appear again at the end of the age to begin a new age of peace and love in the Holy Spirit that will last a thousand years.

(253b) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the external qualities of the Father >> Son is infinite and eternal like the Father – If anyone questions whether Jesus was created, ask Peter; he will tell us that before God created anything Jesus existed as the Son of God. Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world; He existed before the creation (Jn 17-24). It was God’s plan for Jesus to come here and give His life for our sins, this plan He had before He created anything. He knew all that would happen long before He created man. He knew that when He created Lucifer He would fall, and He knew that when He created man, he too would fall. It is unknown how long Lucifer existed before he fell into sin, but based on what we know about Eve, that she fell into sin before she conceived her first child, we could safely say that Lucifer also fell shortly after he was created. How do the cults get past verses like this, where it so plainly states that Jesus existed before the creation? Virtually all non-Christian cults say that Jesus was just a prophet. Many say that when Mary conceived in her womb her first born, that it was the beginning of His existence, but they refuse to read this verse and others that oppose their views.

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

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.

1Pet 1,21-25

(238c) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> Born again >> Born of the Spirit by the resurrection – Since the word of God causes us to be born-again and is imperishable, then that which is birthed in us is imperishable, and we have become that which God has birthed, so we are imperishable, and one day we will receive imperishable bodies. Just as the word of God is imperishable, so our bodies will be made of a substance that is incomprehensible. We can study the periodic table of the known elements, which defines the material of the universe, but God will make our bodies from a substance that man has never known, for it will be of a spiritual nature made of the same material as the word of God, which is imperishable. We will be made of the substance of God, who is unable to die. This is also the case of those in hell; they are also unable to die. The Bible says of those who go there that they have perished. This is a paradox that no one can fully comprehend, except that television is full of this very concept of the living dead, for those in hell are indeed zombies. The body continually regenerates around the spirit that lives in it, taking on the physical image of the soul, and for this reason they look grotesque, and being that the soul will never die, neither will the body. The same is true with those who go to heaven; the body takes on the form of the soul, rendering an accurate depiction of their innermost being, unlike this life where ugly souls can live in beautiful bodies and old and decrepit bodies having lived out their days, their souls purchased by God faithfully house the Holy Spirit. In the resurrection of the righteous God will give them a resurrected body that will bear their image, and they will be beautiful.

1Pet 1-21,22

(218i) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest >> Reaping the harvest of obedience >> Principle of sowing and reaping – Most people today say that our bodies are our identity, and though technically that is not true in this life, it will be true in the life to come. There is a teaching that God will raise the exact body that we have now that died and was placed in the ground and decayed. That sounds a little farfetched; however, it is believable that God may take a piece if it, perhaps a bone or only a couple molecules and use it as a seed to build a resurrected body around it, just like Jesus used four loaves of bread and two fish from a single basket as a seed to feed five thousand people. Some people died such tragic deaths that there is virtually nothing left of them, such as sailors who were eaten by sharks. How will God find the body to raise it? Will he collect all the atoms and molecules that composed their bodies at the time of death and put them back together? No, He only needs a sample to build our resurrected bodies around it. Paul said again in 1Cor 15-38, “God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.”

1Pet 1-21

(39a) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Resurrection of Jesus Christ -- This verse goes with verse 3. Our bodies represent us in this life, but they are not our true identity. For example, we see a beautiful woman walking down the boulevard and we want to meet her, so we go and talk to her, and she reveals herself to be a complete jerk. In the resurrection this will no longer be the case; our resurrected bodies will do more than represent us; they will exactly reflect the person we are in our hearts. Our current bodies are poor reflectors of our inner person, but our resurrected body will be an exact match. God will give us a body that superimposes over our spirit to give us a one-to-one correspondence between our inner person and our outer person. For instance, if we lived faithfully as Christians throughout most of our lives, our resurrected bodies will reflect that, but if we were saved on our deathbed, our resurrected bodies will reflect that too. The same will be true for the resurrection of the wicked, such as psychopaths, who can now walk among us undetected, but God will give him a body that will perfectly reflect his spirit, revealing him to be a monster. Our spirit and our bodies are unique entities in this life, but God intends to join the two, being the reason Paul called it a spiritual body (1Cor 15-44). That is an oxymoron to us now, but a day is coming when God will marry the spirit to the flesh, and they will become one. We will be able to recognize everybody we knew on earth, but that doesn’t mean they will look the same. We might meet a beautiful person in heaven who was rather ugly in her natural flesh, yet we will be able to recognize her. Jesus appeared to his disciples in different forms after His resurrection, and each time they were able to recognize Him, because his Spirit was apparent through His flesh. If the disciples, who were clumsy oafs before Pentecost, could recognize their Master, how much more will we recognize people we have known in this life once we are fitted with our resurrected bodies?

(86b) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Treating the knowledge of God as fact >> Believing is the result of the resurrection

(91d) Thy kingdom come >> The called >> His purpose answers "Why" – This is what Jesus taught: “This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life” (1Jn 2-25). There is a more specific way of putting it: we have hope in the resurrection from the dead by evidence that Jesus Himself was raised from the dead. God will give bodies that cannot die to spirits that are immortal, and in this way we will have eternal life. So when we speak of eternal life, what we really mean is the resurrection. If we had hope in eternal life but with no bodies to enjoy it, what good is that? There are many teachings about the resurrection. Some say that our resurrected bodies will look just like our current bodies, that we will be able to recognize each other, our family members and friends. The culmination of Scripture teaches that we will not appear as we do now, yet we will be able to recognize each other. Although we have never seen anyone’s spirit we can just about imagine how they look based on their personality and behavior. These traits will continue in their resurrected bodies. 

(121f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Hope >> Expectation >> Expecting good things based on God’s character >> Expectation based on God’s generosity -- This verse goes with verse 3

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,

1Pet 1-22

(4l) Responsibility >> Advocate God’s cause >> Being accountable to your brother – We can't just love people; we must prepare our hearts to love them. The human heart was not naturally made for love. We can love our family members with a natural affection, but when it comes to the family of God, we must condition our hearts through the grace of God, because outside of faith we have no obligation to these people, beside the fact that they are also our neighbors. Those within the Church are our brothers and sisters in Christ. For the sake of loving God we have prepared our hearts, and in the process of preparing to love God we are able to love the brethren. That is, obedience to the truth purifies our souls for the sake a sincere love of the brethren. ‘Having purified your souls to love the brethren, love the brethren therefore. “Having done everything to stand firm, stand firm therefore” (Eph 6-13,14). Having applied the word of God to our hearts and allowed the Holy Spirit to follow His word to purify our souls for a sincere love of the brethren, let us therefore love them. After we have applied the Spirit and the word in our hearts, we must put His grace to work and love the brethren to complete the grace that God has instilled in us.

(74a) Thy kingdom come >> The heart >> God wants you to bless your brother from the heart

(78f) Thy kingdom come >> Sincerity >> Embracing your first love >> Single devotion

(86h) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Be doers of the word >> Clothe yourself with the word of God >> Obey the truth

(87l) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Minister to people through obedience – Love is the apex of obedience; it is the first and foremost fruit of the Spirit from which all other fruits proceed. Love is hard to define, but when someone is loved, they know it. The greatest acts of love are the ones that are most difficult to perform; they have the greatest effect. After a man has been tortured in a POW camp for years, and is released after the war, and some years later returns with the gospel of peace to share with the man who tortured him, that was the movie “Unbreakable.” It had a tremendous impact, not necessarily on the person of his intent, but on nearly everyone else. This has often happened throughout the centuries to missionaries, who experienced tremendous insults to their person and later forgave those who afflicted them, and eventually reached the people with the gospel of Christ. Sometimes people die in the process of conveying Jesus, but the gospel is finally heard and understood and people get saved. This happened in every developed country in the world. They unanimously heard the gospel and turned from their barbaric ways to the Christian faith, and civilization was made possible. Once people see love in action, they suddenly realize that God exists. The logic of the gospel suggests that if God’s people love them, then God must loves them too.

(95h) Thy kingdom come >> Attitude >> Having an obedient attitude >> Ready to do God’s will

(100i) Thy kingdom come >> Diligence >> Diligence in protecting your heart from greed – We must prepare our hearts and minds to love our enemies like we love the brethren; we don’t just start loving people. Our flesh does not love anybody; our flesh only loves itself and its own will. Even if it dies doing what it wants, it would rather do that than submit to the will of God. So, the person who is capable of love is the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, who has caused us to be born-again and has made us a new creature, and it is this new man that is capable of loving other people, including our enemies. Loving our enemies is the greatest form of love. In stark contrast, take the world at large, its economic philosophy, Capitalism, people say is the best system ever designed. It never had to be designed; it is based on selfish hedonism; people only need to live according to the dictates of their flesh to be a capitalist, something they planned to do anyway. Man at his best is full of greed, so when the Christian comes with love, it is incomprehensible to the world. Jn 1-5 says, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” This is why the True Church and the world are separate entities: they are two opposite ideas that represent opposite kingdoms, and they cannot mix any more than water and oil mix.

(100m) Thy kingdom come >> Devotion >> In your ministry to people >> Devoted to ministering to their physical needs

(103h) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Cleans yourself

(129g) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> love perfects unity >> Love is the martyr between the blocks – Love that comes from God is the substance of unity. Without love unity cannot exist, and for this reason unity mostly does not exist in our churches today. Touchy, feely, emotional love does not originate from heaven; therefore, it cannot secure unity in our churches. The love of God is the motivation for giving people what they need, driving Christians to compassion for others, and it is this compassion and love that grows in the hearts of God’s people and establishes unity in the body of Christ. Unity is a product of trust. The more we can trust and depend on each other to live for the body and not for ourselves, the more unity can grow.

(233d) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Seeking the kingdom >> Seeking the goals of the kingdom >> Seek the goal of love

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

23-25 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 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.

1Pet 1,23-25

(37h) Judgment >> Redemption of man >> His blood delivered us from destruction – These verses go with verse 2

(149g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >> Preaching the word to the world >> Sowing the seed -- These verses go with verse 12

(225h) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Parables about the garden of the kingdom >> Parables about seeds

(243k) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> The indestructible kingdom >> The head of the body is indestructible >> The word of God is indestructible

(244g) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> The word of God is eternal >> The word of God will outlast the creation – This is the incentive to do the will of God; it is the only thing that will last. Everything else will fade away and ultimately be forgotten and destroyed. It is only the life that we have lived for God that will remain forever, and the things that remain in us from God that will never fade away but are eternal. These are the words that we have received from God. It is the word of God that the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that will never fade away, and since we are inseparably linked to it, His word will preserve us through its indestructible properties. We spiritually understand the word of God by listening for His voice and then doing what He says. If we don’t do what He says, the word He has spoken to us is incomplete, but it is our obedience to the voice of the Spirit of God that fulfills His word in us to become a substance that will preserve us and will endure throughout eternity. We own what we do of God’s Spirit; these are our heavenly rewards of our spiritual understanding of Him as we pursue a relationship with God in this life. When we take His word seriously and place it in our hearts, God will change us from the inside out, and through that change lies our reward. We are rewarded in the next life to the degree that we are rewarded in this life with the knowledge of God’s word deposited in our inner most being through the Holy Spirit.

1Pet 1-23,24

(170f) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Outward appearance >> Temporary >> Whatever is temporary will perish -- These verses go with verse 7

1Pet 1-23

(80e) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word to learn the ways of God >> Leading to Jesus

(110g) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Born of the Spirit by the truth >> Conceived by the Spirit of truth – We can place a Bible in our hands, because it has not perished from the earth though men have tried. Many generations have attempted to eradicate the Scriptures to no avail, because there have always been God’s faithful people who entrusted their lives to the Scriptures and protected it from confiscation and destruction, and for this reason it is with us today. We owe a debt of gratitude both to those who wrote the original manuscripts and to the scribes who conscientiously copied them before Gutenberg invented his press, but Peter was not referring to this. When he spoke about the imperishable word of God, he wasn’t talking about that which is written on paper, any more than the Spirit who comes to indwell a man resides on paper. Just as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in a believer’s heart, causing him to be born-again, so the word of God is just as spiritual. There is no difference between the Holy Spirit and the word of God, for the Holy Spirit cannot speak anything but the word of God, being what defines Him. Being this is the case, the word of God embodies the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts, we suddenly realize the truth, for prior to the indwelling Holy Spirit our faith was just a set of ideas. The moment we commit our lives to this truth, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in our hearts and we are born of God, and at that moment we understand that our faith is real.

(218g) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest of obedience >> The harvest from the word of God – Peter likens the word of God to a seed. When we think of a seed, say an acorn, one oak tree can bear thousands of acorns, but not every seed will become a tree, only one in ten thousand. Jesus said the same in the parable of the sower, who sowed his seed and some seed fell beside the road and the birds immediately ate it. Some seed fell on rocky places and sprouted for a little while and then died, the same happened to that which fell among thorns, and then some seed fell on good soil. Not every seed that the word of God sows will grow to bear fruit, yet the word of God itself will never perish. It is not the fault of God’s word that its seed doesn't grow; God does not judge His word for being unfruitful; He judges those who hear the word and don’t receive it. Those who are born-again, who are faithful in Christ, will endure to the end just as the word of God endures. We are just as imperishable in this life as we will be in the life to come, ensuring that we will survive this life to inherit eternal life, for we will never give up the faith. When temptation comes, we resist, and if we fall to temptation, we repent. We cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2Cor 7-1).

(238a) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> Born again >> Born of the Spirit by the will of God >> Born again by the will of the Father -- This verse goes with verse 3

(255a) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> God’s word is Spirit >> Spirit of the word >> Words of His Spirit are life

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

1Pet 1-24,25

(141j) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> Old Testament is for our instruction >> It reflects the nature of man in the law -- These verses go with verses 15&16

1Pet 1-25

(150i) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness of Jesus >> Speak the word of the Spirit >> Speaking the words that God has spoken to you

See next page