What I’d like you to do is not look at your Bible, but look at me. I’m going to be Peter, okay? That’s what Andy asked you to do, I think. I want to talk to you the word of God. I want to look at you. I don’t want you looking down at your Bible saying, “He missed that word.” That’s not helpful, and I want you to hear God through Peter through John, and these are precious things. And Marshall is there with his Bible open because if I blow it, he’ll tell me what to do. Let me just pray.

Father, we love your word. We want to be students of it all our life. We want to see things on our last day of life that we hadn’t seen until then. And I know it will be appointed for the hour just like this is appointed right now for these friends. So come, I pray, and help me to deliver your word faithfully, full of faith. I ask this in Jesus’s name, amen

First Peter 1–3:7

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who are elect, exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and in sanctification of the Spirit, and for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, capped in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you are grieved. You are being grieved through various trials so that the genuineness of your faith more precious than gold, which though perishable is tested by fire, might redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Having not seen him, you love him. And though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorified joy, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied concerning the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time was being indicated by the spirit of Christ in them, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, who in the things that have now been delivered to you, have now been announced to you by those who preach the good news to you through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Having girded up the loins of your minds and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that is being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct. For it is written, “You should be holy, for I am holy.”

And if you call upon as Father, the one who judges impartially each person according to his deeds, conduct yourselves throughout your exile in fear, so that knowing in fierce, knowing that you were ransomed from your former manner of life, not with perishable things like silver and gold, but with the imperishable or the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world. And in these last times has been manifested for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead so that your faith and your hope are in God.

Having purged your heart, having purified your heart, through obedience to the truth for sincere, brotherly love, love one another earnestly from the heart. Since you’ve been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For, “All flesh is like grass and its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

So, lay aside all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. And like newborn babies, earnestly desire the pure spiritual milk that by it, you may grow up into salvation. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in God’s sight chosen and precious, you yourselves are being built up into a spiritual house so that you might be a holy priesthood, so that you might offer sacrifices pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.

For it stands written. “Behold, I’m laying in Zion, a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, whoever believes in him will not be ashamed.” So you who believe, he’s precious, but for those who do not believe, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobeyed the word as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a holy priesthood, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, the people of God’s own possession, that you might declare the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous life. Once you were no people, now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you to as aliens and exiles, I urge you to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they might see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Be subject, for the Lord’s sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good because it is God’s will that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Be people who are free, but don’t use your freedom as a coverup for sin, but live as servants of God.

Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Servants, be subject in everything to your masters, not only to the good and the gentle, but to the crooked. For it is a grace when you endure or suffer sorrows while enduring suffering. For what credit is it if when you do evil and are beaten for it, you endure? But if you do good and are beaten for it or suffer for it, you endure. This is a gracious thing with God. For to this, you have been called. For Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should walk in his steps. He committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he kept entrusting himself to the one who judges justly.

He bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. For you stray like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Wives, be subject to your husbands so that, even if some do not obey the word, they might be one without a word by the pure and reverent conduct of their wives. Don’t let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the putting on of gold jewelry, the clothing that you wear. Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

In this way, the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, submitting to their own husbands as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. Husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way according to knowledge, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since you are fellow heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.