1 PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has begotten us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you
5 who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In which you rejoice, though now for a little while if need be made sad by manifold trials,
7 that the trial of your faith, which is much more precious than gold that is destroyed but proved by fire, may be found to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
8 whom not having seen you love, in whom believing though now you see him not you rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious,
9 receiving the end of the faith, the salvation of souls.
10 Concerning which salvation the prophets also who prophesied concerning the grace [bestowed] on us inquired diligently and sought,
11 inquiring as to what person or what time the Spirit of Christ which was in them signified, when it declared before the sufferings of Christ and after these the glories,
12 to whom it was revealed that they ministered not to themselves but to us those things which have now been declared to you by those who preached to you the good news, with the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, into which the angels desire to look.
13 Wherefore, girding up the loins of your minds, be sober, and hope to the end for the gift to be brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14 As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the desires of your former ignorance,
15 but as he that called you is holy be you also holy in all [your] conduct,
16 because it is written, Be you holy, for I am holy.
17 And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each one's work, spend the time of your life with fear,
18 knowing that you were not redeemed from your vain mode of life received by tradition from your fathers, with destructible things, silver or gold,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without a spot;
20 who was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but made manifest in these last times for you,
21 who through him believed in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope may be in God.
22 Having purified your souls by obeying the truth to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another fervently, from the heart,
23 having been born again, not from destructible seed but from indestructible, through the word of God which lives and endures.
24 For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass has withered, and its flower fell off;
25 but the word of the Lord continues forever. And this is the word preached to you.