1 Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers who are dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
2 Asia, and Bithynia, chosen according to the fore-knowledge of God, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,---may grace and peace be multiplied unto you.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath regenerated us to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,
5 who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In which ye rejoice, tho' now for a little while, if need be, ye are grieved through various trials.
7 That the proof of your faith, which is much more precious than of gold, (that perisheth, though tried by fire) may be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, when Jesus Christ shall be revealed:
8 whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy ineffable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith,
9 even the salvation of your souls:
10 concerning which salvation the prophets, who prophesied of the grace to be conferred on you, enquired and diligently sought after it:
11 searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them did declare in testifying beforehand the sufferings that were to come upon Christ, and the glories following them:
12 to whom it was revealed, that it was not to themselves, but to us they ministered these things, which are now declared unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, through the holy Spirit sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
13 Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, and stedfastly hope for the grace to be conferred upon you at the appearing of Jesus Christ;
14 as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts in your ignorance:
15 but as He who hath called you is holy, be ye also holy in all your conversation: since it is written,
16 Be ye holy, for I am holy.
17 And if ye call upon the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
18 knowing that ye were redeemed from your vain conversation learned by tradition from your fathers, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold;
19 but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
20 who was indeed appointed before the foundation of the world, but manifested in these last times, for your sakes,
21 who through Him trust in God that raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be fixed in God.
22 Having therefore purified your souls by obedience to the truth, through the Spirit, to brotherly love unfeigned, love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 being regenerated not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away;
25 but the word of the Lord abideth for ever. And this is the word which is preached to you in the gospel.