according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. 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 regenerated us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

by the power of God, having been kept through faith to a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time;

those believing in God through Him, He who raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living Word of God, and abiding forever.

For having been drawn to Him, a living Stone, indeed rejected by men, but elect, precious with God;

you also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

you who then were not a people, but now the people of God, those not pitied then, but now pitied.

having your conduct honest among the nations, in that which they speak against you as evildoers, they may glorify God in a day of His visitation, seeing your good works.

For such is the will of God, doing good to silence the ignorance of foolish men;

as free, and not having freedom as a cover of evil, but as servants of God.

Honor all. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to those good and forbearing, but also to the perverse ones.

For this is a grace, if for conscience toward God anyone endures grief, suffering wrongfully.

For what glory is it if you patiently endure while sinning and being buffeted? But if you suffer while doing good, and patiently endure, this is a grace from God.

having witnessed your chaste behavior in the fear of God.

but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, the meek and quiet spirit, which is of great price in the sight of God.

For so once indeed the holy women hoping in God adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands;

as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord; whose children you became, doing good and fearing no terror.

For he that wants to love life and to see good days, let him restrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile.

Let him turn aside from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.

And who is the one who will harm you if you become imitators of the good?

but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear;

having a good conscience, that while they speak against you as evildoers they may be shamed, those falsely accusing your good behavior in Christ.

For it is better, if the will of God wills it, to suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing.

For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit;

to disobeying ones, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared (in which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water);

which figure now also saves us, baptism; not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;

who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven, where the angels and authorities and powers are being subjected to Him.

in order no longer to live in the lusts of men, but in the will of God the remaining time in the flesh.

For to this end the gospel was preached also to the dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit.

each one as he received a gift, ministering it to yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

If anyone speaks, let it be as the words of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as of the ability which God gives, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory, and the might forever and ever. Amen.

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of God and of glory rests on you. Truly according to them, He is blasphemed, but according to you He is glorified.

But if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God because of this.

For the time has come for the judgment to begin from the house of God. And if it first begins from us, what will be the end of those disobeying the gospel of God?

Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator.

Feed the flock of God among you, taking the oversight, not by compulsion, but willingly; nor for base gain, but readily;

nor as lording it over those allotted to you by God, but becoming examples to the flock.

Likewise, younger ones, be subject to older ones, and all being subject to one another. Put on humility. For God resists proud ones, but He gives grace to the humble.

Therefore be humbled under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time,

But the God of all grace, He calling us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, He will perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

I wrote to you through a few words, by Silvanus, a faithful brother to you, as I suppose, exhorting and testifying this to be the true grace of God in which you stand.