in which you rejoice, though now for a little while, since it is needful, you are in sorrow under various temptations;

that your faith, when proved, being much more precious than gold, which perishes though it be tried by fire, may be found to be for praise and honor and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

Concerning which salvation the prophets that prophesied of the grace that should be for you, did inquire, and search diligently,

to whom it was revealed, that, not for themselves, but for us, they ministered the things that are now preached to you by those who have made known to you the gospel, through the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; into which things angels desire to look.

as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the desires which you formerly had in your ignorance;

having been begotten again, not with corruptible seed, but with incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withers, and its flower fails away: but the word of the Lord abides forever: and this is the word which has been preached as gospel to you.

To you, then, who believe, is this preciousness: but the stone which the builders rejected, has become the head of the corner,

and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense to the disobedient, who stumble at the word because they are disobedient, to which stumbling they were also appointed.

Beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and sojourners, that you keep yourselves from fleshly desires, which war against the soul,

maintaining an honorable mode of life am one the Gentiles, that, inasmuch as they speak against you as evil-doers, they may, on account of your good works which they witness, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Let not your adorning be that which is outward, which consists in plaiting the hair, and wearing gold, and putting on apparel:

but let it be the hidden man of the heart, adorned with the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price.

And who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?

in which- also he went and preached to the spirits in prison,

who formerly were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while an ark was preparing, in which few, that is, eight souls, were brought in safety through the water;

the likeness of which, even immersion, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the seeking of a good conscience toward God,) does now also save us, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God: if any man acts as a deacon, let him do this as from the strength which God supplies; that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and strength from age to age. Amen.

Act as shepherds to the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight, not by compulsion, but willingly; not for the sake of sordid gain, but from readiness of mind:

By Sylvanus, a faithful brother to you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.