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.

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,

who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

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.

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.

having been born again, not from destructible seed but from indestructible, through the word of God which lives and endures.

if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

To whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed by men but approved by God, elect, precious,

do you also yourselves be built up living stones, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ,

who formerly were not a people, but now are a people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

having your conduct honorable among the gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evil-doers, from the good works which they see they may glorify God in the day of visitation,

for this is the will of God, that by well-doing you may silence the ignorance of foolish men;

as free, and not using freedom for a cloak of vice, but as servants of God.

Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

Let servants be subject with all fear to masters, not only to the good and gentle but also to the perverse.

For this deserves thanks, if on account of a knowledge of God one endures pain, suffering unjustly.

For what glory is it if when you sin and are punished you bear it patiently? But if you do well and suffer and bear it patiently, [this deserves thanks], for it is acceptable to God.

seeing your pure mode of life in the fear [of God].

but let the hidden man of the heart be adorned with the imperishable [ornaments] of a meek and quiet spirit, which are of great price before God.

For so formerly also the holy women who hoped in God adorned themselves, being subject to their husbands,

as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose children you are, doing good and having no fear.

For he that will love life and see good days, let him withhold his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit,

let him abstain from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it,

And who is he that will injure you if you are followers of what is good?

having a good conscience, that in what they speak evil of you they may be ashamed who slander your good conduct in Christ.

For it is better to suffer doing good, if the will of God allows, than doing evil.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might lead us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

who were formerly disobedient when 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 by water.

The archetype of which, baptism, also now saves us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience in God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

who is on the right hand of God, having gone to heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.

that you may no longer live the rest of your time in the flesh according to the desires of men, but according to the will of God.

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

as each has received a gift, minister the same among yourselves as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

If any one speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God, if any one serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and the power for ever and ever; amen.

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

but as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, let him glorify God on this account.

For it is time for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it first begins with us, what will the end be of those that obey not the gospel of God?

Let those therefore who suffer by the will of God, commit their souls to him in well doing as a faithful creator.

feed the flock of God which is among you, not by constraint but willingly, not for base gain but of a ready mind,

not as having a lordship over God's inheritance but being examples to the flock;

Let the younger in like manner be subject to the elder, and do you all be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time;

And may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, when you have suffered a little while, himself make you perfect, confirm, strengthen, establish you.

I have written to you in a few words by Silvanus [Silas], a faithful brother as I suppose, exhorting you, and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.