Though you have never seen him, yet you love him; though you do not even now see him, yet you believe in him, and exalt with a triumphant happiness too great for words,

who, through him, are faithful to God who raised him from the dead and gave him honour, so that your faith and hope are now in God.

Now that, by your obedience to the Truth, you have purified your lives, so that there is growing up among you a genuine brotherly affection, love one another earnestly with all your hearts;

like newly born infants, crave pure spiritual milk, so that you may be enabled by it to grow till you attain Salvation--

Come to Him, then, as to a living stone, rejected, indeed, by men, but in God's eyes choice and precious;

For there is a passage of Scripture that runs-- 'See, I am placing in Zion a choice and precious corner-stone; And he who believes in him shall have no cause for shame.'

But you are 'a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, God's own People,' entrusted with the proclamation of the goodness of him who called you out of Darkness into his wonderful Light.

Once you were 'not a people,' but now you are 'God's People'; once you 'had not found mercy,' but now you 'have found mercy.'

Let your daily life among the Gentiles be so upright, that, whenever they malign you as evil-doers, they may learn, as they watch, from the uprightness of your conduct, to praise God 'at the time when he shall visit them.'

Submit to all human institutions for the Lord's sake, alike to the emperor as the supreme authority,

For God's will is this--that you should silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing what is right.

For this wins God's approval when, because conscious of God's presence, a man who is suffering unjustly bears his troubles patiently.

And he 'himself carried our sins' in his own body to the cross, so that we might die to our sins, and live for righteousness. 'His bruising was your healing.'

Again, you married women should submit to your husbands, so that if any of them reject the Message, they may, apart from the Message, be won over, by the conduct of their wives,

but the inner life with the imperishable beauty of a quiet and gentle spirit; for this is very precious in God's sight.

'He who would enjoy life And see happy days-- let him keep his tongue from evil And his lips from deceitful words,

and keeping your consciences clear, so that, whenever you are maligned, those who vilify your good and Christian conduct may be put to shame.

It is better that you should suffer, if that should be God's will, for doing right, than for doing wrong.

who has gone into Heaven, and is at God's right hand, where Angels and Archangels and the Powers of Heaven now yield submission to him.

and so will live the rest of his earthly life guided, not by human passions, but by the will of God.

When any one speaks, let him speak as one who is delivering the oracles of God. When any one is endeavoring to serve others, let him do so in reliance on the strength which God supplies; so that in everything God may be honour ed through Jesus Christ--to whom be ascribed all honour and might for ever and ever. Amen.

I need hardly say that no one among you must suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a criminal, or for interfering in matters which do not concern Christians.

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the House of God; and, if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who reject God's Good News?

Therefore, I say, let those who suffer, because God wills it so, commit their lives into the hands of a faithful Creator, and persevere in doing right.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in his good time,

I have been writing to you briefly by the hand of Silas, our true-hearted Brother (for so I regard him), to urge upon you, and to bear my testimony, that in what I have written is to be found the true love of God. On that take your stand.

Your sister-Church in 'Babylon' sends you greeting, and so does Mark, who is as a son to me.