whom God the Father has predestined and chosen, by the consecration of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a life of hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

and the power of God protects you by faith till you do inherit the salvation which is all ready to be revealed at the last hour.

to them it was revealed that they got this intelligence not for themselves but for you, regarding all that has now been disclosed to you by those who preached the gospel to you through the holy Spirit sent from heaven. The very angels long to get a glimpse of this!

Brace up your minds, then, keep cool, and put your hope for good and all in the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

it is by him that you believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory; and thus your faith means hope in God.

You are born anew of immortal, not of mortal seed, by the living, lasting word of God;

come to him then ??come to that living Stone which men have rejected and God holds choice and precious,

come and, like living stones yourselves, be built into a spiritual house, to form a consecrated priesthood for the offering of those spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

a stone over which men stumble and a rock of offence; they stumble over it in their disobedience to God's word. Such is their appointed doom.

But you are the elect race, the royal priesthood, the consecrated nation, the People who belong to Him, that you may proclaim the wondrous deeds of Him who has called you from darkness to his wonderful light ??10 you who once were no people and now are God's people, you who once were unpitied and now are pitied.

Conduct yourselves properly before pagans; so that for all their slander of you as bad characters, they may come to glorify God when you are put upon your trial, by what they see of your good deeds.

and to governors as deputed by him for the punishment of wrongdoers and the encouragement of honest people ??15 for it is the will of God that by your honest lives you should silence the ignorant charges of foolish persons.

Live like free men, only do not make your freedom a pretext for misconduct; live like servants of God.

Do honour to all, love the brotherhood, reverence God, honour the emperor.

Servants, be submissive to your masters with perfect respect, not simply to those who are kind and reasonable but to the surly as well ??19 for it is a merit when from a sense of God one bears the pain of unjust suffering.

Where is the credit in standing punishment for having done wrong? No, if you stand suffering for having done right, that is what God counts a merit.

but inside, in the heart, with the immortal beauty of a gentle and modest spirit, which in the sight of God is of rare value.

It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God adorned themselves. They were submissive to their husbands.

he who would love Life and enjoy good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile:

see that you have a clean conscience, so that, for all their slander of you, these libellers of your good Christian behaviour may be ashamed.

For it is better to suffer for doing right (if that should be the will of God) than for doing wrong.

Christ himself died for sins, once for all, a just man for unjust men, that he might bring us near to God; in the flesh he was put to death but he came to life in the Spirit.

who had disobeyed at the time when God's patience held out during the construction of the ark in the days of Noah ??the ark by which only a few souls, eight in all, were brought safely through the water.)

Baptism, the counterpart of that, saves you to-day (not the mere washing of dirt from the flesh but the prayer for a clean conscience before God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ

who is at God's right hand ??for he went to heaven after angels, authorities, and powers celestial had been made subject to him.)

Well, as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, let this very conviction that he who has suffered in the flesh gets quit of sin,

nerve you to spend the rest of your time in the flesh for the will of God and no longer for human passions.

(for this was why the gospel was preached to the dead as well, that while they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live as God lives in the spirit).

You must serve one another, each with the talent he has received, as efficient stewards of God's varied grace.

If anyone preaches, he must preach as one who utters the words of God; if anyone renders some service, it must be as one who is supplied by God with power, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. The glory and the dominion are his for ever and ever: Amen.

If you are denounced for the sake of Christ, you are blessed; for then the Spirit of glory and power, the Spirit of God himself, is resting on you.

but if a man suffers for being a Christian, he must not be ashamed, he must rather glorify God for that.

It is time for the Judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the fate of those who refuse obedience to God's gospel?

So let those who are suffering by the will of God trust their souls to him, their faithful Creator, as they continue to do right.

be shepherds to your flock of God; take charge of them willingly instead of being pressed to it, not to make a base profit from it but freely,

You younger men must also submit to the presbyters. Indeed you must all put on the apron of humility to serve one another, for the haughty God opposes, but to the humble he gives grace.

Humble yourselves under the strong hand of God, then, so that when it is time, he may raise you;

Once you have suffered for a little, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will repair and recruit and strengthen you.

By the hand of Silvanus, a faithful brother (in my opinion), I have written you these few lines of encouragement, to testify that this is what the true grace of God means. Stand in that grace.