20 foreknown, indeed, before the foundation of the world, and manifested in the last times because of you,
according as He did choose us in him before the foundation of the world, for our being holy and unblemished before Him, in love,
since it had behoved him many times to suffer from the foundation of the world, but now once, at the full end of the ages, for putting away of sin through his sacrifice, he hath been manifested;
who did save us, and did call with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, that was given to us in Christ Jesus, before the times of the ages, and was made manifest now through the manifestation of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who indeed did abolish death, and did enlighten life and immortality through the good news,
the secret that hath been hid from the ages and from the generations, but now was manifested to his saints,
in these last days did speak to us in a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He did make the ages;
according to a purpose of the ages, which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord,
In this was manifested the love of God in us, because His Son -- the only begotten -- hath God sent to the world, that we may live through him; in this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He did love us, and did send His Son a propitiation for our sins.
and ye have known that he was manifested that our sins he may take away, and sin is not in him;
and the Life was manifested, and we have seen, and do testify, and declare to you the Life, the age-during, which was with the Father, and was manifested to us --
in regard to the dispensation of the fulness of the times, to bring into one the whole in the Christ, both the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth -- in him;
and when the fulness of time did come, God sent forth His Son, come of a woman, come under law,
And to Him who is able to establish you, according to my good news, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret, in the times of the ages having been kept silent, and now having been made manifest, also, through prophetic writings, according to a command of the age-during God, having been made known to all the nations for obedience of faith --
whom God did set forth a mercy seat, through the faith in his blood, for the shewing forth of His righteousness, because of the passing over of the bygone sins in the forbearance of God --
`Ye are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant that God made unto our fathers, saying unto Abraham: And in thy seed shall be blessed all the families of the earth; to you first, God, having raised up His child Jesus, did send him, blessing you, in the turning away of each one from your evil ways.'
From the age I was anointed, from the first, From former states of the earth.
and enmity I put between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he doth bruise thee -- the head, and thou dost bruise him -- the heel.'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Peter 1
Commentary on 1 Peter 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of
The First Epistle General of Peter
Chapter 1
The apostle describes the persons to whom he writes, and salutes them (v. 1, 2), blesses God for their regeneration to a lively hope of eternal salvation (v. 3-5), in the hope of this salvation he shows they had great cause of rejoicing, though for a little while they were in heaviness and affliction, for the trial of their faith, which would produce joy unspeakable and full of glory (v. 6-9). This is that salvation which the ancient prophets foretold and the angels desire to look into (v. 10-12). He exhorts them to sobriety and holiness, which he presses from the consideration of the blood of Jesus, the invaluable price of man's redemption (v. 13-21), and to brotherly love, from the consideration of their regeneration, and the excellency of their spiritual state (v. 22-25).
1Pe 1:1-2
In this inscription we have three parts:-
1Pe 1:3-5
We come now to the body of the epistle, which begins with,
1Pe 1:6-9
The first word, wherein, refers to the apostle's foregoing discourse about the excellency of their present state, and their grand expectations for the future. "In this condition you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, or a little while, if need be, you are made sorrowful through manifold temptations,' v. 6.
1Pe 1:10-12
The apostle having described the persons to whom he wrote, and declared to them the excellent advantages they were under, goes on to show them what warrant he had for what he had delivered; and because they were Jews, and had a profound veneration for the Old Testament, he produces the authority of the prophets to convince them that the doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ was no new doctrine, but the same which the old prophets did enquire and search diligently into. Note,
You have here three sorts of students, or enquirers into the great affair of man's salvation by Jesus Christ:-
1Pe 1:13-23
Here the apostle begins his exhortations to those whose glorious state he had before described, thereby instructing us that Christianity is a doctrine according to godliness, designed to make us not only wiser, but better.
1Pe 1:24-25
The apostle having given an account of the excellency of the renewed spiritual man as born again, not of corruptible but incorruptible seed, he now sets before us the vanity of the natural man, taking him with all his ornaments and advantages about him: For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass; and nothing can make him a solid substantial being, but the being born again of the incorruptible seed, the word of God, which will transform him into a most excellent creature, whose glory will not fade like a flower, but shine like an angel; and this word is daily set before you in the preaching of the gospel. Learn,