ACC ~ 1 Peter 1 v3 - 9

OVERVIEW:

The resurrection of Christ has made it possible for human beings to be born again and to become the heirs of God’s promises. This inheritance is being kept in heaven for us and will be fully revealed at the end of time. Christ rises again in us according to our faith, just as earlier he died in us because of our unbelief (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA). This is a living hope in an incorruptible inheritance (OECUMENIUS). His mercy is great enough to be able to forgive every sin committed in thought, word and deed, from the beginning to the end of the world (HILARY OF ARLES). When God is the giver, the things given are incomparably good (ANDREAS). He died that we should no longer be afraid of death (BEDE). It is an inheritance foreknown (ORIGEN), a blessing that is infinite (HILARY OF ARLES), incorruptible and never fading (DIDYMUS). The blessed never grow tired of it (BEDE).

Meanwhile we must persevere through the trials of this life, which are designed to purify our faith and to make us concentrate more fully on Christ and the joy he brings. Having begun in faith, the Christian continues in hope, which will one day be fulfilled in the perfect love of God. Yet some grow cold thinking of an earthly Jerusalem (ANDREAS). Your room in heaven is ready, so make yourself ready (BEDE). Once you have entered your eternal reward, the time spent suffering here below will seem like no time at all (BEDE, ANDREAS), as when a mother gives birth (ORIGEN). So persevere through this temporary grief (DIDYMUS). Just as gold is tested by fire and becomes useful, so also you who live in the world are tried in it (HERMAS). The righteous suffer that they may be crowned with glory, but sinners suffer in order to bring judgment on their sins (CHRYSOSTOM). Even now the patience of the saints (BEDE) shines like refined gold (ATHANASIUS, HILARY OF ARLES). If you love him now when you have not seen him, think how much you will love him when you finally do see him, when he appears in his glory (OECUMENIUS, HILARY OF ARLES, BEDE). It is now by faith that your soul exults already in salvation (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, ORIGEN, CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).

1:3a | Blessed Be God

WHEN GOD IS THE GIVER. ANDREAS: They have received immortality and the hope of eternal life. These good things in heaven are better than human things. For this reason they praise God the Father, who shows his great mercy in doing these things faithfully. When God is the giver, the things given are both better and certain to materialize. The statement also has relevance to the Old Testament, for in it God gave the land of the Canaanites to those who believed in him. CATENA.

1:3b | By His Great Mercy

HIS MERCY GREAT ENOUGH. HILARY OF ARLES: Peter means that God has acted to redeem us without any help from us. His mercy is great enough to be able to forgive every sin which has been committed in thought, word and deed, from the beginning to the end of the world. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

1:3c | Born to a Living Hope Through the Resurrection

THE BLESSINGS GOD GIVES. OECUMENIUS: What exactly are the blessings which God has given us in Christ? First, there is hope, not the kind of hope which he gave to Moses, that the people would inherit a promised land in Canaan, for that hope was temporal and corruptible. Rather God gives us a living hope, which has come from the resurrection of Christ. Because of that, he has given all those who believe in Jesus the same resurrection. This is a living hope and an incorruptible inheritance, not stored up here on earth but in heaven, which is much greater. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

CHRIST RISES IN US. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: If God first generated us out of matter, the Father of our Lord later regenerated us into a better life. Christ rises again in us according to our faith, just as earlier he died in us because of our unbelief. It was furthermore said that no soul, whether it is righteous or evil, will ever return to a corruptible body in this life, lest by taking on flesh it should once more acquire the opportunity to sin, but rather that both good and evil souls will return in the resurrection body. For soul and body are joined together each according to its proper nature. They fit together rather like stuffing in food, or a construction of stones. ADUMBRATIONS.

RISING WITH HIM. BEDE: Peter offers praise to God the Father in such a way as to make it perfectly clear that our Lord and Savior is both God and man. He calls God the Father of our Lord precisely because he does not doubt that our Lord had always existed with him as his Son. It is right for us to bless God because although on the strength of our own merits we deserve nothing but death, he has regenerated us by his mercy to a new life. He has done this by the resurrection of his Son who loved our life so much that he gave himself up to death for our sake. When that death was overcome by his resurrection, he offered it to us as a model which might give us hope of rising again ourselves. For he died in order that we should no longer be afraid of death, and he rose again so that we might have a hope of rising again through him. ON 1 PETER.

1:4a | To an Inheritance Imperishable

THE INHERITANCE FOREKNOWN. ORIGEN: For God foresaw that the faith and behavior of people would be put right by the teaching of the gospel, and so he chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinating them to be his children by partaking of the Spirit of sonship. For foreknowledge means no more than seeing what is inside a person. It is now no longer foreknowledge in effect but knowledge of something real which has been foreseen. Those to whom Peter is writing were chosen according to foreknowledge, but the calling does not come to people who are hidden from view, for their innate awareness removes any doubt about their true nature. CATENA.

AN INHERITANCE UNFADING. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: In order to show how the inheritance of the blessed will continue forever, Peter calls it incorruptible and unfading, demonstrating by this that it is a pure and divine inheritance which will remain uncontaminated in the eyes of those who care nothing for their present wealth, knowing that they have something better and eternal waiting for them. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

OF THE SECOND ADAM. HILARY OF ARLES: An incorruptible inheritance must be an infinite one, since everything finite is corruptible. The inheritance of the first Adam was corrupted by sin, but the inheritance of the second Adam can never be touched by the stain of sin. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

OF THE BLESSED. BEDE: God has revealed the doctrine of truth, enjoined the path of good work and both promised and delivered the blessing of an inheritance that is always unfading and uncorrupted. ON THE TABERNACLE AND ITS VESSELS 1.8.35.

1:4b | Kept in Heaven for You

IMPERISHABLE, UNDEFILED, UNFADING. BEDE: Our inheritance is imperishable because it is a heavenly life which neither age nor illness nor death nor any plague can touch. It is undefiled because no unclean person can enter into it. It is unfading, because the heavenly blessings are such that even after long enjoyment of them the blessed never grow tired, whereas those who live in earthly luxury eventually have their fill of it and turn away from it. ON 1 PETER.

1:5a | Guarded by Faith

KEPT BY FAITH. ANDREAS: Peter says that God has blessed us greatly and that he has done so through his Son. Furthermore, he says that those who receive these things are those who are protected in the power of God, as Christ himself prayed: “Holy Father, protect them.” If the inheritance is kept in heaven for believers, some grow cold thinking that it has been left for us in the earthly Jerusalem, assuming that the rewards of the kingdom will be acquired by the appearance of luxury every thousand years. They should be asked why they say that this bodily luxury is immortal and unfading but at the same time they limit it to every thousandth year. They need to be told that these words show that the inheritance is in the kingdom of heaven and that it cannot be known by the senses of mortal beings. We have been assured that we shall receive all these great things by the Father himself, who is the one who gives them. For it is certain by other means also that he will bless us with these things through his own Son, and not simply through the Son but through his resurrection. For if everything has been granted to us, what is there left to give? The inheritance is immortal and unfading, and what is even greater, it is not here on earth but in heaven. CATENA.

1:5b | A Salvation Ready to Be Revealed

MAKE YOURSELF READY. BEDE: Your place in the kingdom of heaven is ready, your room in the Father’s house is prepared, your salvation in heaven awaits you. All you have to do, if you want to receive them, is to make yourself ready. But since no one can do this by his own efforts, Peter reminds us that we are kept in the power of God by faith. Nobody can keep doing good works in the strength of his own free will. So we must all ask God to help us, so that we may be brought to perfection by the One who made it possible for us to do good works in the first place. ON 1 PETER.

1:6 | For a Little While You Suffer Various Trials

IN SUFFERING YOU GIVE BIRTH. ORIGEN: Read “grieve” in this verse in the sense of “suffer,” as in “in grief you shall bring forth children.” For a woman experiences grief not in bearing children but rather in suffering before birth. EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 39.

PERSEVERANCE TO THE END. DIDYMUS THE BLIND: Those who are afflicted in various ways because of Christ and who persevere to the end have their faith tested and proved. They ought therefore to rejoice, even if some of their labor appears to be involuntary. Peter calls this kind of labor grief, a word which he uses in one of the two meanings described by the apostle Paul, who said that there is one grief which leads to death and another which leads to repentance. Obviously it is the second of these which is meant here. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

RELIEF IS NEAR. ANDREAS: Right now we have to suffer for the sake of the preaching, but relief for those who toil is near. CATENA.

TRIALS FOR A TIME. BEDE: Peter says that we must still suffer for a little while, because it is only through the sadness of the present age and its afflictions that it is possible to reach the joys of eternity. He stresses the fact that this is only “for a little while,” because once we have entered our eternal reward, the years we spent suffering here below will seem like no time at all. ON 1 PETER.

1:7 | Genuine Faith Tested by Fire

GOLD TRIED BY FIRE. HERMAS: Just as gold is tried by fire and becomes useful, so also you who live in the world are tried in it. So then, you who remain in it and pass through the flames will be purified. For just as gold casts off its dross, so also you will cast off all sorrow and tribulation, becoming pure and useful for the building of the tower. SHEPHERD, VISIONS 3.1.

THE SAINTS SHINE LIKE REFINED GOLD. ATHANASIUS: Because the saints saw that the divine fire would cleanse them and benefit them, they did not shrink back from or get discouraged by the trials which they faced. Rather than being hurt by what they went through, they grew and were made better, shining like gold that has been refined in a fire. FESTAL LETTERS 10.

NOT ALL SUFFER NOW. CHRYSOSTOM: The righteous suffer so that they may be crowned with glory, but sinners suffer in order to bring judgment on their sins. But not all sinners pay the price of their sins in this life, but await the resurrection. And not all the righteous suffer now, lest you think that evil is to be praised and you come to hate the good. CATENA.

FAITH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD. HILARY OF ARLES: The glory of the redeemed will never fade after they have been raised from the dead, for it will have withstood the fire of temptation, whereas the gold of this world is said to rust. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

PATIENCE LIKE GOLD. BEDE: It is appropriate that Peter should compare Christian patience with gold, because just as there is no metal more precious than that, so patience is worthy of all honor in the sight of God. ON 1 PETER.

1:8a | Without Having Seen Him You Love Him

WHEN HE APPEARS. OECUMENIUS: If you love him now when you have not seen him but have only heard about him, think how much you will love him when you finally do see him and when he appears in his glory! For if his suffering and death have drawn you to him, how much more will you be attracted by his incredible splendor, when he will grant you the salvation of your souls as your reward. COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

1:8b | With Unutterable Joy

THE SWEETNESS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING. HILARY OF ARLES: Not even a thousand ironclad tongues can sound out the sweetness of the heavenly blessings. INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 1 PETER.

EXALTED JOY. BEDE: To ask joy of this sort is not to plead only with your words for entry into the heavenly fatherland but also to strive with labor to receive it. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.12.

1:9 | The Outcome of Faith

MADE INCORRUPTIBLE BY GRACE. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: It appears from this that the soul is not naturally incorruptible but is made so by the grace of God, through faith, righteousness and understanding. ADUMBRATIONS.

THE SOUL PRAYS AND SINGS. ORIGEN: If it is the mind which prays and sings in the spirit and the mind which receives perfection and salvation, how is it that Peter says: “As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls”? If the soul neither prays nor sings with the spirit, how shall it hope for salvation? ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.8.3.

THE HARBINGER OF SALVATION. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Unbelief is a horrible and wicked thing, but faith is the highest good, for it is the harbinger of our entire salvation. CATENA.