December 16 Daily Devotional

1 Peter 1

Peter, who was one of the twelve disciples of the Lord, heard the Master’s call “go ye therefore, and teach all nations,” and he was especially endowed with power from on high for his mission, and he knew that “we cannot but speak of the things which we have seen and heard.” He was very active in spreading the gospel of salvation. But we have no detailed report of his missionary activity. It seems that the field of his ministry was Asia Minor and the city of Rome. His first epistle was written in all probability at Rome. It is addressed “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” His message to the elect believers in these countries is very precious.

He writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.”

“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation … Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God … Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the’ flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever.”