Scripture Daily

Context No. 1782 of 4322 · 1 Peter

Context · Reflection

1 Peter 1:10-16: in context

10Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed to when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow them. 12To them it was revealed that they served not themselves, but you, in these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into. 13Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— 14as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, 15but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior, 16because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Peter reflects on the greatness of the salvation his readers have received. The prophets who foretold it, he says, searched and inquired carefully, straining to understand the grace that was coming, the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow, which the Spirit within them pointed to. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but a later generation. And this salvation, now announced in the gospel, is something into which even angels long to look.

Peter is trying to make his readers see the sheer privilege of what they hold. The prophets of old, great and honored men, searched diligently, straining to grasp the salvation that was coming; they saw it only from afar, in shadows and promises, and longed to understand what we now have plainly announced. Even the angels, Peter says, long to look into these things, to gaze at the wonder of God's saving grace in Christ. The salvation we have received, and can so easily take for granted, is something the prophets yearned to see and the angels desire to understand. This should reframe how we regard the gospel we have grown familiar with. Familiarity dulls wonder; we can hold the good news of Christ so casually, so routinely, that we forget what it is, treating as ordinary and even tiresome what saints of old longed to see and angels marvel at. Peter's point is to wake us to the privilege: you have been given what prophets searched for and angels desire to look into. The things we hear preached, perhaps with half attention, are the very things the greatest of the old covenant strained toward and could not fully see. If we could recover a sense of this privilege, our hearing of the gospel would not be casual; we would treasure what we have been given, attend to it with wonder, and not hold lightly what prophets and angels regard as precious. Jesus told his own disciples that many prophets and righteous people longed to see what they saw and did not see it. We are among those given to see. The right response to such a privilege is not boredom but gratitude and wonder, and the resolve to treasure and live by a gospel that prophets searched for and angels desire to behold.

Have I grown so familiar with the gospel that I hold it casually, treating as ordinary what prophets searched for and angels long to look into, and can I recover a sense of the privilege of what I have received, treasuring with wonder and gratitude the salvation the greatest of old longed to see?

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