Scripture Daily

Context No. 278 of 4322 · 1 Peter

Context · Reflection

1 Peter 1:1-9: in context

1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, 5who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials, 7that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ— 8whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, 9receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Peter writes to Christians scattered as strangers across the provinces of Asia Minor, people under real pressure and far from any home they knew. His opening is a burst of hope, and the striking thing is that he does not keep the hardship out of it. He holds both at once.

The hope is enormous. Through the resurrection of Jesus, he says, God has given them a new birth into a living hope and an inheritance that cannot spoil or fade, kept safe in heaven for them, while they themselves are guarded by God's power. Nothing about it is fragile. And then, in the same paragraph, he names their suffering plainly: now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by all kinds of trials. He does not tell them the fire is not hot. Instead he tells them what it is for. The tested genuineness of your faith, he says, is more precious than gold, and gold is refined by fire. The trial is not the failure of their faith but the furnace that proves it real, the way heat proves what is actually gold. Then a line of startling tenderness: though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him now, you believe and rejoice with a joy beyond words.

The whole passage refuses to let the fire and the hope cancel each other. The fire is not evidence that the hope has failed; it is the very thing that shows the faith was gold and not paint. When I am in the furnace, do I read the heat as proof that God has let me down, when it may be the proving of what in me is real?

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