1 ^1:1PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ^1:2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by sanctification of the Spirit, to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied to you.

2 ^1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has begotten us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ^1:4to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you ^1:5who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ^1:6In which you rejoice, though now for a little while if need be made sad by manifold trials, ^1:7that the trial of your faith, which is much more precious than gold that is destroyed but proved by fire, may be found to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ^1:8whom not having seen you love, in whom believing though now you see him not you rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious, ^1:9receiving the end of the faith, the salvation of souls. ^1:10Concerning which salvation the prophets also who prophesied concerning the grace [bestowed] on us inquired diligently and sought, ^1:11inquiring as to what person or what time the Spirit of Christ which was in them signified, when it declared before the sufferings of Christ and after these the glories, ^1:12to whom it was revealed that they ministered not to themselves but to us those things which have now been declared to you by those who preached to you the good news, with the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, into which the angels desire to look.

3 ^1:13Wherefore, girding up the loins of your minds, be sober, and hope to the end for the gift to be brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ. ^1:14As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the desires of your former ignorance, ^1:15but as he that called you is holy be you also holy in all [your] conduct, ^1:16because it is written, Be you holy, for I am holy. ^1:17And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each one's work, spend the time of your life with fear, ^1:18knowing that you were not redeemed from your vain mode of life received by tradition from your fathers, with destructible things, silver or gold, ^1:19but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without a spot; ^1:20who was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but made manifest in these last times for you, ^1:21who through him believed in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope may be in God.

4 ^1:22Having purified your souls by obeying the truth to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another fervently, from the heart, ^1:23having been born again, not from destructible seed but from indestructible, through the word of God which lives and endures. ^1:24For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass; the grass has withered, and its flower fell off; ^1:25but the word of the Lord continues forever. And this is the word preached to you.

5 ^2:1Laying aside therefore all malice and all deceit and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, ^2:2as new born babes desire earnestly the pure milk of the word, that you may grow by it to salvation, ^2:3if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. ^2:4To whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed by men but approved by God, elect, precious, ^2:5do you also yourselves be built up living stones, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices well pleasing to God through Jesus Christ, ^2:6for it is said in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious, and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed. ^2:7To you therefore who believe he is precious; but to the disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of a corner ^2:8and a stone of stumbling and rock of offense, who stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. ^2:9But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should declare the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his glorious light; ^2:10who formerly were not a people, but now are a people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.